page_title: National Constituent Assembly (France)
section_title: Tennis Court Oath
hierarchical_section_title: National Constituent Assembly (France) / Background / Tennis Court Oath
context_page_description: The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789 during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.
context_section_description: There were soon attempts by King Louis XVI and the Second Estate to prevent the delegates from meeting, as well as misunderstandings on both sides about each other's intentions. Locked out of its chamber, the new assembly, led by its president Jean-Sylvain Bailly, was forced to relocate to a nearby tennis court, on 20 June; there, it swore the Tennis Court Oath, (Le serment de Jeu de Paume) promising "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon solid foundations." Failing to disperse the delegates, Louis started to recognize their validity on 27 June.
  The Assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July and began to function as a governing body and a constitution-drafter. However, it is common to refer to the body even after then as the "National Assembly" or the "Constituent Assembly".
caption: Le serment de Jeu de Paume. Copper plate by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault after a drawing by Jean-Louis Prieur (1789). The representatives swore not to depart until they had given France a new constitution.
exif: {}