National Assembly (French Revolution)
Third Estate deputies constitute themselves as the National Assembly
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The deputies declared existing taxes legally unauthorised — then ordered officials to go on collecting them anyway, temporarily, so the state would not seize up.
17 June 1789: 491 to 90
At the Menus-Plaisirs hall in Versailles on 17 June 1789, the deputies meeting as the Commons voted on Abbé Sieyès's motion to constitute themselves under the name "National Assembly." It carried by 491 votes to 90.
The name itself came from the floor: Jérôme Legrand proposed the wording, and Sieyès revised his motion to take it in.
A claim to speak for the whole country
The motion asserted that the verified deputies present represented at least ninety-six hundredths of the nation. Weeks of failed negotiation over joint verification and voting by head had produced nothing, so the Commons had verified deputies on its own.
The resolution kept a door open. Members of the two privileged orders could still join once their credentials were verified, collectively or individually — and several parish priests had already come across.
Oaths that day, a locked door three days later
Having declared the existing taxes legally unauthorised, the new Assembly ordered their temporary collection to continue and provided for servicing the public debt. Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the secretaries and then the whole chamber took oaths.
On 20 June the deputies found their hall locked and guarded. They moved to a nearby tennis court and swore not to separate before giving France a constitution.
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Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open
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