Tennis Court Oath
Deputies of the National Assembly take the Tennis Court Oath
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗One dissenter stood amid hundreds of raised hands — and Bailly ordered that his opposition stay in the record as proof that opinions were free.
20 June 1789: a locked hall
On 20 June 1789 deputies arrived at their usual meeting place, the Menus-Plaisirs hall in Versailles, and found it closed and guarded while preparations were made for a royal session.
They walked to a nearby indoor court used for jeu de paume, a predecessor of modern tennis — a hall built in 1686 where the royal family had played. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin is credited with suggesting it.
The oath Bailly read
Jean-Joseph Mounier proposed a solemn commitment, and the Assembly's president, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, read the oath: that the deputies would not separate, and would meet wherever necessary, until the kingdom's constitution was established on firm foundations.
The oath did not adopt a constitution. It bound the deputies not merely to stay together that day but to reassemble wherever circumstances forced them.
The one who said no
Joseph Martin-Dauch alone registered opposition, objecting to an oath that might conflict with royal authority. He did not take it, but he did sign the session record as an opponent, and Bailly insisted that his dissent be recorded as evidence of freedom of opinion.
The conventional figure of 576 oath-takers simplifies a complicated attendance and signature record that included a few clergy and nobles, substitutes and later adherents.
The Assembly stayed organized despite the lockout. It resisted the king's attempt to undo its decisions on 23 June, and within a week deputies of the clergy and nobility had joined it, tacitly accepting deliberation by individual deputies rather than by separate orders.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The date and location are secure.
- Attribution of the exact wording varies: sources credit Mounier, Target and Le Chapelier, or Barnave and Le Chapelier. Mounier's role in proposing the oath and Bailly's role in reading it are better established than exclusive authorship.
- The familiar “576 of 577” formula simplifies a complicated attendance and signature record that included a few clergy and nobles, substitutes and later adherents. Martin-Dauch signed the minutes but marked his opposition.