The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789–1907/2
2. The Tennis Court Oath.
June 20, 1789. Duvergier, Lois, I, 24.
When the deputies of the Third Estate went to their hall on June 20, 1789, they found it closed to them and placards posted announcing a royal session two days later. Fearing that this foreshadowed a command from the king for separate organization and vote by order, they met in a neighboring tennis court and with practical unanimity formulated the resolution embodied in this document.
References. James Harvey Robinson, Political Science Quarterly, X, 460–474; Von Sybel, French Revolution, I, 65–66; Cambridge Modern History, VIII, 155–156; Jaurès, Histoire socialiste, I, 246.
The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned to determine the constitution of the kingdom, to effect the regeneration of public order, and to maintain the true principles of the monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to establish itself, and lastly, that wherever its members meet together, there is the National Assembly.
Decrees that all the members of this assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath never to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances shall require, until the constitution of the kingdom shall be established and consolidated upon firm foundations; and that, the said oath being taken, all the members and each of them individually shall ratify by their signatures this steadfast resolution.
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