Tennis Court Oath also knew in French as Serment du Jeu de Paume, came into the picture on June 20, 1789. It is the dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the non-privileged classes of the French nation. All through the meeting of the Estates-General (traditional assembly) at the beginning of the French Revolution. This very pledge, i.e. the Tennis Court Oath was signed in the early days of the French Revolution. It was an important world-shattering act that displayed the belief that political authority came from the nation’s people and not from the monarchy. It literally thanks its name for the place where it was signed up.
The day, June 20, 1789, the Third Estate party, despite the fact of the commoners in the Estates General, found themselves impermeable of their regular meeting place. They came to know that it was a ploy from the King to disband them. The 576 members moved their meeting to a tennis court in Saint-Louis, Versailles. Where they signed an oath that they would not stop meeting up until they will rewrite France’s new constitution. As the Third Estate didn’t have the right to take action as a National Assembly, this particular event is seen as a revolutionary act. Some people just assume it to be connected with tennis. So this oath has nothing to do with lawn tennis. As a substitute, it was a crucial moment in the French revolution. The members of the French Estates General began to call themselves as The National Assembly from 20th June 1789. The oath they took was: “not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the Kingdom is established.”