444 Ch. 12 • The French Revolution
true representative of national sovereignty. The third estate now claimed
legitimate sovereignty and an authority parallel, if not superior, to that of the
king of France.
But, on June 20, as rumors circulated that the king might take action
against them, representatives of the third estate found that their meeting
hall had been locked for “repairs.” Led by their president, Jean-Sylvain Bailly
(1736-1793), an astronomer, the members of the third estate took the bold
step of assembling in a nearby tennis court. There they took an oath “not to
separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the con
stitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon solid founda
tions.” With principled defiance, the third estate demanded that defined
limits be placed on the king s authority.
The king declared the third estate’s deliberations invalid. Yet on June 23
he announced some substantial reforms, agreeing to convoke periodically
the Estates-General, to abolish the taille (the tax on land) and the corvee
(labor tax), to eliminate internal tariffs and tolls that interfered with trade,
and to eliminate the lettres de cachet. He also agreed that the Estates
General would vote by head, but only on matters that did not concern “the
ancient and constitutional rights of the three orders.” To the radicalized
members of the third estate, the king’s concessions were not enough.