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5 unusual facts about Tennis Court Oath


Castelnaudary

Joseph Martin-Dauch (1741–1801), one of the few deputies known to have abstained from taking the Tennis Court Oath, a major event of the French Revolution of 1789

Jean Joseph Mounier

There, and in the Constituent Assembly, he was at first an upholder of the new ideas, pronouncing himself in favour of the union of the Third Estate with the two privileged orders, proposing the famous Tennis Court Oath, assisting in the preparation of the new constitution, and demanding the return of Jacques Necker.

Joseph Martin-Dauch

Each representative signed the oath, in turn, until the pen was passed to Martin-Dauch; he declared that his constituents did not send him to insult the monarchy, and that he would protest against the oath.

Tennis Court Oath

The only deputy recorded as not taking the oath was Joseph Martin-Dauch from Castelnaudary.

In the painting above, Christophe Antoine Gerle is one of the three men in the middle, discussing the balance between state and religion.


Gérard de Lally-Tollendal

He joined the opposition to the strict regime of the Marquis de Mirabeau, and condemned the decisive rejection of the Ancien Régime by the National Constituent Assembly, begun by the Tennis Court Oath and confirmed by the abolition of feudalism on 4 August 1789.


see also