Dates That Made History — Season 1, Episode 5: 20 June 1789: The Tennis Court Oath

Episode synopsis

Because of its abstract nature, one tends to forget that the Tennis Court Oath was the key tipping point of the French Revolution, both from a symbolic and legal standpoint. On June 20, 1789, the deputies of the Third Estate, gathered in the hall of the Jeu de Paume at Versailles, swore together not to separate before having written a constitution to France. What happened that day at Versailles? Who are these men who made the people the sovereign of the French nation?

About Dates That Made History

Historian Patrick Boucheron revisits the most important dates in history through the prisms of memory and collective imagination.

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