ABSTRACT
The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 was a remarkable event, but not a revolutionary one, if revolutions are defined as violent developments, leading to radical changes in the structures of class, politics and power. During the next two months, the Third Estate established itself as the true representative of the people by the simple strategy of refusing to do as the King ordered: declaring that they could not verify their membership except as one Assembly, they held roll calls and expressed theatrical surprise that the first two estates were not present. Gradually, some of the clergy began to join them, and, on 17 June, they called themselves the National Assembly. The Oath of the Tennis Court, on 20 June, in direct defiance of the King and of the pretensions of the two privileged orders, confirms that, at Versailles, developments had certainly become revolutionary.
