<P> Shuttle diplomacy among the estates continued without success until May 27; on May 28, the representatives of the 3rd Estate began to meet on their own, calling themselves the Communes ("Commons") and proceeding with their "verification of powers" independently of the other bodies; from June 13 to June 17 they were gradually joined by some of the nobles and the majority of the clergy and other people such as the peasants . On June 13, this group began to call itself the National Assembly . </P> <P> This newly created assembly immediately attached itself onto the capitalists--the sources of the credit needed to fund the national debt--and to the common people . They consolidated the public debt and declared all existing taxes to have been illegally imposed, but voted in these same taxes provisionally, only as long as the Assembly continued to sit . This restored the confidence of the capitalists and gave them a strong interest in keeping the Assembly in session . As for the common people, the Assembly established a committee of subsistence to deal with food shortages . </P> <P> Jacques Necker, finance minister of Louis XVI, had earlier proposed that the king hold a Séance Royale (Royal Session) in an attempt to reconcile the divided Estates . The king agreed; but none of the three orders were formally notified of the decision to hold a Royal Session . All debates were to be put on hold until the séance royale took place . </P> <P> Events soon overtook Necker's complex scheme of giving in to the Communes on some points while holding firm on others . No longer interested in Necker's advice, Louis XVI, under the influence of the courtiers of his privy council, resolved to go in state to the Assembly, annul its decrees, command the separation of the orders, and dictate the reforms to be effected by the restored Estates - General . On June 19, he ordered the Salle des États, the hall where the National Assembly met, closed, and remained at Marly for several days while he prepared his address . </P>

What led to the formation of the national assembly