<P> Trying to avoid the issue of representation and to focus solely on taxes, the King and his ministers had gravely misjudged the situation . The Third Estate wanted the estates to meet as one body and for each delegate to have one vote . The other two estates, while having their own grievances against royal absolutism, believed--correctly, as history was to prove--that they stood to lose more power to the Third Estate than they stood to gain from the King . Necker sympathized with the Third Estate in this matter, but the astute financier lacked equal astuteness as a politician . He decided to let the impasse play out to the point of stalemate before he would enter the fray . As a result, by the time the King yielded to the demand of the Third Estate, it seemed to all to be a concession wrung from the monarchy, rather than a magnanimous gift that would have convinced the populace of the King's goodwill . </P> <P> The Estates - General reached an impasse . The Second Estate pushed for meetings that were to transpire in three separate locations, as they had traditionally . The Comte de Mirabeau, a noble himself but elected to represent the Third Estate, tried but failed to keep all three orders in a single room for this discussion . Instead of discussing the King's taxes, the three estates began to discuss separately the organization of the legislature . These efforts continued without success until 27 May, when the nobles voted to stand firm for separate verification . The following day, the Abbé Sieyès (a senior member of the clergy, but, like Mirabeau, elected to represent the Third Estate) moved that the representatives of the Third Estate, who now called themselves the Communes ("Commons"), proceed with verification and invite the other two estates to take part, but not to wait for them . </P> <P> On 13 June 1789, the Third Estate had arrived at a resolution to examine and settle the powers of the three orders . They invited the clergy and nobles to work with them on this endeavor . On 17 June, with the failure of efforts to reconcile the three estates, the Communes completed their own process of verification and almost immediately voted a measure far more radical: they declared themselves redefined as the National Assembly, an assembly not of the estates, but of the people . They invited the other orders to join them but made it clear that they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without them . As their numbers exceeded the combined numbers of the other estates, they could dominate any combined assembly . </P> <P> The King tried to resist . Under the influence of the courtiers of his privy council, he 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 20 June, he ordered the hall where the National Assembly met, closed . The Assembly moved their deliberations to the nearby tennis court, where they proceeded to swear the' Tennis Court Oath', by which they agreed not to separate until they had settled the constitution of France . Two days later, deprived of the use of the tennis court as well, the Assembly met in the Church of Saint Louis, where the majority of the representatives of the clergy joined them: efforts to restore the old order had served only to accelerate events . </P>

Why did the third estate leave the estates general meeting