<P> Before the Revolution, French society--aside from royalty--was divided into three estates . The First Estate comprised the clergy; the Second Estate was the nobility . The entire rest of France--some 98% of the population--was the Third Estate, which ranged from very wealthy city merchants to impoverished rural farmers . The three estates met from time to time in the Estates General, a legislative assembly . </P> <P> Although the Third Estate was the overwhelming majority of the French population, the makeup of the Estates General was such that the Third Estate comprised a bare majority of the delegates . A simple majority was sufficient--as long as the delegates' votes were cast altogether . The First and Second Estates preferred to divide the vote in some way . A proposal might need to receive approval from each Estate, or there might be two "houses" of the Estates General (one for the first two Estates, and one for the Third), and a bill would need to be passed by both houses . Either way, the First and Second Estates could exercise veto power over proposals enjoying widespread support among the Third Estate, such as reforms that threatened the privileges of the nobility and clergy . </P> <P> This oath would come to have big significance in the revolution as the Third Estate would constantly continue to protest to have more representation . Some historians have argued that, given political tensions in France at that time, the deputies' fears, even if wrong, were reasonable and that the importance of the oath goes above and beyond its context . </P> <P> The oath was both a revolutionary act, and an assertion that political authority derived from the people and their representatives rather than from the monarch himself . Their solidarity forced Louis XVI to order the clergy and the nobility to join with the Third Estate in the National Assembly in order to give the illusion that he controlled the National Assembly . This oath would prove vital to the Third Estate as a step of protest that would eventually lead to more power in the Estates General, and every governing body thereafter . </P>

What was the importance of the tennis court swearing in the french revolution