Convened to resolve the financial crisis, the Estates* General placed themselves, from the outset, on conflicting ground. An inconsistent speech by Necker, useless formal vexations with regard to the third estate; the ambiguous attitude of the Court towards the problems of voting by order or by head; the silence on the elaboration of a possible Constitution, so desired by the nation, are all facts that place the deputies in a difficult position, whatever their affiliation.
Immediately, as well as one of them wrote, "the battle is on". Proceeding to the verification of powers, the "deputies of the communes" or third estate will, over the days, see their ranks swell by representatives of the lower clergy and even of the nobility.
On June 17, faced with the attitude of the intransigent faction of the first two orders, the Third Estate took the first big step of the Revolution:it proclaimed itself, on the proposal of Sieyès, National Assembly and decreed that "any tax collected without its consent will be unlawful”. The first transfer of sovereignty has just taken place. Three days later, the young National Assembly, more and more supplied, decided to meet in the Salle des Menus-Plaisirs. The deputies find the door closed. Under the specious argument of works, the royal power tries to express its dissatisfaction in this way. This maneuver was immediately felt as an insult to the "assembled nation", and the deputies, led by Bailly*, went to the Jeu* de Paume room. There they swear never to separate and to assemble wherever circumstances require until the Constitution of the kingdom is established and established on solid foundations.
On June 23, the representatives of the three orders are summoned to hear a speech by the king. Another missed date. The monarch, ill-advised, seemed to minimize the extent of the process undertaken and, during an awkward “royal session”, set the limits, deemed insufficient by the National Assembly, of the reforms he was prepared to accept. He confirms the separation of the three orders and asks the deputies to separate to deliberate. The Third refuses to leave the room. The king yields; he himself gave the order to all the nobility and the clergy to join the “dissidents” of June 17. Henceforth, as Bailly would say, “the family is complete”. On July 9, the National Assembly becomes constituent.