invited the clergy and nobles to work with them on this endeavour. 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 in which issues were decided based on majority or supermajority votes of its members, rather than the traditional arrangement giving equal decision-making power to each of the three Estates. The Third Estate baulked at this traditional arrangement because the clergy and nobility were more conservative than the commoners and could overrule the Third Estate on any matter 2–1. The Third Estate had initially demanded to be granted double weight, allowing them to match the power of the First and Second Estates, but those estates had refused to accept this proposal. The King attempted to resist this reorganization of the Estates-General. On the advice 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 to be closed. The Assembly then went in search of a building large enough to hold them, taking their deliberations to the nearby tennis court, where they proceeded to swear the 'Tennis Court Oath', agreeing not to disband 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. In the séance royale of 23 June, the King announced a Charte octroyée, a constitution granted by royal favour, which affirmed, subject to the traditional limitations, the right of separate deliberation for the three orders, which constitutionally formed three chambers. This move too failed; soon, at the request of the King, those representatives of the nobility who