Couvent des Feuillants

Not ten years later, in 1585, Henry III acquired the hôtel des Carneaux,[N 2] whose buildings and lands bordered those of the Capuchins, to set up a new convent.

[2]: 8 The convent buildings were designed by the king's architect Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau,[3]: 300  and construction work was led by one of the monks.

[4]: 483–486 Abbot Jean de La Barrière remained loyal to Henry III, preaching his funeral oration at Bordeaux, but several of his disciples joined the Catholic League.

By letters patent of 20 June 1597,[5]: 86  Henry IV of France put the convent under his protection and granted it all the privileges owing to a royal foundation.

On 25 August the same year, he enlarged its lands by adding a house beside the couvent des Capucins which Henry III had acquired from the duc de Retz.

Its nave given to the painter Jacques-Louis David in autumn 1791 to paint his The Tennis Court Oath, not only since it could be adapted to fit the huge canvas but also due to its proximity to the Assembly, where several of its sitters were deputies.

The split had led to the Champ de Mars Massacre on 17 July 1791, marking the people's defiance to a king who had tried to flee.

The presence of this political club so close to the Assembly's meeting place led to a strong parliamentary polemic in December 1791.

[11] It was a large gateway surmounted by a bas-relief and surrounded by paired columns supporting a triangular pediment containing the arms of France and Navarre.

It was one of the main guesthouses belonging to the convent and still exists, its central body surmounted by a semi-circular pediment corresponding to number 231 and now inscribed on the historic monuments list.