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II. The Political Role of the Parlement of Paris, 1715–23

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2010

J. H. Shennan
J. H. Shennan
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Extract

The most recent biographer of Montesquieu has written:

…the similarity between the ideas of the former president a tnortier and those of the parlements is sometimes striking.…The king, they admit, is the legislator and the fount of justice. The parlements, however, are the repositories of his supreme juris-diction. To remove it from them is to offend the laws of the state and to overthrow the ancient legal structure of the kingdom.…This tradition of the parlements inspired and was inspired by the political doctrine of Montesquieu; and when the President writes of the monarchy of his own day…as being the best form of government that men have been able to imagine, it is monarchy supported by this tradition which he has in mind.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , 1965 , pp. 179 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

1 Shackleton, R., Montesquieu, A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1961), p. 281Google Scholar.

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8 The most recent account exclusively concerned with the Parlement's political role is that by Glasson, E., Le Parlement de Paris. Son rdle politique depuis le regne de Charles VII jusqu'd la Revolution (2 vols., Paris, 1901)Google Scholar. The section dealing with the period 1715-23 is based exclusively on published sources: a handful of contemporary diaries, four in all, the Parlement's own remonstrances, collected and published by J. Flammermont, and a few secondary works now in need of revision or entirely outmoded. Consequently a detailed inquiry into the day-to-day activities of the Court, taking into account the wide range of available manuscript and published sources, is long overdue. The above interpretation is based on such an inquiry.

9 Hartung, F. and Mousnier, R., ‘Quelques problemes concernant la monarchie absolue’, Rapport pour le Xe Congres International des Sciences Historiques (Rome, 1955), pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

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12 For a useful study of local opposition on a number of levels, see Asher, E. L., The Resistance to the Maritime Classes (Berkeley, California, 1960)Google Scholar; Louis's quarrels with the Jansenist bishops is summarized by Judge, H. G., ‘Church and State under Louis XIV’, History, XLV (1960)Google Scholar; see also Abercrombie, N., The Origins of Jansenism (Oxford, 1936), pp. 269 ffGoogle Scholar.

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35 , Isambert, op. cit. xxi, 6Google Scholar.

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37 Marion, M., Histoire Financiere de la France depuis 1715 (3 vols., Paris, 1914), I, 73–4Google Scholar.

38 Ibid. pp. 91-4; Harsin, P., Les Doctrines Monitaires et Financieres en France du XVIe au XVIIIe Siecle (Paris, 1928), p. 153Google Scholar.

39 Paris, Bibl. Nat. MSS. Français, 10231, 93a; Bibl. du Senat, MS. 422, fo. 159r; Arch. Nat., Série U, 360, 20 Aug. 1717.

40 , Flammermont, op. cit. I, 50–6Google Scholar.

41 The details of these weeks’ debates may be found in th e Bibl. du Senat, MS. 422, fos. 159-169; Bibl. Nat. MSS. Francais, 10231, 93a.

42 E.g. , Flammermont, op. cit. I, viiGoogle Scholar; , Bickart, op. cit. p. 279Google Scholar; , Bluche, op. cit. p. 216Google Scholar; , Ford, op. cit. p. 21Google Scholar.

43 , Bluche, op. cit. pp. 212–16Google Scholar.

44 The chief source for all the parlementaire debates from January to August 1718 is the Journal kept by Delisle, a clerk in the Parlement, Arch. Nat., Série U, 416; see also Arch. Nat., Série U, 420, Premieres Minutes des Seances du Conseil Secret du Parlement.

46 , Flammermont, op. cit. I, 56–64Google Scholar.

47 Ibid. p. 64.

47 Ibid. p. 65: ‘Le roi a bien voulu e'couter les remontrances de son Parlement.’

48 , Harsin, op. cit. p. 158Google Scholar.

49 Ibid. p. 162; , Isambert, op. cit. xxi, 73–4Google Scholar.

50 , Leclercq, op. cit. I, 199Google Scholar; , Harsin, op. cit. p. 162Google Scholar.

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52 Ed. Barthelemy, E. de, Gazette de la Régence, 1715-1719 (Paris, 1887), pp. 264–5Google Scholar.

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54 , Flammermont, op. cit. I, 78Google Scholar.

55 Ibid. I, 85-7.

56 Ibid. I, 88-105.

57 Ibid, I, 94.

58 Dangeau, Marquis de, Journal, ed. Soulié, E. and Dussieux, M. L. (19 vols., Paris, 1854-1860), XVII, 356Google Scholar.

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61 , Isambert, op. cit. xxi, 159–62Google Scholar.

62 The factual record of this lit de justice may be found in , Flammermont, op. cit. 1, 107–16Google Scholar; there is, however, another famous and highly coloured version in , Saint-Simon, op. cit. xxxv, 210 ffGoogle Scholar.

63 Bibl. Nat. MSS. Français, 10908, fo. 21; Bibl. Nat. Nouvelles Acquisitions Francaises, Collection Lamoignon, 8165, fos. 418v-426, fos. 433v-435.

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68 The edict was subsequently registered in theChdtelet after royallettres dejussion had had no effect upon theParlement, Arch. Nat., Série U, 421, 22 April 1720.

69 , Saint-Simon, op. cit. xxxvn, 314Google Scholar; , Marais, op. cit. I, 265Google Scholar; Buvat, J., Journal de la Rigence (ed. Camperdon, E., 2 vols., Paris, 1865), II, 93Google Scholar.

70 Bibl. Nat. MSS. Francais, 10908, fos. 10T-11r; Bibl. Nat. Nouvelles Acquisitions Francaises, Collection Lamoignon, 8167, 24-9.

71 Ibid. 231.

72 Bibl. du Sinat, MS. 423, fo. 118 (Journal Historique du Palais).

73 , Isambert, op. cit. xxi, 185–6Google Scholar.

74 , Leclercq, op. cit. I, 139Google Scholar.

75 , Carreyre, op. cit. I, chs. 3 and 4Google Scholar.

76 The bishops of Senez, Montpellier, Boulogne and Mirepoix.

77 Such an appeal suspended the effects of the Bull. The appeal was not against papal authority, but against the pope's refusal to give explanations onUnigenitus, cf. , Rech, op. cit. p. 126Google Scholar.

78 , Carreyre, op. cit. I, 155Google Scholar; Gazier, A., Histoire Generate du Mouvement Janseniste (2 vols., Paris, 1922), 1, 258Google Scholar.

79 , Carreyre, op. cit. II, 291, n. 4Google Scholar.

80 Bibl. des Amis de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 424, no. 3, 81.

81 Ibid.; , Carreyre, op. cit. III, 15Google Scholar.

82 Bibl. des Amis de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 424, no. 3, 82.

83 Ed. Gaultier, J.-B., Les Œuvres de Messire Charles Joachim Colbert, Eveque de Montpellier (3 vols., Cologne, 1740), pp. 60–1Google Scholar; , Carreyre, op. cit. III, 18Google Scholar.

84 Bibl. Nat. MSS. Francais, 10908, fos. 15r-16rArch. Nat., Série U, 747, fos. 23r-24r; Bibl. des Amis de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 424, no. 3, 90.

85 , Dorsanne, op. cit. II, 21–2Google Scholar.

86 Ibid. II, 16.

87 This court, the itinerantConseil du Roi, whose jurisdiction embraced the whole kingdom, had often been used in matters in which theParlement was uncooperative.

88 Bibl. des Amis de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 425, no. 76.

89 Ibid. 424, no. 3, 110; , Dorsanne, op. cit. II, 32Google Scholar.

90 DM. des Amis de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 425, no. 76; 424, no. 3, 112.

91 Ibid. 424, no. 3, 117.

92 Ed. Rousseau, F., Memoires du President Henault (Paris, 1911), p. 291Google Scholar; , Dorsanne, op. cit. II, 37Google Scholar.

93 , Rousseau, op. cit. p. 304Google Scholar.

94 Arch. Nat., Série U, 747, fo. 41r.

95 , Dorsanne, op. cit. II, 43–4Google Scholar.

96 , Rousseau, op. cit. p. 321Google Scholar; , Dorsanne, op. cit. II, 38Google Scholar; Bibl. des Amis de Port-Royal, Collection Le Paige, 424, no. 3, 129.

97 , Rousseau, op. cit. p. 335Google Scholar; , Dorsanne, op. cit. II, 50Google Scholar.

98 , Mention, op. cit. II, 60Google Scholar.

99 , Leclercq, op. cit. III, 74Google Scholar.

100 This official was responsible for supervising the administration of the rentes; the magis trates interviewed him on 17 January and 16 May 1718, Arch. Nat., Série U, 416.

101 , Harsin, op. cit. pp. 158, 189, 225Google Scholar.

102 , Harsin, op. cit. pp. 166 ff.Google Scholar; , Ford, op. cit. p. 121Google Scholar. Even in the acrimonious debates of 1718 the magistrates gave no indication of any suspicions about Law's future plans, Arch. Nat., Série U, 416.

103 , Flammermont, op. cit. I, 165Google Scholar.

104 Ibid. 1, 43.

105 Recently Cheyette, M. Frédéric, ‘La Justice et le Pouvoir Royal á la fin du moyen age francais’, Revue Historique de Droit Franfais et Etranger, 4th series, XL (1962), 394Google Scholar, has emphasized the long standing tradition behind the particular aspect of the Parlement's role discussed in this article: ‘Le parlement se considdrait avant tout comme le gardien du droit. Deja au XIVe siecle, il s'était montr6 relativement depourvu de prejugés en appliquant ce droit dans des cas qui interessaient les provisions royales.…Dans les siecles a venir, il sera le plus fidele dtfenseur du pouvoir judiciaire royal sur l'Eglise gallicane contre le pape, contre les jesuites, contre le roi lui-me'me, s'il le faut.’