The Parliaments: France's Royal Check and Balance
What Were the Parliaments? Courts, Not Politicians
First, let's clear up a common point of confusion. The word "Parlement" sounds like the English "Parliament," but they were very different. The English Parliament was (and is) a law-making body. The French Parlements were primarily supreme courts of law for their regions. Think of them more like today's Supreme Court, but for a specific area of France, with added administrative duties.
Their most important job was to "register" new royal laws. When the King issued an edict (a royal law), it had to be written into the official records of the relevant Parlements before it could be enforced in that region. This process was not just a formality. It was the Parlements' chance to review the law.
If a Parlement believed a new law was flawed, unjust, or against the "fundamental laws" of the kingdom, it could issue a "remonstrance." This was a formal document of protest sent back to the King, explaining their objections and (politely) refusing to register the law. The King could then order them to register it anyway through a special royal command called a Lit de Justice ("Bed of Justice"). This back-and-forth was the main political drama between the king and these powerful courts.
A Map of Power: The Major Parlements
France was divided into large legal districts, each with its own Parlement. The most important one was the Parlement of Paris, whose jurisdiction covered about one-third of the kingdom, including the capital. Its influence was immense. The other provincial Parlements, like those in Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Rennes, guarded their local traditions and privileges fiercely.
| Parlement | Region (Approximate) | Key Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Paris | North-Central France (Ile-de-France) | Oldest and most powerful. Spoke for the "nation" against the king. |
| Bordeaux | Aquitaine (Southwest) | Wealthy from wine trade. Known for its intellectual members. |
| Toulouse | Languedoc (South) | Very conservative, protective of local rights. |
| Rennes | Brittany | Extremely defensive of Brittany's unique privileges and autonomy. |
| Aix-en-Provence | Provence (Southeast) | Guarded the "Constitution" of Provence against royal interference. |
Guardians of Privilege vs. Voices of Reform
The Parlements had a contradictory role. On one hand, they presented themselves as the defenders of the people against a potentially tyrannical king. They claimed to protect the "ancient constitution" and the "fundamental laws" of France. In their remonstrances, they often spoke about justice, liberty, and the need for the King to rule with the consent of the "nation." This made them popular with the public, especially the educated middle class.
On the other hand, the judges (called conseillers) who made up the Parlements were not elected. They were wealthy nobles who had bought or inherited their positions. They were part of the privileged elite. Often, their loudest protests were against royal attempts to tax the nobility or modernize the economy in ways that might threaten their own social status and financial exemptions. They were conservatives, fighting to preserve a society based on unequal privileges.
We can think of their resistance like a simple equation. The King's power to tax ($P_k$) was constrained by the Parlements' power to refuse ($P_p$). The effective tax law ($T_e$) only passed if the King could overcome their refusal, often by exile or force ($F$). This can be simplified as: $T_e = P_k - (P_p - F)$ If $P_p$ (the Parlement's resistance) was greater than the King's force $F$, the tax could not be registered and the King's power $P_k$ was effectively reduced.
The Final Confrontation: Triggering a Revolution
The story of the Parlements reaches its climax in the 1780s. France was nearly bankrupt from wars, including helping the American colonies win their independence. King Louis XVI and his finance ministers knew they needed to reform the tax system so that the privileged nobility and clergy would also pay.
Every reform proposal was blocked by the Parlements. In 1787, the Parlement of Paris refused to register a new land tax, declaring that only the Estates-General[1]—a medieval assembly that hadn't met since 1614—had the right to approve new taxes. This was a direct challenge to royal authority wrapped in a call for a more representative government.
In a desperate move in 1788, Louis XVI's minister tried to strip the Parlements of their power to block laws. This caused an enormous public outcry and united everyone opposed to the king—from nobles to commoners—behind the Parlements. Facing riots and a total collapse of authority, Louis XVI surrendered. He agreed to recall the Parlements and, most importantly, to call the Estates-General for 1789.
This was the revolution's starting gun. The Parlements, by forcing the king to call the Estates-General, unintentionally opened the door for the Third Estate (the commoners) to seize the initiative and begin the French Revolution. The very institutions that had fought to preserve the old order had, in the end, brought about the assembly that would destroy it.
Case Study: The "Maupeou Revolution" of 1771
A perfect example of this power struggle happened earlier, under King Louis XV. Tired of the Parlement of Paris's constant obstruction, his chancellor, René de Maupeou, executed a political bombshell in 1771.
The Conflict: The Paris Parlement had been refusing to register financial decrees for years. Maupeou's response was radical.
The Action: In the dead of night, soldiers arrested the leading judges and exiled them. Maupeou then abolished the old Parlements and replaced them with new, more obedient courts. The right of remonstrance was severely restricted.
The Outcome: This "Maupeou Revolution" was initially successful for the crown. The new courts functioned, and royal authority was absolute. However, it created a propaganda disaster. Philosophers, the public, and the exiled judges portrayed Maupeou as a tyrant destroying France's ancient "constitution." When Louis XVI became king in 1774, one of his first acts, hoping for popularity, was to restore the old Parlements. This showed that even an absolute king needed some form of public legitimacy, and it proved the Parlements were deeply rooted in the political culture. It also set the stage for their final, fatal confrontation with the monarchy just 15 years later.
Important Questions
Q1: Were the Parliaments democratic or representative of the people?
No, they were not democratic in the modern sense. The judges were wealthy nobles who bought their positions; they were not elected by the people. However, they claimed to represent the "nation" and its traditional rights. They were popular because they opposed the king's taxes and absolutism, but their main goal was to protect the privileges of the nobility and the traditional social order, not to create equality.
Q2: What is the difference between a "Lit de Justice" and a "Remonstrance"?
These were the two main moves in the political game between the King and the Parlements. A Remonstrance was the Parlement's formal protest and initial refusal to register a law. It was a request for the King to reconsider. A Lit de Justice was the King's ultimate response: a special, solemn royal session where he personally ordered the Parlement to register the law immediately, overriding their objections. It was a dramatic display of absolute royal power.
Q3: Why did the Parlements' success in 1788 lead to their own downfall?
By forcing the King to call the Estates-General, the Parlements unlocked a force they could not control. They expected the Estates-General to side with them against the King, preserving noble privilege. Instead, the Third Estate (commoners) transformed the Estates-General into the National Assembly, which sought to abolish all privileges, including those of the noble judges. By 1790, the new Revolutionary government abolished the Parlements entirely, replacing them with a uniform court system. Their victory was therefore very short-lived.
Footnote
[1] Estates-General (États Généraux): A medieval representative assembly of the three "estates" or orders of French society: the First Estate (clergy), the Second Estate (nobility), and the Third Estate (commoners). It had no regular meeting schedule and was called only by the King, usually in times of crisis to grant special taxes. Its recall in 1789 was the immediate prelude to the French Revolution.