parlements

(noun)

Provincial appellate courts in the France of the Ancien Régime, i.e. before the French Revolution. They were not legislative bodies but rather the court of final appeal of the judicial system. They typically wielded much power over a wide range of subject matter, particularly taxation. Laws and edicts issued by the Crown were not official in their respective jurisdictions until they gave their assent by publishing them. The members were aristocrats who had bought or inherited their offices and were independent of the King.

Related Terms

(noun)

Provincial appellate courts in the France of the Ancien Régime, i.e. before the French Revolution. They were not legislative bodies but rather the court of final appeal of the judicial system. They typically wielded much power over a wide range of subject matter, particularly taxation. Laws and edicts issued by the Crown were not official in their respective jurisdictions until they gave their assent by publishing them. The members were aristocrats who had bought or inherited their offices and were independent of the King.

Related Terms

Examples of parlements in the following topics:

  • The Rise of the Nobility

    • The new tax was also opposed by the clergy and by the parlements (provincial appellate court staffed by aristocrats).
    • The parlements had the duty to record all royal edicts and laws.
    • Furthermore, the parlements could pass certain regulations, which were laws that applied within their jurisdiction.
    • Chancellor René Nicolas de Maupeou sought to reassert royal power by suppressing the parlements in 1770.
    • A furious battle resulted and after King Louis XV died, the parlements were restored.

  • Calling the Estates-General

    • Repeated attempts to implement tax reform failed due to lack of the Parlement of Paris support, as parlement judges felt that any increase in tax would have a direct negative effect on their own income.
    • While the Assembly had no legislative power in its own right, Calonne hoped that if it supported the proposed reforms, parlement would be forced to register them.
    • The usual business of registering the King's edicts as law was performed by the Parlement of Paris.

  • Taxes and the Three Estates

    • Already in 1648, when Louis XIV was still a minor and his mother Queen Anne acted as a regent and Cardinal Mazarin as her chief minister, the two attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris.
    • However, the clergy, the regions with "pays d'état," and the parlements protested.
    • Consequently, the clergy won exemption, the "pays d'état" won reduced rates, and the parlements halted new income statements, effectively making the "vingtième" a far less efficient tax than it was designed to be.

  • Cardinal Mazarin and the Fronde

    • The insurrection did not start with revolutionary goals but aimed to protect the ancient liberties from royal encroachments and to defend the established rights of the parlements - courts of appeal rather than legislative bodies like the English parliaments.
    • In May 1648, a tax levied on judicial officers of the Parlement of Paris provoked not merely a refusal to pay but also a condemnation of earlier financial edicts and a demand for the acceptance of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a united committee of the parlement (the Chambre Saint-Louis), composed of members of all the sovereign courts of Paris.
    • In August 1648, Mazarin suddenly arrested the leaders of the parlement, whereupon Paris broke into insurrection and barricaded the streets.

  • Efforts at Financial Reform

    • His attacks on privilege won him the hatred of the nobles and the parlements; his attempted reforms in the royal household, that of the court; his free trade legislation, that of the financiers; his views on tolerance and his agitation for the suppression of the phrase that was offensive to Protestants in the king's coronation oath, that of the clergy.
    • Knowing the Parlement of Paris would veto a single land tax payable by all landowners, Calonne persuaded Louis XVI to call the Assembly of Notables to vote on his referendum.
    • While Turgot and Necker had attempted similar reforms, Calonne attributed their failure to the opposition of the parlements.

  • Louis XVI

    • He aimed to earn the love of his people by reinstating the parlements.

  • Establishment of the National Assembly

    • The old judicial system, based on the 13 regional parlements, was suspended in November 1789, and officially abolished in September 1790.

  • The Sun-King and Authoritarianism

    • Among other things, it prescribed baptismal, marriage, and death records in the state's registers, not the church's, and also strictly regulated the right of the Parlements to remonstrate.

  • France's Fiscal Woes

    • The new tax was opposed by the clergy and by the parlements (provincial appellate court staffed by aristocrats).

  • Louis XV

    • In 1723, the king's majority was declared by the Parlement of Paris, which ended the regency.