Originally published in 1968, this authoritative study analyses the Parlement as a law court and examines its political role and significance. From its beginning in the mid-13th Century until its fall during the 1789 Revolution, the Paris Parlement stood at the heart of government in France. Its primary function as the crown’s judicial authority grew out of the need for a royal court to dispense justice when the king could no longer do so personally. The book describes how the Parlement evolved sophisticated procedures and a complex organization of chambers, officers and personnel and examines the Parlement’s judicial and political growth, against the social backdrop of the Court and the Palais de Justice.

An account of the relationship between Louis XV, the clergy of France, and the Parlement of Paris in the mid-eighteenth century.

Stone portrays the members of this great court of law as strategically situated individuals who worked to advance their own corporate pretentions while simultaneously advocating a precarious balance of monarchical, aristocratic, middle-class, and popular" interests. Their apparent radicalism on matters of consent to taxation, freedom from arrest, and political representation disguised their efforts to preserve the traditional legalistic French monarchy." Originally published in 1981. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Before the revolution of 1789, politics in France was based on the relationship between the king and the Parlement of Paris. After 1750, the two sides entered into serious conflict about Louis XV's religious, financial and administrative policies, and in 1771 the Parlement was abolished. This book examines the causes of what contemporaries called "the Revolution of 1771." It examines government under Louis XV, the role of the Parlement and how politics worked in eighteenth-century France.

Politics in eighteenth-century France was dominated by the relationship between the crown and the magistrates of the Parlement of Paris. The Parlement provided a traditional check upon the King's authority, but after 1750 it entered a period of prolonged confrontation with the government of Louis XV. The religious, financial and administrative policies of the monarchy were subject to sustained opposition, and the magistrates employed arguments which challenged the foundations of royal authority. This struggle was brought to an abrupt conclusion in 1771, when Chancellor de Maupeou implemented a royal revolution, breaking the power of the Parlement. In order to explain why the crown and the Parlement drifted into conflict, this study re-examines the conduct of government under Louis XV, the role of the magistrates, and the structure of judicial politics in eighteenth-century France.