Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: the Parlement of Paris
- 2 Historians and the parlements
- 3 The king and his judges
- 4 The parti janséniste and the refusal of the sacraments crisis, 1754–1756
- 5 Managing the parlements: crisis and compromise, 1756–1758
- 6 The Parlement and fiscal politics, 1756–1763
- 7 Choiseul and the politics of appeasement, 1758–1763
- 8 An unhappy peace, 1763
- 9 Defending La Chalotais: the Brittany affair, 1764–1766
- 10 In the eye of the storm, 1767–1770
- 11 The fall of the Parlement of Paris, 1770–1771
- 12 Conclusion: Maupeou and beyond
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Historians and the parlements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: the Parlement of Paris
- 2 Historians and the parlements
- 3 The king and his judges
- 4 The parti janséniste and the refusal of the sacraments crisis, 1754–1756
- 5 Managing the parlements: crisis and compromise, 1756–1758
- 6 The Parlement and fiscal politics, 1756–1763
- 7 Choiseul and the politics of appeasement, 1758–1763
- 8 An unhappy peace, 1763
- 9 Defending La Chalotais: the Brittany affair, 1764–1766
- 10 In the eye of the storm, 1767–1770
- 11 The fall of the Parlement of Paris, 1770–1771
- 12 Conclusion: Maupeou and beyond
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Interpretations of both eighteenth-century French politics and the role of the Parlement of Paris have been distorted by the long shadow of the revolution. An understandable desire to provide a coherent explanation for the great upheaval has led historians to study the institutions of the ancien régime as part of a more general search for the origins of 1789. According to the traditional interpretation, after Louis XIV's death in 1715, the regent, the duc d'Orléans, was obliged to seek the support of the Parlement in order to consolidate his hold on power. To win the allegiance of the judges, he restored their right of remonstrance, curtailed by the old king in 1673, and, in doing so, allowed the genie of parlementaire obstructionism to escape. The potential for judicial opposition to the crown was first demonstrated during the quarrels that erupted about the status of the papal Bull Unigenitus (1713), and there were serious disputes in 1720 and 1730–2. Yet after 1750 it appeared that opposition from the judges had not only become more persistent, but had also acquired an ideological dimension hostile to the authority of the crown. Renewed argument about the status of Unigenitus and the right of the bishops to refuse the sacraments to its Jansenist opponents marked the beginning of the conflict. Major crises ensued in 1753–4 and 1756–7, reaching a climax with the expulsion of the Jesuits from France in 1764. Even more disturbing for the crown was the growing resistance to its financial policies.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995