The Parlement of Paris (French: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest parlement in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. Parlements were judicial, rather than legislative, bodies and were composed of magistrates. Though not representative bodies in the present sense of the word, they had procedures and authorities that could delay the otherwise unchecked power of the King. Because of its location and history, the Parlement of Paris was the most significant. The Parlement of Paris was established under Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parlement of Paris would hold sessions inside the medieval royal palace on the Île de la Cité, which today is the site of the Paris Hall of Justice.
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👉 Parlement of Paris in the context of Île de la Cité
The Île de la Cité (French: [il d(ə) la site]; lit. "Island of the City") is one of two natural islands on the Seine River (alongside Île Saint-Louis) in central Paris. It spans 22.5 hectares (56 acres) of land. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the area governor for the Roman Empire. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century, its importance as a religious centre increased with the building of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the castle chapel of Sainte-Chapelle. The city hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, possibly the oldest continuously operating hospital in the world, is also based on the island. Nearby is the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.
Even with the departure of the French kings to the Louvre Palace across the right bank, and later to the Palace of Versailles, the island remained a centre of administration and law courts. In 1302, it hosted the first meeting of the Parlement of Paris in the old royal palace and was later the site of the trials of aristocrats during the French Revolution. Today, in addition to the prominent cathedral and other shrines, it is the home of the Préfecture de Police, the Palais de Justice, and the Tribunal de commerce de Paris. The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, is located at the eastern end of the island. As of 2016, the island's population was 891.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Parlement of Paris
- 👉 Parlement of Paris in the context of Île de la Cité
- Parlement of Paris in the context of Cardinal Mazarin
- Parlement of Paris in the context of Estates General (France)
- Parlement of Paris in the context of Parlement
- Parlement of Paris in the context of Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel
- Parlement of Paris in the context of Edict of Versailles
Parlement of Paris in the context of Cardinal Mazarin
Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death. He was made a cardinal in 1641.
After serving as a papal diplomat for Pope Urban VIII, Mazarin offered his diplomatic services to Cardinal Richelieu and moved to Paris in 1640. After the death of Richelieu in 1642, Mazarin took his place as first minister of Louis XIII, and then of Louis XIV, when he succeeded to the throne in 1643. Mazarin acted as the head of the government for Anne of Austria, the regent for the young Louis XIV, and was also responsible for the king's education until he came of age. The first years of Mazarin in office were marked by military victories in the Thirty Years' War, which he used to make France the main European power and establish the Peace of Westphalia (1646–1648). A major uprising against Anne of Austria and Mazarin, called the Fronde and led by the nobles of the Parlement of Paris, broke out in Paris in 1648, followed by a second Fronde, led by Louis, Grand Condé, who had turned from his chief ally to his chief enemy. Mazarin took Anne of Austria and Louis XIV out of Paris and then shifted his base to Germany for a time. Turenne, a general loyal to Louis XIV and Mazarin, defeated Condé, and Mazarin made a triumphal return to Paris in 1653.
Parlement of Paris in the context of Estates General (France)
In France under the Ancien Régime, the Estates General (French: États généraux [eta ʒeneʁo] ) or States-General was a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates (clergy, nobility and commoners), which were called and dismissed by the king. It had no true power in its own right as, unlike the English Parliament, it was not required to approve royal taxation or legislation. It served as an advisory body to the king, primarily by presenting petitions from the various estates and consulting on fiscal policy.
The Estates General first met in 1302 and 1303 in relation to King Philip IV's conflict with the papacy. They met intermittently until 1614 and only once afterward, in 1789, but were not definitively dissolved until after the French Revolution. The Estates General were distinct from the parlements (the most powerful of which was the Parlement of Paris), which started as appellate courts but later used their powers to decide whether to publish laws to claim a legislative role.
Parlement of Paris in the context of Parlement
Under the French Ancien Régime, a parlement (French pronunciation: [paʁləmɑ̃] ) was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the original and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. Though both the modern French term parlement (for the legislature) and the English word "parliament" derive from this French term, the Ancien Régime parlements were not legislative bodies and the modern and ancient terminology are not interchangeable.
Parlement of Paris in the context of Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel
Charles-Marie-François Olier, marquis de Nointel (1635—1685), a councillor to the Parlement of Paris, was the French ambassador to the Ottoman court of Mehmed IV, from 1670 to 1679, charged from the first with renegotiating the Capitulations under which French merchants and others did business within the Ottoman Empire.
Parlement of Paris in the context of Edict of Versailles
The Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance, was an official act that gave non-Catholics in France the access to civil rights formerly denied to them, which included the right to contract marriages without having to convert to the Catholic faith, but it denied them political rights and public worship. The edict was signed by King Louis XVI on 7 November 1787, and registered in the Parlement of Paris during the Ancien Régime on 29 January 1788. Its successful enactment was caused by persuasive arguments by prominent French philosophers and literary personalities of the day, including Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot; Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, Americans such as Benjamin Franklin and especially the joint work of Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, minister to Louis XVI, and Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne, spokesman for the Protestant community in France.
King Henry IV had granted Huguenots significant amount of freedom to practice their faith when he announced the Edict of Nantes on 13 April 1598. Those rights were revoked by Louis XIV during the Edict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685). Enforcement of the revocation relaxed under the reign of Louis XV, but the revocation remained law for a century.