ABSTRACT
On 15 January 1648, Louis XIV, aged nine, held a lit de justice at the Parlement of Paris. Flanked by his mother, his ministers, the princes of the blood and ducs et pairs, he declared his will: the judges must register the seven financial edicts. The majesty of France spoke in treble tones, but it was not the child’s voice that weakened the emphatic words. Neither the argument about the rights of the regent, whether the lit was acceptable when the king was not of age, nor the fact that the crown was insolvent was, by itself, sufficient reason for Parlement to make a stand. Together however the constitutional and financial questions interwove to create a new political pattern: it was possible for sober, moderate men of property to envisage open opposition.
