ABSTRACT
Interposed between the journalists and the over twenty million French people was the French government-in particular the central administration in Versailles. No other set of officials held nearly as much authority as the royal center. Until late in the reign of Louis XIV, other officials competed-primarily those in the parlements and the Church which after all also exercised secular authority. But by the eighteenth century, the royal administration monopolized the power of direct regulation.1 Judicial officials, the Church, and other interested parties had to work through Versailles. One might still bring a lawsuit but that kind of control paled beside the authority held at Versailles.2 In fact, by midcentury the greatest threat to royal power lay in the independence of royal provincial administrators, who often had great latitude.
