ABSTRACT
By the end of the thirteenth century a new organism had come into existence in France concerned with the administration of justice and called the Parlement. It was permanently installed in Paris in a royal residence which the king soon afterwards vacated. From its inception, then, the French Parlement was a judicial court, staffed by men learned in the law, whose duty was to dispense justice in the king’s name and on his behalf. The Parlemen’s influence in political affairs sprang from its judicial role, and in particular, though not exclusively, from its right to remonstrate. One of the duties of the Parlement was to record royal enactments in its registers. As the monarchy became more powerful, the Parlement became the chief institutional opponent of royal arbitrariness and its attitude provoked a number of conflicts, of which the Fronde of 1648–9 is perhaps the best known and the most violent.
