The Parlements of France and the Breakdown of the Old Regime 1771-1788

Abstract

Of all the commonplaces in the history of the French eighteenth century, few seem more self-evident than that the recall of the parlements in 1774 was a mistake. It seems clear that by reinstating the main organs of opposition to its will the government condemned itself to the financial crisis which precipitated the Revolution. Historians have shown a remarkable degree of unanimity on this question. French historians of the old regime and the Revolution, who usually interpret the centuries preceding the Revolution as a struggle between monarchy and aristocracy,-see the conflict with the parlements in the eighteenth century as the last stage in this struggle and the restoration of 1774 as the monarchy's final and fatal mistake.' The most notable recent history of the Revolution in English also condemns the restoration2 and so does the latest historian of the parlement of Paris itself.3 The corollary of this view is, of course, that the reform of the parlements effected by Chancellor Rene-Nicolas de Maupeou in 1771 was wise, timely, and potentially beneficial.