Wikipedia
A parlement was a provincial appellate court in the France of the Ancien Régime, i.e. before the French Revolution. In 1789 13 parlements existed, the most important of which was by far the Parlement of Paris. Parlements were not legislative bodies—as they are in some countries such as Canada for example, where the word translates the English word "parliament". They consisted of a dozen or more appellate judges, or about 1,100 judges nationwide. They were the court of final appeal of the judicial system, and typically wielded much power over a wide range of subject matter, particularly taxation. Laws and edicts issued by the Crown were not official in their respective jurisdictions until the parlements gave their assent by publishing them. The members were aristocrats called nobles of the gown who had bought or inherited their offices, and were independent of the King.
From 1770 to 1774 the Lord Chancellor, Maupeou, tried to abolish the Parlement of Paris in order to strengthen the Crown; however, when King Louis XV died in 1774, the parlements were reinstated. The parlements spearheaded the aristocracy's resistance to the absolutism and centralization of the Crown, but they worked primarily for the benefit of their own class, the French nobility. Alfred Cobban argues that the parlements were the chief obstacles to any reform before the Revolution, as well as the most formidable enemies of the French Crown. He concludes that the
"Parlement of Paris, though no more in fact than a small, selfish, proud and venal oligarchy, regarded itself, and was regarded by public opinion, as the guardian of the constitutional liberties of France."
In November 1789, early in the French Revolution, all parlements were suspended, and they were formally abolished in September 1790.
Usage examples of "parlement".
Paris un autre voyer que le roi, une autre justice que notre parlement, un autre empereur que nous dans cet empire!
Either the Parlementaires would provoke the government into drastic repression or the Parlements would yield to more genuinely representative institutions.
The more desperately the crown sought remedies for its financial plight in taxes imposed on privileged and unprivileged alike, the more infuriated the Parlements became.
Then seemed me there was a parlement At Athens, upon certain points and cas*: *cases Amonge the which points y-spoken was To have with certain countries alliance, And have of Thebans full obeisance.
Thanne semed me ther was a parlement At Atthenes, upon certein pointz and caas, Among the whiche pointz yspoken was To have with certein contrees alliaunce, And have fully of Thebans obeisaunce, For which this noble Theseus anon Leet senden after gentil Palamon, Unwist of hym what was the cause and why.
For we be fewe birdes here in fere, And sooth it is, the cuckoo is not here, And therefore we will have a parlement.