In France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 under the Ancien Régime, the lit de justice (li də ʒystis, bed of justice) was a particular formal session of the Parlement of Paris, under the presidency of the king, for the compulsory registration of the royal edicts. It was named thus because, rather than sit on a throne, the king would sit in an impromptu "bed" made up of five cushions. In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, not every appearance of the King of France in parlement occasioned a formal lit de justice. It was the custom of Philip IV

Philip IV of France

Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...

 and his three sons, of Charles V

Charles V of France

Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...

, of Charles VI

Charles VI of France

Charles VI , called the Beloved and the Mad , was the King of France from 1380 to 1422, as a member of the House of Valois. His bouts with madness, which seem to have begun in 1392, led to quarrels among the French royal family, which were exploited by the neighbouring powers of England and Burgundy...

, and of Louis XII

Louis XII of France

Louis proved to be a popular king. At the end of his reign the crown deficit was no greater than it had been when he succeeded Charles VIII in 1498, despite several expensive military campaigns in Italy. His fiscal reforms of 1504 and 1508 tightened and improved procedures for the collection of taxes...

 to attend sessions of various parlements regularly.

A lit de justice in Paris was normally held in the Grand Chambre du Parlement of the former royal palace on the Île de la Cité

Île de la Cité

The Île de la Cité is one of two remaining natural islands in the Seine within the city of Paris . It is the centre of Paris and the location where the medieval city was refounded....

, which remains the Palais de Justice even today. The king, fresh from his devotions in Sainte-Chapelle

Sainte-Chapelle

La Sainte-Chapelle is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval...

, would enter, accompanied by his chancellor, the princes of the blood, dukes and peers, cardinals and marshals, and take his place upon the cushions on a dais under a canopy of estate (the lit) in a corner of the chamber. Five cushions formed the lit: the king sat on one, another formed a back, two more supported his arms and a cushion lay under his feet. Peers and prelates were ranged on benches at his right and left. Before the king a large space was kept empty, that the king might discuss matters privately. To preserve order, it was forbidden for anyone to leave his seat or approach the lit without being called.

The records of a lit de justice of Charles V, May 21, 1375, gives an impression of the panoply of personages: the Dauphin, the duc d'Anjou brother of the King, the Patriarch of Alexandria

Patriarch of Alexandria

The Patriarch of Alexandria is the Archbishop of Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation of Pope , and did so earlier than that of the Bishop of Rome...

, 4 archbishop

Archbishop

An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

s, 7 bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

s, 6 abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

s, the rector and several members of the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, the Chancellor of France, 4 princes of the blood, several comtes and seigneurs, the Provost

Provost (civil)

A provost is the ceremonial head of many Scottish local authorities, and under the name prévôt was a governmental position of varying importance in Ancien Regime France.-History:...

 of Merchants and the echevins of the city of Paris, "several other wise and notable folk and a great crowd of people".

The king needed only speak a few preliminary words, followed by the formula mon chancelier vous dira le reste ("my chancellor will tell you the rest"), whereupon the chancellor seated at his feet would read aloud the rest of the royal declaration, such as the declaration of a regency or of a king's majority, or declarations of war or peace. The lit de justice equally served to cow recalcitrant parlements, imposing the sovereignty of the king. In the Middle Ages, a lit de justice was the setting for major trials of great aristocrats for major crimes. In the 16th century, it began to be manipulated for enforcing the registration of royal edicts. In the 17th century, it was rarely used but was revived under Louis XV

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

, raising controversy among the parlementary noblesse de robe, mindful of their threatened prerogatives.

The lit de justice, as it was revived in 1527, was intended by the royal party as an expression of royal justice, with hazy and immemorial antecedents in the open-air gathering of nobles presided over by enthroned Merovingian kings. In the King's presence the Parlement lost its usual quality of judge, to take the role of counsellor following the principle adveniente principe, cessat magistratus ("with the arrival of the king, magistratures cease"). As relations between Henri III and the Parlement of Paris became strained, the king used his presence in the lit de justice to enforce his will upon a recalcitrant court.

Absolutist propaganda asserted that a lit de justice in its origins could take place before any parlement though, in practice, the appearance of Charles IX

Charles IX of France

Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...

 before the parlement of Rouen

Parlement

Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...

 to enforce the enregistration of his Edict of Amboise

Edict of Amboise

The Edict of Amboise was signed at the Château of Amboise on March 19, 1563 by Catherine de' Medici, acting as regent for her son Charles IX of France. The treaty officially ended the first phase of the French Wars of Religion...

 (1563) was an innovation intended to discount the legislative role of the Parlement of Paris. He and the Queen Mother made a tour of parlements— Dijon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Toulouse— to enforce the registration of the Edict throughout France. From the reign of Louis XIII

Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

 it was confined to the Parlement de Paris. The last such session was in 1787, under Louis XVI

Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....

, at Versailles. The whole body, now "refractory, rolled out, in wheeled vehicles, to receive the order of the king."

External links

• Encyclopédie: "Lit de justice" article in the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
  Encyclopédie
  Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
  
  . Numerous individual lits de justice are described, and many dates given.

Further reading

• Sarah Hanley, The 'Lit de Justice' of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual, and Discourse (1983); details corrected in Mack P. Holt, "The King in Parlement: The Problem of the Lit de Justice in Sixteenth-Century France" The Historical Journal 31.3 (September 1988:507-523).