 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 ] Next Last |
In the case of organized bodies lettres de cachet were issued for the purpose of preventing assembly or to accomplish some other definite act. The provincial estates were convoked in this manner, and it was by a lettre de cachet (in this case, a lettre de jussipri) in which the king ordered a parliament to register a law in the teeth of its own refusal to pass it.
The best-known lettres de cachet, however, were penal, by which a subject was sentenced without trial and without an opportunity of defense to imprisonment in a state prison or an ordinary jail, confinement in a convent or a hospital, transportation to the colonies, or expulsion to another part of the realm. The wealthy sometimes bought such lettres to dispose of unwanted individuals.
This power was a royal privilege recognized by old French law, which can be traced to a maxim which furnished a text of the Digest of Justinian: "Rex solutus est a legibus", or "The king only is the law."
This meant that when the king intervened directly, he could decide without heeding the laws, and even contrary to the laws. This was an early conception, and in early times the order in question was simply verbal; some letters patent of Henry III of France in 1576 state that Francois de Mont-morency was "prisoner in our castle of the Bastille in Paris by verbal command" of the late king Charles IX.
In the 14th century the principle was introduced that the order should be written, and hence arose the lettre de cachet. The lettre de cachet belonged to the class of lettres closes , as opposed to lettres patentes, which contained the expression of the legal and permanent will of the king, and had to be furnished with the seal of state affixed by the chancellor.
The lettres de cachet, on the contrary, were signed simply by a secretary of state for the king; they bore merely the imprint of the king's privy seal, from which circumstance they were often called, in the 14th and 15th centuries, lettres de petit signet or lettres de petit cachet, and were entirely exempt from the control of the chancellor.
While serving the government as a silent weapon against political adversaries or dangerous writers and as a means of punishing culprits of high birth without the scandal of a lawsuit, the lettres de cachet had many other uses. They were employed by the police in dealing with prostitutes, and on their authority lunatics were shut up in hospitals and sometimes in prisons.
They were also often used by heads of families as a means of correction, for example, for protecting the family honour from the disorderly or criminal conduct of sons. Wives, too, took advantage of them to curb the profligacy of husbands and vice versa.
In reality, the secretary of state issued them in a completely arbitrary fashion, and in most cases the king was unaware of their issue. In the 18th century it is certain that the letters were often issued blank, i.e. without containing the name of the person against whom they were directed; the recipient, or mandatary, filled in the name in order to make the letter effective.
Protests against the lettres de cachet were made continually by the parlement of Paris and by the provincial parlements , and often also by the States-GeneralIn France under the ancien regime, the States-General or Estates-General (in French: tats-Generaux , was an assembly of the different classes of French citizenry. It owed its origin to the same causes which produced the Parliament of England, the Cortes o. In 1648Events Peace treaty signed at Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War. The Dutch and the Spanish sign the Treaty of Munster, ending the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish Empire recognizes the Dutch Republic of United Netherlands as a sovereign state, (governed the sovereign courts of Paris procured their momentary suppression in a kind of charter of liberties which they imposed upon the crown, but which was ephemeral.
It was not until the reign of Louis XVILouis XVI of France ( August 23, 1754 January 21, 1793) succeeded his grandfather ( Louis XV of France) as King of France on May 10, 1774; he was crowned on June 11, 1775. His father, the Louis dauphin son of Marie Leszczynska, had died in 1765. Louis was that a reaction against this abuse became clearly perceptible. At the beginning of that reign MalesherbesGuillaume-Chretien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes ( December 6, 1721 April 23, 1794) was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI. Born at Paris from a famous during his short ministry endeavoured to infuse some measure of justiceJustice is a concept involving the fair and moral treatment of all persons, especially in law. It is often seen as the continued effort to do what is "right. In most of all cases "right" is determined by either the majority or logic. If a person lives und into the system, and in MarchFor alternative meanings, see March (disambiguation). March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. Named for Mars, the Roman god of war. In ancient Rome, March was called Martius. It was named after the war god ( Mars) and 1784Events January 6 the Turks agree to Russia's annexation of the Crimea in the Treaty of Constantinople January 14 The U. Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with England to end the American Revolutionary War February 27 Count of St Germain dies of pneumo the baron de BreteuilLouis-Auguste le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil (1730 1807) A French aristocrat, statesman and politician. He was the last Prime Minister of the Bourbon Monarchy, appointed by Louis XVI only one hundred hours before the Fall of the Bastille. He was born int, a minister of the king's household, addressed a circular to the intendants and the lieutenant of police with a view to preventing the most serious abuses connected with the issue of lettres de cachet.
The Comte de Mirabeau wrote a scathing indictment of lettres de cachet while imprisoned in the dungeon of Vincennes (by lettre de cachet obtained by his father). The treatise was published after his liberation in 1782 under the title Les Lettres de cachet et des prisons d'etat and was widely read throughout Europe.
In Paris, in 1779, the Cour des Aides demanded their suppression, and in March 1788 the parlement of Paris made some exceedingly energetic remonstrances, which are important for the light they throw upon old French public law. The crown, however, did not decide to lay aside this weapon, and in a declaration to the States-General in the royal session of the 23rd of June 1789 (art. 15) it did not renounce it absolutely.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|