Book 1.3: The Parlement of Paris
Background
Years: 1781-88
Notable Events: Assembly of Notables, the seance royale of 1788, Day of the Tiles
This book covers the years 1781-1788, nicely bookended by Necker’s ousting and return. It deals with the last-ditch efforts of the monarchy to fix its finances and the resulting fights with the parlements.
After two nonentities have briefly served in office, Charles Alexandre de Calonne takes over as Controller-General to great excitement. He is a great orator, and hopes are high. Yet his financial plans are, as Carlyle says, “mere Turgotism”, by which he means: the nobility must be taxed.
In an attempt to garner support for his plan, Calonne decides to convoke — for the first time since 1626 — the Notables, i.e., the leading figures of the nobility. In general, this body could be counted on to support the monarchy.
But what Calonne had hoped would be a process of rubber-stamping to give him leverage over the parlements turned into a months-long battle with the Notables, who picked apart his plan. The fight turned personal: the Notables, led by Archbishop Loménie de Brienne, wanted Calonne out.
In a familiar pattern, Louis XVI turned on his minister when the going got tough. Calonne was replaced by Brienne as Controller-General (here as elsewhere I use the term Controller-General to mean the effective leader of French finances, like with Necker there were technical reasons why Brienne could not officially hold the position).
Brienne soon discovered what Turgot, Necker, and Calonne had discovered before him. The nobility must be taxed. The lower classes had no more money to give: you can’t take it out of the grape. Dismissing the Notables, Calonne created a plan for the introduction of a stamp tax and a general land tax, both of which would fall disproportionately on the nobility.
The Paris Parlement was having none of this, and they started to pretend like they didn’t have the authority to pass taxes. What they meant is they didn’t want to tax themselves.
The monarchy countered by exiling the parlement, which was soon brought back in the spirit of rapprochement. Getting desperated, Loménie attempted to appease the parlement by ditching the stamp and land taxes and instead substituting a scheme whereby the government would receive loans over the period of five years.
Even this could not go through, and Louis XVI held a seance royal, or “royal session” in which he sat in on a session of the parlement. Dismayed at their intransigence, he — probably foolishly — interrupted the session before the vote on the reforms to command that they be passed. This led the Duke d’Orléans, the future Philippe Egalité (who will vote to kill Louis), to break rank and ask if Louis meant for this to be a lit de justice — otherwise, he says, you can command nothing. The people’s duke is exiled, but will get his revenge.
Now truly at wit’s end, Loménie decides to go full Maupeou — cuck the parlement so that the government can, as Carlyle says, “do their registering themselves.” He concocts a scheme of “Grand Bailliages” and “Plenary Courts” with obscure historical precedents in the primordial French monarchy that will render the parlements redundant.
Printer’s are locked inside Versailles for days — they literally are not allowed to leave — while they draft the orders that will be disseminated throughout France. But a man named D’Espréménil bribes a printer’s wife and gets the order tossed outside a window in a ball of clay.
He quickly sounds the alarm and a session of parlement is called. Orders go out for the arrest and exile of D’Espréménil and one other (Goeslard), but the parlement — now in full war-mode — goes into session for 36 hours in an attempt to prevent their arrest. Eventually, they are arrested, and the Paris parlement has had its last hurrah.
The fight now moves to the provincial parlements, which with only one exception refuse to register the loan program. Violence breaks out in a few places, most notably Grenoble, where blood is shed during the Day of the Tiles. In Brittany, the Breton Club forms, forerunner to the Jacobins.
If capable of nothing but reading the writing on the wall, Loménie at least does that. Tail between his legs, he asks Necker to return and resigns. The uncanny popularity of Necker leads to celebrations in the streets, where Loménie is burned in effigy and violence is attempted against his associate Lamoignon.
Necker, taking over as captain of a ship that is capsizing, will have nothing to celebrate. Everyone awaits the Estates-General, promised for May of the next year. The only question is, what form will it take?