[Illustration: Fig. 303.--The Great Chatelet of Paris.--Principal Front
opposite the Pont-au-Change.--Fac-simile of an Engraving on Copper by
Merian, in the "Topographia Galliae" of Zeller.]
In addition to the courts of the counts and bailiffs established in
certain of the large towns, aldermanic or magisterial courts existed,
which rather resembled the Chatelet of Paris. Thus the _capiloulat_ of
Toulouse, the senior alderman of Metz, and the burgomaster of Strasburg
and Brussels, possessed in each of these towns a tribunal, which judged
without appeal, and united the several functions of a civil, criminal, and
simple police court. Several places in the north of France had provosts
who held courts whose duties were various, but who were principally
charged with the maintenance of public order, and with suppressing
disputes and conflicts arising from the privileges granted to the trade
corporations, whose importance, especially in Flanders, had much increased
since the twelfth century.
|