[Illustration: Fig. 311.--Inferior Court in the Great Bailiwick. Adoption
of Orphan Children.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in J. Damhoudere's "Refuge et
Garand des Pupilles, Orphelins:" Antwerp, J. Bellere, 1557.]
Towards the end of the sixteenth century the highest French tribunal was
represented by nine superior courts--namely, the Parliament of Bordeaux,
created on the 9th of June, 1642; the Parliament of Brittany, which
replaced the ancient _Grands-Jours,_ in March, 1553, and sat alternately
at Nantes and at Rennes; the Parliament of the Dauphine, established at
Grenoble in 1451 to replace the Delphinal Council; the Parliament of
Burgundy, established at Dijon in 1477, which took the place of the
_Grands-Jours_ at Beaune; the movable Parliament of Dombes, created in
1528, and consisting at the same time of a court of excise and a chamber
of accounts; the Parliament of Normandy, established by Louis XII. in
April, 1504, intended to replace the Exchequer of Rouen, and the ancient
ducal council of the province; the Parliament of Provence, founded at Aix
in July, 1501; the Parliament of Toulouse, created in 1301; and the
Parliament of Paris, which took precedence of all the others, both on
account of its origin, its antiquity, the extent of its jurisdiction, the
number of its prerogatives, and the importance of its decrees. In 1551,
Henry II. created, besides these, an inferior court in each bailiwick, the
duties of which were to hear, on appeal, all matters in which sums of less
than two hundred livres were involved (Fig. 311). There existed, besides,
a branch of the _Grands-Jours,_ occasionally sitting at Poitiers, Bayeux,
and at some other central towns, in order to suppress the excesses which
at times arose from religious dissensions and political controversy.
|