Originally there was only the Parlement of Paris, which grew out
of the feudal Curia Regis [king's court] and may be said to have
had a separate existence from the reign of Louis IX (1226–70).
Provincial parlements, similar in organization but less
extensive in jurisdictional authority, were established from the
15th cent. onward. In 1789 there were, besides the Parlement of
Paris, provincial parlements at Aix-en-Provence, Arras,
Besançon, Bordeaux, Colmar, Dijon, Douai, Grenoble, Metz, Nancy,
Pau, Rennes, Rouen, and Toulouse. From the late 16th cent.
onward the parlements systematically opposed royal reform
measures. They joined the Fronde (1648–53), the abortive
aristocratic revolution against Cardinal Mazarin. A century
later in the parlements protests against a tax on all income
from property, including offices such as judgeships, aroused
such an uproar that the project eventually collapsed. In the
decade after the conclusion (1763) of the Seven Years War, the
continuance of wartime taxes was vigorously o