4 - The sovereign courts: a provincial perspective

Summary

The sovereign courts were curious institutions whose role is difficult for the modern observer to grasp. As judicial companies with jurisdiction over certain categories of litigation their function is readily comprehensible, but as centers of moral authority, social domination, and political command their importance seems mysterious. Both the Parlement in Toulouse and the Cour des Comptes in Montpellier were concentrations of individuals who combined personal authority, manifested through client ties and the control of seigneuries or investments, with corporate power expressed through their companies' vast influence. In addition to the jurisdictional authority which each exerted over the whole province, the two had more intense spheres of influence around their geographical centers in Haut-Languedoc and Bas-Languedoc respectively. Both were central actors in the drama of provincial affairs.

THE PARLEMENT OF TOULOUSE

The Parlement was the most prestigious center of influence in the province by virtue of its vast jurisdiction, its continuity of tradition, and the aggregate social prestige of its members. These pompous dignitaries presided over a complex of buildings and towers at the southernmost extremity of Toulouse on a site formerly occupied by the château Narbonnais of the medieval counts. They thus occupied the traditional seat of comtal, then royal, authority in a spot as far removed from the Capitole and its rival capitouls as the narrow confines of the city would allow.