When the
Royal Council ordered roads to be built, it was the intendant and his
men who directed the work and called the peasants out to do the labor.
With powers such as these, it was little wonder that the intendant was
called _Monseigneur_--"My lord."
[Sidenote: The Parlement of Paris]
The system of Royal Council, intendants, and sub-intendants would have
been comparatively simple, had it not been complicated by the presence
of numerous other political bodies, each of which claimed certain
customary powers. First of all, there was the _Parlement_, or
supreme court, of Paris, primarily a judicial body which registered the
royal decrees. If the Parlement disliked a decree, it might refuse to
register it, until the king should hold a "bed of justice"--that is,
should formally summon the Parlement and in person command it to
register his decree.
[Sidenote: Provincial Estates]
Then there were provincial "Estates," or assemblies, in a few of the
provinces. [Footnote: Such provinces were called _pays d'etat_ and
included Brittany, Languedoc, Provence, Roussillon, Dauphine, Burgundy,
Franche Comte, Alsace, Lorraine, Artois, Flanders, Corsica, etc.
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