May 4, 1788: Repeated Remonstrances of the Parlement of Paris in Response to the King’s Statement of April 17

Abstract

After the king’s rebuke to their delegation on April 17, 1788, the Parlement of Paris prepared additional remonstrances, which were completed on April 30 and delivered to the King on May 4. These remonstrances—given below, from Flammermont, op. cit., pp. 736743, with the deletion of eight paragraphs of illustrative material,¹ and the shortening of three others—came at a crucial time when the struggle between the crown and the parlements was reaching a climax. Louis XVI’s response was to be the lit de justice of May 8, which reorganized the parlements and deprived them of any political role. But the final struggle between the crown and the aristocracy in the summer of 1788 was destined to be won by the aristocracy, whose prize was to be an earlier opening of Pandora’s box, the Estates General.