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LETTRES DE CACHET . Considered solely as See also:French documents, lettres de cachet may be defined as letters signed by the See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king of See also:France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal See also:seal (cachet). They contained an See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order—in principle, any order whatsoever—emanating directly from the king, and executory by himself. In the See also:case of organized bodies lettres de cachet were issued for the purpose of enjoining members to assemble or to accomplish some definite See also:act; the provincial estates were convoked in this manner, and it was by a lettre de cachet (called lettre de jussit'n) that the king ordered a See also:parlement to See also:register a See also:law in the See also:teeth of its own remonstrances. The best-known lettres de cachet, however, were those which may be called penal, by which the king sentenced a subject without trial and without an opportunity of See also:defence to imprisonment in a See also:state See also:prison or an See also:ordinary See also:gaol, confinement in a See also:convent or a See also:hospital, transportation to the colonies, or relegation to a given See also:place within the See also:realm.
The See also:power which the king exercised on these various occasions was a royal See also:privilege recognized by old French law, and can be traced to a See also:maxim which furnished a See also:text of the See also:Digest of Justinian: " Rex solutus est a legibus." This signified particularly that when the king intervened directly in the See also:administration proper, or in the administration of See also:justice, by a See also:special act ofhis will, he could decide without heeding the See also:laws, and even in a sense contrary to the laws. This was an See also:early conception, See also:ann in early times the order in question was simply verbal; thus some letters patent of See also:- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
Henry III. of France in 1576 (Isambert, Anciennes leis francaises, xiv. 278) state that See also:Francois de See also:Montmorency was " prisoner in our See also:castle of the See also:Bastille in See also:Paris by verbal command" of the See also:late king See also:Charles IX. But in the 14th See also:century the principle was introduced that the order should be written, and hence arose the lettre de cachet. The lettre de cachet belonged to the class of lettres closes, as opposed to lettres patentes, which contained the expression of the legal and permanent will of the king, and had to be furnished with the seal of state affixed by the See also:chancellor. The lettres de cachet, on the contrary, were signed simply by a secretary of state (formerly known as secretaire See also:des commandements) for the king; they See also:bore merely the imprint of the king's privy seal, from which circumstance they were often called, in the 14th and 15th centuries, lettres de See also:petit signet or lettres de petit cachet, and were entirely exempt from the See also:control of the chancellor.
While serving the See also:government as a silent weapon against See also:political adversaries or dangerous writers and as a means of punishing culprits of high See also:birth without the See also:scandal of a suit at law, the lettres de cachet had many other uses. They were employed by the See also:police in dealing with prostitutes, and on their authority lunatics were shut up in hospitals and sometimes in prisons. They were also often used by heads of families as a means of correction, e.g. for protecting the See also:family See also:honour from the disorderly or criminal conduct of sons; wives, too, took See also:advantage of them to curb the profligacy of husbands and See also:vice versa. They were issued by the intermediary on the See also:advice of the intendants in the provinces and of the See also:lieutenant of police in Paris. In reality, the secretary of state issued them in a completely arbitrary See also:fashion, and in most cases the king was unaware of their issue. In the 18th century it is certain that the letters were often issued See also:blank, i.e. without containing the name of the See also:person against whom they were directed; the recipient, or mandatary, filled in the name in order to make the See also:letter effective.
Protests against the lettres de cachet were made continually by the parlement of Paris and by the provincial parlements, and often also by the States-See also:General. In 1648 the See also:sovereign courts of Paris procured their momentary suppression in a See also:kind of See also:charter of liberties which they imposed upon the See also:crown, but which was ephemeral. It was not until the reign of See also:- LOUIS
- LOUIS (804–876)
- LOUIS (893–911)
- LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
- LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian
Louis XVI. that a reaction against this abuse became clearly perceptible. At the beginning of that reign See also:Malesherbes during his See also:short See also:ministry endeavoured to infuse some measure of justice into the See also:system, and in See also:March 1784 the See also:baron de See also:Breteuil, a See also:minister of the king's See also:household, addressed a circular to the intendants and the lieutenant of police with a view to preventing the crying abuses connected with the issue of lettres de cachet. In Paris, in 1779, the Cour des Aides demanded their suppression, and in March 1788 the parlement of Paris made some exceedingly energetic remonstrances, which are important for the See also:light they throw upon old French public law. The crown, however, did not decide to See also:lay aside this weapon, and in a See also:declaration to the States-General in the royal session of the 23rd of See also:June 1789 (See also:art. 15) it did not renounce it absolutely. Lettres de cachet were abolished by the Constituent See also:Assembly, but See also:Napoleon re-established their See also:equivalent by a political measure in the See also:decree of the 9th of March 18o1 on the state prisons. This was one of the acts brought up against him by the senatus-consulte of the 3rd of See also:April 1814, which pronounced his fall " considering that he has violated the constitutional laws by the decrees on the state prisons."
See Honore See also:Mirabeau, See also:Les Lettres de cachet et des prisons d'etat (See also:Hamburg, 1782), written in the See also:dungeon at See also:Vincennes into which his See also:father had thrown him by a lettre de cachet, one of the ablest and most eloquent of his See also:works, which had an immense circulation and was translated into See also:English with a See also:dedication to the See also:duke of See also:Norfolk in 1788; Frantz Funck-See also:Brentano, Les Lettres de cachet a Paris (Paris, 19o4); and See also:Andre Chassaigne, Les Lettres de cachet sous Vanden regime (Paris, 1903). (J. P.
End of Article: LETTRES DE CACHET
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