The village of Jullenay straddled the border between the territories of the Paris and Dijon Parlements. The only high-justice lord of the village, Etienne Philibert Debadier, had one set of officers to judge the village, but these officers theoretically sat over two different courts, depending on the residence of the litigants.¹ In 1741 the lord complained that each time he began a court case against villagers, they “took no time to propose a change of venue [déclinatoire], and to maintain that they were from the jurisdiction of the other court.” Debadier himself had been the victim of such action in...

Judges, prosecutors, and clerks in seigneurial courts were trained professionals who understood the law. The problem with seigneurial courts was not that the officers that ran them were unqualified but that they were employees of a lord. Before hiring a judge, procureur d’office, or clerk, a lord would need to be assured that he would work hard to protect his rights. While court cases involving the seigneur or one of his representatives always formed a small proportion of cases that seigneurial judges heard, the lord’s judicial officers nevertheless played an integral role in the maintenance of the seigneurial system. Seigneurial...

Seigneurial judges helped maintain lordly authority, but this was not their only role. Indeed, fewer than one case in ten directly involved the lord’s interests. In a general way the court was responsible to keep the peace in the village and protect both the property and the honor of its clients. The local court continued to play a significant role in administering and policing daily life and local politics in the village. In addition to judicial authority, seigneurial judges had both legislative and executive functions, being responsible to establish norms in the village and to oversee the enforcement of these...

In most police, probate, and criminal cases seigneurial courts responded effectively to the wishes of their clients and enforced norms with which most people agreed. This is, of course, still truer of civil litigation, since plaintiffs would generally not sue unless they felt they had something to gain. The main purpose of this chapter is to analyze the meaning of lawsuits within the context of rural society in eighteenth-century northern Burgundy. Ordinary people in northern Burgundy, as we will see, were litigious, with more lawsuits per capita than many other societies in different times and places. It is difficult, however,...

The question of reform provoked a great deal of public debate in the eighteenth century. Philosophes, physiocrats, agronomists, and populationists all argued for the necessity of profound institutional change, claiming it would bring about national regeneration. Seeking to solidify its tax base and bring more prosperity to the kingdom, the monarchy implemented many of their suggestions for reform.¹ A few minor national legal reforms succeeded, such as an increase in the authority of presidial courts, and a procedural change allowing royal courts to try serious criminal cases after the seigneurial judge had completed the investigation.² But because of resistance by...

In the wine-growing countryside outside of Mâcon, in southern Burgundy, on the 26th of July 1789, church bells rang out to summon the inhabitants of Igé for a meeting. A water fountain to which the villagers claimed title was enclosed within the seigneurial park, and despite drought conditions that spring and summer the lord continued to refuse them access. The inhabitants went as a crowd to the castle, tore a hole in the wall around the park, entered the castle, and terrorized the lord and his family before leaving. The next day, villagers from nearby Verzé tore down fences that...

Over the course of the eighteenth century seigneurial justice changed both for the better and for the worse in northern Burgundy. On the one hand, administrators, magistrates, and judges agreed that it was important to simplify procedure for minor cases. They set in motion procedural reforms that allowed ordinary people to have their cases tried quickly and cheaply. They also strengthened and formalized the system of judicial checks that already existed and worked to ensure that judges remained in close contact with the villages. On the other hand, seigneurial justice became increasingly important in the administration and enforcement of the...