[Illustration:  Fig. 392.—­Tournaments in honour of the Entry of Queen Isabel into Paris—­From a Miniature in the “Chroniques” of Froissart, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (National Library of Paris).]

[Illustration:  Fig. 393.—­Seat of Justice, held by King Philippe de Valois, on the 8th April, 1332, for the Trial of Robert, Comte d’Artois.—­From a Pen-and-ink Sketch in an Original Manuscript (Arch. of the Empire)]

In the course of this simple and graphic description mention has been made of the lit de justice (seat of justice).  All judicial or legislative assemblies at which the King considered it his duty to be present were thus designated; when the King came there simply as a looker-on, they were more commonly called plaidoyers, and, in this case, no change was made in the ordinary arrangements; but when the King presided they were called conseils, and then a special ceremonial was required.  In fact, by lit de justice (Fig. 393), or cour des pairs, we understand a court consisting of the high officers of the crown, and of the great executive of the State, whose duty it was to determine whether any peer of France should be tried on a criminal charge; gravely to deliberate on any political matter of special interest; or to register, in the name of the absolute sovereignty of the King, any edict of importance.  We know the prominent, and, we may say, even the fatal, part played by these solemnities, which were being continually re-enacted, and on every sort of pretext, during the latter days of monarchy.  These courts were always held with impressive pomp.  The sovereign usually summoned to them the princes of the blood royal and the officers of his household; the members of the Parliament took their seats in scarlet robes, the presidents being habited in their caps and their mantles, and the registrars of the court also wearing their official dress.  The High Chancellor, the First Chamberlain, and the Provost of Paris, sat at the King’s feet.  The Chancellor of France, the presidents and councillors of the Parliament, occupied the bar, and the ushers of the court were in a kneeling posture.

Having thus mentioned the assemblies of persons of distinction, the interviews of sovereigns (Fig. 394), and the reception of ambassadors—­without describing them in detail, which would involve more space than we have at our command—­we will enter upon the subject of the special ceremonial adopted by the nobility, taking as our guide the standard book called “Honneurs de la Cour,” compiled at the end of the fifteenth century by the celebrated Alienor de Poitiers.  In addition to her own observations, she gives those of her mother, Isabelle de Souza, who herself had but continued the work of another noble lady, Jeanne d’Harcourt—­married in 1391 to the Count William de Namur—­who was considered the best authority to be found in the kingdom of France.  This collection of the customs of the court forms a kind of family diary embracing three generations, and extending back over more than a century.