Moreover, royal edicts and laws issued from Paris were not enforceable in Brittany until they were formally registered by the Parliament. If the Parliament believed those decrees violated the Coutume de Bretagne, the Parliament could issue a remonstrance (formal protests) to the King to voice objections and a remonstrance itérative to voice further objections.
The Crown and Parliament often viewed one another as obstructionist, and there are several examples of conflicts arising between the two during the Ancien Régime, often for taxation purposes. In 1675, Breton society rebelled against tax increases on goods such as stamps during the Révolte du Papier Timbré (Stamp Revolt). From 1763 to 1765, the Parliament issued a series of remonstrances against new royal fiscal edicts, and again towards the end of the 1780s against another series of tax reforms. It seems that the Colonists and Bretons were similar in that regard…
Dissolution During the French Revolution
The outbreak of the French Revolution brought an abrupt end to the Parlement de Bretagne. In 1789, revolution swept France and the newly formed Assemblée nationale constituante (National Constituent Assembly) moved to dismantle the old feudal and absolutist institutions. This reform was part of a broader overhaul of France’s administrative and legal system: the Assembly eliminated the parliaments of the Ancien Régime, seigneurial courts and other feudal bodies, establishing in their place a reformed system under the new constitution.
