The Triumvirate
"By my right as the King of France, I hereby declare the Council sessions as complete, you may disperse.''
The King said as he got up from his armchair in the Council room and went out with all of those present doing the same.
I too with gentle movements moved out of the room, while exiting I managed to see the future of France, Louis-Auguste the Dauphin of France, being dragged by his wife Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, or how she is now called Marie Antoinette the Dauphine of France.
I was quite pleased by the sight, even if they know themselves for a week I heard they spent a lot of time together especially it was seen that the Dauphin was the driving force behind the relationship, they would frequently go riding around the palace, walk around gardens, have dinners outside if the King allowed and just talk to each other, they even slept in the same chamber, mostly Marie's. Definitely a good sign that the couple was slowly or already fell in love. It was quite rare to see a marriage based on politics to bloom into something more.
But the political side of me was wary, while yes we managed to get an ally in the east in form of big and powerful Austria, but for me personally, I would like to have an Ally in Russia, which is expanding aggressively, as they are becoming more and more of treat evident by their victories in Seven Years' War, their victories in the ongoing war against the Ottoman Empire who is the most powerful country in the east, who once threatened the entirety of Europe, but now the Ottoman Empire is weak as now evident by their inability to successfully repel the Russians. Maybe an ally in Prussia would be worthwhile as they are currently growing and by the look of things, they will continue to grow, unless some inept ruler comes to the throne.
Alas, what is done is done, we wouldn't even be here if now for Etienne-Francois de Choiseul who thrown France into wars and made Britain as a nemesis of France, so much so that he had almost completely ignored the rest of Europe.
I just hope that with the new queen we won't see so much Austrian influence in French politics, but by the look of things, our young Dauphin will be alright.
The young Dauphin truth to be told managed to surprise me, the first meeting was a small meeting with only the most important people in attendance to let Dauphin to warm up and test the waters, he was silent and listens intently just like his teacher Duc de La Vauguyon instructed him. Later we moved to the real courts as the attendance of councils skyrocketed, while I saw that the young Louis was a bit uncomfortable he quickly adapted, but still, he just listened, so far he spoke only once during one of the council were Louis Phelypeaux the Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi talked about religion and the Protestants and various religious groups and how to silence them further, that is what the young Dauphin said:
"Why would you care how the people pray to the same God, I say let them pray unless it directly threatens the sovereignty of the King."
That immediately got a reaction out of the Catholic side of the court which was the majority, who were displeased with his line of thought, but the Dauphin defended himself by saying.
"Be you catholic, orthodox, protestant the point is you pray to same God, you're all equal in his eyes as his children and yet you squabble between yourself about trivial things like how many fingers should be extended while doing the cross, what icons should be used in places of worship. It's just people's preference that is at play just like the clothes you were, you think they are good, but for some, they are maybe bland or too pompous just like in religion there are things that people don't like to do and as long the bible doesn't say anything against I say let them, or do you want another war of religion? Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest of violence. Do you want killings of the innocent to start again, just because someone doesn't like to pray as you do? Do you want a second French religious war? Jesus gives us an example of what we are to do when others mock us for our faith. 1 Peter 2:23: When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
Rather than retaliate… Jesus trusted his Father. He knew that NOTHING could be done to him, or said to him, without God the Father allowing it. And He trusted Him. Do we? Because right now I think not, here you are even raising your voices against your Prince. That's why the schism of east and west happened, that's why the Protestant Reformation happened, because instead of listening the Church acted motivated by political reasons and not the reasons of soul."
That silenced the court and even me, to think that he was capable of such thought at such young age, while his argument had some flaws in them and could be worded better, but it's still got the point across, truly remarkable for him to say things like this.
Then he smirked.
"And now you think heh… That is what happened with the church, when the things weren't flowing their way they stopped and started to think, they started more strictly punishing corrupt priests, started building schools, universities, hospitals, rebuilding its image in people. Religion is just one big market, people choose what would they like because it appeals to their ideas and beliefs, that's why even in Catholic Church we have a lot of different religious groups, even Protestant aren't united under a single banner as we have Lutheranism, Calvinism, Huguenots and etc. People are different, people have different views and that's why religion needs just like a merchant in the market to promote that their religion and way of belief is the best."
While looking at him I could safely say that France had a future and I dare to say a better future than what His Majesty Louis XIV had built.
"His Royal Highness is quite remarkable isn't he?"
I was broken out from my musing by my friend Abbe Terray. I secured his appointment as Controller General in December 1769. A year later Terray helped me, Duc d'Aiguillion and Madame du Barry bring about the downfall of the powerful minister of foreign affairs, Étienne-François, Duc de Choiseul, by demonstrating to Louis XV that the government was too heavily in debt to support Choiseul's plans for war with Britain, thus the Triumvirate was born.
"That he is, he gives me even more determination to bring full authority to the king, because I want to see what he will do and I know that all of his attempts will be foiled by parlements"
I replied as we both led a deep sigh as the old men as we are. those self-proclaimed custodians of the traditional "liberties" of France, they are doing more harm than good, France needs reforms, but our evert move at them quickly gets shut down and the Royal authority is being questioned.
''Agreed, we need to try our best and then pass the torch to the young."
Terray said as we dispersed. He was probably the most agitated as his fiscal reforms are getting ignored, some parlements even refusing to collect the taxes.
We talked some more and then we parted ways as we have other things to do…
And such night has come as I sat in my cabinet on the wooden armchair as I overlooked countless papers that were placed on the table in stacks.
"Ah…wasting such a beautiful night on paperwork…"
I leaned back in my armchair and grabbed a cup of wine from the table and took a sip.
The night was truly one of the better ones, it was clear sky, not a wind to be felt or seen playing with the trees, with countless stars visible, and the moon shone brightly covering everything in greyish colour, truly a magnificent sight to see.
It was a calm night; the candles around my office gently illuminated the room while the moonshine managed to even cast a shadow of myself on the table.
Even if the calm atmosphere surrounded me, yet I couldn't help but feel contemplated…
Once again those parlements are in my mind, we need to move to suppress the movement of constitutionalist opposition to an absolutist rule that had been mounting for several decades under the leadership of the increasingly recalcitrant high-court magistrates in the parlements. By taking the sovereign courts out of politics, It would definitely stabilize and rationalize our government as a whole. But the main problem is how to do it? The parlements hold too much sway in the political mechanism of France, by removing them without thought we would only invite chaos into our homes.
Now that I think about it… This situation is really comical, I who was a member of parlement of Paris and even at one point was the first president of the parlement of Paris now is planning on the best way on how to rid of those parlaments entirely.
Fate is a strange thing. Every action you take, every word that lets your mouth has some kind of consequences that leads you to another path and we don't know how that path will end.
Just like me now, if my father Rene-Charles de Maupeu hadn't have resigned as the keeper of seals and I wasn't appointed to his place, I probably would be in parlement shouting "Liberty!","People's Voice!" "Guardians of the Constitution!", while trying to grab even more power to myself and further exploit the people in their times of misery, after all, I was the president of the parlement and there were only wolfs who cared about themselves, honestly speaking I would probably would act just like this as a satiated man doesn't sympathize with the starving one.
Thus we need to move quickly before they grow another head and call for a mass revolt or even revolution and putting someone else on the throne, probably Louis Philippe d'Orléans the current First Prince of the Blood as he was rich and most importantly a direct descendant to Louis XIII. While he was a man of loyalty and family and would definitely refuse unless he was pressed rally hard to do it, the same couldn't be said to his kids or grandchildren s they could be easily swayed by the prospect of power and being the King, which they would albeit in only the name as parlements would use him as a puppet.
These are turbulent times… That's why I need to work harder to bring the power to the King as at least the future is looking brighter by the sudden change in our Dauphin which was unexpected and surreal, who would expect that the Royal Prince who cared only about fun would suddenly start studying diligently and even have a sudden increase in smartness and wisdom, even now as his teacher left the young future King still occupied himself in his study reading countless books about history, geography, economics, well he didn't study as much as the time when Duc de La Vauguyon was present, but it was still a considerable amount, while lately, I heard that he had dabbled in occult readings, which is a sign of warning in which I will have to talk with him.
I picked the stack of papers and quietly read it, getting Abbe Terray to be Controller-General of Finances was the right choice, he managed to stabilize the finances of the country. He was an efficient and relentless tax collector, it's good that the King allowed him to open another school to train tax inspectors as most reforms of his are being blocked by parlements…
Nothing as of now could be done as they are powerful, even if the His Majesty the current King Louis XV In January 1766, while His Majesty was still mourning the death of the Dauphin Louis the father of the current Dauphin Louis-Auguste, the Parlement of Brittany issued another rejection of the King's authority to collect taxes. When he ignored it, both the Parlement of Rennes and the Parlement of Rouen wrote him again, complaining that he was ignoring "the oath that you took to the nation when accepting the crown." When this part of the letter was read to the King, he interrupted the reading and declared that this accusation was false; he had taken an oath to God alone, not to the nation. On 3 March 1766, with only a few hours' notice, he traveled in person from Versailles to the meeting of the Parlement of Paris at the Palais de la Cité and appeared before the members, at the time I was just a simple member of the parlement. In his message, read to them by one of his ministers, he declared, "It is in my person alone that sovereign power resides...To me alone belongs the legislative power, without dependence and without sharing...The public order emanates entirely from me...Confusion and anarchy are taking the place of legitimate order, and the scandalous spectacle of a contradictory rivaling my sovereign power reduces me to the sad necessity to use all the power that I received from God to preserve my peoples from the sad consequences of these enterprises." The speech, immediately termed "the flagellation", was published in the official press, and circulated to all levels of government. It became his political testament. The conflict between the Parlements and King was muted for a time, but not resolved as we see now, the parlements once again are bearing their fangs and interrupting the work of the government once again.
Even my policy of conciliating the parlement of Rennes was not a success. This parlement was angered at the royal refusal (for which the king himself was personally responsible) to reinstate certain leading members along with their colleagues that were exiled by disobeying the His Majesty, thus leading to the renewal of the quarrel between the parlement of Rennes and the Duc d'Aiguillon Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Duc D'Aiguillon reacted by demanding that, to settle the affair once and for all, his case be examined by the Parlement of Paris sitting as the Court of Peers, and the government eventually agreed. The trial, which the king attended personally at Versailles, created a great stir, but as the investigations probed more and more deeply into the workings of the government, the latter became alarmed, and at length decided to bring the proceedings to a halt. In a lit de justice the king quashed the case and declared Duc D'Aiguillon blameless.
This flouting of judicial procedures predictably aroused a storm of protestations and remonstrances from the parlement, which suspended Duc D'Aiguillon's peerage rights pending resumption of the case. When the king quashed this move, protests spread to the provincial parlements, which as usual were more unbridled in their language than the Parlement of Paris. Reprisals followed against several provincial magistrates, and, in another lit de justice the king confiscated all pieces relating to the d'Aiguillon affair and imposed a rule of silence regarding it. The beginning of the judicial vacation a few days later allowed time only for a formal protest.
Ha…lately everything has to do with parlements, parlements this, parlements that…I think I will start dreaming about the parlements if this continues. I wish I just could snap my fingers and they would magically disappear, it's a shame that magic doesn't exist…
I remember when I asked the Dauphin what did he thought of the parlements in the ball before his announcement of marriage to Marie Antoinette.
"We need to change how the Parlements work, we need to diminish their power, write a new law regarding the Parlements further abolish their free will to refuse orders. Basically, we need to change how the Parlements work entirely.''
He said that at the time and I clapped to him and saw a surprised face of the Dauphin.
He answered better than I expected, that was a smart idea, but at the same time quite unthoughtful and rash.
''The Parlements would refuse all the changes you proposed, of course, but then if you try to enforce then I'm certain that they revolt and as Parlements are made out of Nobles that won't end well for you or for everyone else, your reign would be over and some other king would be put on the throne and then Nobles would demand that King to surrendered all of the power he had and give it to Parlements, turning us to dreaded England, but with King only serving as a decoration. I agree, your Highness, with the idea of changing how the Parlements work, but we can't risk it, we are already treading on a thin line as it is.''
Abbe Terray answered him as if almost stealing the thoughts from my head regarding the situation.
Yes, the change is needed, but we can't go in and declare that they are changed and their powers demised, we already exiled some members because they directly disobeyed the King and now we can't even do that without a letter of complaint or strike from the parlements.
We need to slowly chip away their power just like we did with Abbe Terray's tax inspector school in which we now have a direct line on tax collection, thus diminishing the power of Parlements…on taxation…
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
I laughed out loud to think the answer to the everything that I'm trying to achieve would be under my nose this entire time.
Maybe the saying "sometimes the answer lies under your nose, you just have to look" is indeed true. Just like we did with tax inspector school we should create other agencies and safely dissolving the parlements with minor repercussions or even none as they would be powerless by then, but this plan will need a lot of manpower to succeed.
First, let try by reforming the justice system…Finally my education as a layer will come in handy…
With this, the parlements will lose their power to go against the crown forever.
…
"Good job you may leave the papers here."
I said as the servant placed a stack of appears on my table, bowed, and promptly left.
I think I was destined mostly to concern myself with fiscal and constitutional problems when I ascended to the office in 1769.
When I took up the office the crown was 100million livres in debt… I didn't think that was possible, but the numbers never lie.
And to think that Étienne François, Marquis de Stainville, Duc de Choiseul, the most powerful man in France at the time in his dual capacity as secretary of state for foreign affairs and war. He bent most of his energies throughout the end of his career toward encouraging the Spaniards to resist the British over the Falkland Island Crisis, which would give France a pretext for renewing the colonial conflict, which ended so ignominiously in 1763. By the year of 1770, and my one year as Controller- General, the crisis was ripening nicely in favor of Duc de Choiseul as the war was almost certain at this point. However, in order to renew the war Choiseul needed money and the prospect of more, and from this point of view, the crisis could hardly have been more ill-timed for him. I had spent much of the year, for my part, in operating what amounted to a partial bankruptcy, a writing down of royal debt aimed at addressing systemic problems in the monarchy's finances, by slashing the interest rates on government debts. The ordinary revenues were not adequate to cover the costs of the preparations involved even in the threat of war, and there were clashes between Duc de Choiseul and me on the council over the provision of extraordinary funds. These clashes grew more frequent and more acrimonious, and by the looks of it were visibly annoying the king. But Duc de Choiseul still was persistent on war even if His Majesty Louis XV own inclinations were against the war, and Duc de Choiseul, therefore, took care to portray his preparations as defensive, but they didn't fool me and I continued my work against going to war as this war could end France as a whole and he still strongly grasped that this war could kick Brittain out f World powers pedestal and install France on it with the help of Spain.
He was a fool, griping on the belief that France could once again stand proudly at the top of the world, and yet numbers never lie, if we went to that war we would not only lose the war but plunged the entire country into anarchy.
Then seeing as this won't end well I declared the treasury empty, the announcement could not fail to strengthen the His Majesties inclinations toward peace and soon Duc de Choisel was replaced and Rene de Maupeu, Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis-Richelieu, Duc d'Aiguillon rose to power and with me included we formed the Triumvirate.
But with one problem dealt came another parlements, I knew that reforms were needed and most of them are unpopular and yet they needed to be done to bring France out of debt. I then began to stabilize the finances of France by repudiating part of the debt, suspending payments on the interest on government bonds, and levying forced loans.
With my further reforms being protested by nobles and wealthy bourgeoisie and even from the mass of the population and some parlements refusing to collect taxes I quickly by approval of His Majesty build a school for tax inspectors and started and small reforms that didn't compromise the interest of the parlements or were implemented by appeasing them, I could see my work paying off as the debts were slowly being paid and the Royal treasure slowly, but surely filling.
Yet this wasn't enough, yes we started paying the debts and filling the treasury, but we can do so much with only taxation and small reforms as they aren't enough and if we don't change anything France will never be at the top or better say will never even look at the top as we will have no Finances to defend or wages wars, no money for new projects…
Plus a couple of season of bad harvest alarmed me because, In 1763–64, the French government had mostly freed the trade in cereals by royal edict meaning that someone can buy a lot of grain meaning that the grain price would go up, couple it with a couple of seasons with ba harvest year and we have enormous prices for a loaf of bread leading to mass starvation. Mass starvation would lead to mass riots and those could become something uncontrollable, adding those bigots in the parlements this will surely will happen and by using the situation, covering themselves with slogans that appease the people they would take complete control of France.
I tried to take control of the market but was met with great resistance from parlements and the people who strongly opposed the idea, even if I tried to reason it all fell on deaf ears as everybody was looking for their own interests, such as nobles and merchants wanting to sell more to fill their pockets and people who wanted to buy cheap good to fill their bellies and with government control over the market would deny them their wish as the price and the amounts of selling would be fixed, yet they don't realize that sooner or later a crisis will be at our hands, because no one controlled them and we at the top will be to blame as we didn't do anything while we tried, but they didn't even allow us to try to do something.
So I took the second option I developed a policy of government control that put renewed emphasis on the compilation of information for government use, enhancement of the state's efforts to acquire and utilize data—and not only on the grain trade itself but also in areas as dispersed as manufacturing, fiscal policy, and criminal justice.
I used the data to stock up the Royal granary so we can have some back up of products in case things turn to worse, which I hope not.
Even then the people got angry as this pursuit of hard knowledge on the grain trade brought the ministry of mine into tension with Frenchmen in numerous ways not specifically related to the traffic in cereals itself. It called for a more systematic application of surveillance and collection of personal information, at a time when such information was increasingly seen as constitutive of the "sacred liberties" of Frenchmen and as always the elements were quick on the uptake and under the cloak of liberty and constitution started shouting.
I and Maupeou quickly realized that any further attempts at fiscal or other reforms would be blocked by the parlements.
And here we are countlessly fighting an uphill battle while dragging the whole nation of France behind us.
It feels like we are Sisyphus who was punished by the god Zeus and we are now forced to roll a boulder up a hill for its entirety. Every time we bear the top of the hill, the boulder rolls back down. Or in our case every time we think that reform will bring prosperity and just as everything is ready we need just to implement them we are blocked by the parlements and are forced to once again start from the ground.
"Just like another day… At least tonight the night is especially beautiful."
I mused as I looked up from the window behind me; I lost the track of time with all that paperwork that without of me knowing the sun was already been replaced by the moon.
Then I heard someone knocking on the door.
"Come in."
I said and as the door opened the person who went into my humble office was my friend Rene Nicolas de Maupeou who had a big smile on his face.
"Good evening, my friend, how are you this night?"
He said with a small laugh, something probably good happened to get him into a joking mood.
"I'm fine just finished with the latest reports, please take a seat."
He did as he told and took a seat in front of the table which I was behind.
"So what bring you here?"
Usually, when he comes he has some questions or throws some more work to me and lastly laments about the parlements, so him coming here empty-handed and with a joyful mood was indeed strange.
"First let's have a drink! The news that I about to tell you has to be welcomed with a drink in the hands!"
I looked at him weirdly still seeing the same smiling face.
I don't even know what to think about him right now, though I'm intrigued by the news he has got.
Then I called a servant who brought us two glasses and pour the wine into them.
"So what is the good news, which put you in a such merry mood?"
"Haha, well you see I may figure out what to do about the parlements"
Did I hear that right? He has a way to do with the parlements or am I hearing things? The same parlements that are blocking our every move?
"Speak."
I demanded him, this matter is not to be taken lightly as this could be our turning point, no it's better to say a turning point in history, where we finally can take some actions against the parlements, they hold power if they didn't we already would have ousted them and be done with it, we wouldn't be sitting around as we did in the past because perlements would protest everything that we do, even the king doesn't help as His Majesty Louis XV adopted an obdurate stance, while still wanting to be obeyed, while he did took some actions in the past as going personally to the parlements, mainly the Parlement of Paris, this only was enough to silence the parlements for a time, but recently they starting to question the Royal authority more and more and we are here at the point that even our reforms are being blocked and the King is almost powerless.
While the King wants to exile them, he and we know that we can't exile all of them as this would lead to a power vacuum and complete chaos as we don't have enough qualified men to replace them.
"I had a great idea, we just divide their powers by creating other bodies who would have less power and would be more loyal"
This would surely weaken them, but to create other organizations we need a lot of manpower and money which we don't have much of both.
"This will take time."
I said gravely, maybe in 4-5 years we could do this, but not now.
"I think we could manage it in a year, I already figured out the new justice system, albeit I have only a basic idea in my head about how we can go about this, but in a year of time I think I will have everything thought out."
"But the parlements aren't only responsible for law and justice."
After all the parlements act as governing bodies, law enforcers, tax collectors, they can even create their own laws and their own taxes if they need.
"I know that you and I were both members of the parlement of Paris if you forgot and I know that even in the parlement different people are accountable for different things, just like we are ministers to the king, so they are members of the parlement that are under the president. Plus we have your tax inspector school and another one is being built right now, so who says we can't teach them something even more? We have time to think things out and how to do them. We just need to think about this more and that's it, we can engrave our name in the history."
Maybe he was right; maybe this was the way to go about this, I definitely could add some classes to my schools to make them to something more than just tax inspectors.
"How did you get an idea like this?"
I asked him.
"I got inspired by Dauphin"
"The Dauphin?"
"Yes, you remember when in the ball I asked him about the parlements and he told me that we need to somehow change it?"
I nodded my head I indeed remember the young Dauphin and his words.
"Heh! Truly a marvel he is isn't he not?"
Rene happily laughed and I can feel my mood improving too as this is what we need to turn things over and finally stop fighting the uphill battle that we were fighting.
"And it took you over a week to figure it out?"
I asked with a smirk adorning my face.
"I was busy!"
He promptly replied and we both laughed while raising our cups to a toast.
"To the future!"
Certainly, the night is beautiful today…
A/N: Happy new year guys, may it be better than the last. Honestly, I wanted to future all the members of the TRIUMVIRATE, but I couldn't find any info on Duc d'Aiguillon apart from that he was Madame du Barry's favorite and minor things that he did he isn't an interesting person even to historians lul
Now I will be preparing for my exams so I will see you maybe at the end of the next month.
As always if you see any mistakes please point them out! Because I literally edited this chap for only 5 minutes before going to shoot some fireworks
Bye Bye!
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