Curia regis

a complaint from the Abbey of Saint-Germain about students trespassing on its land, a suspicious stranger staying at an inn in the Rue Saint-Denis.

Then there might be a visit from an official of the Parlement, or a summons to appear before the Royal Council, where the Provost would be expected to report on the state of the city and receive instructions.

In times of unrest, there would be orders to strengthen the watch, to check the chains that could be stretched across the ends of streets to block them, or to make sure that householders hung lanterns at their doors.

There might be an execution to oversee.

He was a hard, shrewd, ambitious politician who understood something Louis never fully grasped, the power of public opinion, and particularly the opinion of Paris.

When Philip the Bold died in 1404, John inherited his father's position and his rivalry with Louis.

The two cousins competed for control of the royal council, the royal treasury, and royal policy.

They disagreed about relations with England, about the papal schism that was then dividing the church, and above all about money.

The Witan gemote was continued indeed, but turned into a feudal court, the commune concilium of the Norman kings, in which the members sat as feudal lords.

A sort of committee of this, the Curia Regis, was established, which besides its character as a council of deliberation and legislation, formed the court of ultimate appeal, in some cases a court of first instance, and kept the local courts in order.

Of this court, the presiding officer was the justiciary, an officer of purely foreign origin.

For the full development of his powers we must wait till the reign of Henry I, but under William he was generally the regent of the kingdom in the king's absence, and probably soon began to assume his later position of supreme judicial and financial officer of the realm.

The nobles probably had tried to encroach upon their jurisdiction or to get rid of them entirely, and under Ranulf Flambard they had been used for the purposes of fiscal extortion and thus became objects of suspicion to the people themselves.

These courts Henry now revived, and promised that for the future, when he had need of money, he would not demand it at the ordinary sessions, but summon these courts especially for the purpose.

The local courts thus revived, it was necessary to draw them closer to the central court of justice, the Curia Regis, introduced by William his father.

The means resorted to were these.