A
person duly commissioned to hold
court, or to
decide judgement and administer
justice.
This
expression (en
Francais,
lit de justice) literally denoted the seat or throne upon which the
King of France was accustomed to sit when personally present in
Parliament, and from this original meaning the expression came, in course of time, to signify the Parliament itself.
Under the anicent
monarchy of France, a bed of justice denoted a
solemn session of the
king in
authority of the Parliament (being derived entirely from the
crown), ceased when the king was present. Consequently, all
ordinances enrolled at a bed of justice were acts of the
royal will, and of more authority than decisions of Parliament.
The last bed of justice was assembled by
Louis XVI at
Versailles in 1788, the purpose of which was to
force the adoption of
taxes unfair to the poor, as proposed by the
Assembly of Notables. Subsequent resistance to this measure helped ignite the
French Revolution.