Parliament of Normandy

The Parliament of Normandy (parlement de Normandie), also known as the Parliament of Rouen (parlement de Rouen) after the place where it sat (the provincial capital of Normandy), was a provincial parlement of the Kingdom of France. It replaced the ancient court of the exchequer of Normandy, set up by Rollo, first duke of Normandy.

The parlement was built in a mixing of the French Flamboyant style and Renaissance architecture by Roger Ango and Roulland le Roux, between 1499 and 1508, during the reign of the king Louis XII of France. Today, the building is the seat of the courthouse of the city of Rouen.

Raised to a sovereign court and given a base in Rouen by Louis XII of France, this court's name was changed from échiquier to parlement by Francis I of France on his accession in 1515. The parlement de Rouen had responsibility for the seven great bailliages of Normandy – Rouen, Caudebec-en-Caux, Évreux, Les Andelys, Caen, Coutances and Alençon. It was thus made up of 4 presidents (of which the first and third were clergy and the other two laymen), 13 clergy councillors, 15 lay councillors, 2 greffiers (a secretary for civil law and one for criminal law), a huissier audiencier (the bailiff who officially assigns documents between lawyers and introduces the judges in the public court room), 6 other huissiers de justice, 2 advocates general and 1 procurator general. Following letters patent of 1507 from Louis XII, the archbishop of Rouen and the abbot of Saint-Ouen were 'ex officio' honorary councillors to the parlement.

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