Untitled - Monoskop

3 SEEKING AND GRANTING
PRIVILEGES: FORMS, CONDITIONS
AND PROCEDURES
THE FIRST STEP towards obtaining a privilege was for the applicant to draw
related to new
up a requete or petition. Though the concession being sought
circumstances, the presentation of the requete followed a time-honoured form.
Whatever the authority applied to, the applicant began 'Supplie
humblement . .
.', referring to himself in the third person, and proceeded to set
out the favour he desired and his reasons for requesting it. Initially at least,
the petitioner would probably seek the help of a lawyer in drafting the
petition. Frequent privilege-seekers like Jean Petit or Galliot Du Pre soon had
previous applications which they had only to look up and copy. The
submission of the requete was probably effected through the intermediary of a
procureur.
THE ROYAL CHANCERY: LETTERS PATENT
If the petition was submitted to the royal chancery, it was addressed to the
king himself. In due course the Letters Patent, if granted, were likewise
written as from the king ('Louis par la grace de Dieu etc.'), to the royal
officials, notifying them of his decision to accede to the applicant's request,
and instructing them to enforce, if so required by the applicant, the measures
taken in his favour.
All Letters Patent had to be authenticated by the secretary who had drawn
them up, and most printers who displayed the text of their privilege or a
careful summary of it were particular to include the name of the secretary who
had signed it and the form he had used to record his authority for so doing. In
those of which the complete text is printed, three formulae are commonly
found throughout the period: 'Par le Roy a la relation du Conseil' (twenty-one
examples), 'Par le Roy a vostre relation' (twenty examples), and simply 'Par
le Roy' (sixteen examples). The first meant that the grant had been authorised
by the King's Council. The second invoked the authority of the chancellor, the
words 'yours' and 'you' being used because the document would be submitted
to him for approval and for the imposition of the seal. The third, which seems
to have been signed mainly by very senior officials, had been prepared in the
absence of direct instructions from the Council or the chancellor, in the light
of the secretary's knowledge of practice and precedents. In four cases one of
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