| During the chaos of French Revolution, royalists
smuggled the dauphin Louis XVII to Luxembourg. He
remained there in exile until the Revolution collapsed,
at which point he was restored to the throne. Louis
XXII, the current monarch of France, is widely rumored
to be a degenerate, a coward, and an aging fop,
susceptible to the influence of courtiers and the
assaults of upstart houses.
Another important political consequence of the
Restoration was the formation of a French Parliament,
composed of two legislative bodies, the Hall of
the Sword and the Hall of the Robe. A seat on
the Hall of the Sword is hereditary, given only
to nobles who can prove their lineage back to
the First Crusade – no easy feat, especially
since Jacobite mobs burned many records and legal
documents during the Revolution. The “Sword”
refers to the fact that the members of this Hall
earned their titles through an ancient oath of
martial fealty to the kings of France –
an oath of the sword.
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The crest of the
House of Bourbon  |
The crest of the
Hall of the Robe
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The crest of the
Hall of the Sword
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One must also be a member of the gentry to become
a member of the Hall of Robe, but there are no
restrictions on the length of a candidate’s
pedigree. Because the king has the sole power
to grant titles of nobility and to appoint members
to the Hall of the Robe, the requirement is little
more than a formality. Many of the members of
the Hall of the Robe are thus very recent additions
to the French aristocracy, and the Hall of the
Robe derives its name from robes of a state official
or a merchant. Membership is not hereditary, although
appointments are for life, should the appointee
accept the responsibility. A position in the Hall
of the Robe is optional, and a person may resign
at any time, unlike a member of the Hall of the
Sword.
Rulings from the Hall of the Sword and the Hall
of the Robe carry exactly the same weight, and
when both vote unanimously the decitsion overrides
the authority of the King. However, since the
king appoints members to the Robe he is virtually
guaranteed the Robe will back him in a dispute
with the Sword.
To date, the King has never lost a parliamentary
vote, because of his support in the Hall of the
Robe.
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