Lettre de cachet
Lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal, or
cachet. They contained orders directly from the king, often to enforce arbitrary actions and judgments that could not be appealed. In the case of organized bodies
lettres de cachet were issued for the purpose of preventing assembly or accomplishing some other definite act. The provincial estates were convoked in this manner, and it was by a
lettre de cachet, or by showing in person in a
lit de justice, that the king ordered a
parlement to register a law despite that parlement's refusal to pass it. The best-known
lettres de cachet, however, were penal, by which a subject was sentenced without trial and without an opportunity of defense to imprisonment in a state prison or an ordinary jail, confinement in a convent or a hospital, transportation to the colonies, or expulsion to another part of the realm, or from the realm altogether. The wealthy sometimes bought such
lettres to dispose of unwanted individuals.