Discarding the traditional view of the Fronde as an abortive revolution against "absolute monarchy" during the minority of Louis XIV, A. Lloyd Moote analyzes it by studying the ambivalent role of its leading institutional element, the Parlement of Paris. France's highest tribunal, dedicated to law and the principles of royal absolutism, the Parlement was paradoxically, at the center of the opposition from the beginning of the movement for state reform in 1643. Originally published in 1972. The uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.