Talk:Basoche



Bazoche, bá’zôsh&prime;&prime;, or Basoche. A guild consisting of the clerks attached to the Parlement of Paris as well as the provincial parlements. When the French Parlement ceased to be the the grand council of the King and confined itself exclusively to administering justice, a distinction of name necessarily sprang up between those noblemen who formed the royal train and the attachés of the court of justice. The former were called courtiers; the latter, basochians. To keep up their dignity the Bazoche gathered round a mock king of their own, who resided at the Château des Tournelles or the Hôtel Saint-Pol. The Bazoche was divided into chapters, each wearing the livery of its captain. In Paris there were several of these chapters: Bazoche of Parlement (du Palais);  Bazoche of Châtelet;  Bazoche of the Chambre des Comptes, which last body took the name of "High and Sovereign Empire of Galilee." Parlements in other parts of France also had their Bazoche. Their historical existence can be traced to the beginning of the fourteenth century, when Philip the Fair conferred on the brotherhood certain privileges. The President was called King, Prévôt, or Emperor. Henry III suppressed the regal titles, and conferred all the privileges and right attached to these offices on the chancellor. Still, the Bazoche continued to exist as a kingdom, minus its head, and affected on all occasions the language of royalty. Its jurisdiction included the consideration and decision of all processes and debates that arose among the clerks. It also caused a species of coin to be struck which had currency among its members; but, judging from the proberb about la monnaie de basoche, it did not enjoy an immense credit in the outer world of hard cash. The mock monarch also enjoyed the privilege of selecting at his pleasure yearly, from the French royal forests, a tall tree, which his subjects, the clerks, were in the habit of planting on the 1st of May before the grand court of the palace to the sound of tambourines and trumpets. But this was not all. In public sports this fantastic little kingdom was worthily honored; its chancellor had rooms at the Hôtel de Bourgogne; at the carnival the basochians joined themselves to the corps of the prince of fools and to the performers of low farces and "mysteries." They also acted a species of satirical "morality" (See Mysteries), in which they made extensive use of the liberty granted to them in ridiculing vices and the favorites of fortune. Louis XII patronized these amusements. In 1500 he gave the brotherhood of the Bazoche permission to perform plays in the grand salon of the royal palace. Francis I witnessed them in 1538, but in 1540 they were interdicted. The Bazoche took an active part in the early Revolutionary proceedings, but the order was suppressed by the general decree of Feb. 13, 1791.

This is a slice taken verbatim from New International Encyclopedia. GhostofSuperslum 18:37, 30 October 2006 (UTC)


 * The term may be related to the word bazoo meaning "the mouth" or "loud talk."    GhostofSuperslum 19:30, 30 October 2006 (UTC)


 * They were a precursor group to the United States' group called Amos 'n' Andy, which featured "the mystic knights of the sea" (which is similar verbiage to "High and Sovereign Empire of Galilee"). GhostofSuperslum 13:35, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

There's a different, and even longer, entry in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Between them, the EB and NIE entries could be edited into something fairly comprehensive. David Brooks 22:33, 14 February 2007 (UTC)