Note 6 — PART I THE ABBAYE-AUX BOIS

It was in the assemblies called “Dietines” that the representatives to the general diète were chosen, and also those judges who, during the interregnum necessarily existing between the end of one reign and the election of the next king, were empowered to hold courts of justice. These courts, termed tribunals of mourning, were all-powerful during the interregnum. Hence the immense importance the great families attached to supremacy in the Dietines.