In French political history, a great ordinance or grand ordinance (French – Grande ordonnance) was an important royal
ordinance or
decree. The
French Estates-General might also adopt one to, for example, grant the king the exclusive right to raise troops, and establish the taxation measure known as the taille in support of a standing army.
Examples included:
the Grande ordonnance pour la réforme du royaume (the Great Ordinance for the reform of the kingdom):
Louis IX forbade
blasphemy, gaming, prostitution,
tourneys, and
trial by ordeal, made the circulation of the royal coin compulsory, and delegated the administration of royal justice to jurists (the origin of the French parliament).
the
Grande ordonnance des Eaux et Forêts (Grand Ordinance of the Waters and Forests) of 1516, by which
Francis I regulated the management of his domain and of the hunt – this ordinance was revived in 1669.
Colbert also took several other ordinances to be Great Ordinances :
the Grande ordonnance de procédure civile (Grand Ordinance on civil procedure) signed at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, called the Code Louis, making it compulsory to record baptisms, marriages and burials in the registers of the civil state (as opposed to the registers of the church);