René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou was born in Montpellier to a family ennobled in the sixteenth century as noblesse de robe, the eldest son of René Charles de Maupeou (1688–1775), who had been president of the parlement of Paris from 1743 to 1757.

In 1744 he had married a rich heiress, Anne de Roncherolles (1725–1752), a cousin of Madame d'Épinay, the friend of Rousseau who moved in the circles of the Philosophes.

Entering public life, he had been his father's right hand in the conflicts between the parlement and Christophe de Beaumont, archbishop of Paris, who was supported by the court.

Between 1763 and 1768, dates that cover the revision of the Calas case that Voltaire had championed and the trial of the comte de Lally, Maupeou had himself been president of the parlement.

In 1768, he became chancellor in succession to his father, who had held the office for twenty four hours only, largely in order to permit him to retire with the prestigious title.

With the disgrace of Choiseul on December 24, 1770, Maupeou is the chief minister.

He determines to support the royal authority against the parlement, the perennial block to reforms of the tax farming system or the privileges of the propertied classes, which in league with the provincial magistratures is seeking to arrogate to itself the functions of the states-general.

He allies himself with the duc d'Aiguillon and the king's mistress Madame du Barry, and secures for a creature of his own, the Abbé Terray, the office of comptroller-general.

The struggle erupts over the trial of the case of the duc d'Aiguillon, ex-governor of Brittany, and of La Chalotais, procureur-général of the province, who had been imprisoned by the governor for accusations against his administration.

When the parlement showed signs of hostility against Aiguillon, Maupeou had read letters patent from Louis XV annulling the proceedings.

Louis had replied to remonstrances from the parlement by a lit de justice, in which he demanded the surrender of the procedural minutes.

On November 27, 1770, had appeared the Édit de règlement et de discipline, which had been promulgated by the chancellor, forbidding the union of the various branches of the parlement and correspondence with the provincial magistratures.

It also made a strike on the part of the parlement punishable by confiscation of goods, and forbade further obstruction to the registration of royal decrees after the royal reply had been given to a first remonstrance.

This edict the magistrates had refused to register, and it was registered in a lit de justice held at Versailles on December 7, whereupon the parlement had been suspended in its functions.