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II. A Stage in the Development of the French Intendants: the Reign of Henri IV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2010

D. Buisseret
D. Buisseret
Affiliation:
University of the West Indies
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Extract

The history of the intendants, so important to the understanding of France during the latter two centuries of the ancien régime, remains unwritten. There are of course particular studies of various great intendants of Louis XIV and of Louis XV, but the institution as a whole remains astonishingly ill-known, and this is especially true of its early years. Gabriel Hanotaux did make a brave attempt in 1884 to work out the Origines de l'institution des intendants des provinces, but his arguments have been severely criticized by subsequent writers, whose strictures have most recently been summarized by Roger Doucet in Les institutions de la France au XVIe siècle. As Doucet points out, the source-material used by Hanotaux was limited to a few Parisian manuscripts and, for the reign of Henri IV, essentially to the Lettres Missives of that king. For the reign of Henri III, Doucet adds, his work is weak in that he ignores the increase in the traditional chevauchées (tours of inspection) of the maîtres des requêtes, surely one of the most suggestive of early institutions in our present context. This in turn springs from a more basic weakness, that of using only a titular and not a functional definition for his subject; in refusing to consider any officers other than those who actually held the title intendant (usually de justice). Doucet himself does not carry the investigation any further for, as he remarks, the only way to do this would be by undertaking a series of studies in local archives.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 1966 , pp. 27 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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References

1 2 vols., Paris, 1948; see esp. I, 422, n. 1.

2 Published by Berger de Xivrey, 9 vols., Paris, 1843-76. Since the time of Hanotaux has been published the invaluable Inventaire des arrSts du conseil d'Etat (regne de Henri IV), ed. Valois, Noël (2 vols., Paris, 1886 and 1893)Google Scholar , henceforward quoted as ‘Valois’.

3 See particularly the recent study by Roland Mousnier, ‘Etat et commissaire…’ , Forschungen und Verfassung: Festgabe für Fritz Hartung (Berlin, 1958), pp. 325–44Google Scholar.

4 Isambert, F. A., Anciennes Uns francaises (29 vols., Paris, 1822-1833), XVI. 441.Google Scholar

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10 Bibliothéque Nationale (henceforward ‘BN') cabinet des titres, cabinet d'Hozier 232; the reference is probably to the Comunera movement.

11 Lettres Missives de Henri IV…, 1, 91.

12 Ibid, for details of these.

13 BN cabinet des titres, pieces originales 2984.

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15 Archives de la Gironde, xiv (1873), 330 and 340.Google Scholar

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26 As in the quarrel between the marechal d'Ornano and the marquis de Montespan (1603) (ibid. pp. 418-23).

27 BN manuscrits francais 23198, fo. 273, letter from Ornano to the king; it was the ‘commission des sieurs Morault et Vyon’.

28 BN manuscrits francais 23198, fo. 7, letter from the sindics to the king.

29 Archives municipales, Agen, CC 123: forty or so letters written back to Agen during this visit.

30 BN manuscrits francais 23198, fo. 507, letter to the king.

31 BN manuscrits francais 23054, fo. 240, letter to the king.

32 Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangéres, France 767, fo. 76 V.

33 Archives de la Gironde, XIV (1873), 454Google Scholar , letter from Marie de Medicis to the cardinal de Sourdis.

34 We do know that in 1612 he resigned his charge of ‘secrétaire de la chambre du cabinet du roi’ (BN piéces originales 2984).

35 Valois 6305.

36 See the letter from the ‘députes en cour’ to the Lyons consulate printed by Pericaud, Antoine, Notes et documents pour servir d Vhistoire de Lyon…(1594-1610) (Lyon, 1845), p. 174Google Scholar.

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38 Lettres Missives de Henri IV…, VIII, 835-7.

39 Archives Nationales, H 748/20, fo. 7V, proces-verbal of the estates.

40 Of 1601; see Valois 11806.

41 In retaliation for certain Spanish trade restrictions.

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52 Archives Départementales (henceforward ‘AD’) Marne, C 2490, fo. 167V (register of the bureau des finances).

53 Ibid. fo. 201 r.

54 BN cabinet des titres, carrés d'Hozier 471.

55 See for instance BN nouvelles acquisitions francaises 240, fo. 10, letter from him to the bureau.

56 Lettres Missives de Henri IV…, ix, 49 and 53.

57 , Sully, op. cit. 1, 594aGoogle Scholar , letter from the king.

58 Probably Pierre de Castille, tnaitre de requités in 1611.

59 Guillaume Courtin, sieur de la Grange Rouge (see BN manuscrits français 14018, fo. 22, for his origins).

60 BN manuscrits francais 15899, fo. 325r, letter from the commissaires to the chancellor.

61 The names of the lieutenants can be derived from the voirie accounts, Archives Nationales 120 AP 38-42.

62 See Archives Nationales 120 AP 48, fos. 1-8.

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65 A turcie, like a levee, was a form of dyke.

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70 Valois 11512.

71 Valois 12728 and the accounts of voirie, Archives Nationales 120 AP40–1.

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73 Dion, Roger, Le Val de Loire (Tours, 1933), pp. 373–6.Google Scholar

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76 Valois 11081.

77 BN cabinet des titres, carres d'Hozier 414.

78 Valois 6536.

79 AD Tarn, C 55, fo. 77 (proceedings of the estates).

80 Ibid. fo. 413 v.

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82 AD Lozére, C 538, fo. 138V (proceedings of the estates).

83 Ibid. fo. 142r.

84 Valois 14045.

85 AD Lozerc, C 538, fo. 1601 (proceedings of the estates).

86 AD Bouches-du Rhone, C 11 (proceedings of the estates, not bound up, for the years 1605-10).

87 See his commission as lieutenant du grand voyer, A D Rhone, C 418, fos. 87-8.

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92 Archives Nationales 120 AP 44.

93 Archives Nationales 120 AP47.

94 BN manuscrits francais 16809, fo. 6r.

95 The two latter in Archives Nationales, 120 AP 45 and 46.

96 They all appear, for instance, among the battery-commanders at the siege of Montmelian (1600) (see BN manuscrits francais 4561, contemporary artillery lists).

97 BN manuscrits francais 22315, fos. 91–2 and 109–10 (proceedings of the estates).

98 Ibid. fos. 109-10.

99 See the letter from the estates’ treasurer to Sully, Archives Nationales 120 AP 36, fo. 3.

100 Archives Communales, Nantes, C C 466, letter from Sully t o th e corporation, also Valois 12034.

101 Valois 13453.

102 Valois 15090.

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104 See Dufayard, Ch., Le connetable de Lesdiguieres (Paris, 1892).Google Scholar

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