Prévôt
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2022) |
A prévôt (French pronunciation:
The title is still used on the island of Sark, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, to refer to the executive officer of the court.[2]
Etymology
Prévôt is a Middle French term that comes from the classical Latin praepositus, meaning "person placed in charge" (literally "positioned at the front").[3]
History
The word prévôt (provost) applied to a number of different persons in pre-Revolutionary France. The term referred to a seignorial officer in charge of managing burgh affairs and rural estates and, on a local level, customarily administered justice.
Therefore, in
In addition to these two, there were "Provost Marshals" a.k.a. "Provosts of the Marshals of France" (Prévôts des Maréchaux de France), the "Provost of the Royal Residence" (Prévôt de l'Hôtel du Roi), later a.k.a. the "Lord High Provost of France" (Grand Prévôt de France), and the "Provost General" (Prévôt général) later a.k.a. the "Lord High Provost of the Mint" (Grand Prévôt des Monnaies or de la Monnaie).
The role extended into New France, with Prévôté de Québec and Prévôt de Montréal in the 17th and 18th centuries.[4]
Royal provosts
The most important and best known provosts, as part of the King's personal aids administering the scattered parts of the royal domain, were the "Royal Provosts" (Prévôts royaux). The regional title of those provosts varied widely from province to province for traditional reasons: "
Royal provostships were double faceted. Provosts were initially entrusted with royal power and carried out the royal part of local administration, including the collection of the Crown's domainal revenues and all taxes and duties owed to the King within a provostship's jurisdiction. Also, they were responsible for military defense such as raising local contingents for royal armies.
Also, the provosts administered justice with very limited judicial powers. For instance, they never had any jurisdiction over noblemen or feudal tenants (hommes de fief) who instead fell under the jurisdiction of either a regional royal court (parlement) or their respective lord's court where they were tried before a jury of their peers, that is, the lord's other vassals. Provosts had no jurisdiction over purely rural areas, the pies pays, which instead fell to local lordship jurisdiction or lower royal courts. Basically, Provost jurisdiction was restricted to minor and medium delinquency committed in towns under their control, but was often usurped by Burgh/City courts chaired by burgesses.
Until the end of the Old Feudal Regime (ancien régime), a number of "Military Provost" positions (Prévôts d'épée, literally "Provosts of the Sword") survived until being replaced by other judging charges (e.g. lord lieutenants or military auditors) in administering military justice.
Since the 11th century, the provosts tended increasingly to make their positions hereditary and thus became more difficult to control. One of the King's great officers, the Great Seneschal, became their supervisor. In the 12th century, the office of provost was put up for bidding, and thereafter provosts were
Further oversight and weakening of provostships occurred when, to monitor their performance and curtail abuses, the Crown established itinerant justices known as
The provost as judge sat a single bench with sole judicial authority over his Court. He was, however, required to seek the advice of legally-qualified experts (cousellors or attorneys) of his choosing, and, in so doing, was said to "summon his council" (appelait à son conseil). In 1578, official magistrates (conseillers-magistrats) were created, but were suppressed by the 1579 Ordinance of Blois. The office was restored in 1609 by simple decree of the King's Council, but it was opposed by the Parlement courts and seems to have been conferred in but few instances.
Provost Marshals
French Provost Marshals were non-judicial officers (officiers de la robe courte, literally "officers of the short gown") attached to the Marshalcy (
Originally, they were assigned to judge crimes committed by people in the army, but over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, they gained the right to judge certain types of misdemeanors and felonies committed by the military and civilians alike. They became fixed with set areas of authority, and the offences falling within their jurisdiction came to be called provost crimes (cas prévôtaux, literally "provostal cases"). Provost crimes included high violent crimes and crimes committed by repeat offenders (repris de justice), who were familiarly known as the gibier des prévôts des maréchaux (Provost Marshal jailbirds; literally "Game of the Provosts of the Marshalls"). They had military jurisdiction in regiments without "Military Provost" (Prévôt d'épée; see above), and their rulings were not appealable. However, the provost was required to consult a certain number of ordinary judges or "masters of law". As Presidial judges had concurrent jurisdiction with Provost Marshals for non-military cases, the two vied openly to be vested.
See also
- Provost (civil), similar post in Scotland
- Provost Marshal
References
- ^ Boyer, Abel (1815). Boyer's French Dictionary: Comprising All the Additions and Improvements of the Latest Paris and London Editions. Hilliard, Gray. p. 414. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ISBN 9780709158424.
- ^ "prévôt - definition of prévôt in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on November 20, 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "Les structures judiciaires" (in French). Ministère de la Justice. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Provost". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the