Bailliage and Sénéchaussée

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Division of France into Bailliages and Sénéchaussées in 1789

In the France of the Ancien Régime , the Bailli (or Bayle ) was a feudal civil servant who was entrusted by the landlord with administrative, tax, police and judicial duties. The office and later also the district of the Bailli were called Bailliage . In southern France up to Anjou and Maine , the same commissioners were referred to as Sénéchaux (singular: Sénéchal ), their office or their district as Sénéchaussée .

Depending on the region, the Baillis performed very different tasks:

  • In the county of Provence in the 12th century, the Bailli had the authority of an actual governor.
  • In the 13th century, the Baillis of Count Alfonso of Poitiers supervised the feudal lords under the Count of Toulouse.
  • In the Dauphiné , the Baillis were castellans with military duties .
  • In the Duchy of Brittany , the Bailliages largely corresponded to the old counties from the 12th century.

history

The royal Baillis were initially (i.e. at the time of King Philip Augustus at the end of the 12th century) agents of the monarch, who were responsible for supervising the work of the bailiffs (Prévôts) or (in Normandy) the Viscounts, without having any regional jurisdiction . This did not arise until the time of King Louis IX. , i.e. from 1226, although a regional structure was not yet in place: defined Bailliages did not emerge until between 1230 and 1260. As the representative of the king in part of the Domaine royal , the Bailli quickly became the executor of the royal will towards the regional lords, also in neighboring areas Territories that were not owned by the king: the Bailli de Vermandois played an important role in the county of Flanders , the Bailli de Mâcon in Lyon .

The institution of the Bailli was quickly adopted in other principalities. The Duke of Burgundy appointed Baillis, who mainly acted as judges: one in 1239, three more in 1262, and a fifth in 1266. Their number multiplied in the 14th century. The Burgundy Franche said . Philip IV in 1333 in the Bailliage d'Amont (capital Vesoul ) and the Bailliage d'Aval ( Salins ); In 1422 Duke Philip the Good set up the Bailliage du Milieu ( Dole ) (in 1676 Besançon was spun off as a further Bailliage from Amont and Milieu).

The main difference between the Baillis in northern France and the Sénéchaux in southern France (in the Carolingian Empire , the Seneschal was the highest official at the court) is not in the tasks, but in the people. The Sénéchaux were mostly members of the old aristocratic families who often held the office only temporarily, while the Baillis were generally professional civil servants who were often promoted to central administration or central jurisdiction after a career in several Bailliages .

At the end of the 15th century, the Sénéchaux were more respected than the Baillis, and the distinction between north and south only played a subordinate role. King Louis XI. had a Seneschal of Normandy in 1451 ( Louis de Brézé ), in 1477 Sénéchaux in Artois and Boulonnais and a hereditary Seneschal in Burgundy , even appointed a "Grand Sénéchal de Bourgogne" with Philippe Pot (although this title was only awarded this once). In 1461 Louis XI appointed a seneschal in Roussillon and Cerdagne . The title “Grand Sénéchal de Provence” remained after the unification of Provence with France.

The city of Paris was a special case. From Philip II to Louis IX. there were two royal officials here, usually appointed from the city council, prévôts (bailiffs), who shared the task: one acted as judge, the other as tax collector. Louis IX finally combined the two tasks again and appointed with Étienne Boileau a Garde de la Prévôté de Paris, for whom the Grand Châtelet was enlarged and modernized.

From the 14th century, people officiated as Bailli or Seneschal who had to perform other tasks far away from their place of work: Marshal Boucicaut , Robert von Clermont , Regnaud d'Aubigny or Jean de Bonnay , Sénéchaux de Toulouse. Some are expressly appointed in recognition of their services (mostly in the army), the "Bâtard de Bourbon" received the Sénéchaussée de Toulouse with a few other offices to secure him an income. Marshal Gilbert Motier de La Fayette served as the Seneschal of Beaucaire for two years on an interim basis. Marshal Jean de Baudricourt was at the same time Bailli of Chaumont and Chalon , later governor of Burgundy and Bailli of Chaumont at the same time. The Duke of Bedford appointed French Baillis for Paris, but the Englishman Roland Scandish for Évreux in 1434, even without requiring the usual oath, since the new Bailli served as a captain in the army between the Loire and the English Channel and was indispensable there.

Conversely, some Bailliages had several Baillis at the same time, who shared the income from this office: in Amiens , Robert de la Boye was deposed on October 22, 1391 for permanent absence, while his successor Thibaut de la Boissière had been appointed since 1390, and Ferry de Hangest, Bailli since 1407, who held office in succession with David de Brimeu, Seigneur de Humbercourt (1410) and Philippe d'Auxy (1411) (David de Brimeu was named Bailli of Amiens a second time in 1415 and a third time in 1417, from 1408 again with Ferry de Hangest). Furthermore - still in Amiens at the same time - the task was apparently passed on within families who were less related by marriage: Thibaut de la Boissière (1390), Jean de Bains (1393), Guillaume Tournebeuf (1399), Jean de Bains (1401, 2 . Time), Thibaut de la Boissière (1402, 2nd time), Jean de Bains (1403, 3rd time), David de Brimeu (1415 and 1417 - as mentioned - for the 2nd and 3rd time) and as his successor his relative Denis de Brimeu. This game was then surpassed by Regnaut de Longueval (Bailli 1435-1456) and his son Artus de Longueval (Bailli 1456-1496), who were able to hold the office in the family for 60 years.

Similar in the cotentin : Robert de Montauban, Bailli 1415-1417, Arthur de Montauban, Bailli 1450-1451, and Jean de Montauban, Bailli 1451-1455. Arthur de Montauban resigned the office to his brother Jean in order to devote himself to spiritual offices - he became Archbishop of Bordeaux in 1467 . In Melun followed one another: Philippe de Melun (from 1435), then his brother Charles and finally his son Antoine. In Évreux, at the end of the 15th century, the office was firmly in the hands of the Hangest family.

In the Touraine you can find: Jean du Fou (Bailli 1480–1483), Guy Pot (1483–1484), again Jean du Fou (1484), then his brother Yves (since 1484) who took up his post as Seneschal of Poitou (1473 –1488) therefore did not give up - but nevertheless had several successors; Jean du Fou returned to office in 1488 and was succeeded by Guy Pot again in 1492.

At that time the office still existed, unless a captain general or lieutenant general of the king already existed. In the middle of the 15th century, however, there were a number of Baillis as pure title holders, from whom no attendance was expected: the office paid for their services in other places, especially in the army, where they mainly incurred costs; so in the Poitou Pierre de Brézé and Philippe de Commynes , in Montpellier Philippe Cousinot and François d'Este. Amaury de Craon exchanged the office of Seneschal of Maine with the king in 1331, including an allocation of 10,000 livres for an annual pension of 1,500 livres.

Here, too, the development in the city of Paris was different than in the rest of the country: the Garde de la Prévôté de Paris remained an important function with responsibility for order in the capital, even though two deputies (lieutenants) were assigned to it for the jurisdiction : one each for civil and criminal justice, which means that the Bailli actually lost this task over time.

In 1551, King Henry II created a Bailliage présidial for each Bailliage or Sénéchaussée , not a new administrative level, but just a level of justice inserted between the Bailliage and Parlement in order to strengthen his judicial system. In 1764 their number was increased to 100.

On the eve of the revolution, the electoral districts for the Estates General were established on the basis of the Bailliages . By an edict of January 24, 1789, the king created more than 400 districts. With the decree of December 22nd, 1789 - now by the Constituent Assembly - the dissolution of the Bailliages and Sénéchaussées (as well as the Bailliages présidiaux ) and the establishment of the departments was decided.

List of some Bailliages and Sénéchaussées

Map of the Sénéchaussée d'Anjou with subdivisions in 1789

At the end of the Middle Ages there were bailliages that were obviously of vastly different sizes and some of which only existed for a short time.

literature