The title of
intendant (,
Spanish intendente) has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office. The title is also common in many
opera houses today equivalent to
General Director, and given to an individual in a managerial position, generally having control over all aspects of the company.
France
Overview
Intendants were
royal civil servants in
France under the
Old Regime. A product of the centralization policies of the French crown, intendants were appointed "commissions", and not purchasable hereditary "offices", which thus prevented the abuse of sales of royal offices and made them more tractable and subservient emissaries of the king. Intendants were generally chosen from among the
masters of requests. Intendants were sent to supervise and enforce the king's will in the provinces and had jurisdiction over three areas: finances, policing, and justice.
Their missions were always temporary, which helped reduce favorable bias toward a province, and were focused on royal inspection. Article 54 of the
Code Michau described their functions as "to learn about all crimes, misdemeanors and financial misdealings committed by our officials and of other things concerning our service and the tranquility of our people" (
informer de tous crimes, abus et malversations commises par nos officiers et autres choses concernant notre service et le soulagement de notre peuple).
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Intendants were chosen from the
noblesse de robe ("administrative nobility") or the upper-bourgeoisie. Generally, they were masters of requests in the
Conseil des parties. They were chosen by the
Comptroller-General who asked the advice of the
Secretary of State for War for those who were to be sent in border provinces. They were often young:
Charles Alexandre de Calonne became Intendant at the age of 32,
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and
Louis Bénigne François Berthier de Sauvigny at the age of 34, and
Louis-Urbain-Aubert de Tourny at the age of 40.
A symbol of royal centralization and absolutism, the Intendant had numerous adversaries. Those nostalgic for an administration based on noble lineage (such as
Saint-Simon) saw intendants as parvenus and usurpers of noble power. Partisans of a less absolute monarchy (such as
Fénelon) called for their abolishment.
Jacques Necker, the only Minister of Finances since
1720 who had not himself been an intendant, accused them of incompetence because of their youth and social aspirations. The
cahiers de doléances of
1789 depicted them as over zealous agents of a fiscal policies which weighed heavily on the people.
The term
intendant was also used for certain positions close to the Comptroller-General (see this term for more information):
- intendants of finances (6 in number)
- intendants of commerce (4 or 5 in number)
In the same way, the term
Intendant Général was used for certain commissioned positions close to the
State Secretaries of War and of the Navy.
History
As early as the 15th century, the French kings sent commissioners to the
provinces to inspect on royal and administrative affairs and to take necessary action. These agents of the king were recruited from among the masters of requests, the
Councillors of State and members of the
Parlements or the
Court of Accounts. Their mission was always for a specific mandate and lasted for a limited period. Along with these, there were also commissioners sent to the army, in charge of provisioning the army, policing and finances; they would supervise accountants, providers, merchants, and generals, and attend war councils and tribunals for military crimes. Such commissioners are found in
Corsica as early as
1553, in
Bourges in
1592, in
Troyes in
1594, and in
Limoges in
1596.
When
Henry IV ascended the throne in 1589, one of his prime focuses was to reduce the privileges of the provincial governors who, in theory, represented "the presence of the king in his province" but had, during the civil wars of the early modern period, proven themselves to be highly intractable; these positions had long been held by only the highest ranked
noble families in the realm. The Intendants to the provinces —- the term "Intendant" appears around
1620 during the reign of
Louis XIII -- became an effective tool of regional control.
Under Louis XIII's minister
Cardinal Richelieu, with France's entry into the
Thirty Years' War in
1635, the Intendants became a permanent institution in France. No longer mere inspectors, their role became one of government administrators. During the
Fronde in
1648, the members of Parlement of the
Chambre Saint-Louis demanded the Intendants be suppressed;
Mazarin and
Anne of Austria gave in to these demands except in the case of border provinces threatened by Spanish or Imperial attack. At the end of the Fronde, the Intendants were reinstated.
When
Louis XIV (1643-1715) was in power, the
Marquis of Louvois,
War Secretary between 1677 and 1691, further expanded the power of the provincial intendants. They monitored Louvois's refinements of the French military, including the institution of a merit promotion system and a policy of enlistment limited to four years and single men. After
1680, Intendants in France had a permanent position in a fixed region (or "
généralité"); their official title is
intendant de justice, police et finances, commissaire départi dans les généralités du royaume pour l'exécution des ordres du roi.
The position of Intendant remained in existence until the
French Revolution.
Functions
Appointed and revoked by the king and reporting to the
Controller-General of Finances, the Intendant in his "généralité" had at his service a small team of secretaries. In the 18th century, the "généralité" was subdivided into "subdelegations" at the head of which was placed a "subdelegate" (having also a team of secretaries) chosen by the Intendant. In this way, the Intendant was relatively understaffed given his large jurisdiction.
As
intendant de justice, he was required to supervise regional courts (except the
Parlements with which he was often in violent conflict). He verified that judicial officers were neither slow, nor negligent, nor biased toward the nobility, nor avaricious. The Intendant had the right to transfer court cases to different jurisdictions if he felt that justice would be better served. The Intendant could also himself serve as judge (with the assistance of royal judges). This extensive jurisdiction lead many local judges and courts to decry the Intendants and ask for their suppression or a reduction in their powers.
As
intendant de police, he oversaw the "
maréchaussée" (the highway police in charge of protecting the countryside from mendicants and bandits) and monitored public opinion and educational institutions. He was in charge of furnishing the royal army, recruiting soldiers and providing for other military spending. He oversaw the provincial milicias. He also could intervene in religious affairs and control of the Protestants (in many provinces, the Intendants carried out the anti-Protestant policies of Louis XIV).
As
intendant de finances, he oversaw partitioning of the royal taxes in the "pays d'élection" (see
taille) and collecting the king's seigneurial rights (the "centième denier", the "petit scel", the "franc-fief", etc.) on crown lands, supervised the work of financial officers, and provided financial oversight to various religious and scholarly communities.
In addition to these functions, the Intendant also concerned himself with improving agriculture, by introducing new plant species and new growing and husbandry techniques (Turgot in
Limousin). He created royal manufacturing. He was responsible for
gunpowder and
saltpeter, the road network and the postal service. He renovated certain cities (Tourny in
Bordeaux). He was appealed to on matters concerning financial transactions and letters of change. The Intendant also had a social role: he opened charity centers for the unemployed and centers for mendicants, and was held to help the population in times of famine by buying, storing and reselling grain.
For more on the administrative structures of ancien régime France, see: Early Modern France.Famous Intendants
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