Provost (civil)
Encyclopedia
A provost is the ceremonial head of many Scottish local authorities, and under the name prévôt (pʁevo) was a governmental position of varying importance in Ancien Regime France
.
of the late Roman Empire
, and the praepositus palatii of the Carolingian
court. The title developed in France
from where it found its way into Scots
, where in Scotland
it became the style (as provost) of the principal magistrates of the Royal Burgh
s (roughly speaking, the equivalent of "mayor
" in the rest of the UK
) ("Lord Provost
" in Edinburgh
, Glasgow
, Aberdeen and Dundee), and into England
, where it is applied to certain officers charged with the maintenance of military discipline. A Provost Marshal
is an officer of the army originally appointed when troops are on service abroad (and now in the United Kingdom
as well) for the prompt repression of all offenses. He may at any time arrest and detain for trial persons subject to military law committing offences, and may also carry into execution any punishments to be inflicted in pursuance of a court martial (Army Act 1881, § 74). A provost sergeant
is in charge of the garrison police
or regimental police
. The 'Provost' also refers to the military police
in general. The army pronunciation is 'Prov-oh'.
burgh
council, the equivalent of a mayor
in other parts of the English-speaking world. Previous to the enactment of the Town Councils (Scotland) Act 1900
various titles were used in different burghs, but the legislation standardised the name of the governing body as “the provost, magistrates, and councillors” of the burgh. After the re-organisation of local government in Scotland in 1975, the title of Lord Provost
was reserved to the four major cities, while other district councils could choose the title to be used by the convener: in 1994 twenty-two councils had provosts. Similar provisions were included in the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994
whch established unitary council areas in 1996. The area councils are allowed to adopt the title of provost (or any other) for the convener of the council, as are the area committee
s of the council. Some community council
s which include former burghs also use the style for their chairmen.
s (prévôts des maréchaux de France), the Provost of the Royal Palace (prévôt de l'hôtel du roi), otherwise known as the Lord High Provost of France (grand prévôt de France), and the Provost General (prévôt général) or High Provost of the Mint (grand prévôt des monnaies).
and Burgundy and vicars (viguiers) in the South. These titles were retained from earlier times when formerly independent provinces were conquered and subsumed under the French Crown. Royal provosts were created by the Capetian monarchy
around the 11th century. Provosts replaced viscount
s wherever a viscounty had not been made a fief, and it is likely that the provost position imitated and was styled after the corresponding ecclesiastical provost of cathedral chapters
.
Royal provostships were double faceted. First, provosts were entrusted with and carried out local royal power, including the collection of the Crown's domainal
revenues and all taxes and duties owed the King within a provostship's jurisdiction. They were also responsible for military defense such as raising local contingents for royal armies. Until the end of the Old Regime, a number of military provost (prevots d'épée) positions survived until being replaced by a lord lieutenant in administering justice. Finally, the provosts administered justice though with limited jurisdiction. For instance, they had no jurisdiction over noblemen or feudal tenants (hommes de fief) who instead fell under the jurisdiction of their lord's court and were tried before a jury of their peers, that is, the lord's other vassal
s. Provosts had no jurisdiction over purely rural areas, the pies pays, which instead fell to local lordships. Provost jurisdiction was restricted to towns but was often usurped by Burgh courts chaired by burgesses.
However, in 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 farmers of revenues. The provost thus received the speculative right to collect the King's seignorial revenues within his provostship. This remained his primary role. Short-term appointments also helped stem the heritability of offices. Very early, however, certain provostships were bestowed en garde, i.e., on condition the provost regularly render accounts to the King for his collections. Farmed provostships (prévôtes en ferme) were naturally a source of abuse and oppression. Naturally, too, the people were discontent. Joinville
told of how under St Louis the provostship of Paris became an accountable provostship (prévôté en garde). With the death of Louis XI
, farmed provostships were still numerous and spurred a remonstrance from the States General
in 1484. Charles VIII
promised to abolish the office in 1493, but the office is mentioned in the Ordinance of 1498. They disappeared in the 16th century, by which time the provosts had become regular officials, their office, however, being purchasable.
Further oversight and weakening of provostships occurred when, to monitor their performance and curtail abuses, the Crown established itinerant justices known as bailies (bailli) to hear complaints against them. With the office of Great Seneschal vacant after 1191, the bailies became stationary and established themselves as powerful officials superior to provosts. A bailie's district is called a bailliary (baillage) and included about half a dozen provostships. When appeals were instituted by the Crown, appeal of provost judgments, formerly impossible, now lay with the bailie. Moreover, in the 14th century, provosts no longer were in charge of collecting domainal revenues, except in farmed provostships, having instead yielded this responsibility to royal receivers (receveurs royaux). Raising local army contingents (ban and arrière-ban) also passed to bailies. Provosts therefore retained the sole function of inferior judges over vassals with original jurisdiction concurrent with bailies over claims against nobles and actions reserved for royal courts (cas royaux). This followed a precedent established in the chief feudal courts in the 13th and 14th centuries in which summary provostship suits were distinguished from solemn bailliary sessions (assise).
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.
after the Revolution
. 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). 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, or Provost Marshal jailbirds. They had military jurisdiction, and their rulings were not appealable; however, the provost was required to keep a certain number of ordinary judges or masters. The Provost Marshal did not personally sit provost crime cases. Instead, this usually fell to the nearest bailliwick or presidial court. Presidial judges had concurrent jurisdiction with Provost Marshals, and the two vied openly to be vested.
series of historical detective novels by Ellis Peters, taking place at 12th Century Shrewsbury
, England
, an important role is played by the town's Provost - who in addition to this position is a prominent shoemaker.
The Provost plays an important role in William Shakespeare
's Measure for Measure
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
History
As a secular title praepositus is also very old dating to the praepositus sacri cubiculiPraepositus sacri cubiculi
The praepositus sacri cubiculi was one of the senior palace offices in the late Roman Empire. Its holder was usually a eunuch, and acted as the grand chamberlain of the palace, wielding considerable authority and influence. In the 7th or 8th century, the title was also given to an order of rank...
of the late Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, and the praepositus palatii of the Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
court. The title developed in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from where it found its way into Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
, where in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
it became the style (as provost) of the principal magistrates of the Royal Burgh
Royal burgh
A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
s (roughly speaking, the equivalent of "mayor
Mayors in the United Kingdom
In England, the office of mayor or lord mayor had long been ceremonial posts, with few or no duties attached to it. A mayor's term of office denotes the municipal year. The most famous example is that of the Lord Mayor of the City of London....
" in the rest of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) ("Lord Provost
Lord Provost
A Lord Provost is the figurative and ceremonial head of one of the principal cities of Scotland. Four cities, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have the right to appoint a Lord Provost instead of a provost...
" in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Aberdeen and Dundee), and into England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, where it is applied to certain officers charged with the maintenance of military discipline. A Provost Marshal
Provost Marshal
The Provost Marshal is the officer in the armed forces who is in charge of the military police .There may be a Provost Marshal serving at many levels of the hierarchy and he may also be the public safety officer of a military installation, responsible for the provision of fire, gate security, and...
is an officer of the army originally appointed when troops are on service abroad (and now in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as well) for the prompt repression of all offenses. He may at any time arrest and detain for trial persons subject to military law committing offences, and may also carry into execution any punishments to be inflicted in pursuance of a court martial (Army Act 1881, § 74). A provost sergeant
Provost Sergeant
A Provost Sergeant is a non-commissioned officer associated with military police.-United Kingdom and Commonwealth:In the British Army and land forces of the Commonwealth, a Provost Sergeant is the non-commissioned officer in charge of the regimental police and is responsible to the Regimental...
is in charge of the garrison police
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
or regimental police
Regimental Police
Regimental Police , sometimes called Regimental Provost Staff in the United Kingdom, are soldiers responsible for regimental discipline enforcement and unit custody in the British Army, some other Commonwealth armies and some armed forces structured in the British tradition...
. The 'Provost' also refers to the military police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
in general. The army pronunciation is 'Prov-oh'.
Scotland
Historically the provost was the chief magistrate or convener of a ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
burgh
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...
council, the equivalent of a mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
in other parts of the English-speaking world. Previous to the enactment of the Town Councils (Scotland) Act 1900
Police burgh
A police burgh was a Scottish burgh which had adopted a “police system” for governing the town. They existed from 1833 to 1975.-The 1833 act:The first police burghs were created under the Burgh Police Act, 1833...
various titles were used in different burghs, but the legislation standardised the name of the governing body as “the provost, magistrates, and councillors” of the burgh. After the re-organisation of local government in Scotland in 1975, the title of Lord Provost
Lord Provost
A Lord Provost is the figurative and ceremonial head of one of the principal cities of Scotland. Four cities, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have the right to appoint a Lord Provost instead of a provost...
was reserved to the four major cities, while other district councils could choose the title to be used by the convener: in 1994 twenty-two councils had provosts. Similar provisions were included in the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994
Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994
The Local Government etc. Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the current local government structure of 32 unitary authorities covering the whole of Scotland....
whch established unitary council areas in 1996. The area councils are allowed to adopt the title of provost (or any other) for the convener of the council, as are the area committee
Area committee
Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees, with responsibility for services in a particular part of the area covered by the council....
s of the council. Some community council
Community council
A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain.In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies...
s which include former burghs also use the style for their chairmen.
France
The word prévôt (provost) applied to a number of different persons in pre-Revolutionary France. Following its historical meaning (from Latin praepositus), 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, at Paris, for example, there existed the Lord Provost of Paris who presided a lower royal court and the Provost of Merchants (prévôt des marchands), or Dean of Guild, headed the burgh council and the burgh's merchant company. In addition, there were Provost MarshalMarshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
s (prévôts des maréchaux de France), the Provost of the Royal Palace (prévôt de l'hôtel du roi), otherwise known as the Lord High Provost of France (grand prévôt de France), and the Provost General (prévôt général) or High Provost of the Mint (grand prévôt des monnaies).
Royal provosts
The most important and best known provosts, as part of the Kingdom's general organization administered the scattered parts of the royal domain, were the royal provosts (prévôts royaux), who were the lowest royal judicial officers of the land. The title varied widely from province to province: castellans (châtelains) in NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
and Burgundy and vicars (viguiers) in the South. These titles were retained from earlier times when formerly independent provinces were conquered and subsumed under the French Crown. Royal provosts were created by the Capetian monarchy
House of Capet
The House of Capet, or The Direct Capetian Dynasty, , also called The House of France , or simply the Capets, which ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328, was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. As rulers of France, the dynasty...
around the 11th century. Provosts replaced viscount
Viscount
A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
s wherever a viscounty had not been made a fief, and it is likely that the provost position imitated and was styled after the corresponding ecclesiastical provost of cathedral chapters
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
.
Royal provostships were double faceted. First, provosts were entrusted with and carried out local royal power, including the collection of the Crown's domainal
Crown lands of France
The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or domaine royal of France refers to the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France...
revenues and all taxes and duties owed the King within a provostship's jurisdiction. They were also responsible for military defense such as raising local contingents for royal armies. Until the end of the Old Regime, a number of military provost (prevots d'épée) positions survived until being replaced by a lord lieutenant in administering justice. Finally, the provosts administered justice though with limited jurisdiction. For instance, they had no jurisdiction over noblemen or feudal tenants (hommes de fief) who instead fell under the jurisdiction of their lord's court and were tried before a jury of their peers, that is, the lord's other vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
s. Provosts had no jurisdiction over purely rural areas, the pies pays, which instead fell to local lordships. Provost jurisdiction was restricted to towns but was often usurped by Burgh courts chaired by burgesses.
However, in 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 farmers of revenues. The provost thus received the speculative right to collect the King's seignorial revenues within his provostship. This remained his primary role. Short-term appointments also helped stem the heritability of offices. Very early, however, certain provostships were bestowed en garde, i.e., on condition the provost regularly render accounts to the King for his collections. Farmed provostships (prévôtes en ferme) were naturally a source of abuse and oppression. Naturally, too, the people were discontent. Joinville
Jean de Joinville
Jean de Joinville was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France.Son of Simon de Joinville and Beatrice d'Auxonne, he belonged to a noble family from Champagne. He received an education befitting a young noble at the court of Theobald IV, count of Champagne: reading, writing, and the...
told of how under St Louis the provostship of Paris became an accountable provostship (prévôté en garde). With the death of Louis XI
Louis XI of France
Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....
, farmed provostships were still numerous and spurred a remonstrance from the States General
French States-General
In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...
in 1484. Charles VIII
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
promised to abolish the office in 1493, but the office is mentioned in the Ordinance of 1498. They disappeared in the 16th century, by which time the provosts had become regular officials, their office, however, being purchasable.
Further oversight and weakening of provostships occurred when, to monitor their performance and curtail abuses, the Crown established itinerant justices known as bailies (bailli) to hear complaints against them. With the office of Great Seneschal vacant after 1191, the bailies became stationary and established themselves as powerful officials superior to provosts. A bailie's district is called a bailliary (baillage) and included about half a dozen provostships. When appeals were instituted by the Crown, appeal of provost judgments, formerly impossible, now lay with the bailie. Moreover, in the 14th century, provosts no longer were in charge of collecting domainal revenues, except in farmed provostships, having instead yielded this responsibility to royal receivers (receveurs royaux). Raising local army contingents (ban and arrière-ban) also passed to bailies. Provosts therefore retained the sole function of inferior judges over vassals with original jurisdiction concurrent with bailies over claims against nobles and actions reserved for royal courts (cas royaux). This followed a precedent established in the chief feudal courts in the 13th and 14th centuries in which summary provostship suits were distinguished from solemn bailliary sessions (assise).
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
Parlement
Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...
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) attached to the Marshalry (maréchaussée) under the Old Regime, equivalent to the gendarmerieGendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
after the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. 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). 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, or Provost Marshal jailbirds. They had military jurisdiction, and their rulings were not appealable; however, the provost was required to keep a certain number of ordinary judges or masters. The Provost Marshal did not personally sit provost crime cases. Instead, this usually fell to the nearest bailliwick or presidial court. Presidial judges had concurrent jurisdiction with Provost Marshals, and the two vied openly to be vested.
In fiction
In the CadfaelCadfael
Brother Cadfael is the fictional main character in a series of historical murder mysteries written between 1977 and 1994 by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter under the name "Ellis Peters". The character of Cadfael himself is a Welsh Benedictine monk living at Shrewsbury Abbey, in western England,...
series of historical detective novels by Ellis Peters, taking place at 12th Century Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, an important role is played by the town's Provost - who in addition to this position is a prominent shoemaker.
The Provost plays an important role in William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
.