A prévôt () was a governmental position of varying importance in Ancien Régime France,évô typically referring to a civil officer, magistrate, head of cathedral or church, often anglicised as provost. A unit of justice or court overseen by a prévôt was known as a .
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.
Etymology
Prévôt is a Middle French term that comes from the classical Latin praepositus, meaning "person placed in charge" (literally "positioned at the front").
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 Paris, for example, there existed both the "Lord Provost of Paris" who presided a lower royal court, as well as the very important and influential "Provost of the Merchants" (prévôt des marchands), i.e. the Dean of the City Guilds, who headed traditionally the City Council and the city's merchant companies, thus being de facto a kind of feudal mayor.
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 and in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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: "castellans" (châtelains) in Normandy 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 viscounts wherever a viscounty had not been made a fief, making it likely that the domainal provost position was fashioned after the corresponding ecclesiastical provost of cathedral chapters, a charge which was strongly developed in the same era.
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.