Conseil du Roi

Overview

Role

The kings of France traditionally always sought the advice of their entourage (vassals, clerics, etc.) before making important decisions (in the early Middle Ages, this entourage was sometimes called the familia), but only in the 12th century did this deliberation take the form of a specific institution called the King's Court (Latin: Curia Regis).

The council had only a consultational role: the final decision was always the king's. Although jurists frequently praised (especially in the 16th century) the advantages of consultative government (with the agreement of his counsellors, the king could more easily impose the most severe of his decisions, or he could have his most unpopular decisions blamed on his counsellors), mainstream legal opinion never held that the king was bound by the decisions of his council. The opposite was however put forward by the States General of 1355–1358, and by the Huguenots and by the Catholic League in the second half of the 16th century.

The council's purview concerned all matters pertaining to government and royal administration, both in times of war and of peace. In his council, the king received ambassadors, signed treaties, appointed administrators and gave them instructions (called, from the 12th century on, mandements), elaborated on the laws of the realm (called ordonnances). The council also served as a supreme court and rendered royal justice on those matters that the king reserved for himself (so-called "justice retenue") or decided to discuss personally.

Council meetings, initially irregular, took on a regular schedule which became daily from the middle of the 15th century.

In addition to the King's Council, the consultative governing of the country also depended on other intermittent and permanent institutions, such as the States General, the Parlements (local appellate courts) and the Provincial Estates. The Parliament of Paris – as indeed all of the sovereign courts of the realm – was itself born out of the King's Council: originally a consultative body of the Curia Regis, later (in the thirteenth century) endowed with judicial functions, the Parliament was separated from the King's Council in 1254.

Composition of the King's Council

The composition of the King's Council changed constantly over the centuries and according to the needs and desires of the king.

Medieval councils generally included:

the crown prince (the "dauphin") – if he was of age to attend the council

the "grands" – the most powerful members of the church and of the nobility.

Medieval councils frequently excluded:

the queen (both as queen consort or as queen mother) – the queen lost direct political control as early as the 13th century, except in periods of regency; the queen thus attended only in extraordinary circumstances.

close relations to the king, including younger sons, grandsons and princes of the royal bloodline (princes du sang) from junior branches of the family – these individuals were often suspected of harboring political ambitions.

The feudal aristocracy would maintain great control over the king's council up until the 14th and 15th centuries. The most important positions in the court were those of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, headed by the constable and the chancellor. Certain kings were unable to reduce their importance (Louis X, Philip VI, John II, Charles VI), while others were more successful (Charles V, Louis XI, Francis I). In the 16th century, those "grands" with administrative or governmental competencies (religious dignitaries, presidents of provincial courts, etc.) were called to the council by a special certificate (or "brevet") and were termed "conseillers à brevet".

Over the centuries, the number of jurists (or "légistes"), generally educated by the université de Paris, steadily increased as the technical aspects of the matters studied in the council mandated specialized counsellers. Coming from the lesser nobility or the bourgeoisie, these jurists (whose positions sometimes gave them or their heirs nobility, as the so-called noblesse de robe or chancellor nobles) helped in preparing and putting into legal form the king's decisions. They formed the early elements of a true civil service and royal administration which would – because of their permanence – provide a sense of stability and continuity to the royal council, despite its many reorganizations. These counsellors, called conseillers d'État from the reign of Henry III on, were aided in their tasks by the maître des requêtes.

Royal Councils

Over time, the council began progressively to divide itself into separate subcouncils according to the affairs to be discussed. As early as the 13th century, one can distinguish a small council of a few members – the Conseil étroit ("narrow council") or Conseil secret – and a much larger council which came thus to be called the Grand Conseil.

Under Charles VII, a subcouncil appeared to handle particularly contentious judicial affairs. An ordinance by Charles VIII in 1497, and reaffirmed by Louis XII in 1498, removed this body from the king's council and established it as an autonomous court with the institutional name Grand Conseil. The Grand Conseil became thus a superior court of justice (that the king did not attend) with its own legal and judicial personnel and with a purview over contentious affairs submitted directly to the king (affairs of "justice retenue", or "justice reserved" for the king). This removal of the Grand Conseil from the council apparatus permitted the remaining sections of the council to focus on political and administrative affairs, but the need for further subsections continued.

Francis I created a Conseil des Affaires – a small informal group reuniting the chancellor, a secretary of commandments and several other close confidants – to deal with political and diplomatic issues, including war. The remaining large council (of 50–60 members) took the name of Conseil ordinaire ("Regular Council") or Conseil d'État ("Council of State"), but lost in its prestige, all the more so given that the king no longer regularly attended its sessions; in his absence the large council was presided by the chancellor.

Beginning in 1560, a separate council was created to handle financial affairs: the Conseil des finances; around 1600 this council was reunited with the state council as the Conseil d'État et des finances. Further sections followed for judicial affairs (the Conseil d'État privé or Conseil des parties) and for notices and administrative reports from the provinces (the Conseil des Dépêches); these are detailed below.

Despite these divisions into subcouncils, from a judicial point of view these various sections were all aspects of the same Council, and the decisions of the various sections were all considered to reflect the king's wishes. Even when the king was not in fact present as his councils, there were still considered to be presided over by him, and only the closing formula of their decisions changed: the expression "le Roi en son Conseil" was used when the king was not present at the meeting, the expression "le Roi étant en son Conseil" when he was.

Governmental Councils

Governmental councils were always presided by the King in person. Decisions made in these councils were called arrêts en commandement.

These councils met in the King's Apartment, in a room called the Cabinet du Conseil (present in all royal residences). Members were informed of meeting times by the king and the cabinet bailiffs, and at the beginning of the session the doors of the cabinet were closed and were guarded from outside, to prevent any interruptions or spies, as the meetings were secret. The meetings took place around an oval table with the king at one end, seated in an armchair; all other members were seated on folding stools (these folding chairs were symbolic of the council's itinerant nature, as the council was held to follow the king wherever he went).

The king opened sessions by raising questions or by giving the floor to one of the members. Each member added to the discussion in the ascending order of their rank. Discussions concluded with a vote of the council's opinion (in the same ascending order; the vote was called "aller aux opinions"). In the end, the king made the final decision. Louis XV followed the same general rules but frequently interrupted discussion when it seemed to be going in a direction he disagreed with, rather than choose to go against the final opinion of the council. Meetings were typically longer than two hours and could go far longer.

Known variously as the Conseil des affaires, Conseil d'en haut ("Upper Council") or Conseil d'État ("State Council"), this was the most important of the royal councils and discussed the most important affairs of state. It was more or less the equivalent of today's Council of Ministers. The name Conseil d'en haut by which it was known from 1643 on (replacing the "Conseil des Affaires" of the 16th century) came from the fact that the council met in the "Cabinet of Council" on the second floor of the Château of Versailles next to the king's chamber.

Before the reign of Louis XIV, it was an extremely small council bringing together the first minister (when one existed), the chancellor, the superintendent of finances, one secretary of state and the ministers of state (counsellors appointed by the king). The council's purview was very large. At the beginning of Louis XIV's reign, the number of members was increased: in addition to the ministers of state, the council included members of the royal family, princes of the royal bloodline ("princes du sang") and dukes with peerage ("duc et pair").

Financial councils

The Conseil royal des finances was created by Louis XIV in September 1661 to help the king oversee the functions of Superintendent of Finances after the removal from power of Nicolas Fouquet. Before 1661, fiscal matters were treated in the Conseil de direction des finances, created in 1615, under Louis XIII.

The Council of Finances' purview was large; it dealt with the royal budget, taxation, industry, commerce, money, contracts to the Farmers General, etc. In this council, the overall size of the taille was set, and financial and taxation disputes were judged.

The council was made up of the king, the chef du conseil des finances (an honorary, but well-paid, post), the crown prince, occasionally the chancellor, the contrôleur général des finances and (generally) two of his counsellors, and the intendants of finance.

Until 1715, the council met twice a week. After this date, financial decisions were made by the king in one-on-one meetings with the contrôleur général des finances, and the council merely rubber-stamped their decisions without much debate. Under the Regent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and then under Louis XV, the council met every Tuesday. From around 1728–1730, its rhythm slowed to less than once a week, and during the years 1730–1740, it met only once every two weeks.

The Conseil royal de commerce was created in 1664 as an equivalent to the Council of Finances, but it disappeared in 1676, and reappeared in 1730. This council was never fully able to stand out from the other councils and its influence was minor. In 1787, it was reunited with the Council of Finances.

Judicial and administrative councils

The divisions of the King's Council concerning contentious legal, administrative and judicial affairs were generally presided by the Chancellor of France, and the king himself rarely attended their meetings, although all acts of these councils were considered to derive from him and the chancellor was considered the "king's mouthpiece" (la bouche du Roi).

The Council of State and Finances (Conseil d'État et des finances or Conseil ordinaire des finances) was created in the beginning of the 17th century with various governmental oversight functions, including over financial matters. The council lost in its prestige during the reign of Louis XIII and ended as a supreme court for legal disputes concerning royal administration and appeals on decisions from sovereign courts concerning finances and taxation. The council had the same members as the Conseil privé (see below), but the contrôleur général des finances played a greater role.

The council began to fall out of use in 1665 and it disappeared entirely between 1680 and 1690. With the chancellor removed from the direction of financial affairs, Colbert was able to replace the maîtres des requêtes in the council by his own intendants of finances, and financial decisions were de facto decided in the collegial atmosphere at the Control General and in the Conseil des finances, thus dispensing of debates in the Conseil d'État et des finances.

By the late 17th century, the council's role as adjudicator in administrative disputes was subsumed by the Conseil d'État privé (see below).

Known variously as the Conseil privé or Conseil d'État privé, or Conseil des parties, the Privy Council was the main body for decisions on France's judicial system, and as such it was roughly the equivalent of today's Conseil d'État.

It was first created in 1557. With the Grand Conseil being a completely autonomous court of justice separated from the king's council, the need was seen for certain judicial affairs to be discussed and judged within the king's council, especially those in which the impartiality of the courts was called into question. These special session trials gave rise to a new section of the king's council overseeing contentious issues, which took the name Conseil privé ("Privy Council") or Conseil des parties ("Council of Parties", i.e. the party in a legal suit). In theory, the king exercised justice in this council with his regular counsellors, but in fact the council was presided by the chancellor and was furnished with a corps of legal personnel (the five presidents of the Parlement of Paris, the maîtres des requêtes who brought affairs before the court, lawyers and prosecutors who represented the parties).

Committee of ministers

Meetings of the King's Council were first planned by ministerial services, and then by the king with his secretaries and ministers. But for a time in the 18th century, agendas and meetings came to be planned in a committee called the "Committee of ministers", consisting of the members of the Conseil d'En-haut or of the Conseil des Dépêches meeting without the king. Although there had been antecedents of this committee during the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency, it became a regular institution in 1737 under the Cardinal de Fleury. These committees were held every Monday until the death of Cardinal Fleury.

Louis XV knew the risk of this committee, and in 1747 he mandated that the committee could not meet without his express permission, and generally to prepare decisions already decided on in council. In this way, meetings of the committee of ministers became far less frequent.

Administrative personnel

Under Henry IV and Louis XIII the administrative apparatus of the court and its councils was expanded and the proportion of the "noblesse de robe" increased, culminating in the following positions during the 17th century:

First Minister: ministers and secretaries of state – such as Sully, Concini (who was also governor of several provinces), Richelieu, Mazarin, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Cardinal de Fleury, Turgot, etc. – exerted a powerful control over state administration in the 17th and 18th century. The title "principal ministre de l'état" was however only given six times in this period and Louis XIV himself refused to choose a "prime minister" after the death of Mazarin.

Chancellor of France (also called the "garde des Scéaux", or "Keeper of the Seals")

Controller-General of Finances (contrôleur général des finances, formerly called the surintendant des finances).

Secretaries of State: created in 1547 by Henry II but of great importance after 1588, generally 4 in number, but occasionally 5:

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Secretary of State for War, also oversaw the border provinces.

Secretary of State of the Navy

Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi (the king's royal entourage and personal military guard), who also oversaw the clergy, the affairs of Paris and the non-border provinces.

Secretary of State for Protestant Affairs (combined with the secretary of the Maison du Roi in 1749).

Councillors of state (generally 30)