The secretary of state of the Navy (French: Secrétaire d'État de la Marine) was one of the four or five specialised secretaries of state in France during the Ancien Régime. This officeholder was responsible for the French Navy and for all of the French colonies. On 26 October 1790, during the French Revolution, the position was renamed to Minister of the Navy and the Colonies.
Contents
History
The office of Secretary of State was created in 1547 under Henry II initially as four undifferentiated posts whose holders divided responsibilities, including the Navy along largely geographic rather than functional lines. The Navy did not become a distinct secretaryship in its own right during this period, it was administrated as one responsibility among several held by whichever secretary of state was assigned it, alongside war, foreign affairs and king's household. The two French royal fleets, the Ponant and Levant fleets were placed under the control of Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1662 while he held the office of ''intendant des finances'' and minister of state but not yet secretary of state. Colbert purchased his way into secretaryship of state in 1669, becoming the first officeholder to hold the Navy as a portfolio.
The office as a distinct secretaryship, 1669–1789
From 1669, the Secretary of State of the Navy administered two original bureaux, the ''bureau du Ponant'' and the "bureaus de Levant", to which further department were added over time, including an archives department (1669), an office of Ponant consulates (1709) , an office of the colonies(1710), a bureaux des classes"(1711) overseeing naval conscription and a department of maps and plans(1720).
The post frequently passed within families: Colbert was succeeded by his son, the Marquis de Seignelay and the office subsequently passed through the Phélypeaux family close to three decades. during the Polysynody (1715–1718), the Navy affairs were briefly directed by a Council of Marine Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse, rather than by an individual secretary.
Abolition and renaming, 1789–1791
Amid the constitutional reforms of the French Revolution, the tittle of Secretary of State of the Navy was formally superseded on 26 October, 1790, becoming Minister of the Navy and the Colonies. Charles Pierre Claret de Fleuriau, comte de Fleuriau d'Armenonville is recorded as the first to hold the post under its new ministerial from 26 October 1790 to 17 May 1791.