Provost (civil)

A provost (introduced into Scots from French) is the ceremonial head of many Scottish local authorities. The modern "de facto" political leader of a council is often called the convener.

Historically the provost was the chief magistrate or convener of a Scottish 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. ["Whitakers Concise Almanack 1995", London, 1994. The district councils with provosts were Angus, Bearsden and Milngavie, Clydebank, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Dumbarton, Dunfermline, East Kilbride, Eastwood, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Falkirk, Gordon, Hamilton, Inverclyde, Inverness, Kyle and Carrick, Monklands, Motherwell, Nairn, Nithsdale, Perth and Kinross, Renfrew and Strathkelvin] 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 committees of the council. Some community councils which include former burghs also use the style for their chairmen.

History

As a secular title "praepositus" is also very old; we need only instance the "praepositus sacri cubiculi" of the late Roman Empire, and the "praepositus palatii" of the Carolingian court. The important developments of the title in France are dealt with below. From France the title found its way into Scots, where in Scotland it became the style (provost) of the principal magistrates of the Royal Burghs (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 offences. 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'.

The "prévôt" or provost in France

The word "prévôt" (provost) in old French law had many applications. In conformity with its etymology ("praepositus") it could be applied to any person placed at the head of a branch of the public service, a position which, according to the old principles, habitually carried with it a right of jurisdiction. It is thus that there was at Paris the "provost of Paris," who was a royal judge, and the "provost of the merchants" ("prévôt des marchands"), the head of the Paris municipality. Michel Le Peletier was the last "Prevot des Marchands" between 1784 and 1789. A silver octagonal coin, dated 1784, commemorates his position. Inscribed "Prevoste De M. L. Le Peletier Conseil D'etat" There were besides - to mention only the principal provosts - the "provosts of the marshals of France" ("prévôts des maréchaux de France"), of whom more below; the "provost of the royal palace" ("prévôt de l'hôtel du roi") or "grand provost of France" ("grand prévôt de France"), and the "provost general" ("prévôt général") or "grand provost of the mint" ("grand prévôt des monnaies").

Prévôts royaux

But the most important and best known provosts, who formed part of a general and comprehensive organization, were the "royal provosts" ("prévôts royaux"), the lower category of the royal judges. It must be borne in mind, however, that the magistrates belonging to the inferior category of royal judges ("juges subalternes") had different designations in many parts of France. In Normandy and Burgundy they were called "châtelains", and elsewhere--especially in the south--"viguiers". These were titles which had established themselves in the great fiefs before their reunion with the Crown and had survived this. The royal provosts, on the other hand, were a creation of the Capetian monarchy.

The date of this creation is uncertain, but was without doubt some time in the 11th century. The provosts replaced the viscounts wherever the viscounty had not become a fief, and it is possible that in creating them the Crown was imitating the ecclesiastical organization in which the provost figured, notably in the cathedral chapters. The royal provosts had at first a double character. In the first place they fulfilled all the functions which answered locally to the royal power. They collected all the revenues of the domain and all the taxes and dues payable to the king within the limits of their jurisdiction. Doubtless, too, they had certain military functions, being charged with the duty of calling out certain contingents for the royal service; there survived until the end of the ancien régime certain military provosts "prevots d'épée" ("provosts of the sword") who were replaced in the administration of justice by a lieutenant. Finally, the provosts administered justice, though certainly their competence in this matter was restricted. They had no jurisdiction over noblemen, or over feudal tenants ("hommes de fief"), who claimed the jurisdiction of the court of their over-lord, where they were judged by their peers— the other vassals of the same lord. Neither had they jurisdiction over the open country, the "pies pays", where this belonged to local "seigneurs"; and even in the towns over which they were set their jurisdiction was often limited by that of the municipal courts established for the benefit of the burgesses. The second characteristic of the old provosts was that their office was farmed for a limited time to the highest bidder. It was simply an application of the system of farming the taxes. The provost thus received the speculative right to collect the revenues of the royal domain in the district under his jurisdiction; this was his principal concern, and his judicial functions were merely accessory. By these short-term appointments the Crown guaranteed itself against another danger: the possible conversion by the functionary of the function into an inheritable property. Very early, however, certain provostships were bestowed "en garde", i.e. the provost had to account to the king for all he collected. The "prévôtes en ferme" were naturally a source of abuses and oppression, the former seeking to make the most of the concession he had bought. Naturally, too, the people complained. From Joinville we learn how under St Louis the provostship of Paris became a "prévôté en garde". At the death of Louis XI the "prévôtés en ferme" were still numerous and provoked a remonstrance from the States-general of 1484. Their suppression was promised by Charles VIII in 1493, but they are again referred to in the "grande ordonnance" of 1498. They disappeared in the 16th century, by which time the provosts had become regular officials, their office, however, being purchasable.

Other transformations had previously taken place. The creation of the royal "baillis" reduced the provosts to a subaltern rank. Each "bailli" had in his district a certain number of provosts, who became his inferiors in the official hierarchy. When appeals were instituted (and this was one of the earliest instances of their introduction) the provost, the sphere of whose competency was limited, was subject to an appeal to the "bailli", though his judgment had hitherto been without appeal. Moreover, in the fourteenth century they had ceased to collect the revenues of the royal domain, except where the "prévôté" was "en ferme", and royal collectors ("receveurs royaux") had been appointed for this purpose. The summoning of the feudal contingents, the "ban" and "arrière-ban", had passed into the hands of the "baillis". Thus the provosts were left for their sole function as inferior judges for non-nobles, the appeals from their sentences going to the "baillis", who also had jurisdiction in the first instance over actions brought against nobles and in cases reserved for the crown judges ("cas royaux"). This corresponded to a principle which had also applied in the chief feudal Courts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where a distinction was made between judicial acts which could be performed "en prévôté", and those which had to be performed in a solemn assize ("assise"); this did not, however, always imply the existence of a superior and an inferior official, a provost and a "bailli".

The provost in the exercise of his legal functions sat alone as judge, and he alone exercised the judicial authority at his tribunal; but he had to consult with certain lawyers ("avocats" or "procureurs") chosen by himself, whom, to use the technical phrase, he "summoned to his council" ("appelait à son conseil"). In 1578 official counsellors ("conseillers-magistrats") were created, but were suppressed by the ordonnance of Blois of 1579. The office was restored in 1609 by a simple decree of the royal council, but it was opposed by the parlements, and it seems to have been conferred in but few cases.

Prévôts des maréchaux

The "provosts of the marshals of France", mentioned above, were non-legal officials ("officiers de la robe courte") forming part of the body of the "maréchaussée" which was under the "ancien régime" what the "gendarmerie" was after the Revolution. Their original function was to judge offences committed by persons following the army, but in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they acquired the right of judging certain crimes and misdemeanours, by whomsoever committed. They became stationary, with fixed spheres of authority, and the offences falling within their competency came to be called "cas prévôtaux". These were, the worst crimes of violence, and all crimes and misdemeanours committed by old offenders ("repris de justice"), who were familiarly known as the "gibier des prévôts des maréchaux" (gaol-birds). Theirs was really a kind of military jurisdiction, from which there was no appeal; but the provost was bound to associate with himself a certain number of ordinary judges or graduates in law. The provost of the marshals did not himself judge what was a "cas prévôtal"; this had in each case to be decided by the nearest bailliage or presidial court. The presidial judges also dealt with "cas prévôtaux" in concurrence with the provosts of the marshals.

In fiction

In the Cadfael 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.

ee also

*Provost (religion)
*Provost Marshal
*List of Provosts of Peterhead

References