The Superintendent of Finances (French : Surintendant des finances) was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1561 to 1661. The position was abolished in 1661 with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, and a new position was created, the Controller-General of Finances.
Prior to the creation of the position "Surintendant des finances", France's royal financial administration had been run—from the time of Charles VII—by two financial boards which worked in a collegial manner: the four Généraux des finances oversaw the collection of taxes (taille, etc.) and the four Trésoriers de France (Treasurers) oversaw revenues from royal lands (the "domaine"). Together they were often referred to as "Messieurs des finances". The four members of each board were divided by geographical circumscriptions ("recettes générales" or "généralités"; the areas were named Languedoïl, Languedoc, Normandy, and Outre-Seine and Yonne), with the directors of the "Languedoïl" region typically having an honorific preeminence. The double-board was assisted in its work by four "contrôleurs généraux".
Before 1523–24, the King's Council had very little direct say on the day-to-day running of the double-boards. In 1523, Francis I, in an effort to exert a more direct control over royal finances during his European wars and to circumvent the double-board (accused of poor oversight)—created a separate Royal Treasury (Trésor de l'Épargne) directly under the control of the King's Council (analogous institutions had existed before), but the initial results were disappointing. From this moment through the next 40 years, numerous administrative reforms were attempted: increase in the number of "généralités"; unification of the tasks of the double-board into new positions (such as two "contrôleurs généraux" subservient to the Royal Treasurer); changes in the royal financial courts ("Cour des Comptes", "Cour des Aides"); creation of numerous provincial financial officers and boards; creation of the positions of "intendents" of finance (see below). With the increased role of the King's Council in financial matters, certain high-ranked nobles (like Anne de Montmorency or Charles of Lorraine, Cardinal of Guise) exerted a stronger advisory role over finances.
Although there was no official "Minister of Finances" in this period, certain individuals exerted an equivalent administrative role.
The position "Surintendant des finances" was officially created in 1561 during the reign of Charles IX, although some royal financial advisors had performed analogous duties previously. The position grew out of the positions of Intendants of Finances, officially created in 1552 by Henry II to oversee royal finances during the king's travels in Germany (he sought an alliance with Protestant Princes). At the time, three Intendants of Finances were named, and one of them would also participate in the Privy Counsel, thus the designation "superintendent". In 1561, the position fell to two individuals: Artus de Cossé-Brissac and the comte de Chaulnes. An administrative ruling on 23 October 1563 mandated once-a-week reunions of the Conseil du Roi (King's Counsel) to deal with financial questions of finances; to this meeting would come the superintendent of finances and other officers of country's financial administration, such as the Treasurer (trésorier de l'Épargne). In 1567, Cossé was promoted to maréchal de France; he resigned his post in favor of René de Birague (as did too, apparently, the comte de Chaulnes); René de Birague was thus the sole "superintendent".
In 1570, the position was assumed by the Conseil royal des finances. Henry III suppressed the Conseil royal des finances in 1574 and named a superintendent. Henry IV replaced the superintendent with a counsel. In this way, the position appeared intermittently, its fate tied to that of the Conseil des finances.
On 5 September 1661, Nicolas Fouquet was arrested for financial misdealings and brought to trial. On the 12th, the position of Supertintendant was replaced by a Conseil royal des finances, attended by an intendant, named the Contrôleur général des finances; this position first fell to Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a glittering career, and acquired enormous wealth. He fell out of favor, accused of peculation and lèse-majesté. The king had him imprisoned from 1661 until his death in 1680.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the country's politics and markets, known as Colbertism, a doctrine often characterized as a variant of mercantilism, earned him the nickname le Grand Colbert.
Michel Chamillart or Chamillard was a French statesman, a minister of King Louis XIV of France.
An intendant was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Succession of 1701 to 1714 the French royal House of Bourbon secured its hold on the throne of Spain; it extended a French-style intendancy system to Spain and Portugal - and subsequently worldwide through the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire. Regions were divided into districts, each administered by an intendant. The title continues in use in Spain and in parts of Spanish America for particular government officials.
Abel Servien, marquis de Sablé et de Boisdauphin and Comte de La Roche des Aubiers was a French diplomat who served Cardinal Mazarin and signed for the French the Treaty of Westphalia. He was an early member of the noblesse de robe in the service of the French state.
Marc-René de Voyer, Marquis de Paulmy and marquis d’Argenson was a French politician.
The Bâtiments du Roi was a division of the Maison du Roi in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris.
The Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi was the secretary of state in France during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration in charge of the Département de la Maison du Roi. The exact composition of the ministry and the secretary's duties changed several times over the Early Modern period, but in general, the Département de la Maison du Roi oversaw four main areas: the "Maison du Roi", the "Bâtiments du Roi", the General Affairs of the Clergy, Affairs of the RPR, and the administration of the capital city of Paris and the provinces. The post later reappeared as the Minister for the Maison du Roi.
The Controller-General or Comptroller-General of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1661 to 1791. It replaced the former position of Superintendent of Finances, which was abolished with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet. It did not hold any real political power until 1665, when First Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who had acted upon financial matters since Fouquet's embezzlement charge, was appointed to the office.
The Conseil du Roi, also known as the Royal Council, is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the King of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and to advise him. It should not be confused with the role and title of a "Conseil du Roi", a type of public prosecutor in the French legal system at the same period.
The ancien régime, now a common metaphor for "a system or mode no longer prevailing", was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France that the French Revolution overturned through its abolition in 1790 of the feudal system of the French nobility and in 1792 through its execution of the king and declaration of a republic.
The Grand Falconer of France was a position in the King's Household in France from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution.
Michel de Marillac was a French jurist and counsellor at the court of Louis XIII of France, one of the leading dévots. His uncle was Charles de Marillac, Archbishop of Vienne and a member of the king's council, the Conseil du Roi. A member of the circle of Marie de' Medici, he was arrested after the Queen Mother's flight in 1631 and died in prison.
A Colonel General was an officer of the French army during the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era and the Bourbon Restoration.
René de Longueil, marquis (1658) de Maisons (1596–1677), le président de Maisons, was Surintendant des Finances under Louis XIV. He built the Château de Maisons.
Nicolas de Neufville, 1st Duke of Villeroy was a French nobleman and marshal of France. He was marquis then 1st duke of Villeroy and peer of France, marquis d'Alincourt and lord of Magny, and acted as governor of the young Louis XIV. His son François succeeded him as duke. He was the lover of Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont.
The Intendants des finances were intendants or agents of France's financial administration under the Ancien Régime.
François Sublet de Noyers was a French statesman and diplomat during the 17th Century. Closely associated with Cardinal de Richelieu, he derived his position and political weight from the Cardinal's consistent patronage, was a secretary of state to Louis XIII, and a member of his Conseil du Roi. He was a knowledgeable patron of the arts.
Barthélemy Hervart or Herwart was a Huguenot banker. He saved the French monarchy on several occasions during the Fronde, the series of civil wars in France in the mid-17th century, by means of important loans, and during the period of the fall of Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finance Nicolas Fouquet.
Events from the year 1624 in France.