A provost (introduced into Scots from French) is the ceremonial head of many Scottish local authorities, and under the name prévôt (French pronunciation: [pʁevo]) was a governmental position of varying importance in Ancien Regime France.
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As a secular title praepositus is also very old dating to the praepositus sacri cubiculi of the late Roman Empire, and the praepositus palatii of the Carolingian court. The title developed in France from where it found its way into Scots, where in Scotland it became the style (as 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 offenses. 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'.
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.[1] 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.
The word prévôt (provost) applied to a number of different persons in pre-Revolutionary France. Following its historical meaning (from Latin praepositus), 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, at Paris, for example, there existed the Lord Provost of Paris who presided a lower royal court and the Provost of Merchants (prévôt des marchands), or Dean of Guild, headed the burgh council and the burgh's merchant company. In addition, there were Provost Marshals (prévôts des maréchaux de France), the Provost of the Royal Palace (prévôt de l'hôtel du roi), otherwise known as the Lord High Provost of France (grand prévôt de France), and the Provost General (prévôt général) or High Provost of the Mint (grand prévôt des monnaies).
The most important and best known provosts, as part of the Kingdom's general organization administered the scattered parts of the royal domain, were the royal provosts (prévôts royaux), who were the lowest royal judicial officers of the land. The title varied widely from province to province: 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, and it is likely that the provost position imitated and was styled after the corresponding ecclesiastical provost of cathedral chapters.
Royal provostships were double faceted. First, provosts were entrusted with and carried out local royal power, including the collection of the Crown's domainal revenues and all taxes and duties owed the King within a provostship's jurisdiction. They were also responsible for military defense such as raising local contingents for royal armies. Until the end of the Old Regime, a number of military provost (prevots d'épée) positions survived until being replaced by a lord lieutenant in administering justice. Finally, the provosts administered justice though with limited jurisdiction. For instance, they had no jurisdiction over noblemen or feudal tenants (hommes de fief) who instead fell under the jurisdiction of their lord's court and 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 lordships. Provost jurisdiction was restricted to towns but was often usurped by Burgh courts chaired by burgesses.
However, in the 11th century, the provosts tended increasingly to make their positions hereditary and thus became more difficult to control. One of the King's great officers, the Great Seneschal, became their supervisor. In the 12th century, the office of provost was put up for bidding, and thereafter provosts were farmers of revenues. The provost thus received the speculative right to collect the King's seignorial revenues within his provostship. This remained his primary role. Short-term appointments also helped stem the heritability of offices. Very early, however, certain provostships were bestowed en garde, i.e., on condition the provost regularly render accounts to the King for his collections. Farmed provostships (prévôtes en ferme) were naturally a source of abuse and oppression. Naturally, too, the people were discontent. Joinville told of how under St Louis the provostship of Paris became an accountable provostship (prévôté en garde). With the death of Louis XI, farmed provostships were still numerous and spurred a remonstrance from the States General in 1484. Charles VIII promised to abolish the office in 1493, but the office is mentioned in the Ordinance of 1498. They disappeared in the 16th century, by which time the provosts had become regular officials, their office, however, being purchasable.
Further oversight and weakening of provostships occurred when, to monitor their performance and curtail abuses, the Crown established itinerant justices known as bailies (bailli) to hear complaints against them. With the office of Great Seneschal vacant after 1191, the bailies became stationary and established themselves as powerful officials superior to provosts. A bailie's district is called a bailliary (baillage) and included about half a dozen provostships. When appeals were instituted by the Crown, appeal of provost judgments, formerly impossible, now lay with the bailie. Moreover, in the 14th century, provosts no longer were in charge of collecting domainal revenues, except in farmed provostships, having instead yielded this responsibility to royal receivers (receveurs royaux). Raising local army contingents (ban and arrière-ban) also passed to bailies. Provosts therefore retained the sole function of inferior judges over vassals with original jurisdiction concurrent with bailies over claims against nobles and actions reserved for royal courts (cas royaux). This followed a precedent established in the chief feudal courts in the 13th and 14th centuries in which summary provostship suits were distinguished from solemn bailliary sessions (assise).
The provost as judge sat a single bench with sole judicial authority over his Court. He was, however, required to seek the advice of legally-qualified experts (cousellors or attorneys) of his choosing, and, in so doing, was said to "summon his council" (appelait à son conseil). In 1578, official magistrates (conseillers-magistrats) were created, but were suppressed by the 1579 Ordinance of Blois. The office was restored in 1609 by simple decree of the King's Council, but it was opposed by the Parlement courts and seems to have been conferred in but few instances.
French Provost Marshals were non-judicial officers (officiers de la robe courte) attached to the Marshalry (maréchaussée) under the Old Regime, equivalent to the gendarmerie after the Revolution. Originally, they were assigned to judge crimes committed by people in the army, but over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, they gained the right to judge certain types of misdemeanors and felonies committed by the military and civilians alike. They became fixed with set areas of authority, and the offences falling within their jurisdiction came to be called provost crimes (cas prévôtaux). Provost crimes included high violent crimes and crimes committed by repeat offenders (repris de justice), who were familiarly known as the gibier des prévôts des maréchaux, or Provost Marshal jailbirds. They had military jurisdiction, and their rulings were not appealable; however, the provost was required to keep a certain number of ordinary judges or masters. The Provost Marshal did not personally sit provost crime cases. Instead, this usually fell to the nearest bailliwick or presidial court. Presidial judges had concurrent jurisdiction with Provost Marshals, and the two vied openly to be vested.
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.
The Provost plays an important role in William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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