Provinces of France

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The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the département system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the historic counties of England. They came into their final form over the course of many hundreds of years, as many dozens of semi-independent fiefs and former independent countries came to be incorporated into the French royal domain. Because of the haphazard manner in which the provinces evolved, each had its own sets of feudal traditions, laws, taxation systems, courts, etc., and the system represented an impediment to effective administration of the entire country from Paris. During the early years of the French Revolution, in an attempt to centralize the administration of the whole country, and to remove the influence of the French nobility over the country, the entirety of the Province system was abolished and replaced by the system of départements, which is still in use today.

In some cases, several modern regions or départements share names with the historic provinces, and their borders may cover roughly the same territory.

List of former provinces of France

The list below shows the major provinces of France at the time of their dissolution during the French Revolution. Capital cities are shown in parentheses. Bold cities indicate that the city was the seat of a parlement or conseils souverains (sovereign councils), which were legislative and judicial bodies. In some cases, the legislature met in a different city than the traditional capital. Some of the provinces that were later incorporated into France during the revolution were not formally part of the Kingdom of France.

Provinces of France in 1789 relative to the modern borders of France
Note: The Comtat Venaissin (annexed 1791), Mulhouse (annexed 1798), Montbéliard (annexed 1816), Savoy and Nice (annexed 1860), and small portions of other provinces were not part of the Kingdom of France.
  1. Île-de-France (Paris)
  2. Berry (Bourges)
  3. Orléanais (Orléans)
  4. Normandy (Rouen)
  5. Languedoc (Toulouse)
  6. Lyonnais (Lyon)
  7. Dauphiné (Grenoble)
  8. Champagne (Troyes)
  9. Aunis (La Rochelle)
  10. Saintonge (Saintes)
  11. Poitou (Poitiers)
  12. Guyenne and Gascony (Bordeaux)
  13. Burgundy (Dijon)
  14. Picardy (Amiens)
  15. Anjou (Angers)
  16. Provence (Aix-en-Provence)
  17. Angoumois (Angoulême)
  18. Bourbonnais (Moulins)
  19. Marche (Guéret)
  20. Brittany (Rennes)
  21. Maine (Le Mans)
  22. Touraine (Tours)
  23. Limousin (Limoges)
  24. Foix (Foix)
  25. Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand)
  26. Béarn (Pau)
  27. Alsace (Strasbourg, cons. souv. in Colmar)
  28. Artois (Arras)
  29. Roussillon (Perpignan)
  30. Flanders and Hainaut (Lille parlement in Douai)
  31. Franche-Comté (Besançon)
  32. Lorraine (Nancy)
  33. Corsica (off map, Ajaccio, cons. souv. in Bastia)
  34. Nivernais (Nevers)
  35. Comtat Venaissin, a Papal fief (Avignon)
  36. Imperial Free City of Mulhouse
  37. Savoy (Chambéry), a Sardinian fief
  38. Nice (Nice), a Sardinian fief
  39. Montbéliard (Montbéliard), a fief of Württemberg
  40. Trois-Évêchés: Metz, Toul and Verdun (not identified on map, within Lorraine)

Coat of Arms of the Provinces of France.

See also:Gallery of French coats of arms

Partial display of historical provincial arms:

AlençonAnjouArtoisBerryBurgundyBrittanyChampagneDauphinéFoix
GasconyLorraineGévaudanMaineMarcheNormandySavoyTouraineValois

See also

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