Editing Intendant (section)

== Development of the system in France==
Intendants were [[monarchy|royal]] civil servants in France under the [[Ancien Régime|Old Regime]].  A product of the centralization policies of the French crown, intendants were appointed "commissions," and not purchasable hereditary "offices," which thus prevented the abuse of sales of royal offices and made them more tractable and subservient emissaries of the king.  Intendants were sent to supervise and enforce the king's will in the provinces and had jurisdiction over three areas: finances, policing and justice.

Their missions were always temporary, which helped reduce favorable bias toward a province, and were focused on royal inspection.  Article 54 of the [[Michel de Marillac|Code Michau]] described their functions as "to learn about all crimes, misdemeanors and financial misdealings committed by our officials and of other things concerning our service and the tranquility of our people" ("''informer de tous crimes, abus et malversations commises par nos officiers et autres choses concernant notre service et le soulagement de notre peuple''").

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the intendants were chosen from the ''[[Nobles of the Robe|noblesse de robe]]'' ("administrative nobility") or the upper-bourgeoisie.  Generally, they were [[Master of Requests (France)|masters of requests]] in the ''[[Conseil d'État (France)|Conseil des parties]]''. They were chosen by the [[Controller-General of Finances]] who asked the advice of the [[Secretary of State for War (France)|Secretary of State for War]] for those who were to be sent in border provinces.  They were often young: [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]] became an intendant at the age of 32, [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune|Turgot]] and [[Louis Bénigne François Berthier de Sauvigny]] at the age of 34, and [[Louis-Urbain-Aubert de Tourny]] at the age of 40.

A symbol of royal centralization and absolutism, the intendant had numerous adversaries.  Those nostalgic for an administration based on noble lineage (such as [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]]) saw intendants as parvenus and usurpers of noble power.  Partisans of a less absolute monarchy (such as [[François Fénelon|Fénelon]]) called for them to be abolished.  [[Jacques Necker]], the only Minister of Finances since 1720 who had not himself been an intendant, accused them of incompetence because of their youth and social aspirations. The ''[[cahiers de doléances]]'' of 1789 depicted them as over zealous agents of fiscal policies which weighed heavily on the people.

The term ''intendant'' was also used for certain positions close to the Controller-General of Finances (see this term for more information):
* intendants of finance
* intendants of commerce
* intendants of the sovereign council

In the same way, the term ''intendant général'' was used for certain commissioned positions close to the [[Secretary of State (Ancien Régime)|State Secretaries]] of War and of the Navy.

===History===
As early as the 15th century, the French kings sent commissioners to the [[Provinces of France|provinces]] to report on royal and administrative issues and to undertake any necessary action.  These agents of the king were recruited from among the masters of requests, the [[Conseiller d'État|Councillors of State]] and members of the [[Parlement]]s or the [[Chambre des comptes|Court of Accounts]].  Their mission was always for a specific mandate and lasted for a limited period.  Along with these, there were also commissioners sent to the army, in charge of provisioning the army, policing and finances; they would supervise accountants, providers, merchants, and generals, and attend war councils and tribunals for military crimes.  Such commissioners are found in [[Corsica]] as early as 1553, in [[Bourges]] in 1592, in [[Troyes]] in 1594, and in [[Limoges]] in 1596.

When [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]] ascended the throne in 1589, one of his prime focuses was to reduce the privileges of the provincial governors who, in theory, represented "the presence of the king in his province" but had, during the civil wars of the early modern period, proven themselves to be highly intractable; these positions had long been held by only the highest ranked [[French nobility|noble]] families in the realm.  The Intendants to the provinces —- the term "Intendant" appears around 1620 during the reign of [[Louis XIII of France|Louis XIII]] – became an effective tool of regional control.

Under Louis XIII's minister [[Cardinal Richelieu]], with France's entry into the [[Thirty Years' War]] in 1635, the Intendants became a permanent institution in France.  No longer mere inspectors, their role became one of government administrators.  During the [[Fronde]] in 1648, the members of Parlement of the ''Chambre Saint-Louis'' demanded that the Intendants be suppressed; [[Cardinal Mazarin|Mazarin]] and [[Anne of Austria]] gave in to these demands except in the case of border provinces threatened by Spanish or Imperial attack.  At the end of the Fronde, the Intendants were reinstated.

When [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] (1643–1715) was in power, the [[François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois|Marquis of Louvois]], [[Secretary of State for War (France)|War Secretary]] between 1677 and 1691, further expanded the power of the provincial intendants. They monitored Louis's refinements of the French military, including the institution of a merit promotion system and a policy of enlistment limited to single men for periods of four years.  After 1680, Intendants in France had a permanent position in a fixed region (or "[[généralité]]"); their official titles being <span title="intendant of justice, police and finances, commissioners departed in the generalities of the kingdom for the execution of the orders of the king">''intendant de justice, police et finances'', ''commissaires départis dans les généralités du royaume pour l'exécution des ordres du roi''</span> (or <span title="of his majesty">''de Sa Majesté''</span>).<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Intendant |volume=14 |page=683 |first=Adhémar |last=Esmein |author-link=Adhémar Esmein}}</ref>

The position of Intendant remained in existence until the [[French Revolution]]. The title was maintained thereafter for military officers with responsibility for financial auditing at regimental level and above.

A 2021 study, which used a dataset of 430 intendants from 1640 to 1789, found that less than half of these officials went through the legally-specified training path.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Sasaki|first=Yu|date=2021|title=The Royal Consultants: The Intendants of France and the Bureaucratic Transition in Pre-modern Europe|url=https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/HPE-0008|journal=Journal of Historical Political Economy|language=English|volume=1|issue=2|pages=259–289|doi=10.1561/115.00000008|issn=2693-9290|hdl=2065/00073286|s2cid=238784308|hdl-access=free}}</ref> The study raised questions about the impersonal nature of these bureaucrats, with evidence indicating that familial and marital ties were factors in appointments, and that appointment duration had wide variability.<ref name=":0" />

===Functions===
Appointed and revoked by the king and reporting to the [[Controller-General of Finances]], the Intendant in his "généralité" had at his service a small team of secretaries.  In the 18th century, the "généralité" was subdivided into "subdelegations" at the head of which was placed a "subdelegate" (having also a team of secretaries) chosen by the Intendant.  In this way, the Intendant was relatively understaffed given his large jurisdiction.

===Notable intendants===
* [[Claude-François Bertrand de Boucheporn]], in [[Corsica]] then [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau]], [[Bayonne]] and [[Auch]]
* [[Paul Esprit Marie de la Bourdonnaye]] in [[Poitiers]]
* [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]] in [[Metz]], then in [[Lille]], future [[Controller-General of Finances]]
* [[Nicolas-François Dupré de Saint-Maur]] in [[Bordeaux]]
* [[Antoine-Martin Chaumont de La Galaizière]] in [[Soissons]] then in [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]]
* [[Jean Baptiste Antoine Auget de Montyon|Jean-Baptiste Antoine Auget de Montyon]] in [[Poitiers]]
* [[Louis-Urbain-Aubert de Tourny]] in [[Limoges]], then in [[Bordeaux]]
* [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune|Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot]] in [[Limoges]], future [[Controller-General of Finances]]

===New France===
The French North American colony of [[New France]], which later became the Canadian province of [[Quebec]], also had a senior official called an [[Intendant of New France|intendant]], who was responsible to the French King. New France's first intendant was [[Jean Talon]], comte d'Orsainville in 1665, and the last one, at the time of the [[French and Indian War|British conquest of Quebec]] was [[François Bigot]].