Court of Finances

Under the French monarchy, the Courts of Accounts (in French Chambres des comptes) were sovereign courts specialising in financial affairs. The Court of Accounts in Paris was the oldest and the forerunner of today's French Court of Audit. They oversaw public spending, handled finances, protected crown estates, audited the accounts of crown officials, and adjudicated any related matters of law.

To oversee the Kingdom's revenues and expenditure, the French King first relied solely on his King's Court or Curia Regis, court officials who assisted him in governing. However, by the mid-12th century, the Crown entrusted its finances to the Knights Templar, who maintained a banking establishment in Paris. The royal Treasury was henceforth organized like a bank and salaries and revenues were transferred between accounts. Royal accounting officers in the field, who sent revenues to the Temple, were audited by the King's Court, which had special clerks assigned to work at the Temple. These financial specialists came to be called the Curia in Compotis and sat in special sessions of the King's Court for dealing with financial business. From 1297, accounts were audited twice yearly after Midsummer Day (June 24) and Christmas. In time, what was once a simple Exchequer of Receipts developed into a central auditing agency, branched off, and eventually specialized into a full-time court.

In 1256, Saint Louis issued a decree ordering all mayors, burghesses, and town councilmen to appear before the King's sovereign auditors of the Exchequer (French gens des comptes) in Paris to render their final accounting. The King's Court's general secretariat had members who specialized in finance and accountancy and could receive accounts. A number of Barons (maîtres lais) were commissioned to sit as the King's Exchequer (comptes du Roi).

In or around 1303, the Paris Court of Accounts was established in the Palais de la Cité where it remained until the French Revolution. Its auditors were responsible for overseeing revenue from Crown estates and checking public spending. It audited the Royal Household, inspectors, royal commissioners, provosts, and lower court justices. In 1307, the Philip IV definitively removed royal funds from the Temple and placed them in the fortress of the Louvre. Thereafter, the financial specialists received accounts for audit in a room of the royal palace that became known as the Camera compotorum or Chambre des comptes, and they began to be collectively identified under the same name, although still only a subcommittee within the King's Court, consisting of about sixteen people.

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