Prévôt

A prévôt (French pronunciation: ​[pʁeˈvoː]) was a governmental position of varying importance in Ancien Régime France, typically referring to a civil officer, magistrate, head of cathedral or church, often anglicised as provost. A unit of justice or court overseen by a prévôt was known as a prévôté ().

Prévôt is a Middle French term that comes from the classical Latin , meaning "person placed in charge" (literally "positioned in the forefront").

The word prévôt (provost) applied to a number of different persons in pre-Revolutionary France. 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, in Paris, for example, there existed both the "Lord Provost of Paris" who presided a lower royal court, as well as the very important and influential "Provost of the Merchants" (prévôt des marchands), i.e. the Dean of the City Guilds, who headed traditionally the City Council and the City's merchant companies, thus being de facto a kind of feudal mayor.

In addition to these two, there were "Provost Marshals" a.k.a. "Provosts of the Marshals of France" (Prévôts des Maréchaux de France), the "Provost of the Royal Residence" (Prévôt de l'Hôtel du Roi), later a.k.a. the "Lord High Provost of France" (Grand Prévôt de France), and the "Provost General" (Prévôt général) later a.k.a. the "Lord High Provost of the Mint" (Grand Prévôt des Monnaies or de la Monnaie).

The role extended into New France, with Prévôté de Québec () and Prévôt de Montréal () in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The most important and best known provosts, as part of the King's personal aids administering the scattered parts of the royal domain, were the "Royal Provosts" (Prévôts royaux). The regional title of those provosts varied widely from province to province for traditional reasons: "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, making it likely that the domainal provost position was fashioned after the corresponding ecclesiastical provost of cathedral chapters, a charge which was strongly developed in the same era.

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