GÉNÉRAUX
. With the growth of royal taxation after the mid-14th century, both the French crown and
its critics groped their way toward a system that would provide honest and efficient
collection of these “extraordinary” revenues without depending on traditional domainal
officials. Soon after the introduction of élus to supervise collection, we find a board of
higher supervisory officials, named originally by assemblies of the Estates and later by
the crown. Although they were called by various names, the word généraux almost
always appeared in their title.
The Estates of December 1355 appointed générauxsurintendents to supervise taxes.
The next few assemblies named similar officials called généraux-députés. In 1360, when
the crown established the aides, it appointed généraux-trésoriers to oversee collection of
the funds intended for the ransom of John II. At the end of 1363, when the Estates of
Languedoil established the fouage, or hearth tax, to finance a royal army, members of the
supervisory board were called généraux-élus. Finally, when war with England resumed in
1369, a board of généraux-conseillers coordinated the administration of taxes.
The three (later four) men who served as “counselors-general” of the aides had great
authority in the 1370s, being empowered to issue orders in the king’s name. Although
taxes were canceled in 1380–81, resumption of the aides two years later meant the
reestablishment of the board of généraux-conseillers. In the course of sweeping reforms
under the rule of the Marmouset party at court (1388–92), these généraux received
judicial powers and additional supporting staff. Ordinances of April 1390 and March
1391 began the process of converting them into a body known as the Cour des Aides.
This court exercised auditing and judicial functions in matters involving extraordinary
revenues (aides, taille) much as the Chambre des Comptes had done for revenues
emanating from the royal domain. Ordinances of 1388 and 1393, which granted fiscal
exemptions to categories of nobles, and enactments relating to other privileged groups,
ensured that the généraux in the Cour des Aides would play an important role in
determining cases involving a person’s liability to taxes.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: AIDES; ÉLU; FOUAGE]
Cazelles, Raymond. Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean le Bon et Charles V. Geneva:
Droz, 1982.
Dupont-Ferrier, Gustave. Études sur les institutions financières de la France a la fin du moyen âge.
2 vols. Paris: Didot, 1930–32.
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of
John II, 1356–1370. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976.
Rey, Maurice. Le domaine du roi et les ressources extraordinaires sous Charles VI, 1388–1413.
Paris: SEVPEN, 1965.
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