Provinces and Governments: administrative divisions in the Kingdom of France.

  In 1789, there were three kinds of administrative divisions in the Kingdom of France.

The dioceses were ecclesiastic divisions, which dated back to the Roman times. Roman Catholicism was the official religion of France, which was known as La Fille Aînée de l'Eglise ("The Church's Elder Daughter"), following King Louis XIII's vow.

The provinces were military gouvernements (governments), mostly established in the 14th century. By the law of 18 Mar 1776 their number was fixed at 39 of which 32 were grands grouvernements (greater governments) and 7 were lesser ones or petits grouvernements enclaved into the greater ones. Smaller feudal divisions remained as subdivisions of the governments. They were called bailliages (bailiwicks) in the north of France, sénéchaussées in the south-west, and vigueries in Provence. These are not covered in this record.

The généralités (generalities) and the intendances (intendancies) were financial divisions, mostly established in the XVI-XVIIth centuries. An intendance was the territory administrated by an intendant, who was the direct representative of the King. In 1555, the first maîtres de requêtes, later renamed intendants, were appointed. The intendants were the most powerful people of the kingdom after the King himself, and their position was often dynastic.

The borders of the different divisions did not match each other. This lack of unity was caused by the heterogeneous historical formation of France. The kings progressively incorporated to their own domain (domaine royal) large feudal and princely states, whose institutions and privileges they promised to respect. Some provinces (Brittany, Provence, Béarn) recognized the King only as their Duke, Count, or Lord. Several of these states kept their political institutions (Etats [states]) and administrated taxes. As an example, Provence, incorporated to France in 1481, kept its Etats in Aix-en-Provence and had a specific "Provencal Constitution". Provence was divided into vigueries, but its two main cities, Arles and Marseilles, had a specific status of terres adjacentes à régime spécial ("adjacent areas with specific regime").

As explained by Alexis de Tocqueville in "L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution" (1856), "the administrative centralization was an institution of the Ancient Regime and not a realization of the Revolution and the Empire, as often wrongly assumed." As direct representatives of the Kings, the intendants gained more and more power, whereas the military governor's function became purely honorific as early as in the 17th century. At that time, Richelieu, one of the great reformers of the French state, believed that powerful military governors were more a threat than a protection for the royal power, and ordered the demolition of most fortresses located quite far from the borders. In parallel, Richelieu consolidated the power of the intendants, which was a convenient means to collect taxes from reluctant local lords and thereby consolidate royal power.

The tax status of the provinces was also complex, at least nominally: in the pays d'élections (most provinces), the taxes were administered in each circumscription, called élection, by local representatives, called élus; in the pays d'Etats (Bretagne, Bourgogne, Béarn, County of Foix, Languedoc, Provence and Dauphiné), the taxes were administered by a provincial assembly, or Etats (States). Some former feudal states, although no longer governments, kept their States, e.g. Gévaudan, Velay and Vivarais. Of course, the King did not enjoy those States, who often opposed to his decisions, and progressively suppressed them or diminished their power; in the pays d'imposition (Flandre, Artois, Lorraine, Alsace, Franche-Comté and Roussillon), which had been incorporated in the 17th to the 18th centuries, there were neither élections nor états, and the taxes were administered directly by the intendants.

The governments were formally abolished 1 Jan 1791. (2 or 3) denotes a second or third order government, all the others are of the first order.