1596 Assembly of Notables

Bellièvre prepared a broad package of measures for the consideration of the delegates, combining fiscal austerity with a redistribution of the kingdoms tax burden from the countryside to the towns.

They created new fiscal offices, sold off noble titles and what remained of the royal domain (parts of the kingdom directly owned by the crown), they floated new loans and taxes on the towns.

For example, during the conduct of the siege of La Fère (a town which had been sold to the kingdom of España by the ligueur (leaguer) the duc d'Aumale), Henri wrote to the conseil informing them that he needed immediate funds to pay for the income of his infantry and Swiss soldiers.

[4] Henri complained bitterly to the baron de Rosny that while his larder was bare and his clothes torn, his financiers and treasurers "let me die of hunger while they sit at well-laden and stocked tables".

[20] Shortly after Bellièvre's return to the conseil des finances on 26 March 1596, the body recommended to Henri that nine of the investigatory commission the crown had created be abolished on the grounds that they were presently more of a burden on the people than the regular taxation was.

[6] On 21 April, the chancelier Cheverny and Bellièvre proposed a reduction in the interest rates on rentes (government bonds) from 8.33% to 6.66% which offered a saving to the crown of 600,000 livres per year.

The king found his patience with Bellièvre and the council greatly tested by their failures to provide him with what he needed, especially when he began to suspect it was their concerns of proper process that were holding back funds from him.

[28] In his letters of summons Henri declared his intention to find money where it could not be sourced from the existing finances and to gain assistance in the raising of an army so that the enemies of the kingdom might be halted from ravaging the countryside and cities.

Instead of taxes, the crown could resolve its financial problems in the mind of the representatives from Tours by eliminating corruption, reducing the number of royal offices to those which had been present during the reign of Henri II and fiscal austerity.

The nobles would be put out by the reductions in the military budget and pensions, the royal officials by attacks on their offices and incomes, and the urban population by the increase in their tax burden.

He operated with far less scruples for the raising of funds than his colleagues and brought back from Orléans and Tours 300,000 écus (or 900,000 livres) in seventy carts, pilfered from the wages of royal officers, money allocated to the payment of rentes and pensions.

[31][7] The members of the sovereign courts in the cour des aides and the trésoriers of Tours whose revenues he had plundered (and in the latter case, removed from their office) strongly protested but without effect.

[41] The invitation of the prelates is explained by Major as a desire to resolve the problem of the church that had been raised earlier in the year, and to secure their buy in for the implementation of the Assemblies resolutions in their diocese.

[49] On 8 November the first combined session of the chambers was held too hear the reports of the intendants des finances Incarville and Heudicourt outline the fiscal position of the crown.

The king retorted that he could not do so given the precarity of his fiscal situation, however he suggested a committee be established by the notables to work with Incarville and Heudicourt to figure out which parts of the extraordinary taxation could be abandoned.

He left the delegation kneeling throughout their interview with him (something a contemporary described as very rude) and told them that while he was sure some of them served him faithfully, many of their number were guilty of abuses and he would no longer allow his finances to be so poorly administered.

[50] Revelations followed as to the taxation enjoyed by the duc d'Épernon for his personal benefit in the region of Bordeaux and the practice in Languedoc of taxes raised without royal authority or audit by the provincial and sub-provincial estates - totalling around 210,000 livres.

[49] On 18 November, the intendant Incarville announced to the notables that the crown had devoted 19,440,000 livres towards the submission of ligueur aligned seigneurs and occupied towns, and that the sum might end up being even greater than this as not all magnates had yet been subdued by treaty.

[50] On 26 November, the duc de Montmorency made a proposal that garrisons who owed loyalty to figures other than the king (i.e. provincial seigneurs) should be disbanded and fortifications demolished.

The cardinal de Gondi announced, on 28 November, that he had presented these proposals to Henri who was favourable, but lacked the means to effect their enaction: compensation would be required for those relieved of office and the destruction of fortifications was expensive.

[51] While it had been hoped on the conseil des finances that simply presently the grim fiscal picture alone would drive the deputies towards proposing new taxation as the cure, it was clear by 12 December this was not going to happen.

[51] On 8 January, the cardinal de Gondi announced that Henri had a few days prior issued an edict that disbanded the companies of horse bound arquebusiers enjoyed by governors, princes and royal officials.

While Henri agreed to maintain himself in Rouen for some further days, 16 January came and went without the submission of the cahiers, the notables still struggling with how to overcome the size of the budget deficit as it was clear economies alone would not achieve it.

They claimed an exclusive right to the offices of the royal household, the baillis and sénéchaux (baillifs and seneschals) as well as participation in the compagnies d'ordonnnace (ordonnance companies - heavy cavalry units that formed the core of the army).

[49] While it would not be their exclusive prerogative they wished to be the port of first call for the positions of prelates in the church, abbots, priors, lieutenants to the aforementioned baillis and sénéchaux as well as présidents and conseillers in the various sovereign courts of the crown.

In addition to all these demands, the nobles made the offer that no one except the king should have the right to see a fortification established (be it on a town or elsewhere), an endorsement of the proposal of the connétable de Montmorency.

[57] They urged for the immediate repayment of debts to the crown and expressed a desire to see the tax farms (auctioned off rights to collect taxation to private parties) kept under close control.

[59] Henri for his part fumed at the notables' attempts to control his finances, but conceded to a small reduction in the expenditure of the royal household and a denunciation of corrupt officials.

Bellièvre prepared several temperate speeches for the occasion of the lit de justice but the king ignored them in favour of a short belligerent one of his own making.

Involved in this conseil would be twelve men: the cardinal de Gondi (who assumed the role of président on 21 May), a handful of great nobles, members of the three sovereign courts of Paris, the maître des requêtes and municipal officials of the capital.