Étienne Boileau
Étienne Boileau (French pronunciation: [etjɛn bwalo]) (c. 1200 or 1210 – April 1270) was one of the first known provosts of Paris. Descended from an Orléanais noble family, he served as royal bailiff (prévôt) of Paris (Garde de la prévôté et vicomté de Paris) from 1261 until his death.
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Provost of Paris
The name of Étienne Boileau is closely associated with the reform of the provost of Paris (Prévôté de Paris) in 1261 by King Louis the Saint.[1] Paris, although a residence since the 12th century, was a poorly administered city until the middle of the 13th century. Although the office of prévôté already existed, covering the city and the surrounding bailiwicks of the vice-county of Paris, its powers were not clearly defined. Above all, the office of prévôt was given on lease, which meant that only those with sufficient wealth could obtain this office. The purchase of office entailed corruption and abuse. In the mid-13th century, legal uncertainty led to a decline in the city's population for the first time in generations.
In 1261, King Louis IX forbade the venality of the prévôté and took this office into royal pay. He appointed Boileau, who had already made a name for himself with the king as the incorruptible prévôt of Orléans, where he had been in office since 1259. From then on, the Prévôt of Paris was given a special status in that his powers were extended to include those of a bailli (roughly equivalent to a prefect of police). He was now responsible for the administration of justice, the collection of taxes, the supervision of the guilds and the protection of the privileges of the University.
He was also responsible for the military and financial administration of the city. With the Royal Guard, created by the king as early as 1254, he had a police unit that possessed greater powers than the Citizen Guard. The jurisdiction of the royal prévôt continued to correspond to the territory of the vice-county of Paris; it ended only at the quarters and the assigned places of the Parisian river merchants' guild, which had its own head in the freely elected prévôt des marchands. However, the royal Prévôt was in a higher position than the latter because he could revoke decisions taken by the Prévôt des marchands. With the Grand Châtelet, the royal prévôt was also assigned a permanent official residence, located directly opposite the Palais de la Cité.
The chroniclers Nangis and Joinville unanimously reported a sudden economic upswing and improvement in public order in Paris since Boileau had taken over the reins there.
Book of Trades
The first written record of the statutes and customary rights of a total of 101 listed Parisian trades by Boileau around 1268 also had a great influence. This order of the trade guilds of Paris (Établissement des métiers de Paris)[2] covered almost all of the city's trades. It also included all the rights and duties of the guilds vis-à-vis the city rulers. They were recorded in the first part of a two-volume book, whose title Book of Trades (Livre des métiers) is used today for the complete work. The second part, which has received less attention from historians, was entitled Rights and Customs (Droitures et coutumes) and fulfilled the functions of a police regulation and a tax list. In it, Boileau listed the various taxes that all citizens of Paris had to pay to the crown. These levies were divided into civil taxes (poll taxes, sewage fees, and bridge tolls) and trade-specific taxes (customs duties on goods and markets).
The Livre des métiers is still considered the most important source on the economic life of 13th century Paris.
Foundation of the Order
In 1263, under the protection of King Louis IX, Boileau founded the laicist Order of the Commanderie in the Châtelet. This order still has branches in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Monaco, Luxembourg, as well as the Channel Islands and the island of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean. The patron saint of the Order is St. Sergius, who came from a Roman patrician family in the 3rd century. The objectives of the Order are mainly the development and maintenance of friendly relations in the social, scientific and cultural fields, as well as the support of institutions and groups in the charitable field.
Notes
References
- Caroline Bourlet, Le "Livre des métiers" dit d'Etienne Boileau et la lente mise en place d'une législation écrite du travail à Paris. Saint-Denis: Université Paris 8, 2015.
- Jacques Le Goff, Saint Louis. Paris: Folio, 1999.
- Antoine de Lévis-Mirepoix, Saint Louis, Roi de France. Paris: Albin Michel, 1970.
- William Chester Jordan, Men at the Center. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2012.
- Arié Serper, "L'Administration Royale de Paris au Temps de Louis IX," Francia, Vol. VII, 1979.
