fjt_090514 - CHAMBRES DES COMPTES CHAMBRE DES COMPTES DU ROI n.d.

CHAMBRES DES COMPTES / ACCOUNTS CHAMBERS

Like the King's Council, the Chamber of Accounts is a dismemberment of the former king's court, in the part responsible for overseeing the royal domain, the handling of finances and the verification of the accounts of the king's agents. His role was to register edicts and declarations concerning the estate, letters of ennoblement, naturalization, pensions, etc.. It also recorded marriage contracts of the royal family, peace treaties. The Chamber of Accounts had civil and criminal jurisdiction over its own officers and over offenses committed within its premises near the Sainte-Chapelle. It extended its jurisdiction to the whole kingdom in certain areas (war, navy, colonies, royal treasury, bridges and roads, etc.. ) but the Provincial Chambers of Accounts withdrew from its jurisdiction certain accounts. The Chamber of Accounts boasted of being the oldest in the kingdom, before Parliament. Its officers enjoyed important privileges: nobility, title of king's advisers, franc-salé, tax exemptions, corvées, etc.. Many regions, cities and administrations had their own Chamber of Accounts, and tokens were issued in large numbers, above all to be used for accounts..