ration of the kingdom during his absence,
they figure as part of a general system. Probably the first royal bailiffs
or seneschals were the seigniorial bailiffs of certain great fiefs that had
been reunited to the crown, their functions still continuing after the
annexation. Their essential function was at first the surveillance of the
royal provosts (_prevots_), who until then had had the sole administration
of the various parts of the domain. They concentrated in their own hands
the produce of the provostships, and they organized and led the men who by
feudal rules owed military service to the king. They had also judicial
functions, which, at first narrowly restricted in application, became much
enlarged as time went on, and they held periodical assizes in the principal
centres of their districts. When the right of appeal was instituted, it was
they who heard the appeals from sentences pronounced by inferior royal
judges and by the seigniorial justices. Royal cases, and cases in which a
noble was defendant, were also reserved for them. The royal _bailli_ or
seneschal (no real difference existed between the two offices, the names
merely changing according to the district), was for long the king's
principal representative in the provinces, [v.03 p.0219] and the
_bailliage_ or the _senechaussee_ was then as important administratively as
judicially. But the political power of the bailiffs was greatly lessened
when the provincial governors were created. They had already lost their
financial powers, and their judicial functions now passed from them to
their lieutenants.

By his origin the bailiff had a military character; he was an officer of
the "short robe" and not of the "long robe," which in those days was no
obstacle to his being well versed in precedents. But when, under the
influence of Roman and canon law, the legal procedure of the civil courts
became _learned_, the bailiff often availed himself of a right granted him
by ancient public law: that of delegating the exercise of his functions to
whomsoever he thought fit. He delegated his judicial functions to
lieutenants, whom he selected and discharged at will. But as this
delegation became habitual, the position of the lieutenants was
strengthened; in the 16th century they became royal officers by title, and
even dispossessed the bailiffs of their judiciary prerogatives. The
tribunal of the _bailliage_ or _senechaussee_ underwent yet another
transformation, becoming