Originally posted by King of Men
How did the kingdoms of the period handle the administrative problems of annexations?
I guess it all depends on place and time. I am, for instance, a descendant of those "annexed" peoples of New France when it was conquered by Britain, but the situation is quite different from a "normal" one, as the British were forced to be generous with the vanquished, for fear of an alliance between French-Canadians and soon-to-be Americans. Thus, French-Canadians were allowed to retain their land (which poor Acadians were denied), to have a Catholic Bishop in Québec, to have their rights respected (through, paradoxically, a military dictatorship), etc.
Did they send in completely new thugs (tax collectors), or did they leave the old ones in place and just change where the money was sent? Also, did they leave taxes as they had been (which must have made for a nightmarish hodgepodge of regulations and laws) or did they impose more or less uniform taxes over their territories? And the same question applies to every other form of law and law enforcement.
This is exactly how France dealt with its annexation. Most of the changes were gradual, for fear of revolts. Some regions, formerly more or less organized (Britanny, Languedoc, etc.) were incorporated as such in the kingdom, retaining most of their laws, having a certain degree of autonomy in their handling of money, etc. Those were "Pays d'État", which were granted independant Parliaments. The French Crown would negociate the ammount of taxes to be raised in the Pays d'État, which would then decide how to raise its own taxes, depending on how they chose to distribute it. The "Pays d'Élection" were territories conquered very early and, as such, were more or less subjugated to Paris/Versailles.
One thing to remember, though, is that most "privileges" were to be recognized by the crown, whether there were monetary privileges (levies, tolls, duties, etc), or political ones (the rights to do this or that, laws, "coutumes et usages"). Yes, it did create a nightmare of different rights and regulation, endless court debates, etc. This did create a status called "Pays réputé étranger": conquered province that were considered - in terms of commerce - as an actual foreign province. Duties were collected for products leaving / entering those provinces.
Again, it is to be remembered that tax collectors, in France, were very rarely agents of the King, but private individuals operating in his name. The difference ? Tax were farmed: that is, the French King, always in need of money, "sold" the privilege to collect taxes to a group of financiers. Those financiers gave money to the King when he needed it, and managed with the problems of getting back the money through tax collection.
In a conquered territory, the aim of the King was to be obeyed, and collect money. To be obeyed, he needed to replace the ancient local administration with another local administration, this time devoted to him, or owing their place to his good will. To collect money, he then used this new local administration to "extract" what he needed, most of the time, leaving to this administration the details on how the perception was done, whether throught sales of office, "octrois", duties, etc.
When Kings were more powerful, they could impose some taxes to all their subjects: this was the case of the "vingtième" (1/20 of the property). This "vingtième" in France, was also applied to nobility. Most tensions were created when those Kings tried to impose those "novelties" on tracts of lands were there were none before. In that case, the King would either back off (the case of Franche-Comté in the 17th century) send troops and crush the rebellion (the case of Britanny, at the same time, explaining why Franche-Comté managed to negociate), or send troops and lose against the rebels (the cas of the Netherlands against Spain). When (and if) Kings succeeded to impose harmonized administration, it was only through violence and defeat of one part (Bohemia against the Hapsburg) or through patience and carefully eating away privileges. However, privileges were part of Ancien Régime society. There is no reason to believe the Kings were against it, or even could wish for a society without privileges. It took the Revolution to put an end to it all.
Further, while loyalty to a nation-state is a fairly new concept, loyalty to the king is quite old - was, indeed, the foundation of the feudal state, through intermediaries. How were these changes handled? Presumably under a feudal system one could just require the local Duke to swear fealty, and all his vassals would come with him, but the oath of fealty was supposed to be for life - how was this handled legally? Later on, as the feudal system declined, the problem becomes even more acute; it would be a bit difficult to require a separate loyalty oath from thirty thousand people, but there must surely be some sort of recognition of their new subject status?
Again, this most probably depends on circumstances. Acadians were required to swear an oath of fealty to the British, but this oath would have required them to march to war against their fellow French settlers who ended up in the French side of the border, which they did not want. Thus, they were deported (thousands of them...). In other regions, the King proclaimed its new sovereignty over towns, most of the time at church, when a proclamation was read, and a prayer ordred in honor of the new King. For most of those people, things didn't change, for the reasons explained above. When things would change, however, local administrations either were looking for a new sovereign (which was what the Netherlands did, before settling for a Republic) capable of opposing the new leader or tried to negociate a "new deal". In any case, the local lords or merchant elites were obligatory partners. Private property was respected (except for cases of treason, which explains why Louis XIV seized the principalty of Orange), but most of the time, Kings tried to limit the privilege of "haute justice" and coinage which were the mark of sovereign states, by buying them back (Dombes, Sedan, etc.)
