Grand Panetier of France
Officer of state in the French royal court
The Grand Panetier of France (roughly "Great Breadmaster", sometimes rendered as Panter) was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, a member of the Maison du Roi ("King's Household"), one of the Great Offices of the Maison du Roi, and functional chief of the "(grande) paneterie" (the root of the English word pantry) or bread department.
French history
Originally the paneterie (known since the 11th century) one of the two sections of the gobelet du roi ('King's drinking-cup) with a staff of 12 sommeliers, four aides, one garde-vaiselle (for the dirty dishes), two porte(u)rs and a lavandier (laundryman), helping him to wash, prepare and gather again all the royal table utensils, as well as the bread. In time some of these duties were transferred to other sections, so his function at the King's table became ceremonial. Under the Sun King his was one of the seven sections of the bouche du Roi or king's table.
He did gain several privileges, including jurisdiction over the (monopolistic) corporation of bakers in Paris.
The office was made hereditary in the noble family of Cossé de Brissac in the 16th century; the last incumbent died in 1792.
In heraldry, he placed below his shield, left and right, a nef d'or and a cadenas, golden objects placed near the King's setting at the table.
“Grand Panetier of France” enters the record as officer of state in the French royal court. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Grand, Panetier and France can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grand Panetier of France” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.