The 1596 Assembly of Notables (French: Assemblée des notables de 1583) was a gathering of many important French nobles, prelates, financial officials and urban grandees. They were called together in the hopes that they could provide a solution to the fiscal crisis king Henri IV found himself faced by. By 1596, France's fiscal condition was dire, with an annual deficit of roughly 18,000,000 livres (pounds) and many of the king's revenues alienated from him. His main financial advisers, embodied by the conseil des finances (council of finances) found themselves overwhelmed by the situation. The principal fiscal expert on this conseil, Pomponne de Bellièvre proposed to Henri that the best remedy to secure the appropriate mandate for the remedies he hoped to implement would be to convene an Assembly of Notables.
Henri, consumed by the military crisis of the war with España accepted Bellièvre's proposal. Bellièvre prepared a broad package of measures for the consideration of the delegates, combining fiscal austerity with a redistribution of the kingdoms tax burden from the countryside to the towns. The Assembly opened in Rouen on 4 November with between 80 and 94 delegates in attendance. The deliberations were divided into three chambers. The delegates were shocked to learn about the crown's expenditure and proposals and resolved to work to verify the various records they were presented with. By early December the Assembly was close to collapse, and the king departed from Rouen for a few weeks. His ministers took the initiative to push the notables towards several proposals for increasing royal revenues. In mid January Henri (who had returned) proposed to the notables the introduction of a 5% sales tax on goods entering into towns (which would be known as the pancarte). Though initially hesitant the notables agreed to endorse this measure. On 28 January the assembly was drawn to a close, and the notables presented their recommendations to the king. They offered a direct cash grant to the crown, curtailing exemptions to the taille (land tax), both cutting and suspending royal incomes, the curtailing of venal office and endorsed the pancarte among other recommendations. The royal council began introducing legislation based on some of their recommendations, however in March a new military crisis rocked the kingdom with the Spanish capture of Amiens. A new impetus for fiscal expedients was thus created, and Henri once more turned to fiscal shortcuts that the Assembly had deplored (such as venal office). The pancarte was put into force in April over much opposition but would deliver far lower revenues than anticipated and would be abolished in 1602. In response to criticism from Paris and the parlements, Henri created several new fiscal councils embodying Bellièvre's proposal for the Assembly. They would last only a couple of months before the king abolished them. As 1597 continued, Henri turned away from the minister whose program the Assembly embodied, Bellièvre, towards the baron de Rosny whose ruthless financial policy and lack of interest in 'proper process' appealed to Henri's needs.