Maréchaussée

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This article is about the pre-revolutionary French police force. For the current militarized Dutch police force, see Royal Marechaussee.

The Maréchaussée (French for 'Marshalcy') were corps of soldiers in the armies of France initially put in charge of military policing and justice in the Middle Ages, and later extended to civilian responsibilities. They gradually coalesced into a police force with jurisdiction over the entire population on almost the entire territory of France.[1][2][3] They retained powers of extraordinary justice (known as prévôtale) until the French Revolution.

Reforms carried out in the 18th century created the first national police force.[2] In 1791, the force was renamed the Gendarmerie nationale.[4] It is now one of the two national police forces of France, along with the Police nationale.

Terminology

The term marshalcy is from the French maréchaussée, which is derived from Old French mareschaucie, meaning "the marshalcy." This derives from mairichauciée [5] attested in 1287[6] meaning "royal household", and in 1465 as "the office of the marshal".[5]

History

End of the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages and to a lesser extent until the end of the Ancien Régime, the functions of the police and the justice system were closely intertwined.[4][a] Kings, lords and high dignitaries rendered justice. In that sense, justice in the armies was part of the remit of the Grand Constable of France, who succeeded the Seneschal in 1191 as head of the armies, and of the Marshals of France who were his lieutenants. The Grand Constable and the marshals delegated their powers to their provosts.

Their jurisdictions, at first itinerant in nature, merged under Francis I and were established in Paris under the name of the Constabulary and Marshalcy Tribunal [fr], with its seat at the marble table [fr][b] in the Palais de Justice, Paris.[3] The provosts appointed by the Grand Constable and the marshals[clarify] also rendered justice to the armies in provostal courts [fr]. The enforcement bodies of these different jurisdictions were the company of the Constabulary and the companies of the Maréchaussée, which were composed of archers (they were called "sergeants" before 1501).

The Maréchaussée were initially in charge of cracking down on misdeeds committed by soldiers and deserters, and also by mercenaries who formed roving bands of looters known as the "free companies" (Grandes compagnies), but over time the Maréchaussée gradually became more sedentary. After the appearance in 1445 of the compagnies d'ordonnance which were the first permanent paid army in France, the Maréchaussée was no longer satisfied following armies around on campaign, and began to establish itself permanently on the territory under Louis XII.

16th century

Under Francis I, there were sporadic wars between France and her neighbors, and during the idle periods between wars soldiers would roam the countryside, robbing the locals and plundering the villages. Francis assigned provosts (prévôts)—an assistant seconded to a military authority—to the marshals (maréchaux) to recruit detachments of officers and troops to help stop the soldiers' activities. These special military forces roamed the countryside for up to two days at a time, catching and sentencing evildoers from among the military, and later, among the civilian population as well. They also had the power to sentence perpetrators they had caught, with no possibility of appeal. These forces had no central organization, but took the collective name maréchaussée because the various detachments were assigned to the marshals of the army.[7]

By a royal decision of Francis I on 25 January 1536, the mission of the Maréchaussée was extended beyond policing the armies to include persons who did not fall under the jurisdiction of the presidial court: vagabonds, wandering foreigners, armed robbery, and highwaymen.[8][2]

From that time on, the Maréchaussée was responsible for establishing and prosecuting provostal cases (i.e., cases that fell under the jurisdiction of the provost), but in fact it intervened in many cases that fell under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. The provosts now had a fixed residence.

17th century

After the suppression of the Constabulary in 1626 by Louis XIII, the Constabulary and Marshalcy Tribunal was placed under the command of the Marshal of France.

According to the Criminal Ordinance of 1670, certain crimes identified as "royal cases" were investigated by the Maréchaussée but judged by a chamber of the Parliament dealing with criminal matters, while the others, identified as "provost cases" (cas prévôtaux), were judged in first and last instance by the provost courts. [fr]

18th century

In 1720, the Maréchaussée was symbolically placed under the administrative authority of the Gendarmerie de France, a heavy cavalry corps integrated into the Household of the King (Maison du Roi) which was dissolved on 1 April 1788. The edict of 1720 established fixed quarters for the units.

The Maréchaussée suffered from numerous problems—an uneven presence, lack of oversight, low number of personnel—aggravated by corruption[c] of the officers and poor salaries, which led to a series of reforms, carried out between 1720 and 1778.[9]

A series of reforms (1720, 1731, 1768, 1769, 1778) were instituted to make it more effective, reinforce its military character, and improve coverage in the countryside at a time when vagrancy was subject to increased repression.

The edict of March 1720 profoundly reorganized the Maréchaussée and accentuated its territorial nature. It created a provost court and a company of marshalcy in each of the thirty-six governments or provinces. The Secretary of State for War placed a Provost at the head of each one, residing in the chief town of the province, who could be placed at the disposal of the Intendant. The provostships (prévôtés) were divided into lieutenancies, with a lieutenant in each city heading up a presidial court, which in turn were subdivided into squads (brigade [d]) of four to five men distributed along the main roads. Each squad had to watch over about ten kilometers of road on either side of its headquarters.[10] The "arrondissement" or "district" of a squad also included several dozen rural parishes in the area.[citation needed] From 1760, the archers (archers) of the provosts became known as "cavaliers".[11]

The Royal Order of 25 February 1768 created 200 additional squads and reorganized their location, in order to achieve a more fine-grained and logical coverage of the territory. Nevertheless, in 1779 the Maréchaussée had no more than 3,300 men divided into 34 companies, one for each region (including Corsica), plus one for Paris and the Île-de-France, and another to ensure the king's security when he traveled, and 800 squads for the entire Kingdom.

After the reform of 1778, all the companies formed a single corps of 4,114 men on the eve of the Revolution, thus forming the first national police force in France.[2]

Revolutionary period

During the revolutionary period, the Maréchaussée commanders generally placed themselves under the local constitutional authorities. Despite their connection with the king, they were therefore perceived as a force favoring the reforms of the French National Assembly.

As a result, the Maréchaussée Royale was not disbanded but simply renamed as the gendarmerie nationale.[12] Its personnel remained unchanged, and the functions of the force remained much as before. However, from this point, the gendarmerie, unlike the Maréchaussée, became a fully militarized force. During the revolutionary period, the main force responsible for policing was the National Guard. Although the Maréchaussée had been the main police force of the ancien regime, the gendarmerie was initially a full-time auxiliary to the National Guard militia.[2]

In 1791 the newly named gendarmerie nationale was grouped into 28 divisions, each commanded by a colonel responsible for three départements. In turn, two companies of gendarmes under the command of captains were based in each department. This territorial basis of organization continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

See also


References

Notes
  1. ^ The notions of "police" and "justice" did not have the same meaning at that time as they do today. The police were part of the justice system and were its executive body. See Brouillet (2013).
  2. ^ marble table – under the Ancien Régime, the marble tables [fr] were superior jurisdictions in the administration of Water and Forests [fr]. They take their name from the large marble table in the great hall of the Palais de Justice, Paris where the Constable, the Admiral and the Grand Master of Water and Forests exercised their office. The table was destroyed by fire in 1618.
  3. ^ Provosts and officers purchased their position. It was a mark of dignity, but also an investment which could be profitable. Moreover, the posts were hereditary.[citation needed]
  4. ^ Translation note on squad: French sources use the word brigade here to describe these small military teams, but since they consisted of only four to five men, using the English cognate would be very misleading here, since a brigade in English usage is a large military assemblage typically containing multiple battalions and thousands of troops. English terms like patrol or squad represent small teams, and the latter is closest in size.
Citations
  1. ^ Besson & Rosière 2004.
  2. ^ a b c d e Gendarmerie nationale 2016.
  3. ^ a b Larrieu 2002.
  4. ^ a b Brouillet 2013.
  5. ^ a b CRNTL 2012, maréchaussée.
  6. ^ Bevans 1941, p. 47.
  7. ^ Britannica 2021, French police under the monarchy.
  8. ^ Luc 2002, p. 31.
  9. ^ Coulin 1954.
  10. ^ Carrot 1992, p. 55.
  11. ^ Luc 2002, Note 3, p.33.
  12. ^ Loi 1791.

Works cited

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