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GENDARMERIE , originally a See also: body of troops in See also: France composed of gendarmes or men-at-arms
.
In the days of chivalry they were mounted and armed cap-a-See also: pie, exactly as were the lords and knights,with whom they constituted the most important See also: part of an army
.
They were attended each by five soldiers of inferior See also: rank and more lightly armed
.
In the later See also: middle ages the men-at-arms were furnished by owners of fiefs
.
But after the See also: Hundred Years' War this feudal gendarmerie was replaced by the compagnies d'ordonnance which See also: Charles VII. formed when the
See also: English were driven out of France, and which were distributed throughout the whole extent of the See also: kingdom for preserving See also: order and maintaining the See also: king's authority
.
These companies, fifteen in number, were composed of too lances or gendarmes fullyequipped, each of whom was attended by at least three archers, one coutillier (soldier armed with a
See also: cutlass) and one varlet (soldier's servant)
.
The states-general of See also: Orleans (1439) had voted a yearly subsidy of 1,200,000 livres in perpetuity to keep up this
See also: national soldiery, which replaced, and in fact was recruited chiefly amongst, the bands of mercenaries who for about a century had made France their prey
.
The number and composition of the compagnies d'ordonnance were changed more than once before the reign of See also: Louis XIV
.
This
See also: sovereign on his accession to the See also: throne found only eight companies of gendarmes surviving out of an See also: original See also: total of more than one hundred, but after the victory of See also: Fleurus (169o), which had been decided by their courage, he increased their number to sixteen
.
The four first companies (which were practically guard troops) were designated by the names of Gendarmes ecossais, Gendarmes anglais, Gendarmes bourguignons and Gendarmes famands, from the See also: nationality of the soldiers who had originally composed them; but at that See also: time they consisted entirely of French soldiers and See also: officers
.
These four companies had a captain-general, who was the king
.
The fifth See also: company was that of the See also: queen; and the others See also: bore the name of the princes who respectively commanded them
.
This organization was dissolved in 1788 . The Revolution swept away all these institutions of the See also: monarchy, and, with the exception of a See also: short revival of the Gendarmes de la garde at the Restoration, henceforward the word " gendarmerie " possesses an. altogether different significance—viz, military police
.
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