The debate on reform of the death penalty for deserters in late eighteenth-century France: The relation between feelings, law and the art of governing

Abstract

Desertion, a chronic problem in the early modern army, was an important issue to address when the French army engaged in a reform following its defeat in the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). Many officers who aspired to improve the military reflected on this question and, echoing Montesquieu and Beccaria, criticized the death penalty, which was officially the only punishment for the crime of desertion. As a result of this movement, in 1775 the absolute monarchy abolished the death penalty for deserters in peacetime and decided to sentence them to forced labor for a period to be determined according to the seriousness of the crime. While highlighting, as other historians do, the importance of this moment in the history of the penalty, this article emphasizes the reformers’ preoccupation with soldiers’ feelings. Indeed, in their memoranda the officers seem to be deeply interested in the psychology of soldiers, who, according to their experience, would, for instance, desert because of “lightness” but later “regret” it. The article shows how this interpretation was able to inspire the king’s reform of the punishment and also create the possibility for ‘regretful’ deserters to return to service. It therefore identifies a new form of power seeking to regulate the realm of the psyche.