一七二〇年のマレショーセ改革 : フランス絶対王政の統治構造との関連から

抄録

The marechaussee was a rural police force which was led by a prevot des marechaux. It served both as a royal army keeping order particulary in the countryside and on highways, and as a royal court judging without appeal such cas prevotaux as a vagabondage, mendicacy, and highway robbery. The marechaussee was not functioning sufficiently prior to the reform of 1720, due mainly to a lack of uniformity both in its organisation and chain of command. In 1720, Claude Le Blanc, secretary of state for war, tried to reorganize the marechaussee after abolishing almost its entire old organisation. In a period when governmental institutions and systems were venal, a method to create a new organisation after a destruction of an old one, which was never done by the royal government before, made the reform possible. The reform was, first of all, a total restructuring of the marechaussee wiht the aim to give uniformity to its organisation. At the same time, it contained important aspects, such as making the generalite (intendance : intendant's district) correspond to a marechaussee's district, unifying the chain of command under the secretary of state for war, intendants and prevots, positioning brigades all over the realm, and introducing the commission sytem more widely. The reform of the marechaussee established a national police network though its force was insufficient, which was deployed closely in the monarchy, put under the direct control of the state and had unified organisation, districts, and chain of command. The reform gave a police force to intendants and created a group of lower officials dependant directly on the state by introducing the commission system. This has a close connection with two basic systems of monarchic government : a centralization policy through intendants and a bureaucracy based on venality. The reform of the marechaussee was carried out after half a century after the judicial reform in the early years of Louis XIV, during a regency when the royal government was groping for a new governmental system. There we can find points which indicate to total reform of governmental organisation under the absolute monarchy, not just a simple reform of the police force.