The maréchaussée, a rural police force, served both as a royal army, keeping order particulary in the countryside and on highways, and as a royal court (prévôt's court) judging without appeal cas prévôtaux. In March 1720, the royal government tried to reform the maréchaussée after abolishing almost its entire old organisation and reorganizing a new one. This paper examines how the new maréchaussée was established in Haute -Normandie by analyzing historical sources of the Prefectural Archives of Seine-Maritime (at Rouen) and the Historical Service of the Army (at Vincennes) from three points of view: recruitment of members, budgetary steps, and activities.
The laws in March and April 1720 laid out its framework, thus the new maréchaussée was organized legally. However, all of the members were not recruited at the same time just after the reform. It was in March 1721 that all brigades made up the numbers. As for the budgetary steps of the maréchaussée, an ancient budgetary measure continued until 1720 and the new one was fixed in 1722 through a transitional one for 1721. Finally, it seems that 1720 was a transitional period for activities of prévôt's court and the brigades, and that the new maréchaussée began to function in earnest between the end of 1720 and the beginning of 1721. That is to say, the new maréchaussée, (though it was formed legally in the spring of 1720, was established practically in 1721 in) Haute-Normandie. We should pay attention to such an interval between laws and their application when we study an organisation.
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