The Ethics and Practice of War amongst French Officers during the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

'As soon as I entered society, my earliest and my strongest inclination was to become a gentleman and to get employment in war', declared Bussy-Rabutin.1 [Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy (1618-1693), soldier and writer.] The career of arms was indeed an 'honourable profession', only undertaken by those whose noble status destined them for such a life.2 The 'merits of war' were highly regarded especially among army commanders, for this function 'makes subjects equal in authority to their sovereign'.3 The high value placed on the military profession was rarely disputed during the seventeenth century, outside the Church at least. If the 1695 listing for the capitation tax seemed to create a social hierarchy according to the principle of cedant anna togae [let arms yield to the toga], however, this was merely the result of a tax system in which the most highly taxed were not necessarily the most highly respected but the richest, and in which income assessments were perhaps even adjusted so as to lighten the burden for those who were the most valuable to the State, namely the men of the sword. It is not therefore surprising that the king should demand of the farmers general and of the special treasurers general of war and the navy more in taxation than of princes, dukes and marshals of France, which would be scandalous if the first capitation had aimed solely at taxing social rank.4 Moreover, it is worth noting that, during the 1666 enquiry into false claims of nobility, those serving in the military were exempted from having to supply proof of status. The historian, Fran<;oisBluche, was right to describe this exemption as a 'permanent moratorium honouring army service'.5 Yet the pre-eminence of military service was not without drawbacks, for greatness has always gone hand in hand with the necessity to obey. Not everyone was capable of confronting danger, and doubts were common about certain officers of the noblesse de robe who were obliged to renounce what they had thought of as their vocation.6 It was even more difficult to bend one's will and submit to higher authority.7 Montesquieu's advice to his son in 1740 could have applied equally to