Abstract
When François Charles de Bourlamaque, captain in the French army, heard rumors of a potential war brewing between France and Prussia in 1755, he hastened to write the King of France and present his candidacy for a commission. Like many other officers of the French army, he had ‘languished during the peace,’ following the War of the Austrian Succession in which he served through several campaigns, and now hoped for the glory in battle that would advance his position and solidify his reputation.1 Begging the king for a prominent role in the upcoming conflict, he presented ‘no other ambition, Sire, than to be able to serve in a manner that is essential’ to the army. Other officers vied with him and each other for available commissions, writing the king or minister of war to pledge their ‘live[s] and possessions,’2 expressing their zeal for the king’ service,3 and begging to fill positions that had been in their families for generations.4 The officers’ eagerness and desperation were palpable; use of commissions and promotions as rewards had caused the officer corps to balloon to the point where there were far more officers wishing to serve than there were available opportunities. Positions at court, pecuniary rewards, and social rank depended on constant demonstrations from officers that they deserved their privileged status through at least appearing to serve the king, and officers depended on winning a prominent place in the upcoming war just to be eligible for honors or favors from Versailles.
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Notes
Jean Berenger, Ph. Roy, ‘Relations des Troupes Réglées (Troupes de Terre et Troupes de Marine) avec les Canadiens’ in Conflits de sociétés au Canada français pendant la guerre de Sept ans et leur influence sur les opérations, ed. Jean Delmas (Vincennes: S.H.A.T., 1978), 23.
W.J. Eccles, The French in North America 1500–1783 (Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1998), 210.
Philippe Jacquin, Les Indiens Blancs: Français et Indiens en Amérique du Nord (XVIe–XVIIIe Siècle) (Paris: Payot, 1987), 11.
Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Arnaud Balvay, L’épée et la Plume: Amérindiens et soldats des troupes de la marine en Louisiane et au Pays d’en Haut (1683–1763) (Québec: Les Presses de l’Université de Laval, 2006), 153–4.
Jean Delmas, ‘Conflits de sociétés au Canada français pendant la guerre de Sept ans et leur influence sur les opérations,’ in Conflits de sociétés au Canada français pendant la guerre de Sept ans et leur influence sur les opérations, ed. Jean Delmas (Vincennes: S.H.A.T., 1978), 3.
Saliha Belmessous, ‘Assimilation and Racialism in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century French Colonial Policy,’ American Historical Review 110 (2005): 322–49.
For a discussion of Amerindian forms of warfare and built-in cultural restraints, see Wayne Lee, ‘Peace Chiefs and Blood Revenge: Patterns of Restraint in Native American Warfare, 1500–1800’ Journal of Military History, 71 (2007), 701–41.
Christian Crouch, Nobility Lost: French & Canadian Martial Cultures, Indians & The End of New France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014), 4.
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), 1–5.
Catherine Desbarats and Allan Greer, ‘The Seven Years’ War in Canadian History and Memory,’ in Cultures and Conflict: The Seven Years’ War in North America, ed. Warren R. Hofstra (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 162.
For a discussion of this phenomenon in Europe, see Jay M. Smith, Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal service, and the Making of Absolute Monarchy in France, 1600–1789 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 209–13.
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© 2015 Julia Osman
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Osman, J. (2015). Defeat in New France. In: Citizen Soldiers and the Key to the Bastille. War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137486240_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137486240_3
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