[Guilherme Dias Ferreira S]

I know that the gendarme was a generic term for men-at-arms. So, I could say that were many kinds of gendarme, using different sorts of gear (for example, ones less armoured and others more...) and having distinct levels of training, considering that they could be knights, sergeants or professional soldiers (hired by the national state).

[Gordon Frye]

[Peter Bosman]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jean-Carle Hudon]

Jean,
gendarme is still used in Canada, our national Police force, the RCMP (english) or GRC (french) is the Gendarmerie
Royale du Canada, and notes a mounted police force ( The ''Mountie'')... and is also currently still in use in France as the ordinary police force, les ''gendarmes'' . ...
Gens D'Armes is generic, and Viollet Le Duc doesn't even mention the term in his medieval encyclopedia as the meaning is self evident in french.
Salut.
Jean-Carle

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Peter Bosman]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Hm. Gendarmes? The actual form used in the original 1445 Ordinances were "homme d'armes," which meant simply "man-at-arms." Even then it was used to designate only the most heavily-armored elite, though. I wonder what motivated the change in terminology from "hommes" to "gens" at some time between 1445 and 1500?

Incidentally, the non-men-at-arms elements in the French fighting forces were sometimes mentioned together under the general appellation "gens de trait."

[Jean-Carle Hudon]

Lafayette,
I haven't read the ordonnance to which you refer, but as ''traits'' has the same meaning as the modern word ''flèches'' (arrows in english), are those not archers and arbaletriers (crossbowmen), simply referred to indistinctly?

[Gordon Frye]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Gordon Frye]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

[Gordon Frye]

[Guilherme Dias Ferreira S]

It's true that the gendarmes were the heaviest cavalry of the Europe?

[Gordon Frye]

[Peter Bosman]

[Daniel Staberg]

[Daniel Staberg]

Looking at the documents quoted by Ferdinand Lot it's seems like the entire force and the companies of the Gendarmerie was referred to by just that name but the individual man-at-arms was called a Hommes d'Armes. I.E What Gordon just wrote while I was sleeping on the other side of the Atlantic ;-)

I'd like to follow up Gordons fine posts on the subject with some additional information much as a coustilier follows up where the hommes d'armes has cleared the way. :-)

Regarding the organization of the companies, at the start the ordonnace companies were made up of a 100 lances each, however by the last decade of the 15th Century (if not earlier) documents begin to mention companies of 50 and 25 lances. For example the detached corps tasked with the occupation of Naples contained three 100-lance companies, two 50-lance companies and two 25-lance companies as well as 100 lances not organised into companies.

By the Wars of Religion the companies could vary wildly in strength, companies of 20 to 120 lances (actual strength)are recorded, however the most common types were the 30 lance company and the 'double company of 60 lances. (i.e 75 or 150 fighting men). However just to confuse us later day types the letters of commision still referred to these reduced companies as companies of 50 or 100 lances.

As mentioned the archiers started of as mounted longbowmen during the 100-Years War, from the start they were often more heavily armored than their english counterparts, often described as wearing leg harness, something only sparsely mentioned in connection with English archers. By the start of the Great Italian Wars (1494-1559) the archers still fougth primarily as dismounted missile troops, in 1494-1495 an Italian eyewitness described them as wearing sallets, breastplates and carrying 'great' bows. The last instance of the archers fighting dismounted on a large scale seems to have been the battle of Ravenna were 1000 dismounted took up position of a flank together with 2000 light cavalry. (It has been suggested that the archers actually fought mounted at Ravenna, apparently the sentence in question can be interpreted both ways). Sometimes during the 1510-1530 period the archers began to replace the the coustiliers as the mounted supports of the hommes d'armes. Just how, why and when? I simply don't know, the exact process seems to be poorly documented and the various historians date the change to slightly different periods. Lot seems to have the change in place by 1525 at the latest. But Lot reduces the lance to 3 combatants as early as 1515 when making his calculations.
At the same time the Coustilier lost his combatant status and was reduced to the role of servant. A somewhat strange fate for some one who ranked only second to the hommes d'armes when the companies were created in 1445.

In the early 17th Century the Gendarmerie was a much reduced force, most companies only contained 25-30 fighting men and except for those of the Guard or connected with the high nobility the companies were temporary formations raised for individual campaigns. They seldom contributed more than 500-600 troopers to a field army.
In numerical strength they found themselves completely surpassed by the Cavalerie Leger, in 1634 there were 91 companies of chevaux Legers and 7 of Carabins.
In 1635 the Cavalerie Leger expanded into a huge force, 15 regiments of French Chevaux Legers as well as 1 of Carabins were formed from the old companies or raised from scratch. 8 'Foreign' regiments were recruited from outside France, one ex-Swedish (German) regiment, two Hungarian regiments, two Lorrainer regiments, a Savoyard regiment and a Piedmontese regiment. In the fall of that year Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar brought along 16 regiments of German cavalry when he entered French service but the Weimarians were in many ways a semi-independent force. By 1638 the Cavalarie Leger counted 36 French regiments and 25 'Foreign' ones.
This rapid expansion of course lowered the quality of the French cavalry as a whole and while the Gendarmerie often put in a fine performance they were to few to turn the tide if the battle went badly for the Chevaux Leger. During the early part of the 'French phase' of the 30-Years War the French depended heavily on formerly Swedish regiments of German Cavalry either recruited singly or brought over en masse by Duke Bernhard. This gave French the numbers and quality needed to fight on four fronts at once.

During the mid-late 17th Century the Gendarmerie matured into it's new role, no longer forming the bulk of the French cavalry it became a Corps d'Elite and alongside the Maison du Roi it became the most feared cavalry in western Europe thanks to it's many exploits in the wars of Louis XIV. In the War of Spanish Succsesion the Gendarmerie suffered some much written about defeats but on the whole it remained a highly effective fighting force. during the reign of Louis XIV the Gendarmerie consisted of twelve companies, each of 100 men. 8 of the companies were title 'Gendarmes' while the remaining 4 were Chevaux Legers. in 1690 another 4 companies were added and the strength of the Gendarmerie increased to 1600 men. My sources cover period after 1714 only very sparsely so I'll have to conclude the tale of the Gendarmerie with their being disbanded in the late 1780's as the French Revolution took the stage. It was in this period that the military police force responsible for the French countryside was renamed the Gendarmerie National and it was from this body of men that Napoleon drew the recruits for the Gendarmes d'Elite of the Imperial Guard. The Gendarmes d'Elite functioned primarily as an elite force of miliary police rather than battle cavalry although the were capable of fulfilling that role as well.

I'm out of time at the moment., but will return later with some more information on the French and Burgundian Gendarmes including the organization of the Burgundian Bandes d'Ordonnance in Spanish service and their period of superiority over their French counterparts in the 1550's.

Daniel