Book Review
The École Royale Militaire: Noble Education, Institutional Innovation, and Royal
Charity, 1750–1788. By H.A. Guízar. Palgrave MacMillan, 2020. xvii + 301 pp.
In this important book, H.A. Guízar provides a thorough account of the Parisian
École Royale Militaire (ERM), covering its origins and founding, its institutional
development, the beliefs and intentions that shaped it, its funding, and the
challenges it faced.
Guízar argues that the school should be seen as an ‘Enlightenment’ project.
This term has, of course, been used to refer to a broad range of writers and ideas,
so broad that some historians have questioned the value of the term. Thus, we
need to specify what he is referring when he applies it to the ERM.
First, he points out that some of those who founded or administered the
school were directly influenced by French philosophes of the period. Joseph
Pâris-Duverney, who was most responsible for establishing the school, had
personal contact with individuals associated with the Enlightenment, among
them Voltaire. Pâris-Duverney’s nephew, Jean-Baptiste Pâris de Meyzieu, who
was the first Director of Studies at the school, wrote several articles for Diderot’s
Encyclopédie, including a piece on the ERM.
Second, the beliefs and intentions that Guízar describes were part of a general
movement that we can call a culture of improvement and reform, which was
prevalent in many parts of Europe during the eighteenth century, including
regions not generally considered centres of the ‘Enlightenment’. What was it that
those involved in the École Royale Militaire were trying to improve?
Foremost was the French army. A widespread belief in the eighteenth century
was that this army was seriously deficient and that its officers were inadequately
trained. The curriculum of the ERM contained a range of military subjects:
fortification, arms training, equitation, and so forth. It also provided more
practical applications of mathematics, physics, and languages than did any of
the many colleges that the majority of socially advantaged students in France
attended during the eighteenth century. The main objective at the ERM was to
offer professional training for students – to produce soldiers not ‘savants’.
Almost as important was the goal of improving the French nobility. As in
most Continental European countries during the Early Modern period, the
nobility had become more legally institutionalized, resulting in some families
losing their noble status, while others remained legally nobles even though they
were in varying degrees impoverished, uneducated, and politically powerless.
The minimal qualification for admission to the École Royale Militaire was
four degrees of noble ancestry, which required documentary verification (preuve
littéralle), not just the testimony of reputable members of the nobility (preuve
testimoniale). This qualification for admission excluded not only bourgeois
commoners but also anoblis, while it included young men from the poorer and less
© 2024 The Author(s). History © 2024 The Historical Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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2 BOOK REVIEW
educated nobility, who – free of charge – would become professionally trained in
the art of war and thus able to serve the traditional function of the nobility. In
addition, the ERM operated as a charitable organization, providing assistance
mostly (though not exclusively) to ERM students and their families.
The École Royale Militaire was not the first educational institution that tried to
make a contribution to the rehabilitation of the French nobility. Guízar identifies
a number of others. Best known is the Maison Royale de Saint Louis, which was
established by the Marquise de Maintenon at Saint Cyr in the 1680s to educate
girls from noble families. It served as a model for the ERM, not only because
of its effort to assist less well-off noble families, but also because of its other
major objective, which was to provide moral (religious) instruction and teach
good grace, discipline, stoicism, and a work ethic to its students. An unequivocal
goal of the École Royale Militaire was to build the character of young male
members of the French nobility. Guízar argues that the school sought to instil
‘emulation’, seen as a technique of discipline by which people are persuaded to
engage in an individualized comparison of themselves with admirable others.
The ERM also employed more corporate instruments of discipline, including
institutional regulation, regimentation, military exercises, and the enforcement
(as best they could) of strict obedience. Even the distribution of financial
assistance to students was used as a method of social control, as was the threat
of expulsion from the Order of Saint Lazare.
Yet, Guízar clearly demonstrates that school administrators faced criticisms
and significant challenges in almost everything they did. The principal way in
which the school was funded was by a tax on playing cards and a lottery. Not
surprisingly, many contemporaries saw these practices as contrary to the lofty
ideals of the school. Similar criticism was levelled at the magnificent architecture
of the school’s buildings. Most serious of all, the École Royale Militaire was the
victim of political and religious power struggles in France during the second
half of the eighteenth century. Ministers with different ideas about the school
came and went. The ERM experienced a number of re-organisations and was
closed by the Count of Saint Germain in 1776 (replaced by écoles militaires in
the provinces), only to re-open in 1778, until it was closed permanently in 1787.
Nevertheless, Guízar insists that the École Royale Militaire was in many ways
a success and that it was certainly a historically significant institution. It was new
in its structure and the population it served; it helped to link more of the French
nobility with the Bourbon dynasty; it was a step toward a more modern, public
system of education under the direct control of the government; and, together
with the provincial écoles militaires, it delivered a large number of graduates. It
was among the last of the great learning institutions of the Old Regime that were
innovative precursors of the grandes écoles.
However, the importance of Guízar’s book is not limited to our understanding
of the French military or educational institutions in eighteenth-century France.
The book also contributes significantly to our understanding of the French
nobility, the culture of improvement and reform, and the vagaries of political
struggles in France during the second half of the century. It is a most valuable
work, providing a wealth of information on a complex subject.
University of Western Ontario SAMUEL CLARK
© 2024 The Author(s). History © 2024 The Historical Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
