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Milices provinciales (Kingdom of France, 1688-1795)

Presentation of provincial militias
Boulonnais troops

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Presentation of provincial militias

Provincial militia, composed of non-professional soldiers, were regulated by an Ordinance signed on 29 November 1688 by Louis XIV, prescribing that every parish of the kingdom should appoint a man to be incorporated in a company to compose a militia regiment. Constituted for two years, the militia were auxiliary troops for the professional army. The first militia raising called 20,050 soldiers, split into 30 regiments each composed of 15-30 companies. The provincial militia were maintained until the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), during which 185,000 men served in provincial militia, that is nearly 50% of the total troops.
The Ordinance signed on 25 February 1726 by Louis XV reformed the provincial militia, which were deemed inefficient and unexperimented. The north-western provinces were also submitted to mobilization, which was made permanent. Until the French Revolution, 43 militia raisings were performed.

The "cahiers de doléance" redacted all over the kingdom in 1789 express the general rejection of the militia system. The merchants of Arras, a district where up to 20% of the raised militiamen deserted in the late 1770s, described the system as "breaching the citizen's natural liberty, harming trade and agriculture, supplying the king with soldiers who would serve him against their own will and could be much more useful in other activities". The unfairness of the drawing system was also highlighted. In wartime, the militiamen, particularly ill-trained, were much more exposed to casualty than professional soldiers.

Ivan Sache, 10 July 2022

Boulonnais troops

Color of the Boulonnais troops, after A. Chatelle's reconstitution - Image by Ivan Sache, 10 July 2022

The book "Mémoire des mayeurs et échevins de Boulogne sur les libertés et franchises de la ville", printed in 1759 by Charles Battut, says that the "Boulonnnais troops", composed of infantry, cavalry and dragoons regiments, were commissioned to defend the area, especially the coast. Made of non-professional soldier (see below), the militia had nothing to do with the Boulonnais Regiment established in 1684 and disbanded in 1795.
The color of the Boulonnais troops, designed by the Duke d'Aumont, was quartered royal blue and daffodil yellow (the modern flag of Boulogne-sur-Mer has inverted colors) by a white cross charged in the center with the municipal arms of Boulogne.

Albert Chatelle (1914-1973), Deputy Curator of the Navy Museum (then housed in the Louvre) proposed in 1934 a reconstitution of the color, based on historical documents ("Le drapeau boulonnais"). The vertical arms of the cross is skewed to the hoist and the arms are represented by an oval, crowned shield. [source: "Cygnes et tourteaux", by Marcel Fournet, with the kind collaboration of the numismatist Pierre Leclercq].

The Boulonnais troops are among the few exceptions to the rejection of the provincial militia system. Other well-trained and efficient militia were the "arquebusiers de montagne" aka "miquelets" in Roussillon, the "petites milices" in Dauphiné, and the "troupes béarnaises" in Béarn.
The name of "troupes boulonnaises" was coined in 1635, when they fought in the battle of Mont de Fiennes, near Ardres, under the commande of the Duke d'Aumont; local militia, however, were already organized by the old Counts of Boulogne. The Boulonnais militia contributed to the sieges of Mardyck, Bourbourg, Cassel (1644-1646), and Saint-Omer (1677); in 1694, they patrolled the coast of Normandy near Dieppe, which was threatened by an English invasion. In the 18th century, they were mostly used as garrison troops stationed in Calais, Gravelines and Dunkirk.

The raising of the Boulonnais troops, fixed in 1672, long before the royal Ordinance, and maintained until the French Revolution, was quite different from the general system. There was no draw, because "all people from Boulonnais were borne to serve the king": any farmer exploiting a plot of significant size (more than 0.63 ha) had to serve in the militia or to recruit someone else to replace him. The militia was formed of six infantry regiments (Boulogne, Marquise, Wissant, Samer, Desvres, and Étaples), each composed of 10 companies of 80-100 men, five cavalry squads, each composed of four groups of 25 "masters"; a carabineer's company and two dragoon's companies were added in 1688. The militia was originally commanded by the Duke d'Aumont, Governor of Boulonnais, seconded by an Inspector, usually the Deputy Delegate of the Intendent of Amiens, who had his residence in Boulogne. The regiments and companies were commanded by respected officers from the local nobility, which allowed quick mobililzation in case of emergency.
The Boulonnais troops, whose commitment to his service was recognized by Louis XV, were considered in the beginning of the 16th century as France's best militia.
When the provincial militia were deployed as garrison troops all over France, the Duke d'Aumont obtained in 1710 the privilege to keep them in Boulonnais "for the defense of Ardres and Calais". This might explain why some parishes asked in 1789 to keep for the province "the privilege to defend itself and the exemption of drawing", in spite of the cost of the militia. As a province border, however, Boulonnais was exempted from main taxes, this exemption being seen as a kind of compensation for the burden represented by the militia. [source: Alain Joblin. 2003. Les milices provinciales dans le nord du royaume de France à l'époque moderne (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles), Revue du Nord", 350, 279-296q].

Ivan Sache, 10 July 2022