WAR, CULTURE AND SOCIETY, 1750–1850 The École Royale Militaire Noble Education, Institutional Innovation, and Royal Charity, 1750–1788 Haroldo A. Guízar War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850 Series Editors Rafe Blaufarb Florida State University Tallahassee, FL, USA Alan Forrest University of York York, UK Karen Hagemann University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC, USA The series aims to the analysis of the military and war by combining political, social, cultural, art and gender history with military history. It wants to extend the scope of traditional histories of the period by discussing war and revolution across the Atlantic as well as within Europe, thereby contributing to a new global history of conflict in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. For more information see: wscseries.web.unc.edu More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14390 Haroldo A. Guízar The École Royale Militaire Noble Education, Institutional Innovation, and Royal Charity, 1750 –1788 Haroldo A. Guízar University of York York, UK War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850 ISBN 978-3-030-45930-7 ISBN 978-3-030-45931-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45931-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To my parents, Haroldo and Deborah L. Guízar, with love. For their unflappable support for my research and work throughout the years. S e ’ P erieS ditorS reface The century from 1750 to 1850 was a seminal period of change, not just in Europe but across the globe. The political landscape was transformed by a series of revolutions fought in the name of liberty—most notably in the Americas and France, of course, but elsewhere, too: in Holland and Geneva during the eighteenth century and across much of mainland Europe by 1848. Nor was change confined to the European world. New ideas of freedom, equality, and human rights were carried to the furthest outposts of empire, to Egypt, India, and the Caribbean, which saw the creation in 1801 of the first black republic in Haiti, the former French colony of Saint-Domingue. And in the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury, they continued to inspire anti-colonial and liberation movements throughout Central and Latin America. If political and social institutions were transformed by revolution in these years, so, too, was warfare. During the quarter-century of the French Revolutionary Wars, in particular, Europe was faced with the prospect of ‘total’ war, on a scale unprecedented before the twentieth century. Military hardware, it is true, evolved only gradually, and battles were not necessar- ily any bloodier than they had been during the Seven Years’ War. But in other ways these can legitimately be described as the first modern wars, fought by mass armies mobilised by national and patriotic propaganda, leading to the displacement of millions of people throughout Europe and beyond, as soldiers, prisoners of war, civilians, and refugees. For those who lived through the period these wars would be a formative experience that shaped the ambitions and the identities of a generation. vii viii SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE The aims of the series are necessarily ambitious. In its various volumes, whether single-authored monographs or themed collections, it seeks to extend the scope of more traditional historiography. It will study warfare during this formative century not just in Europe, but in the Americas, in colonial societies, and across the world. It will analyse the construction of identities and power relations by integrating the principal categories of difference, most notably class and religion, generation and gender, race and ethnicity. It will adopt a multifaceted approach to the period, and turn to methods of political, cultural, social, military, and gender history, in order to develop a challenging and multidisciplinary analysis. Finally, it will examine elements of comparison and transfer and so tease out the complexities of regional, national, and global history. Tallahassee, FL Rafe Blaufarb York, UK Alan Forrest Chapel Hill, NC Karen Hagemann a cknowledgementS In the process of writing this book, I have accumulated debts of gratitude and friendship to a great deal many people in different countries that I will never be able to properly repay; all I can hope is that this small sign of appreciation may signal my esteem for them which runs much deeper than words can express. My greatest debt is to my supervisor, Alan Forrest. Always receptive and encouraging, his support for my academic endeavours dates to even before the start of my MA at York. His support has gone far beyond what any graduate student could reasonably expect from even the closest men- tor or colleague; his untiring commitment to helping me improve my writing, order my thoughts, and better express my points has been closely followed by his material aid to my research in both Paris and York, as well as the most genuine demonstrations of hospitality. I will always greatly admire both the quality of his academic example and intellectual standards and consider it the greatest privilege to have had the opportunity to work under him. Others at the department of History at York whom I am indebted to are the members of my thesis advisory panel, Geoffrey Cubitt and Catriona Kennedy, who read early drafts of my first chapters and provided both ideas for different ways of approaching the research as well as suggestions for improvement. I shall always be grateful for their kind evaluations of my first ideas. Two other professors who have read or heard me present my work and have critiqued it and offered encouragement, Colin Jones of Queen Mary University of London and Michele Cohen of Richmond University, London, I thank deeply. ix x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to Gemma Tidman of Wolfson College, Oxford, for sharing both material which she has presented relating to the Ecole mili- taire and primary sources useful for my own research. Sarah Goldsmith has proved one of my most esteemed colleagues, always available to dis- cuss the problems of the eighteenth-century nobility, be it French or British. I can only hope that I will be able to repay her for sharing some of her own books and resources with me. Arlene Leis, of the department of History of Art, has also been one of the most engaging people I have had the pleasure of sharing a conversation with, and I will always carry our discussions of the pitfalls and thrills of academia and research with me. I would also like to thank Amy Milka, Ellen Koching Chao, Alexander Hardie-Forsyth, Graeme Callister, Joanna Wharton, Sophie Colombeau, Adam Perchard, Sarah Burdett, Ruth Scobie, Deborah Russell, Ingrid Brown, Philippa Toop, Yusuke Warazawa, Elizabeth Bobbitt, and many more. Without a doubt, belonging to a vibrant academic community such as the one found at the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies has been one of the highlights of my time at York. I am very grateful to the warm hospitality of the archivist emeritus of St John’s College Cambridge, Malcolm Underwood, as well as of his son John and the whole Underwood family. They always made me feel most welcome and at home whether I was on an academic visit or making a social call. I cannot thank them enough. I would like to thank Simon Healy for inviting me to present a paper at the Violence and Conflict Graduate Workshop in Pembroke College. The erudition and breadth of his historical knowledge was always something to look forward to in our conversations, whether they were held in the café of the British Library or on Palace Green, Durham. I would like to thank Ilya Berkovich of Peterhouse College for chairing my paper at the Graduate Workshop, as well as for very kindly arranging accommodation at his college. Andra Stefania Necula of Wolfson College, Oxford, provided priceless assistance in one of my lengthy searches for accommodation in Paris, and for that I cannot thank her enough. I would like to acknowledge the inspi- ration provided by Katie Parsons, La Sierra University in California, for encouraging me to study in England and for providing helpful advice based on her own experiences whilst I was still an undergraduate. She will never know the extent of the life-changing effect that her encouragement has had on me. I would also like to thank Sarah Maslov of Golden State University, California, for proofreading and editing some of my chapter