Marshal (also sometimes spelled
marshall in
American
English and considered by some to be erroneous, but not in
British English) is a word used in
several official titles of various branches of society. The word
derives from
Old High German
marah "horse" and
schalh "servant", and
originally meant "stable keeper". As marshals became trusted
members of the courts of
Medieval
Europe, the title grew in reputation. During
the last few centuries, it has been used for the most elevated
offices. The American English spelling of the name ("Marshall") is
often confused with the spelling of the title ("Marshal"). It is
approximate to the position of
Constable,
of similar etymology, Latin
comes stabuli (count of the
stables).
Military
In many countries, the rank of Marshal, i.e.
Field Marshal, is the highest
Army rank, outranking
other
General Officers. Typically
the equivalent navy rank is
Admiral
of the Fleet.
Marshals are typically appointed only in wartime (although this
need not be the case). In many countries, especially in Europe, the
special symbol of a Marshal is a
baton, and so their insignia often
incorporate batons.
In some countries, the word
Marshal is also used instead
of
General in the higher
air force ranks. The four highest
Royal Air Force ranks are
Marshal of the
Royal Air Force,
Air Chief Marshal,
Air Marshal and
Air Vice Marshal
(although the first, which has generally been suspended as a
peacetime rank, is the only one which can properly be considered a
marshal). The
5 star rank of
Marshal of the Air Force is used by
some
Commonwealth and middle
eastern air forces.
In the French army and some armies based on the French army,
Maréchal des logis (
Marshal-of-Lodgings ) is a cavalry term
equivalent to
sergeant.
Some historical rulers have used special
Marshal titles to
reward certain subjects. Though not strictly military ranks, these
honorary titles have been exclusively bestowed upon successful
military leaders, such as the famous
Grand
Marshal of Ayacucho
Antonio
Jose de Sucre. Most famous are the
Marshals of France (
Maréchaux
de France), not least under
Napoleon I. Another such title was that
of
Reich Marshal
(
Reichsmarschall), that was bestowed upon
Hermann Göring by
Adolf Hitler, although it was never a regular
title. In England during the
First
Barons' War the title
Marshal of the Army of God was bestowed upon
Robert Fitzwalter by election.
Soviet Union
and Russia
have both
General of the Army and Marshal
in their rank system, which leaves the latter as a largely honorary
rank.
Marshal ranks by country
The following articles deal with the rank of Marshal as used by
specific countries:
See also:
Marshal Equivalents
These ranks are considered the equivalent to a Marshal:
Military Police
The name is also applied to the leader of the Military Police.
Ceremonial
- In feudal times, at many courts one or more of the major
dignitaries were styled marshal or a compound such as court
marshal (not related to court
martial) or grand marshal; their functions varied, also in
time, but frequently included formally announcing guests at
audiences, balls, dinners, etc. Such prestigious office was often
made hereditary in the high nobility,
e.g. the English Earl Marshal, or the
Scots Earl Marischal.
- The term is still used in modern pageantry; for example, the
grand marshal of a parade is often an honored guest or
dignitary
- In the United States, many colleges and universities have
marshals. In some cases there is a single "faculty marshal,"
appointed to the post on a more or less stable basis. In others,
there are one or several faculty marshals, and often one or several
student marshals appointed for a single occasion. In all cases the
post is one of honor given to a senior faculty member or
outstanding students, and the functions are generally exclusively
involved with the leading of processions or parts of processions
during commencement exercises, academic convocations and similar
events. Often, they carry maces, staffs or wands of office.
Law enforcement
The word
Maréchaussée seems
to derive from the old French name Marecheaux given to an ancient
court of justice in Paris called the "Tribunal of
Constable and
Marshals of France".
These constables and
marshals were to become members of the Gendarmerie which served as a model for the
police forces of both Belgium
and the Netherlands
. The term Maréchaussée was also used for the
Continental Army's
military police during the
American Revolution.
In the Netherlands today, the Koninklijke Marechaussee is a
national military police service similar to the French Gendarmerie.
United States
Particularly in the United States
, marshal is used for various kinds of law
enforcement officers.
Federal Marshals
The federal court system in the United States is organized into 94
federal judicial districts, each with a court (and one or several
judges), a United States Attorney with assistants as prosecutors
and government lawyers, and one marshal, appointed by the
president, in charge of federal law enforcement. The courts are
part of the independent judicial branch of the government, while
the marshals and US attorneys are part of the executive branch
Department of Justice.
In actual practice, the US marshal for the district mainly oversees
court security, and has a unit of appointed deputies (other law
enforcement operations and the federal prison system are handled by
a variety of federal police agencies) and Special Deputies.
The
United States
Marshals Service is a professional,
civil service unit of
federal police, part of the system of
marshals explained above but made up of career law enforcement
personnel rather than the appointed district marshals. The US
Marshals Service assists with court security and prisoner
transport, serves
arrest warrants and
seeks fugitives.
Federal Air Marshal
Service is a separate, armed federal law enforcement service
employed to protect commercial airliners from the threat of
aircraft hijacking. These
officers, like the above marshals, work for the
executive branch of the
US government.
The
US Supreme
Court
maintains its own, separate Marshal of the Supreme
Court who also controls the US
Supreme Court Police, a security
police service answerable to the court itself rather than to
the president or attorney general. It handles security for
the Supreme Court building, for the justices personally, and
undertakes whatever other missions the court may require.
State and Local Marshals
- In many American States marshals could be found acting at the
state, local or municipal court level, marshals could be court
bailiffs and/or serving process or even full police officers.
Although some may be sworn peace officers their job is, in certain
cases entirely civil rather than criminal law enforcement. Some
communities maintain a Town Marshal who is responsible for general
law enforcement as well as court duties, while others are strictly
court officers. This is especially true in communities with both
police and marshals.
- In the American Old West
(example, Arizona Territory of the 1880s), marshals, usually called
the "Town Marshal", or "City Marshal" (since the larger cities were
often punctilious about their titles) were appointed or elected
police officers of small
communities, with similar powers and duties to that of a police
chief, generally with powers ending at the border of the community.
By contrast, federal marshals (U.S. marshals) would work in a
larger, possibly overlapping area, especially in pioneering
country, in an area overlapping with the state or territorial
office of county sheriff (who then, as now,
policed communities as well as areas between communities). The word
is still used in this sense, especially in the Southwest United States.
(See List of Western
lawmen). Town or City Marshal is still the name for the head
officer of some community police forces.
- In
Arizona
cities, towns and villages decide whether to
appoint or elect a Marshal, or have the board/council/city manager
hire a Chief of Police as the top criminal law enforcement for
their jurisdiction (like in the Town of Tombstone
). Marshals are elected by the trustees to
serve a fixed term, and chiefs of police can be fired at will by
whoever hired them just like any other employee.
- In
California
, several urban counties (including Los Angeles, San
Bernardino, and San Diego) once maintained separate county
Marshal's Offices which served as court officers similar to US
Marshals, but mainly for the Municipal Court system (this system
was abolished by state law in 2000, when the sheriffs of those
counties announced that those counties' marshals would be absorbed
into their departments), thusly, many have been merged into or
taken over by the local County Sheriff's Office, with the
exceptions of San
Benito County
, well south of the San Francisco Bay Area and
Shasta County, located in Northern
California. California also has Fire Marshals and Deputy
Fire Marshals. These individuals may work for the State of
California Fire Marshal's Office, or various county, city or
special districts throughout the state. Fire Marshals and Deputy
Fire Marshals are full-time sworn peace officers throughout the
state, with powers of arrest state wide under section 830.37 of the
California Penal Code. Responsibilities include fire and arson
investigation, bomb and explosives investigation, general law
enforcement as well as enforcement of the Fire Code.
- In
Colorado
Cities, towns and villages decide whether to
appoint or elect a Marshal, or have the board/council/city manager
hire a Chief of Police as the top criminal law enforcement for
their jurisdiction. Marshals are elected by the trustees to
serve a fixed term, and chiefs of police can be fired at will by
whoever hired them just like any other employee.
- In
Connecticut
, marshals serve as court officers and replaced
county sheriff's in Connecticut in the year 2000. They are
separated into two classes: State Marshals are charged
with service of process, and Judicial Marshals perform
court security and transport detainees to and from court.
- In
Georgia
, the Marshal is a civil law enforcement officer in
some counties and may have some patrol duties.
- In
Indiana
, In towns which still have them, Marshals are
responsible for law enforcement in a town. His usual duties
are the enforcement of local and state ordinances and code
enforcement. He may also be the town's humane officer. Town
Marshals have general law enforcement authority throughout the
state.
- In
Maine
the State Marshal Service provides physical
security and law enforcement duties to the judicial system as well
as protection of all state judges. Deputy Marshals are fully
sworn state law enforcement officers with statewide authority.
- In
Missouri
there are two types of Marshal:
- State Marshals provides physical security and law enforcement
duties to the judicial system as well as protection of all state
judges. Deputy Marshals are fully sworn state law enforcement
officers with statewide authority.
- City Marshals, at the local level in the State of Missouri, are
elected Chief Law Enforcement Officers of the city. They have the
same police powers as a regular Police Officer within the City
limits of their city. The amount of training to be a city Marshal
is far less than a regular municipal police officer, as such a
Marshal's jurisdiction is strictly limited to the city limits of
the city they are elected from. Even if they witness a violation of
the Law in their city, they can not pursue a person if they flee
beyond the city limits. The position of City Marshal is rare in the
State of Missouri and is only found in very small rural cities that
do not have the budget to maintain a Police Department. [35111] [35112] [35113]
- In
New
York
, there are two levels of marshals:
- City Marshals, are elected Chief Law Enforcement Officers of a
city or town. They have the same police powers as a regular Police
Officer within the City limits of their city. The amount of
training to be a city Marshal is far less than a regular municipal
police officer, as such a Marshal's jurisdiction is strictly
limited to the city limits of the city they are elected from. Even
if they witness a violation of the Law in their city, they can not
pursue a person if they flee beyond the city limits. The position
of City Marshal is rare in the State of New York and is nowonly
found in very small rural cities that do not have the budget to
maintain a Police Department.
- New York City Marshals
[35114] are appointed by the Mayor of New York City to 5-year
terms, but receive no salary from the city. Instead, the By law, no
more than 83 City Marshals shall be appointed by a mayor. Marshals
primarily enforce orders from Civil Court cases, including
collecting on judgments, towing, seizing utility meters and
carrying out evictions. Marshals collectively perform approximately
25,000 evictions per year. Marshals are regulated by the NYC Department of
Investigation but, unlike the City Sheriff, they are not City
employees. Marshals collect fees, which are set by statute, from
the private litigants whose judgments they enforce, and they also
retain five percent of any money they collect on judgments. City
marshals may, depending on the court order brought to them by the
winning litigant, seize money, moveable property (for instance,
inventory from a business), vehicles (as is the case with unpaid
parking tickets) and return possession of rental premises to the
landlord, (also known as eviction), and so on. On an annual basis
City Marshals must pay the City of New York $1,500 plus 4.5 percent
of the fees he receives for collecting judgments.
- In
Ohio
the term village marshal has been used for
the same, often without any colleague, directly under the
Mayor.
- In
Texas
, city marshals and deputy city marshals have, by
law, the same authority as a municipal (village, town, or city)
police officer. However, municipalities (like Fort Worth
) that have both a police force as well as a city
marshal's office often utilize the police as the general law
enforcement agency of the municipality, while court security and
process service is provided by the city marshal's office. In
municipalities that do not have a police department, the city
marshal's office sometimes serves as the agency that provides
general law enforcement services to residents.
- In
Washington
, the City of Seattle
employs Marshals in their Municipal Court, with the
senior officer holding the title of Chief Marshal and the
subordinate officers being Deputy Marshals.
- Answers.com Marshal
- City of Las Vegas, Nevada Deputy City Marshal I/II Job
Descriptions
United Kingdom
In 1595,
Queen Elizabeth I issued letters patent giving powers to a Marshal to
maintain order within the City of London
. Later on, an Under-Marshal and six City
Marshalmen were also appointed to assist the Marshal in his duties.
As a result of the Police Acts of 1829 and 1839, the Marshals' role
changed significantly; however, there is still one City Marshal ( ,
Colonel Billy King-Harman
CBE), who acts as the peacekeeper to the
Lord Mayor of London by leading
processions and representing the Lord Mayor at all Entries of
Troops (challenging and then escorting those few regiments entitled
to march though the City of London).
France
In
France
the Maréchaussée was the forerunner of the French Gendarmerie. A military
corps having such duties was first created in 1337 and was placed
under the command of the
Constable
of France, and therefore named the
connétablie. In 1626 after the aboliton of
the title of connétable, it was put under the command of the
Maréchal of France, and renamed
Maréchaussée. Its
main mission was protecting the roads from
highwaymen.
The gens d'armes were originally heavy cavalry in the king's
household, the equivalent of the "
Honourable Corps of
Gentlemen at Arms".In 1720 the maréchaussée was subordinated to
the gendarmerie; after the
French
Revolution the maréchaussée was abolished and the gendarmerie
took over its duties in 1791.
It was a mounted
military police
force organised and equipped along military lines. While its
existence ensured the relative safety of French rural districts and
roads, the marechaussee was regarded in contemporary England (which
had no effective police force of any nature) as a symbol of foreign
tyranny. In 1789, on the eve of the
French Revolution, the marechaussee
numbered 3,660 men divided into small detachments called brigades.
By law dated 16 February 1791 this force was renamed the
gendarmerie nationale. Its personnel and role remained
unchanged.
Netherlands
In the
Netherlands the Koninklijke Marechaussee are
the gendarmerie force.
Created by King
William
I to replace the French
gendarmerie on October 26,
1814 . The word
gendarmerie had gained a negative
connotation, so William called the new force
"
marechaussée" (
maréchaussée is an alternate
French word for
gendarmerie). At that time, the
marechaussee was part of the army (
landmacht).
The
marechaussee performed police duties for the army, as
well as civilian police work as a part of the national police
(
rijkspolitie). The
marechaussee would form the
only police force in many small cities like Venlo, especially in
the southern provinces of Limburg and North Brabant. As of 1998,
the
marechaussee is a separate branch of the Dutch
military assigned with military and civilian police tasks.
Political
Poland
Apart from its military uses, the Polish word
marszałek
(marshal) also refers to certain political offices:
- Marszałek Sejmu and Marszałek
Senatu: the respective speakers of the lower house (Sejm) and upper house (Senate) of Poland
's
parliament, usually nominated by the governing party or
coalition;
- marszałek województwa (voivodeship marshal): since
1999, the leader of the executive of a voivodeship (one of Poland's 16
provinces), elected by the regional assembly (sejmik), and co-existing with the
government-appointed voivode
(governor).
For other historical uses of the word, see
marszałek.
Fiction
Science-fiction
The rank of Marshal has made frequent appearances in
science fiction works, both live action
productions and literature.
Star Wars
In the universe of
Star Wars, the
rank of Marshal is conjectured to be connected to the
TIE fighter forces, being ranks held by senior
TIE fighter commanders, equivalent to
Imperial Navy Admirals. Several
sources of the
Star Wars
Expanded Universe have conjectured the following Marshal ranks
of the
starfighter service.
- Grand Marshal
- High Marshal
- Force Marshal
- Chief Marshal
- Marshal
- Vice Marshal
Others
- The rank of Marshal can be found in the novel Starship Troopers where the rank of
Sky Marshal is held by the
Commander-in-Chief of the military.
- In the game Unreal II the main
character is named Marshal John Dalden.
- Marshal is a military rank frequently found in the universe of
Doctor Who where, more often
than not, it is held by various villains who
seek galactic domination through military force.
- In the computer game StarCraft, the major character Jim Raynor holds the rank of Marshal at the
story's outset.
- In the Battletech universe,
the British-themed Federated Suns
uses the military rank of Marshal for a commander of a Regimental
Combat Team or a Polymorphous Defense Zone, and the rank of Field
Marshal for top echelon military commanders, typically encompassing
the March Lords and the Prince's Champion.
- In Outland, Sean Connery
plays Marshal William T. O'Niel who runs a police force for a
mining colony on Io, one of Jupiter's moons.
- In the Dresden Files, the only
Marshal mentioned is Talos, the Lord Marshal of the Summer Court.
He is shown to have much influence and bearing in the Court.
- In Crossfire, Marshal(l) is the highest rank.
Fantasy
Other
In
Mercedes Lackey's world of
Valdemar, one of the country's most
important ranks is that of
Lord
Marshal.
Academic
- A university marshal often leads or guides graduates in a
procession to the place where the graduation ceremony will take
place.
Racing and other competitions
- In motor racing, rallying etc. the track
marshals wave the Racing flags and
assist crashed or broken down vehicles cars and their drivers,
while pit marshals watch over the
procedures in the pits, and fire
marshals operate fire extinguisher if needed. The FIA provides [35115] general rules and recommendations on
marshalling. In the 1977
South African Grand Prix, 1977 Japanese Grand Prix, 2000 Italian Grand Prix and 2001 Australian Grand Prix, track
marshals were victims of fatal accidents
- In some organized competitions, such as the endurance sport
Tough guy, officials, seeing to the
observance of the rules, are styled marshals
- Marshal is the highest playing piece in the board game
Stratego
References
- [1] Merriam Webster's ("considered a
spelling error by several commentators")
- Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Leipzig
1854-1960, Vol. 12 Col. 1673 Online-Version
See also
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