From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marshal (also sometimes spelled
marshall in American English and considered by
some to be erroneous[1][2], 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",[3] and
originally meant "stable keeper"[4]. 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 Constables 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. [2] [3] [4]
- 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 [5] 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. The King
County Sheriff's Office (County Seat: Seattle) also employs
Court Marshals, which is a unit under the Sheriff's Office.
- 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 (As of
2009, 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 Dalten.
- 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 the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Hide and Q" the entity Q took the
appearance of a French marshal.
- 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 [6] 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
- ^
Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged
Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Gramercy Books.
1996. pp. 879. ISBN
0517151413.
- ^
[1] Merriam
Webster's ("considered a spelling error by several
commentators")
- ^
E. M. Kirkpatrick, ed (1983).
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary. Edinburgh: W & R
Chambers Ltd. pp. 772. ISBN
0550102345.
- ^
Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Leipzig 1854-1960,
Vol. 12 Col. 1673 Online-Version
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