ABSTRACT
The tactical debate in France before the Revolution was not an isolated phenomenon. A trio of reforming ministers of war-Choiseul (1761-70), St Germain (1775-7) and Puységur (1788-9)—modernised much of the organisational framework of the army. The progressive reduction of the purchase of commissions, the employment of fewer officers and the abolition of proprietary rights all enhanced the centralised authority of the king. But they also produced a counter-reaction, outstandingly embodied in the Ségur law of 1781, by which all candidates for commissions had to demonstrate four quarterings of nobility. This was a victory for the provincial, poorer aristocracy which wished to assert its rights as a military caste, and which saw itself challenged by the influx of recently ennobled and wealthy commoners. By 1789, of 10,000 active officers in the French army, barely 1,000 were commoners. A greater proportion of bourgeois officers were to be found in the technical arms, the artillery and the engineers, but even here the new professionalism of the nobility was making its inroads.
