Military education school in La Fleche, Sarthe, France
47°42′2″N
0°4′33″W
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47.70056°N 0.07583°W
/
47.70056; -0.07583
Prytanee national militaire
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The entrance gate of the Prytanee national militaire
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,
France
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Former name
| College royal Henri-le-Grand,
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Type
| Military education
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Established
| 1604
; 420 years ago
(
1604
)
|
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Website
| prytanee-national-militaire.fr
|
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The
Prytanee national militaire
is a French
military school
managed by the
French military
, offering regular
secondary education
as well as special
preparatory classes
, equivalent in level to the first years of
university
, for students who wish to enter French
military academies
. The school is located in western France in the city of
La Fleche
.
At first founded in 1604 by the king
Henri IV
, the school was given to the
Jesuits
in the aim to "instruct the young people and make it fall in love with sciences, honour and virtue, in order to be able to serve". It then became the "Prytanee" wanted by
Napoleon
in 1800.
History
[
edit
]
From the Chateau-Neuf to the creation of the royal college
[
edit
]
Francoise d'Alencon
, who had become a widow in 1537, decided to retire in her land of
La Fleche
, which she had received as a gift from her husband
Charles de Bourbon
.
[1]
The old feodal castle, actually Chateau des Carmes, was too old and with no comfort, Francoise d'Alencon ordered the construction of a new building. The "Chateau-Neuf" (New Castle) was erected between 1539 and 1541 outside of the city, in the place of the Prytanee Militaire and following the plans of the architect
Jean Delespine
.
[1]
[2]
Some recent new elements give a better idea of the original castle and garden.
[3]
In 1550, after her death, her son
Antoine of Navarre
inherits of her possessions. With his wife
Jeanne d'Albret
, inheritor of the
Kingdom of Navarre
, he stays in La Fleche multiple times, as in February 1552 and then in May 1553, a few months before their son's birth, the future king
Henri IV
.
On 3 December 1603, by
letters patent
sent from
Rouen
, Henri IV authorised the return of the Jesuits, who had been banned by the parliament of Paris in 1594 after the failed attack against the King made by one of their latter pupils,
Jean Chatel
. The King allows them to live in the places where they were before their departure and in other cities. Henri IV recommends them to particularly stay in his house of La Fleche in order to establish their college.
[4]
The first Jesuits priests arrive to La Fleche in the beginning of November 1603,
[5]
led by Pierre Barny, named rector of the college.
[6]
In January 1604, the college welcomes its first students. From its first year, the college knows a success and counts around 1 000 pupils. Their number grows fast in the following years.
[7]
The Jesuit College (1604?1762)
[
edit
]
The first Jesuits left
Pont-a-Mousson
on 16 October 1603, and reached La Fleche on 2 January 1604. They started to teach
grammar
,
rhetorics
,
Latin
, Greek,
Hebrew
,
philosophy
,
mathematics
, and
theology
. A foundation edict was issued at
Fontainebleau
in May 1607, in which the building started to take its present shape.
Rene Descartes
was one of the first and most illustrious students of the school from 1607 to 1615, and introduced the school in his
Discourse on Method
under the phrase "I was studying in one of the most celebrated schools in Europe".
[8]
The College continued to expand, and, upon the death of Henry IV, a vast church was built, in which the hearts of Henry IV and his wife queen
Marie de Medicis
were enshrined.
Missions to China and the Americas
[
edit
]
Many of the Jesuit missionaries who went to the
China
during the 17th century had been trained at the College.
[9]
Among them were
Enemond Masse
, who became an early missionary to
Canada
and became Minister of the College upon his return in 1614. When he went back to Canada, he was accompanied by
Charles Lalemant
, another alumnus of the school.
[9]
Paul Le Jeune
, also a student of the College, is considered as the "father of the Jesuit missions in
New France
", and was the Superior of the Jesuits in Quebec from 1632 to 1639.
[10]
Others were
Erard Bille
,
Jacques Buteux
,
Nicolas Adam
,
Barthelemy Vimont
,
Paul Ragueneau
,
Claude de Quentin
,
Isaac Jogues
.
[10]
In China also, numerous students of the College became active participants in the missions. Three of the five Jesuits sent by
Louis XIV
to China were from the College:
Jean de Fontaney
, the Superior of the mission, who had been a professor of mathematics there and became rector of the school until 1710 after his return from China;
Joachim Bouvet
, who was a philosophy student in 1676, became a teacher to the
Kangxi Emperor
;
Claude Visdelou
, who was a repetitor and a teacher at the school from 1676 to 1678.
[10]
Others included Guillaume le Couteux, Pierre Foureau, Charles de Broissia, Emeric de Chavagnac, Jean-Francois Fouquet, and Joseph Labbe.
Around 1650, the College became a centre of cosmopolitan learning, as "Americans, Indians, Tartars, Russians, and even Chinese visited it"
[1]
. In 1751, two Chinese students were enrolled: Yang Dewang (Etienne Yang Tche-teh), and Gao Ren (Louis Kao Fen).
[11]
Cadets school (1764?1776)
[
edit
]
In 1764 following the expulsion of the
Jesuits
, after a lapse of two years, the school was transformed by
Louis XV
and
Choiseul
into a military institution designed to train young
cadets
for admission to the
Ecole Militaire
, the "Ecole de cadets ou Ecole militaire preparatoire a l’Ecole militaire du Champ de Mars". These efforts at creating military institutions followed military defeats in the
Seven Years' War
(1756?1763). The school was reserved to 250 students of noble extraction, as well as sons of officers who were wounded or died in combat, and the sons of the
Chevaliers de Saint-Louis
.
College (1776?1793)
[
edit
]
In 1776 the
Count of St Germain
attempted to close the school, but it was re-established by
Louis XVI
, who gave its management to the "Fathers of the Christian Doctrine" (
Peres de la Doctrine chretienne
). Among others, they educated the future
General Bertrand
, who accompanied
Napoleon
to
Saint Helena
, and the two
Chappe brothers
, who invented the
aerial telegraph
.
The College was closed in 1793 following the advent of the
French Revolution
. For a while, the buildings were used for a variety of purposes, such as becoming a cordonery for the Army of the Republic.
Prytanee militaire (1808?present)
[
edit
]
On 24 March 1808,
Napoleon
renamed the school "Prytanee militaire", in a classic reference to the Greek
prytaneis
(literally "Presidents"), an executive body acting as the religious and political heart of ancient Greek cities. As Napoleon had moved to Fontainebleau to establish his court, he had decided to transfer the "Ecole speciale Militaire de Fontainebleau" to Paris, and the "Prytanee de Saint-Cyr" to La Fleche. Since then various names were adopted for the school, such as "Ecole royale militaire" (1814?1830), College royal militaire (1831?1848), College national militaire (1848?1853), Prytanee imperial militaire (1853?1870), Prytanee militaire and Prytanee national militaire (since 1870).
During
World War II
in 1940, the Prytanee had to be moved for a few years successively to
Billom
,
Valence
, then
Briancon
.
Today
[
edit
]
Today the Prytanee provides secondary education and also has "
Classes preparatoires
", that is, preparatory classes to the entrance examinations of the French elite
Grandes Ecoles
, such as
Ecole polytechnique
, the Navy
Ecole navale
, the Army
Ecole speciale militaire de Saint-Cyr
, the
Ecole de l'Air
and various civilian engineering or commercial graduate schools.
The school's students are nicknamed "Brutions", as a classic reference to the inhabitants of the
Bruttium
region of Roman Italy, who had a reputation for their roughness and fighting spirit.
Insignas
[
edit
]
The school grades received by students are even today symbolized by military insignias which are worn on the traditional uniform (
Uniforme de tradition
), starting with "Sergent-Major" (4 golden
chevrons
) for the top of a class, "Sergent" (3 golden chevrons), "Caporal-Chef" (2 red and 1 golden chevrons), and finally "Caporal" (2 red chevrons). Typically, the top ten students of each class during a given quarter would receive such insignias.
Students also have colored shoulder badges for each year, attached to the daily
fatigues
("Uniforme de travail"), starting with blue for the first year of high school, orange for the second, and green for the third. These badges can further be adorned with various small symbols and decorations, especially expressing the type of career to which each student is aspires.
Famous alumni
[
edit
]
The Prytanee has trained various military and non-military celebrities. In chronological order:
- Marin Mersenne
(1588?1648), theologian, mathematician
- Pierre Seguier
, statesman and Chancellor of France (1588?1672)
- Rene Descartes
, philosopher (1596?1650)
- Comte de Guebriant
(1602?1643),
Marshal of France
- La Rochefoucauld
(1613?1680), writer
- Gabriel Calloet-Kerbrat
(1616-1620 ? 1697), agriculturist and writer
- Francois de Laval
(1623?1708), first
Bishop of New France
- Jean Picard
(1629?1682), astronomer
- Joseph Sauveur
(1653?1716), mathematician and physicist
- James Fitz-James
(1670?1734),
Duke of Berwick
and Marshal of France
- du Petit Thouars
(1760?1798), Navy officer, hero of the
Battle of Aboukir Bay
- Claude Chappe
(1763?1805), inventor of the optical telegraph
- Bertrand
(1773?1844), General, follower of
Napoleon
at
Saint Helena
- Auguste Davezac
(1780?1851),
United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
- Pelissier
(1794?1864), Marshal of France
- Rene Francois Regnier
(1794?1881), ecclesiastical writer
- Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers
(1795?1878), Marshal of France
- Antoine Brutus Menier
(1795?1853), entrepreneur and founder of
Chocolat Menier
- Antoine Francois Prevost
(1797?1863), novelist
- Alessandro Barnabo
(1801?1874),
Catholic Cardinal
- Louis d'Aurelle de Paladines
(1804?1877), General
- Courtot de Cissey
(1810?1882), General
- Charles-Denis Bourbaki
(1816?1897), General
- Adrien Joseph Deutsch
(1818?1895)
- Louis Rossel
(1844?1871), Minister of War in the
Paris Commune
- Gallieni
(1849?1916), Marshal of France
- Amedee-Francois Lamy
(1858?1900), French officer, conqueror of
Chad
- Georges Catroux
(1877?1969), French general
- Gabriel Voisin
(1880?1973), aeronautical pioneer
- Emile Mireaux
(1885?1969), economist, Minister of Education
- Prince Husain Bey
(1893-1964/9), Crown Prince of
Tunisia
- Jacques Massu
(1908?2002), General
- Pierre Guillaumat
(1909?1991), entrepreneur and statesman (Minister of the Army, Education)
- Kleber Haedens
(1913?1973), writer
- Francois Missoffe
(1919?2003), statesman
- Jean-Claude Brialy
(1933?2007), actor
- Pierre Agostini
(1941?), French experimental physicist and the 2023 Nobel laureate in physics
- Michel Virlogeux
(1946?), architect of
Millau Viaduct
, the tallest vehicular bridge in the world
- Patrick Baudry
(1946?),
astronaut
- Antoine Compagnon
(1950?), writer
- Jean-Francois Clervoy
(1958?),
astronaut
- Caroline Aigle
(1974?2007), first French female fighter pilot
- Rodolphe Belmer
(1969?),
Canal+
program director general
Famous professors
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
^
On vit arriver au College "des Americains, des Indiens, des Tartares, des Russes et meme des Chinois", Marchant de Burbure (1803)
References
[
edit
]
- Li, Shenwen, 2001,
Strategies missionnaires des Jesuites Francais en Nouvelle-France et en Chine au XVIIieme siecle
, Les Presses de l'Universite Laval, L'Harmattan,
ISBN
2-7475-1123-5
- ^
a
b
Pierre Schilte,
Le Chateau-Neuf de Francoise d'Alencon
, Cahiers Flechois no. 1, 1979.
- ^
Beaupere, Bernard (1985). Lavauzelle, Charles (ed.).
Histoire du Prytanee national militaire
(in French). Paris.
ISBN
2-7025-0102-8
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Baudry, Herve (2016).
Un jardin oublie: le Chateau-Neuf de La Fleche. Elements pour une reconstitution (16e-18e s.)≫, IN: Paysages et patrimoines
(in French). Tours.
ISBN
978-2-86906-416-4
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
.
- ^
Schilte 1980
, p. 76
harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSchilte1980 (
help
)
.
- ^
Beaupere 1985
, p. 78.
- ^
de Rochemonteix 1889
, p. 64
harvnb error: no target: CITEREFde_Rochemonteix1889 (
help
)
.
- ^
Beaupere 1985
, p. 7.
- ^
Discourse on the Methodof Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences
.
- ^
a
b
Shenwen Li, p.45
- ^
a
b
c
Shenwen Li, p.46
- ^
Shenwen Li, p.37
External links
[
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International
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National
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Other
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