Richelieu recognized the importance of a strong navy and lost no time in implementing his plans to make France the most powerful country in the world. Special troops were designated to man the new warships and garrison France's ports. Since the French colonies fell under the authority of the Ministry of Marine, the special marine troops would eventually serve as garrison troops in Canada and elsewhere. These troops were originally called the Troupes de la Marine or Les Compagnies Ordinaires de la Marine. On December 16, 1690, King Louis XIV signed an ordinance which created a military force known by the name of the Independent Companies of the Marine --Les Compagnies Franches de la Marine. Under the Troupes de la Marine there had been no properly supervised scheme of recruitment with the result that many soldiers who were of poor physique or as young as twelve years of age had been recruited. These poor recruitment methods were a contributing factor to King Louis' reorganization efforts. Men who had previously served under the Troupes de la Marine then became part of the Compagnies Franches. Until this reorganization, Canada had received little assistance from France for the defense of the colony. In 1683, three companies of the Troupes de la Marine had been sent to Canada to help defend the colony against the hostile Iroquois Indians, but there had been no permanent system for the raising and maintaining of troops for service in Canada. The Compagnies Franches de la Marine developed into what George Stanley, noted Canadian Military historian, refers to as the first Canadian permanent force. These garrison troops were on duty as the regular army and protected a line of French forts and settlements which reached from Fortress Louisbourg on the easternmost tip of Canada, up the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, heading south through the region surrounding the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and all the way to Nouvelle Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi. |
