![]() This gave rise to constables’ exercising civil jurisdiction. Sometimes the appointment was coupled with that of conservator (later justice) of the peace, who assisted the sheriff in enforcing the law. Officers with important military commands and in control of garrisons and castles were also known as constables- e.g., the constables of Windsor, Dover, Caernarvon (Caernarfon), Conway, Harlech, and Flint castles and of the Tower of London. Lord high constables are now appointed only for coronations. ![]() ![]() The Court of the Constable and Marshal, also known as the Court of Chivalry, came into existence at least as early as the reign of Edward I (1272–1307). The principal duty of the constable and marshal was the command of the army. In England the office of constable, which was similar to that of the pre-Conquest staller, was in existence during Henry I’s reign (1100–35). It was finally abolished upon the restoration of the Bourbons. It was eliminated in 1627, after the death of François de Bonne, Duke de Lesdiguières, but was revived by Napoleon I, who appointed his brother Louis Bonaparte grand constable. After the treason of the constable Charles de Bourbon (1523), however, the kings distrusted the power of the office, and for many years in the 16th century it was allowed to remain vacant. The constable’s military duties and judicial powers increased until, by the mid-14th century, he held supreme military command of the army. In the 11th century the constable ( connétable) of France became one of the five great officers of state, with limited powers of jurisdiction and with command of the cavalry. The Franks borrowed the title, and under the Merovingian and Carolingian kings of western Europe the comes stabuli was in charge of the royal stud, with the marshal ( marescallus) as his subordinate officer. The title comes stabuli is found in the Roman and particularly in the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire from the 5th century ad as that of the head of the stables at the imperial court.
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