Prytanée National Militaire

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The entrance gate of the Prytanee National Militaire.
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The entrance gate of the Prytanee National Militaire.

The Prytanée National Militaire is a French school managed by the military, offering regular high-school education as well as special preparatory school 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 Flèche.

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[edit] History

During the 16th century, Françoise, duchess of Alençon, and grandmother to the future Henry IV established a castle in La Fleche, where Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, and his wife Jeanne d'Albret, future parents of Henry IV, resided in 1552. The castle was given to the Jesuits by Henri IV in 1604 to found a College under the name of "Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand", in order "to select and train the best minds of the time".

[edit] The Jesuit College (1604-1762)

The castle of La Fleche
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The castle of La Fleche

The first Jesuits left Pont-à-Mousson on October 16th, 1603, and reached La Fleche on January 2nd, 1604. They started to teach grammar, rhetorics, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, philosophy, mathematics, theology. A foundation edict was issued at Fontainebleau in May 1607, in which the building started to take its present shape.

René 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 in one of the most famous schools of Europe".

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.

Around 1650, the College became a center of cosmopolistic learning, as "Americans, Indians, Tartars, Russians, and even Chinese visited it" (Historian Marchant de Burbure in 1803 [1]). Around 1500 students lived in La Fleche, supervised by 120 Jesuits according to the Jesuit educational rule of the "Ratio Studiorum". Students were prepared to various functions, in the Church (Cardinal de Talleyrand), the State (Séguier, Voisin, etc..), or the Army (Maréchal de Guébriant).

[edit] Cadets school (1764-1776)

Engraving of the Prytanée, 18th century.
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Engraving of the Prytanée, 18th century.

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 Paris Military School, the “Ecole de Cadets ou Ecole militaire préparatoire à l’Ecole militaire du Champ de Mars”. These efforts at creating military institutions followed military defeats in the Seven Years' War. 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.

[edit] College (1776-1793)

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 "Father of Christian Doctrine" (Pères de la Doctrine chrétienne). Among others, they educated the future General Bertrand, who accompanied Napoléon 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.

[edit] Prytanée Militaire (1808-today)

Prytanee students having lunch around 1900
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Prytanee students having lunch around 1900

In March 24th, 1808, Napoléon renamed the school "Prytanée 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 Spéciale Militaire de Fontainebleau" to Paris, and the "Prytanée de Saint-Cyr" to La Flèche. Since then various names were adopted for the school, such as "Ecole royale militaire" (1814-1830), Collège royal militaire (1831-1848), Collège national militaire (1848-1853), Prytanée impérial militaire (1853-1870), Prytanée militaire and Prytanée national militaire (since 1870).

During World War II in 1940, the Prytanee had to be moved for a few years to Valence et Briançon.

[edit] Today

Swearing-in ceremony, for Prytanée student preparing to École de Saint-Cyr (ca. 1950).
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Swearing-in ceremony, for Prytanée student preparing to École de Saint-Cyr (ca. 1950).

Today the Prytanée starts from the high school level, and has "Classes préparatoires", that is, preparatory classes to the entrance examinations of the French elite Grandes Écoles, such as École polytechnique, the Navy École Navale, the Army École de Saint-Cyr, the École 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.

[edit] Famous alumni

René Descartes (1596-1650)
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René Descartes (1596-1650)
Claude Chappe (1763-1805)
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Claude Chappe (1763-1805)
Gallieni (1849-1916)
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Gallieni (1849-1916)
Patrick Baudry (1946-)
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Patrick Baudry (1946-)

The Prytanée has trained various military and non-military celebrities.

[edit] Famous professors

[edit] Notes

  1. ↑  On vit arriver au Collège "des Américains, des Indiens, des Tartares, des Russes et même des Chinois", Marchant de Burbure (1803)

[edit] External links

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