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A Marshal or Field Marshal (sometimes spelled Marshall) (Chinese: shuai, German: Feldmarschall, Polish
marszałek, Swedish: Fältmarskalk) is, in
some nations, the highest military rank, one step above a full General; and of a comparable rank to the highest ranking General(s) in an army that does not use the term.
The title field marshal is only used by land forces. The air force
equivalent (used in some countries) is Marshal of the Air Force, where Air Force is replaced by the name of the
service in question, for example, Marshal
of the Royal Air Force. The naval equivalent is Admiral of
the Fleet. As the highest rank, answerable only to the nation's ruler, appointments have often been made as much for
political as for military purposes, and not infrequently as a way to publicly reward a successful general.
The Rank Insiginia of a Field Marshal in the British Army is shown in
the illustration above. It comprises of two batons in a wreath, with a crown on top. See also: General In some countries, previously under a sphere of British
influence, an adapted version of the insignia is used for Field Marshals, often with the crown being replaced
with an alternative cultural or national emblem.
The rank of marshal goes back to the early Middle Ages,
originally meaning the keeper of the King's horses mare scalci from the time of
the early Frankish Kings. In the 1300s, a distinction began to be drawn between "court
marshals" and "military marshals". Philip II of France (reigned 1179 to 1223) first instituted the office of marescallus Franciae and it became on of the greatest
offices of the crown. The office of Marshal of France
(Maréchal de France) developed, and by the time of the Thirty
Years War, most Continental armies had a field marshal or two.
The office of Marshal was known in England from the twelfth century but in the
introduction of the modern military title,Great Britain was a relative
latecomer. It was introduced by George I, the first Hanoverian king, in the style
of the continental armies; the Duke of Argyll became the first field
marshal in 1736.
The field marshal's special symbol was a baton, famously mentioned by Napoleon: "Every French soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack". The Maréchaux
de France carried as their insignia of rank blue batons with gold fleurs-de-lis, engraved with the motto "Decus pacis, terror belli ("The symbol of peace, the
terror of war"). Hermann Göring, holder of the singular rank "Marshal
of the Empire" (Reichsmarschall) of Nazi Germany, also carried a
baton.
With no medieval tradition to preserve, and a persistent aversion to anything that smacked of aristocracy, the United States never created the rank. However, this became a problem for the
Allies in World War II, when
Dwight Eisenhower, a "mere" General, was chosen to be the
Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and was thus in a
position to give orders to field marshals, who technically outranked him. The solution was to create the rank of General of the Army, wearing five stars, and equivalent to field
marshal. (An alternate story holds that George C. Marshall did
not want to be called "Marshal Marshall.")
In the Soviet Union, the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was actually the
second-highest rank; Josef Stalin, who had appointed himself an "MSU",
subsequently promoted himself to the rank of Generalissimo of the Soviet
Union, a rank he and only he was ever appointed to hold.
At the beginning of the 21st century, with military forces shrinking
worldwide, there remain few field marshals to be seen anywhere. Although traditionally the British monarch is a field marshal,
Queen Elizabeth II does not
hold that rank (although she has since 1964 been the Lord High
Admiral), and the Prince of Wales has
indicated an unwillingness to be the only five-star officer of the military; the Duke of Edinburgh is one of the few Field Marshals of the British Army remaining.
List of Marshals
- List of Austrian Field
Marshals
- List of Iranian Field Marshals
- List of Nepalese Field Marshals
- List of Russian Field Marshals
- List of Thai Field Marshals
- List of Tunisian Field Marshals
- List of Turkish Field Marshals
Other meanings
- Among notable persons with "Marshal" as their surname were William
Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke.
- "Marshal" should not be confused with the name "Marshall."
- United States Marshals Service, an
agency of the US Justice Department
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