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The 'Royal Marechaussee' (in Dutch ''Koninklijke Marechaussee'', abbreviated to KMar) is one of the four military bodies of the Netherlands. It is a gendarmerie — that is, a military body performing the peacetime duties of a normal police force.

Contents

History

Emblem

Present KMar

Structure

National and International Units District

Spelling

See also

External link

History

The ''Corps de Maréchaussée'' was created by King William I to replace the French Gendarmerie on October 26, 1814 . The word ''gendarmerie'' had gained a negative connotation, so William called the new force ''"marechaussée"'' (in the document he forgot the first acute accent). Maréchaussée is an alternate French word for ''gendarmerie''. At that time, the Marechaussee was a part of the army (''landmacht'').
The Marechaussee was tasked with maintaining public order, fighting crime, and safeguarding the main roads. Although not specifically mentioned, this included police duties for the army. As such, the Marechaussee was part of the national police (''rijkspolitie'').
The Marechaussee would form the only police force in many small cities like Venlo, especially in the southern provinces of Limburg and North Brabant.
In 1908, Queen Wilhelmina gave the task of guarding the royal palaces to the Marechaussee, a task which had previously been done by gardeners. To this day, guarding a palace is called ''"klompendienst"'' (wooden shoe service).
On July 5, 1940, the German occupation government merged the Marechaussee with the ''rijksveldwacht'' and the ''gemeenteveldwacht''. This meant that the Marechaussee lost its military status and the predicate Royal. These changes did not apply to the Marechaussee outside the occupied territory. About 200 ''marechaussees'' took care of the protection of the royal family, the Dutch government and provided police services to the Princess Irene Brigade, a brigade formed in the United Kingdom, consisting of Dutchmen.
After World War II, the Marechaussee was split into a ''Korps Rijkspolitie'' (National Police Corps) (as a replacement of the ''rijksveldwacht'' and the ''gemeenteveldwacht'') and the ''Royal Marechaussee'', which regained its military status. From this time the main tasks for the Marechaussee were border protection, military police and guard duties.
On July 3, 1956, Princess Beatrix was made patroness of the Royal Marechaussee.
In 1994, the National and Municipal police forces merged into the present 25 regional police forces and the Korps landelijke politiediensten (National Police Services Agency). The National Police transferred its airport police and security tasks (notably Schiphol) to the Marechaussee.
In 1998, the Marechaussee was made independent of the army.

Emblem

The emblem of the Royal Marechaussee is, as with many other gendarmerie forces, a burning grenade. In the 17th century, a new weapon was introduced in Europe: the hand grenade. The soldiers who handled grenades were called grenadiers. They became an elite type of soldier in all European armies. In France the grenade symbol was adopted by the gendarmerie, and this was imitated by various other similar forces throuhgout Europe.
The burning grenade (but in this case within an eight-pointed star) was also the emblem of the ''Rijkspolitie''.

Present KMar

The present maréchaussée is a police organisation with a military status, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, but mostly working for the ministries of Justice and Domestic Affairs.
The KMar performs the following missions:

★ security and police work at all civilian airports, notably Schiphol Airport

★ guarding the national borders

★ military police functions for the Dutch Armed Forces

★ guarding the royal palaces and the house of the Prime Minister

★ assistance to and replacement of the police

★ fighting international crime

★ fighting illegal immigration

★ VIP close protection

★ riot control and protection

★ Escorting and protection of NATO convoys

Structure

★ Staff Headquarters in The Hague

★ Districts:

★
★ West (Holland and Utrecht, except Schiphol)

★
★ South (Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg)

★
★ North/East (all other provinces)

★
★ Schiphol

★
★ National and International Units

★
★ National Training Centre
The first four units are territorial districts, the other two do not have territorial responsibilities.

National and International Units District

This district was created in 2005 to centralise all existing and new units with national and international missions.
The most important units in this district are:

★ Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten'' (Special Security Brigade)'', special forces for arrests, observation and protection

★ KMOO, the Military Police Service

★ All missions to foreign countries

Spelling

In the course of time the two acute accents of the French spelling (Maréchaussée) were dropped. The lowest ranking personnel are referred to as marechaussees (without the capital M), a rank comparable to corporals.

See also

★ Gendarmerie

★ Constabulary

★ Dutch police

External link

★ Official Marechaussee website (in Dutch)