Re: Glorantha Digest V4 #163
>+ the french foreign legion.
>The holywoodian legion is rather different from the real french
>foreign legion.
>The french foreign legion is not, and never was, a penal corp.
>It is only a mercenary corp serving in the french army.
>In 1830 there was a revolution in France. The Swiss regiments
>refused to swear an oath to the new governement. For this they
>were disbanded. Since foreign mercenaries were still available,
>a foreign legion was created.
>That's why the Eleven or the Danfive Xaron punishment legions
>are different from the foreign legion.
Correct: The french army used to have colonial punishment units when we
still had colonies, but these units were never confused with the French
Foreign Legion. I think the confusion arise from a very old tradition of the
Legion which is that civil prosecution stops at the door of the Legion: aka
if you are prosecuted for something and you enlist, the civil court of
justice cannot get you until you live the Legion. For that reason, some
criminals did choose to enliste in order to avoid jail. This was usually a
bad choice, since discipline in the Legion was a lot harder than in any
french jail... This tradition used to be true for any kind of crime, but no
anymore.
One last point: in the FFL, the soldiers can be of any nationality, but
every officer has to be french. The french Foreign Legion would be better
approximate by a corps like the Bush Rangers, with all the officers beyond
NCO being heartland lunars.
Frederic
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