Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 October 18

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October 18

Louis Mandrin and Louis-Dominique Bourguignon

Who were the commanders of the respective armies who arrested these two bandits? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.2.233.54 (talk) 12:49, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Regarding Louis Mandrin, it appears, according to this article that the commanding officer was Colonel de la Morlière. The arrest took place in a village of the Duchy of Savoy, which was not part of France at the time (May 1755), but of the Kingdom of Sardinia, without the authorization of the Sardinians [1]. De la Morlière has an article on the French Wikipedia [2] which also mentions his role in Mandrin's arrest. Xuxl (talk) 13:16, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Concerning Louis Dominique Bourguignon, he is almost always referred to by the nickname "Cartouche" in French (see [3]) and I'm not sure why the article in English is under that rarely used name. He was betrayed to the police by an accomplice, Gruthus (or François) du Châtelet, on October 14, 1721 after a string of particularly brutal murders had made him "public enemy number 1" in France. [4]. The arrest took place at dawn in a drinking establishment called - ironically - "Au Pistolet" ("The Pistol") in Paris. The arresting party was ordered by Claude le Blanc, who was the "Secrétaire d'État à la guerre" (equivalent to a Minister of Defense today) and it was led by "un des plus braves sergents aux gardes" (one the bravest officers of the guard) accompanied by some forty men (see [5]). That last article includes an image of a snippet from the Mercure de France, and the original article, if someone can find it, may include the arresting officer's name as well. Xuxl (talk) 13:52, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

I did manage to find the article from the Mercure de France. It is in the October 1721 edition, starting on page 187 (available at the Bibliothèque nationale de France website. [6]) The article only mentions that the arrest was made by "un Sergent des Gardes Françoises" (an officer of the French guard). Xuxl (talk) 14:27, 18 October 2023 (UTC)