Malheureuses et importunes à renfermer. Les femmes dans les premières procédures administratives de mendicité diligentées par la maréchaussée à Lille (1768-1772)

摘要

Instructions given in Versailles on February 27 and July 20, 1768, expressly charged the "maréchaussée " with the arrest of the beggars and the vagrants according to new methods. Minister Choiseul asked the Provost (marshals: "prévôts des Maréchaux") to be at the intendants' s disposal; the latter were to see to the appropriateness and implementation. During the first years of application, from late 1769 to 1772, the "Maréchaussée" of Flanders arrested one hundred and thirty-six women, who then for the most part were put in prison or sent to correction facilities ( "dépôts de mendicité" or "maisons de correction "). Some of them had indeed drawn the attention onto themselves through their excesses or shocking behaviour and the authorities reproached them for being "unbearable beggars" and often "a high burden to the society".