Marshal/field marshal is the highest rank in most armed forces, the equivalent in the USA and armies that follow its lead of a five-star general of the army. It began humbly, from the Frankish-Latin mariscalcus and from the Old High German marahscalh meaning ‘horse-servant’, the title of the man who tended and shoed the horses. This became, first of all, the title of a holder of high office in the royal household and, in time, of high military rank, much like the parallel title of constable. By the mid-13th century in England and the 14th century in Scotland the marescal or mareschal in England was a high officer of state, a title bestowed on an earl or a duke. The title was first used as a military rank in 1300. It later referred to a C-in-C, perhaps through the parallel evolution of the verb to marshal—to set or arrange, and thus to gather forces together. By 1450 the king of Hungary was referred to as the ‘marshal of Christendom against the heathen’, and by 1560 the office of marshal of France, technically a dignity of state rather than a military rank, had been established.
In the 17th century the office of marshal or field marshal came to surpass that of general, although through a somewhat haphazard process, with wide national differences in policy and terminology. In Germany the rank, used until the end of WW II, was termed Generalfeldmarschall. It was always felt that it should reward success on the battlefield, and Ludendorff, in old age, declined the honour, saying: ‘An officer is promoted field-marshal on the battlefield, not at a tea-party in time of peace.’ The Austrian army used the same rank, but also had the oddity Feldmarschall-leutnant, equating to major general. In 1736, the Duke of Argyll and the Earl of Orkney were appointed the first field marshals of Great Britain. The rank of marshal had been used under the ancien régime and was revived by Napoleon who often gave his marshals independent authority to command armies of their own as well as major components of the Grande Armée when assembled. It disappeared after the Second Empire, but was revived again for Joffre to sweeten his dismissal in the winter of 1916-17, and has been granted sparingly (and sometimes posthumously) since.
When the RAF was founded as an independent service in 1918 it needed distinctive ranks comparable with the various grades of admiral or general. The ranks of air vice-marshal (rear admiral or major general), air marshal (vice admiral or lieutenant general), and air chief marshal (admiral or general) were introduced. Marshal of the RAF equated to field marshal. The US army never espoused the term. Until after the American civil war it did not promote much above major general. Grant was eventually appointed general of the army, a rank later held by MacArthur and Eisenhower, among a few others.
The Russian tsarist army had field marshals including Suvorov, but the rank, like all the old military ranks, was abolished in 1917. In 1935 the rank of marshal of the USSR was introduced for five officers, including Tukhachevskiy, recalling Napoleonic precedent. During the 1941-5 Great Patriotic War, marshals commanded Fronts (army groups) and acted as representatives of Stavka—the supreme command group. Marshals of arms—of aviation, artillery, or armour, for example—equated with army (full) generals, and chief marshals of arm to marshals of the USSR. The rank was later abolished but in 1997 Pres Boris Yeltsin reintroduced the rank of marshal (of Russia) for his defence minister.
In most contemporary armies, including the British, the rank is in abeyance, although it may be revived in wartime. Throughout military history it has been the ultimate military distinction and it is ironic that its etymology has nothing to do with ‘martial’, a word that sounds the same and derives from Mars, the Roman god of war.
— Christopher Bellamy
