Martinet

Martinet (pronounced mahr-tn-et)

(1) A strict disciplinarian, especially in the military.

(2) Someone who stubbornly adheres to methods or rules.

1670s: Named after Lieutenant-Colonel (in the Régiment du Roi) Jean Martinet (circa 1635-1672), a French Army drillmaster in 1668 appointed inspector-general of the infantry in the armies of Louis XIV (1638–1715; King of France 1643-1715) with the task of introducing and enforcing "...the drill and strict discipline of the French regiment of Guards across the whole infantry".  The surname is a diminutive of the Latin Martinus which endures in modern use as Martin.  The meaning "an officer who is a stickler for strict discipline" is first attested in 1779 in English, based on his invention of an especially arduous  system of drill, one one academic study guide citing Martinet as the inspiration for the parade-obsessed General Scheisskopf in Joseph Heller’s (1923-1999) Catch-22 (1961), though without attribution.  The meaning "an officer who is a stickler for discipline and regularity in small details" dates from 1779 but it seems, despite the origin, the word is not used in this sense in French.  Related forms are the adjective martinetish and the noun martinetism.

Shot in the back by his own troops

Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Martinet was Inspector General of the infantry in the armies of Louis XIV and a famously strict drillmaster.  Unpopular though his methods may have been among the troops, his techniques influenced training and battlefield tactics in many European armies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

Rifle-mounted bayonets.

Also innovative in technical matters, he introduced the bayonet as an addition to the rifle barrel, borrowing the idea from hunters in the Bayonne region from which the weapon gained its name.  Although simple in design and easy to mass-produce, it revolutionized the deployment of infantry formations because it permitted the French armies to dispense entirely with the pikemen who had hitherto always protected musketeers (rifles) and arquebusiers (light canon) from enemy cavalry, close-range combat and while reloading. The bayonet allowed firearm-using soldiers to protect themselves, the design perfected when adapted to fit over the barrel, allowing the gun to be fired with the bayonet still fixed.

Martinet's second innovation was in logistics or what in US military use is the Q-Side; Martinet called it the depot system.  Until then, soldiers foraged off the land, often forcibly taking food and supplies from civilians, a practice which became notorious during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) of the seventeenth century when large tracts of Germany were depopulated and many towns and cities razed.  Martinet built a system of fortified storehouses, placed along communication routes so armies on campaign could be supplied and be thus free to pursue strategic objectives.  While this made the waging of war a more humane business, there’s nothing to suggest this was of any concern to Martinet; he wished only to improve the efficiency of the military machine.

Well regarded though he was by the military hierarchy and the Sun King’s Court, his strictness made him unpopular with the soldiers and he was killed by “friendly fire” while leading an infantry assault at the siege of Duisburg during the Franco-Dutch War (1672–78).  His methods were later perfected by the Prussian Army of Frederick the Great (Frederick II, 1712–1786; King of Prussia 1740-1772) although improvements in weaponry and communications mean they’re no longer of the same use under battlefield conditions although the drills are still practiced by most militaries in their training programmes.