Attached to the REPORTS FROM COMMISSIONERS, vol 23, Session 4 February -- 20 August 1836, printed in 1836, is the report of the commission created "For Inquiring into the System of Military Punishments in the Army; with Appendices." This is on Google.

The appendices contain some very interesting documents including a very early version of the Article of War which states:

"Theft and robberie exceeding the value of twelve-pence, shall be punished with death."

"Rapes, ravishments, unnatural abuses shall be punished with death."

"Adulterie, fornication, and other dissolute lasciviousnesse, shall be punished with discretion according to the qualitie of the offence."

Finally, after listing a lot of prohibitions, etc., this document concludes with "All other faults, disorders, and offences not mentioned in these articles shall be punished according to the generall customes and laws of warre." The emphasis is mine.

What this tells us is that 160 years before the Nap period, robbery and rape was regarded as a serious crime and that there were"general customs and laws of war."

However, much more interesting is a group of documents beginning on p. 135 of the appendices which relate to the military law of the French army and which the Ministere de Guerre were provided to the commission at their request. Many of these documents date back to the 1790s and there is mention of others from the imperial period, although not included. I would be of the opinion that these older laws were still regarded as being in force in 1836 and therefore were most probably in force throughout the 1st Empire.

Of particular interest is the "CODE DES DELITS ET DES PEINES POUR LES TROUPES DE LA REPUBLIQUE, 21 Brumaire, An V. This code prescribes death for any soldier or person attached to the army who pillages the houses, persons "de quelque pays que ce soit," which I translate to mean in any country where the army happens to be. Any soldier who makes an attempt on the life of an unarmed inhabitant, or his wife or children, "en quelque pays et lieu que ce soit," will be punished by death. A soldier or any person attached to the army convicted of rape of any individual attached to the army will get 8 years in irons, if there are accomplices or if the victim is less than 14 years of age, 12 years in irons. If a girl or woman dies as a result of an assault on her person, the penalty is death.

It would seem that there was law in the French army. I suppose the question is whether it was enforced, particularly in Portugal in 1810-1811, and if not, why not.

dg