GEAT, the hole through which the metal is conveyed to the mould in casting ordnance.
GEBEGIS. Armorers among the Turks are so called.
GEBELUS. Every timariot in Turkey, during a campaign, is obliged to take a certain number of horsemen, who are called gebelus, and to support them at his own expence. He is directed to take as many with him as would annually cost three thousand aspres (each aspre being equal to two-pence farthing English) for subsistence.
GELD, in the English old customs, a Saxon word signifying money, or tribute. It also denoted a compensation for some crime committed. Hence wergeld, in the old Saxon laws, was used for the value of a man slain; and orfgeld, for that of a beast.
GELIBACH. A sort of superintendant or chief of the gebegis, or armorers among the Turks. He is only subordinate to the toppi bachi, or the grand-master of the Turkish artillery.
GENDARMERIE, Fr. the gendarmerie was a select body of cavalry that took precedence of every regiment of horse in the French service, and ranked immediately after the king’s household. The reputation of the gendarmerie was so great, and its services so well estimated by the king of France, that when the emperor Charles V. in 1552, sent a formal embassy to the Court of Versailles to request a loan of money, and the assistance of the gendarmerie to enable him to repulse the Turks; Francis I. returned the following answer: “With respect to the first object of your mission, (addressing himself to the ambassador) I am not a banker; and with regard to the other, as my gendarmerie is the arm which supports my sceptre, I never expose it to danger, without myself sharing its fatigue and glory.”
The uniform of the gendarmerie, as well as of the light cavalry, under the old French government, was scarlet, with facings of the same color. The coat was formerly more or less laced with silver according to the king’s pleasure. A short period before the revolution, it was only laced on the cuff. The waistcoat of buff leather, and the bandouleer of the same, silver laced; the hat was edged with broad silver lace. The horse-cloths and holster-caps were red, and the arms of the captain embroidered on the corners of the saddle cloths, and on the front of the holsters. In 1762, a considerable body of men was raised by order of Louis XIV. The soldiers who composed it were called gensdarmes. And in 1792, the number was considerably augmented, consisting of horse and foot, and being indiscriminately called gens d’armes; but their clothing was altered to deep blue. Their pay was greater than what the rest of the army enjoyed, and when others were paid in paper currency, they received their subsistence in hard cash (en argent sonant.) They possessed these privileges on account of the proofs they were obliged to bring of superior claims to military honor, before they could be enlisted as gendarmes. It was necessary, in fact, that every individual amongst them should produce a certificate of six or eight years service.
GENDARMES (gens d’armes) de la garde, a select body of men so called during the old government of France, and still preserved in that country; but their services are applied to different purposes. They consisted originally of a single company which was formed by Henry IV. when he ascended the throne. He distinguished them from his other troops, by stiling them hommes d’armes de ses ordonnances; men at arms under his own immediate orders. They consisted of men best qualified for every species of military duty, and were to constitute a royal squadron at whose head the king himself might personally engage the enemy, as necessity might require. He gave this squadron to his son, the Dauphin, who was afterwards king of France, under the name and title of Louis XIII.
GENERAL, in a military sense, is an officer in chief, to whom the government of a country have judged proper to entrust the command of their troops. He holds this important trust under various titles, as captain-general, in England and Spain, feldt mareschal, in Germany, or mareschal, in France.
In the British service the king is constitutionally, and in his official right, captain-general. He has ten aids-de-camp; every one of whom enjoys the brevet rank of full colonel in the army. Next to the king is the commander in chief, whom he sometimes honors with the title of captain-general. During the expedition to Holland the Duke of York was entrusted with this important charge.