Formal French naval education predates École navale. French candidates trained with the Order of St John, while gardes de la marine companies operated at Brest, Rochefort, and Toulon from the seventeenth century. A royal naval school created under Louis XV was closed by Louis XVI to save money. Guard companies, Napoleonic schools, and Restoration colleges followed. France spent decades searching for an affordable institution that could prepare officers and preserve professional knowledge.
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French naval schooling before École navale
France experimented with officer schools, port-based gardes de la marine companies, and successive royal and imperial colleges before 1830.