Constable (Lat. constabulus), the title of an ancient officer, originally of high military rank, but now generally an officer of the peace. The older writers, as Coke and Selden, fancifully derive the word from koning-stapel, 'staff and stay of the king.' It represents, however, the Latin comes stabuli, 'count of the stable,' an officer who in the later Roman empire was at first charged with the care of the stables, and afterwards became captain of a military force, and chief officer of the army. The title was borrowed from the Romans by the Franks. The Constable of France rose gradually in importance from the comparatively modest position of an officer of the household, till at last he became ex officio the commander-in-chief of the army in the absence of the monarch, the highest judge in military offences and in all questions of chivalry and honour, and the supreme regulator and arbitrator in all matters connected with tilts, tournaments, and all martial displays. The office was suppressed by Louis XIII. in 1626. Under Napoleon, the constable was the fifth of the great dignitaries of the empire. The office was again abolished on the restoration of the Bourbons. But besides the Constable of France, almost all the great vassals of the crown had constables who filled analogous offices at their minor courts.
The Lord High Constable of England appears shortly after the Conquest as the seventh great officer of the crown, and formerly a judge in the Court of Chivalry. The office went by inheritance to the Earls of Hereford and Essex, and afterwards in the line of Stafford. When Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was attainted in 1521, the office became forfeit, and has never since been granted except for a special ceremony of state, as when it was conferred on the Duke of Wellington for the coronation of Queen Victoria. The High Constable of Scotland was an officer very similar to the Constable of France and England. The office, now purely honorary, in 1314 was made hereditary in the noble family of Erroll, and is reserved both in the Treaty of Union and in the statute of George II. abolishing hereditary jurisdictions. The High Constable is by birth the first subject in Scotland after the blood-royal.
The governor of a royal castle was often called Constable; see TOWER OF LONDON. The Constables of the Hundred, and of the Vill, were the predecessors of the high and petty constables of later times. The statute of Winchester (1285) ordains that in every hundred or franchise there shall be chosen two constables, to make the view of armour, and to see to the conservation of the peace. The petty constable exercised similar functions within the narrower limits of the township or parish, and was subordinate to the high constable of the hundred. The high constables were formerly appointed by the courts leet of the franchise or hundred over which they preside; or, in default of such appointment, by the justices at their special sessions. An act of 1869 made provision for the abolition of the office of high constable throughout England and Wales. The appointment of petty constables is made by the justices, who are directed annually to require from the overseers of parishes a list of those within the parish qualified and liable to serve as constables. When not specially exempted, every able-bodied man, between twenty-five and fifty-five years of age, resident in the parish, and rated to the poor, or a tenant to the value of £4 per annum, must be included in this list.—SPECIAL CONSTABLES are persons sworn in by the justices to preserve the peace, or to execute warrants on special occasions, as in 1848 on account of the Chartists, and in 1887 on account of the 'unemployed' riots in Trafalgar Square, London. Any two justices of the peace who shall learn that a tumult, riot, or felony has taken place, or is apprehended, may swear in as many householders or others as they may think fit, to act as special constables. The lord-lieutenant may also, by direction of one of the principal secretaries of state, cause special constables to be appointed for the whole county, or any part of it. In Scotland, constables are the officers of the justices of the peace charged with the execution of their warrants and orders, and appointed at quarter-sessions. In royal burghs they are appointed by the magistrates. It is their duty, without warrant, to apprehend rioters and breakers of the peace, and bring them before the nearest justice. In the United States they are generally elected by the people, but special constables may be appointed by the authorities in emergencies. The title of High Constable is in some American cities given to the principal police officers. For county constabulary, see POLICE, and for the Irish constabulary, IRELAND.