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Their assertions are absolute and utter balderdash. I could go back to ancient history, to the Egypt of the Pharaohs, to Classical Greece and Rome and indeed to mediaeval Scotland and England to show how policing developed, but suffice to say the first police force as we understand them was the Maréchaussée, the mounted police force of France which was made the national law enforcement agency by King Louis XIV between 1697 and 1699. Louis was building on the Maréchaussée’s long traditions – it was originally founded by King Philip IV, Philip the Fair, in 1306. He was the French king who agreed the Auld Alliance with Scotland in 1295. Still, that force was a national agency and not a municipal constabulary, and while Scotland for centuries had city guards and nightwatchmen, it was the irregular force of Bow Street Runners founded by the Fielding brothers in London which was seen as the first police as we understand them.