French Guards Regiment

Charles IX was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the House of Valois.

Fusilier is a name given to various kinds of soldiers; its meaning depends on the historical context. While fusilier is derived from the 17th-century French word fusil – meaning a type of flintlock musket – the term has been used in contrasting ways in different countries and at different times, including soldiers guarding artillery, various elite units, ordinary line infantry and other uses.

Catherine de' Medici was a Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King Henry II and the mother of French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" since she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.

Meaux is a commune on the river Marne in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is 41.1 km (25.5 mi) east-northeast of the centre of Paris.

The Huguenots were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Besançon Hugues (1491–1532), was in common use by the mid-16th century. Huguenot was frequently used in reference to those of the Reformed Church of France from the time of the Protestant Reformation. By contrast, the Protestant populations of eastern France, in Alsace, Moselle, and Montbéliard, were mainly Lutherans.

Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca", but today barracks are usually permanent buildings. The word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes, and the plural form often refers to a single structure and may be singular in construction.

The Battle of Fontenoy was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on 11 May 1745 near Tournai in modern Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by the Duke of Cumberland.

Marshal of France is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished (1793–1804) and for a period dormant (1870–1916). It was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration, and one of the Grand Dignitaries of the Empire during the First French Empire.

Abraham de Fabert, marquis d'Esternay was a Marshal of France.

The Battle of Saint-Denis was fought on 10 November 1567 between a Royalist army and Huguenot rebels during the second of the French Wars of Religion. Although their 74 year old commander, Anne de Montmorency, was killed in the fighting, the Royalists forced the rebels to withdraw, allowing them to claim victory.

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Queen Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre started a few days after the marriage on 18 August of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant King Henry III of Navarre. Many of the wealthiest and most prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris to attend the wedding.

In the French Wars of Religion, the Day of the Barricades, 12 May 1588, was an outwardly spontaneous public uprising in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate, hesitant, temporizing policies of Henry III. It was in fact called forth by the "Council of Sixteen", representing the sixteen quartiers of Paris, led by Henri, duc de Guise, head of the Catholic League, and coordinated in detail by Philip II of Spain's ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza.

The siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627–28. The siege marked the height of the struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants in France, and ended with a complete victory for King Louis XIII and the Catholics.

The Battle of Lens was a French victory under Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé against the Spanish army under Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). It was the last major battle of the war and a French victory. The battle cemented the reputation of Condé as one of the greatest generals of his age.

The Battle of Fleurus, fought on 1 July 1690 near the town of Fleurus in modern Belgium, was a major engagement of the Nine Years' War. In a bold envelopment, Marshal Luxembourg, commanding a French army, inflicted a severe defeat on an Allied force led by Prince Waldeck.

The Battle of Steenkerque, also known as Steenkerke, Steenkirk or Steinkirk was fought on 3 August 1692, during the Nine Years' War, near Steenkerque, then part of the Spanish Netherlands but now in modern Belgium A French force under Marshal François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, repulsed a surprise attack by an Allied army led by William of Orange. The Allies were forced to retreat after several hours of heavy fighting, although the French were too exhausted to follow up their victory.

The Battle of Ramillies, fought on 23 May 1706, was a battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. For the Grand Alliance – Austria, England, and the Dutch Republic – the battle had followed an indecisive campaign against the Bourbon armies of King Louis XIV of France in 1705. Although the Allies had captured Barcelona that year, they had been forced to abandon their campaign on the Moselle, had stalled in the Spanish Netherlands and suffered defeat in northern Italy. Yet despite his opponents' setbacks Louis XIV wanted peace, but on reasonable terms. Because of this, as well as to maintain their momentum, the French and their allies took the offensive in 1706.

The Battle of Malplaquet took place on 11 September 1709 during the War of the Spanish Succession and was fought between a French army commanded by the Duke of Villars and a Grand Alliance force under John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough. In one of the bloodiest battles of the 18th century, the Allies won a narrow victory but suffered heavy casualties, while the French were able to withdraw in good order.

The Battle of Dettingen took place on 27 June 1743 during the War of the Austrian Succession at Dettingen in the Electorate of Mainz, Holy Roman Empire. It was fought between a Pragmatic Army, composed of the British, Hanoverian and Austrian troops, and a French army commanded by the duc de Noailles.

The Battle of Fontenoy was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on 11 May 1745 near Tournai in modern Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by the Duke of Cumberland.

The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At the time, the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. The prison contained only seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.

Pierre de Montesquiou, comte d'Artagnan and later comte de Montesquiou was a French soldier and Marshal of France.

François d'Aubusson de La Feuillade, known as 6th duc de Roannais (1631–1691) was a French military officer and noble who served in the wars of Louis XIV and became a Marshal of France. He was also responsible for initiating the design and construction of the Place des Victoires, one of modern Paris' most famous landmarks.

Charles I de Créquy, Prince de Poix and Duc de Lesdiguières (1578–1638), was a leading French soldier of the first half of the 17th century.

Nicolas Catinat was a French military commander and Marshal of France under Louis XIV. The son of a magistrate, Catinat was born in Paris on 1 September 1637. He entered the Gardes Françaises at an early age and distinguished himself at the Siege of Lille in 1667.

Abraham de Fabert, marquis d'Esternay was a Marshal of France.

Louis Friant was a French general who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Armand Louis de Gontaut, duc de Lauzun, later duc de Biron, and usually referred to by historians of the French Revolution simply as Biron was a French soldier and politician, known for the part he played in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1773, he was Grand second warden of Grand Orient de France.

Antoine III Agénor de Gramont, Duke of Gramont, comte de Guiche, comte de Gramont, comte de Louvigny, Souverain de Bidache was a French military commander and diplomat. He served as Marshal of France from 1641, Viceroy of Navarre and Béarn, and Governor of Bayonne.

Antoine Jean Galiot Mandat, known as the Marquis de Mandat, was a French nobleman, general and politician. A knight and lord of Berny-en-Santerre and Les Pins in the Vendômois, he became a colonel in the Gardes-Françaises, then succeeded La Fayette as commander of the National Guard in 1792. He was assassinated by insurgents in the insurrection of 10 August during the French Revolution.

Louis Lazare Hoche was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 3. Richard Holmes describes him as "quick-thinking, stern, and ruthless... a general of real talent whose early death was a loss to France."

François Joseph Lefebvre, Duc de Dantzig, was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and one of the original eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon.

Filippo di Piero Strozzi was an Italian condottiero, a member of the Florentine family of the Strozzi. He fought mainly for France.