Swiss Guards

Grenadier of the Swiss Guard in France, 1779

Two different units of Swiss mercenaries performed guard duties for the Kings of France: the Hundred Swiss (Cent Suisses) served in the Palace essentially as bodyguards and ceremonial troops,^[2] and the Swiss Guards (Gardes Suisses), who guarded entrances and outer perimeter. In addition, the Gardes Suisses served in the field as a fighting regiment in times of war.^[3]

Hundred Swiss (Cent Suisses)

The Hundred Swiss were created in 1480 when Louis XI retained a Swiss company for his personal guard.^[4]

By 1496 they comprised one hundred guardsmen and about twenty-seven officers and sergeants. Their main role was to protect the King in the palace as the garde du dedans du Louvre (the Louvre indoor guard), but in the earlier part of their history they also accompanied the King to war. In the Battle of Pavia (1525) the Hundred Swiss of Francis I of France were slain before Francis was captured by the Spanish. The Hundred Swiss shared indoor guard duties with the King's Bodyguards (Garde du Corps), who were French.^[5]

The Hundred Swiss were armed with halberds, the blade of which carried the Royal arms in gold, as well as gold-hilted swords. Their ceremonial dress until 1789 comprised an elaborate 16th century Swiss costume covered with braid and livery lace. A less ornate dark blue and red uniform with bearskin headdress was worn for ordinary duties.^[6]

The Cent Suisses company was disbanded after Louis XVI of France left the Palace of Versailles in October 1789. It was, however, refounded on 15 July 1814 with an establishment of 136 guardsmen and eight officers. The Hundred Swiss accompanied Louis XVIII into exile in Belgium the following year and returned with him to Paris following the Battle of Waterloo. The unit then resumed its traditional role, palace guards at the Tuileries, but in 1817 it was replaced by a new guard company drawn from the French regiments of the Royal Guard.^[7]

Swiss Guards (Gardes Suisses)

In 1616, Louis XIII of France gave an existing regiment of Swiss infantry the name of Gardes suisses (Swiss Guards). The new regiment primarily protected the doors, gates and outer perimeters of the royal palaces.^[8]

By the end of the 17th century the Swiss Guards were formally part of the Maison militaire du roi.^[9] As such, they were brigaded with the Regiment of French Guards (Gardes Françaises), with whom they shared the outer guard, and were in peacetime stationed in barracks on the outskirts of Paris. Like the eleven Swiss regiments of line infantry in French service, the Gardes suisses wore red coats. The line regiments had black, yellow or light blue facings but the Swiss Guards were distinguished by dark blue lapels and cuffs edged in white embroidery. Only the grenadier company wore bearskins, while the other companies wore the standard tricorn headdress of the French infantry.^[10]

Regimental flag of the Swiss Guards

Uniform of the Swiss Guards c. 1750

During the 17th and 18th centuries the Swiss Guards maintained a reputation for discipline and steadiness in both peacetime service and foreign campaigning. Their officers were all Swiss and their rate of pay substantially higher than that of the regular French soldiers.^[11]

The Guards were recruited from all Swiss cantons. The nominal establishment was 1,600 men though actual numbers seem to have normally been below this.^[12]

During the Revolution

Massacre of the Swiss Guards

Swiss Guards on the grand staircase of the palace during the storming of the Tuileries

The most famous episode in the history of the Swiss Guards was their defence of the Tuileries Palace in central Paris during the French Revolution. Of the nine hundred Swiss Guards defending the palace on 10 August 1792, about six hundred were killed during the fighting or massacred after they surrendered. One group of sixty Swiss were taken prisoner and taken to the Paris City Hall before being killed by the crowd there.^[13] An estimated hundred and sixty more died in prison of their wounds, or were killed during the September Massacres that followed. Apart from less than a hundred Swiss who escaped from the Tuileries, some hidden by sympathetic Parisians, the only survivors of the regiment were a three-hundred-strong^[14] detachment that had been sent to Normandy to escort grain convoys a few days before 10 August.^[15] The Swiss officers were mostly massacred, although Major Karl Josef von Bachmann, in command at the Tuileries, was formally tried and guillotined in September, still wearing his red uniform coat. Two Swiss officers, the captains Henri de Salis and Joseph Zimmermann, did however survive and went on to reach senior rank under Napoleon and the Restoration.^[15]

The Lion Monument in Lucerne. The incised Latin may be translated, "To the loyalty and courage of the Swiss".

There appears to be no truth in the charge that Louis XVI caused the defeat and destruction of the Guards by ordering them to lay down their arms when they could still have held the Tuileries. Rather, the Swiss ran low on ammunition and were overwhelmed by superior numbers when fighting broke out spontaneously after the royal family were escorted from the palace to take refuge with the National Assembly. A note written by the King has survived that ordered the Swiss to retreat from the palace and return to their barracks, but they only did so after their position became untenable. The regimental standards were secretly buried by the adjutant shortly before the regiment was summoned to the Tuileries on the night of 8/9 August, indicating that he foresaw the likely end. They were discovered by a gardener and ceremoniously burned by the new Republican authorities on 14 August.^[16] The barracks of the Guard at Courbevoie were stormed by the local National Guard and the few Swiss still on duty there also killed.^[15]

The heroic but futile^[13] stand of the Swiss is commemorated by Bertel Thorvaldsen's Lion Monument in Lucerne, dedicated in 1821, which shows a dying lion collapsed upon broken symbols of the French monarchy. An inscription on the monument lists the twenty-six Swiss officers who died on 10 August and 2–3 September 1792, and records that approximately 760 Swiss Guardsmen were killed on those days.^[17]

Swiss Guards during the July Revolution

Following the Restoration

The French Revolution abolished mercenary troops in its citizen army, but Napoleon and the Bourbon Restoration both made use of Swiss troops. Four Swiss infantry regiments served with Napoleon in both Spain and Russia. Two of the eight infantry regiments included in the garde royale from 1815 to 1830 were Swiss and can be regarded as successors to the Gardes suisses. When the Tuileries was stormed again in the July Revolution (29 July 1830), the Swiss regiments, fearful of another massacre, withdrew or melted into the crowd. They were not used again. In 1831 disbanded veterans of the Swiss regiments and another foreign unit, the Hohenlohe Regiment, were recruited into the newly raised French Foreign Legion for service in Algeria.^[18]

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Grenadier

Grenadier

A grenadier was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited from among the strongest and largest soldiers. By the 18th century, the grenadier dedicated to throwing hand grenades had become a less necessary specialist, yet in battle, the grenadiers were the physically robust soldiers who led assaults, such as storming fortifications in the course of siege warfare.

Battle of Pavia

Battle of Pavia

The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–1526 between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg Empire of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as well as ruler of Spain, Austria, the Low Countries, and the Two Sicilies.

Francis I of France

Francis I of France

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a son.

Halberd

Halberd

A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It can have a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants. The halberd was usually 1.5 to 1.8 metres long.

Bearskin

Bearskin

A bearskin is a tall fur cap, usually worn as part of a ceremonial military uniform. Traditionally, the bearskin was the headgear of grenadiers, and remains in use by grenadier and guards regiments in various armies.

Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about 19 kilometers (12 mi) west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, under the direction of the French Ministry of Culture, by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles. About 15,000,000 people visit the palace, park, or gardens of Versailles every year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII, known as the Desired, was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in exile: during the French Revolution and the First French Empire (1804–1814), and during the Hundred Days.

Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo. A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition. One of these was a British-led coalition consisting of units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington. The other was composed of three corps of the Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal von Blücher. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was contemporaneously known as the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean (France) or La Belle Alliance.

Maison Militaire du Roi de France

Maison Militaire du Roi de France

The maison militaire du roi de France, in English the military household of the king of France, was the military part of the French royal household or Maison du Roi under the Ancien Régime. The term only appeared in 1671, though such a gathering of units pre-dates this. Like the rest of the royal household, the military household was under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Maison du Roi. Still, it depended on the ordinaire des guerres for its budget. Under Louis XIV, these two officers of state were given joint command of the military household.

Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an official estimated population of 2,102,650 residents as of 1 January 2023 in an area of more than 105 km², making it the fourth-most populated city in the European Union as well as the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its early and extensive system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world.

Line infantry

Line infantry

Line infantry was the type of infantry that composed the basis of European land armies from the late 17th century to the mid-19th century. Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus are generally regarded as its pioneers, while Turenne and Montecuccoli are closely associated with the post-1648 development of linear infantry tactics. For both battle and parade drill, it consisted of two to four ranks of foot soldiers drawn up side by side in rigid alignment, and thereby maximizing the effect of their firepower. By extension, the term came to be applied to the regular regiments "of the line" as opposed to light infantry, skirmishers, militia, support personnel, plus some other special categories of infantry not focused on heavy front line combat.

Line regiment

Line regiment

The line regiments formed the majority of the regiments in European standing armies in the early 20th century. These were all the regiments that did not have a specialist role - such as guards regiments. They are also often referred to as regiments of the line or, depending on the branch, as "infantry of the line", "line cavalry", etc.

Swiss Guard units similar to those of France were in existence at several other Royal Courts and public entities at the dates indicated below:

• From 1579 on, a Swiss Guard served the House of Savoy, rulers of Savoy and later the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Guard was dissolved in 1798.^[19]
• From 1696 to 1713, a Swiss Guard served at the court of Frederick I of Prussia.^[20]
• A Cent-Suisse unit was in existence from 1656 to 1680, from 1725 until 1757 and again from 1763 to 1814 in the Kingdom of Saxony.^[21][22][23]
• From 1672 until 1796, a company of Swiss (Cent-Suisses) served as a personal guard for the Stadhouder of the Dutch Republic;^[24] besides a Dutch Guards Regiment, there was also a Swiss Guards Regiment from 1749 to 1796.^[25]
  

  Dutch Republic: Life guards "Cent Suisse", 1752
• The aristocratic Republic of Genoa had a Swiss Guard in service from 1609 to 1797 for its Doge's Palace and city gates.^[26]
• A Swiss Guard established in 1581 for the Duke of Lorraine, served Duke Francis-Stephen, indemnified with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1737, in Florence^[27] and, crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1745, in Austria. It was dismissed 1767 in Vienna.^[27]
  

  Courtyard of the Hofburg with the gate called Schweizertor (to the right) and statue of emperor Francis II
• The Swiss Guard to the Electoral Palatinate by Rhine was several times disbanded and reformed between 1582 and 1778.^[28][29]
• The Gate, Palace and Treasury (Ufficio dell'Abbondanza, Italian for "office for abundance") of the City Republic of Lucca were protected by a Swiss Guard from 1663 to 1804.^[30]
• Khedive Mohamed Tewfik Pasha hired an irregular Swiss Guard in 1882 for the constabulary of Alexandria; it was dismissed the next year.^[31]
• From more than a half-dozen Swiss Life Guards for the Pope and its legates, only the Papal Swiss Guard has survived until the present day, by special permission of the Swiss Government.^[32]

In total, Swiss mercenary regiments have been employed as guard and regular line troops in seventeen different armies; notably those of France,^[33] Spain^[34] and Naples^[35] (see Swiss mercenaries).

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House of Savoy

House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1713 to 1720, when they were handed the island of Sardinia, over which they would exercise direct rule from then onward.

Kingdom of Sardinia

Kingdom of Sardinia

The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont or Piedmont-Sardinia during the Savoyard period, was a state in Southern Europe from the early 14th until the mid-19th century.

Frederick I of Prussia

Frederick I of Prussia

Frederick I, of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia (1701–1713). From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.

Doge's Palace, Genoa

Doge's Palace, Genoa

The Doge's Palace is a historical building in Genoa, northern Italy.

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Grand Duke of Tuscany. He became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and Tuscany through his marriage to Maria Theresa, daughter of Emperor Charles VI. Francis was the last non-Habsburg monarch of both the Empire and Austria, which were effectively governed by Maria Theresa. The couple were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, and their marriage produced sixteen children.

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In the 19th century the population of the Grand Duchy was about 1,815,000 inhabitants.

Florence

Florence

Florence is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.

Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.

Hofburg

Hofburg

The Hofburg is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty. Located in the centre of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the imperial winter residence, as Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence. Since 1946, it is the official residence and workplace of the president of Austria.

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis II or I was the last Holy Roman Emperor as Francis II, and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire as Francis I. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response to the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French. Soon after Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, Francis abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor. He was King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He also served as the first president of the German Confederation following its establishment in 1815.

Electoral Palatinate

Electoral Palatinate

The Electoral Palatinate or the Palatinate, officially the Electorate of the Palatinate, was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of Lotharingia from 915, it was then restructured under the Counts Palatine of the Rhine in 1085. These counts palatine of the Rhine would serve as prince-electors from "time immemorial", and were noted as such in a papal letter of 1261, they were confirmed as electors by the Golden Bull of 1356.

Khedive

Khedive

Khedive was an honorific title of Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.

The first Swiss constitution, as amended in 1848, forbade all military capitulations,^[36] a federal law, as amended 30 September 1859, all military capitulations and recruitment of Swiss by foreign powers,^[37] although volunteering of individuals in foreign armies continued until prohibited outright in 1927.^[38] The Papal Swiss Guard (see above), reflecting the unique political status of the Vatican and the bodyguard-like role of the unit, ^[32] remains an exception to this prohibition.

When writing Hamlet, Shakespeare assumed (perhaps relying on his sources) that the royal house of Denmark employed a Swiss Guard: In Act IV, Scene v (line 98) he has King Claudius exclaim "Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door".^[39] However, it may also be due to the word "Swiss" having become a generic term for a royal guard in popular European usage. Coincidentally, the present-day gatekeepers of the royal palace of Copenhagen are known as schweizere, "Swiss".^[40]