Editing Swiss Guards (section)

==In France==
[[File:Zentralbibliothek Solothurn - Garde Suisse en 1779 - a0417.tif|thumb|upright|A [[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 as bodyguards and ceremonial troops,<ref>{{cite book|first=Liliane et Fred |last=Funcken|pages=16–17|title=L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de la Guerre en Dentelle 1|year=1975|publisher=Casterman |isbn=2-203-14315-0}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Liliane et Fred |last=Funcken|pages=38–41|title=L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de la Guerre en Dentelle 1|year=1975|publisher=Casterman |isbn=2-203-14315-0}}</ref>

===Hundred Swiss (''Cent&nbsp;Suisses'')===
{{Main|Cent-Suisses}}

The Hundred Swiss were created in 1480 when [[Louis XI]] retained a Swiss company for his personal guard.<ref>Rene Chartrand: ''Louis XV's Army – Foreign Infantry'' p.3; {{ISBN|1-85532-623-X}}</ref>

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|Francis I]] were slain before Francis was captured by the Spanish. The Hundred Swiss shared indoor guard duties with the King's Bodyguards (''[[Garde du Corps (France)|Garde du Corps]]''), who were French.<ref>{{cite book|first=Philip|last=Mansel|pages=2–9|title=Pillars of Monarchy. An Outline of the Political and Social History of Royal Guards 1400-1981|year=1984|publisher=Quartet Books |isbn=0-7043-2424-5}}</ref>

The Hundred Swiss were armed with [[halberd]]s, 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 surviving example is on display in the [[Invalides|''Musée de l'Armée'']] in Paris. A less ornate dark blue and red uniform with [[bearskin]] headdress was worn for ordinary duties.<ref>{{cite book|first=Liliane et Fred |last=Funcken|page=17|title=L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de la Guerre en Dentelle 1|year=1975|publisher=Casterman |isbn=2-203-14315-0}}</ref>

The ''Cent&nbsp;Suisses'' company was disbanded after [[Louis XVI]] left the [[Palace of Versailles]] in October 1789. It was refounded on 15 July 1814 with an establishment of 136 guardsmen and eight officers. In 1815, the Hundred Swiss accompanied [[Louis XVIII]] into exile in Belgium and returned with him to Paris following the [[Battle of Waterloo]]. The unit then resumed its traditional role as palace guards at the [[Tuileries]]. In 1817, it was replaced by a new guard company drawn from the French regiments of the Royal Guard.<ref>Liliane et Fred Funcken: "L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de La Guerre en Dentelle"; {{ISBN|2-203-14315-0}}</ref>

===Swiss Guards (''Gardes Suisses'')===
In 1616, [[Louis XIII]] 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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Philip|last=Mansel|page=9|title=Pillars of Monarchy|year=1984|publisher=Quartet Books |isbn=0-7043-2424-5}}</ref>

By the end of the 17th century the Swiss Guards were part of the ''[[Maison militaire du roi de France|Maison militaire du roi]]''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dieder|last=Davin|page=7|title=The Allied Swiss Troops in French Service|year=2012|publisher=Amber Books Limited |isbn=978-2-35250-235-7}}</ref> They were brigaded with the ''Gardes françaises'' ([[French Guards Regiment]]), with whom they shared the outer guard. In peacetime they were 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 regiment]]s had black, yellow or light blue facings. 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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Liliane et Fred |last=Funcken|pages=39–41|title=L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de la Guerre en Dentelle 1|year=1975|publisher=Casterman |isbn=2-203-14315-0}}</ref>{{multiple image
| align = right
| image1 = Rég des Gardes suisses.png
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| alt1 = 
| caption1 = Regimental flag of the Swiss Guards
| image2 = Gardes suisses 1750.png
| width2 = 100
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = Uniform of the Swiss Guards c. 1750
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}}

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 was substantially higher than that of the regular French soldiers.<ref>{{cite book|first=Christopher J.|last=Tozzi|page=38|title=Nationalizing France's Army|year=2016|publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-3833-2}}</ref>

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.<ref>General Pierre Bertin, page 84 "Le Fantassin de France", Service Historique de l'Armee de Terre, B.I.P. Editions 1988</ref> Disciplinary  matters were the responsibility of Swiss officers within the regiment, under a code of punishments that was significantly harsher than that of the remainder of the French army.

===During the Revolution===
[[File:Tuileriensturm.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Massacre of the Swiss Guards]]
[[File:Tuileries Henri Motte.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Swiss Guards on the grand staircase of the palace during the [[10 August (French Revolution)|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 [[Insurrection of 10 August 1792|10 August 1792]], about six hundred were killed during the fighting or massacred after they surrendered. One group of sixty Swiss were taken as prisoners to the [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Paris City Hall]] before being killed by the crowd there.<ref name="auto">M.J Sydenham, page 111, "The French Revolution", B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1965</ref> 

An estimated one 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<ref>{{cite book|first=Louis-|last=Philippe|page=[https://archive.org/details/louisphilippemem00loui/page/247 247]|title=Memoirs 1773-1791|year=1977|publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=0-15-158855-4|url=https://archive.org/details/louisphilippemem00loui/page/247}}</ref> detachment that had been sent to Normandy to escort grain convoys a few days before 10 August.<ref name="auto1">Jerome Bodin, page 259, "Les Suisses au Service de la France", {{ISBN|2-226-03334-3}}</ref>  

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 survived, and went on to reach a senior rank under Napoleon and the Restoration.<ref name="auto1"/>

[[File:Luzern asv2022-10 Löwendenkmal img2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|The ''[[Lion Monument]]'' in Lucerne, dedicated to the Swiss Guard who died in Paris. 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 (France)|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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Didier|last=Davin|page=7|title=Officers and Soldiers of Allied Swiss Troops in French Service 1785-1815|year=2012|publisher=Amber Books Limited |isbn=978-2-35250-235-7}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Didier|last=Davin|page=7|title=Officers and Soldiers of Allied Swiss Troops in French Service 1785-1815|year=2012|publisher=Amber Books Limited |isbn=978-2-35250-235-7}}</ref> The barracks of the Guard at [[Courbevoie]] were stormed by the local National Guard and the few Swiss still on duty there were also killed.<ref name="auto1"/>

The heroic but futile<ref name="auto"/> 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.<ref>{{cite web
 | url= http://www.gletschergarten.ch/en/info/2_loewe/1.html
 | title= Lion Monument Inscriptions
 | publisher= Glacier Garden, Lucerne
 | access-date= 2008-08-08
 | archive-date= 6 July 2011
 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110706232631/http://www.gletschergarten.ch/en/info/2_loewe/1.html
 | url-status= dead
 }}</ref>
[[File:Prise du Louvre, le 29 juillet 1830, massacre des gardes suisses.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Swiss Guards during the [[July Revolution]] of 1830]]

===Following the Restoration===
The French Revolution abolished mercenary troops in its citizen army. After the Revolution, [[Napoleon]] and the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|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 [[Royal Guard (France)|''garde royale'']] from 1815 to 1830 were Swiss and can be regarded as successors to the ''Gardes suisses''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Douglas|last=Porch|pages=3, 4, 14|title=The French Foreign Legion. A complete History|year=1991|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-333-58500-3}}</ref>

When the Tuileries was stormed again in the [[July Revolution]] of 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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Douglas|last=Porch|pages=3, 4, 14|title=The French Foreign Legion. A complete History|year=1991|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-333-58500-3}}</ref>