Royal Guard

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The Garde royale (royal guard) was an elite army corps in the service of the French kings Louis XVIII. and Karl X.

history

At the beginning of the second restoration , the Maison militaire of Louis XVIII. reorganized and significantly reduced in size. With the decree of September 1, 1815, the royal guard was reorganized, most of the companies of the previous guard formations were dissolved and the "Guard royale" was set up as a replacement. In the future this should be solely responsible for the safety of the king. It was put together from elite soldiers of the line troops .

On the left a trumpeter of the guard, on the right a gendarme d'élite - both in large uniform for duty on foot - 1830
Grenadier de la garde royale under Louis XVIII.

Louis XVIII sets the strength of the guard at 25,000 men, who are composed as follows:

The king kept the title of Colonel général for himself, but placed four marshals of France at the head of the guard who were given the rank of "Major général". This was about:

the Duc de Reggio ( Nicolas Charles Oudinot )
the Duc de Bellune ( Claude-Victor Perrin called Victor )
the Duc de Tarente ( Étienne Jacques Joseph Macdonald ) and around
the Duc de Raguse ( Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont ).

The creation of this guard should also be seen as recognition of the services of the royal French army. Louis XVIII had no confidence in the officer corps of the Napoleonic army and therefore relied on the loyalty of the emigrants who had fought more or less actively against Napoleon . The officers were personally appointed by the king. The uniforms of the guards were more splendid and the wages higher. The ranks of the guard were each one step above that of the line troops, so that the common soldier corresponded to a caporal, the caporal a sergent, and so on.

This preference was abolished again in 1826, but officers who had held the guard rank for more than four years had the right to continue it even if they switched to the troops of the line.

For the next 15 years the Guard was the model and role model for the rest of the army. She took part in the intervention in Spain with honors in 1823 and, with the capture of Fort Trocadéro, adorned the short history of the corps with a brilliant victory.

During the July Revolution of 1830 , parts of the guard were deployed in Paris , where they defended the monarchy with honor , but ultimately could not avert the course of events, so that with the deposition of the House of Bourbon , the "Guard royale" was also dismissed.

  • Shako of the Royal Guard.

  • Shako of the 6th regiment of the Royal Guard.

  • Court sabers of officers of the Royal Guard and Line Cavalry (1816).

literature

  • E. Titeux: Histoire de la maison militaire du roi de 1814 à 1830 . Ed. Baudry, Paris 1890.
  • Jacques-Paul Migne: Encyclopédie théologique . Tome I, Vol. 2, Paris 1859.
  • Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture . Volume 29, Bellin-Mandar, Paris 1836.
  • Henri Bouchot: L'Épopée du costume militaire français. Aquarelles et dessins originaux de JOB. Societe Francaise d'Editions d'Art, Paris 1898.
  • Hervé Drévillon: L'Impôt you sang. Le métier des armes sous Louis XIV. Tallandier, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-8473-4247-8 .
  • Liliane Funcken , Fred Funcken : L'uniforme et les armes des soldats du XIXe siècle (1) . 1814–1850: France, Grande-Bretagne, Allemagne. L'infanterie, la cavalerie, le génie et l'artillerie. Casterman, Tournai 1981.
  • Rigo [di: Albert Rigondaud]: Le Plumet. L'uniformes et les drapeaux de l'armée de l'Ancien régime et du 1er Empire. Paris 1971.

Web links

Commons : Uniforms of the Royal French Guard  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It was not about the real major general , as his name was Général de division in France.