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, 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.
Hundred Swiss (Cent Suisses) , 1779 The Hundred Swiss were created in 1480 when
Louis XI retained a Swiss company for his personal guard. 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 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. 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 surviving example is on display in the
''Musée de l'Armée'' in Paris. A less ornate dark blue and red uniform with
bearskin headdress was worn for ordinary duties. The
Cent 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.
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. By the end of the 17th century the Swiss Guards were part of the
Maison militaire du roi. 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 regiments 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. 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. 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. 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 . He became known for his eyewitness account of the events surrounding the Storming of the Palais des Tuileries on 10 August 1792 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 as prisoners to the
Paris City Hall before being killed by the crowd there. 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 detachment that had been sent to Normandy to escort grain convoys a few days before 10 August. 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. 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. 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. of 1830
Following the Restoration The French Revolution abolished mercenary troops in its citizen army. After the Revolution,
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
Royal Guard 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 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. ==Swiss in other armies==