M = Musketeers of the Guard, French Faves - A to Z Challenge 2015

A King needs men he can trust. . .

Mousquetaires de la Garde, France - 17th century

M = Musketeers

The Musketeers of the Guard, or Mousquetaires de la garde; or royal musketeers, were a fighting company of the military branch of the Maison du Roi; they were the Royal household guard for the king while he was outside of the royal residences.

The Musketeers were founded in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry with muskets. The carabins were created by Louis' father Henry IV. The Musketeers fought in battle as infantry and as cavalry (on horseback).

Uniforms of Musketeers of the Guard, 1660-1814

The Musketeers were among the most prestigious of the military companies of the Ancien Régime, and in principle, membership in the companies was reserved for nobles. With the reforms of Michel le Tellier – which mandated a certain number of years of military service before nobles could attain the rank of officer – many nobles sought to do this service in the privileged Musketeer companies.

In 1776, the Musketeers were disbanded by Louis XVI for budgetary reasons.  Reformed in 1789, they were disbanded again during the French Revolution. They were reformed again and finally were permanently disbanded on January 1, 1816.


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Musketeer of the Guard

Musketeer of the Guard, c. 1660 - illustration

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Notable Musketeers of the Guard

The following are some of the notable Musketeers:

• Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan (The historical basis of Dumas's character d'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers)
• Armand d'Athos (The historical basis of Dumas's character Athos in The Three Musketeers)
• Henri d'Aramitz (The historical basis of Dumas's character Aramis in The Three Musketeers)
• Isaac de Porthau (The historical basis of Dumas's character Porthos in The Three Musketeers)

See also D = D'Artagnan in the A to Z Challenge for more Musketeer information

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Did you like The Three Musketeers? Would you like to be adept with a sword (just for fun of course)?

Please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by, and if you are part of the A to Z Challenge. I'll be sure to check your blog, and reciprocate. If you're not in the challenge, thanks for stopping by to visit! I try to reply to all comments.

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The A to Z Blog Challenge is brainchild of Lee, at Tossing It Out.  Please visit the A to Z blog site to find out more information and the participant list.  There are also Twitter and Facebook presences if you want to check those!

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References

Uniforms of Musketeers of the Guard, 1660-1814 (before 1887)

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
This applies to Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.


Musketeer of the Guard, c. 1660 - illustration
PD-OLD; This image is in the public domain due to its age.

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Mousquetaires de la Garde. La fin du XVII siècle

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
This applies to Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

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D = D'Artagnan, French Faves - A to Z Challenge 2015

All for one, one for all
(tous pour un, un pour tous


D'Artagnan isn't one of the Three Musketeers, but they were his friends, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. That's the motto above, which was first put forth by D'Artagnan, in the famous story written by Alexandre Dumas.

Statue of D'Artagnan, a nod to the story, The Three Musketeers, by Dumas - WC

D = D'Artagnan

Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan (c. 1611 - June 25, 1673) served Louis XIV* (see below) as captain of the Musketeers* of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht. A fictionalized account of his life written by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras, formed the core of the d'Artagnan Romances, including The Three Musketeers, written by Alexandre Dumas.

D'Artagnan is portrayed as a hotheaded youth in the story, who quickly becomes friends with the Musketeers after trying to engage all three in single combat. His literary enemy is Cardinal Richelieu in the Dumas tale. Charles de Batz, whom the character d'Artagnan was based on, went to Paris in the 1630s and used the surname of his mother, Francoise de Montesquiou d'Artagnan. 


D'Artagnan was famous for his part in the arrest of Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's finance commissioner who wanted to be the King's advisor. His love of grand architecture caused his downfall when the magnificence of his palace (the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte) made Louis feel upstaged and left him wondering whence the money came. . . shortly after, Fouquet was arrested. In 1667, d'Artagnan became captain-lieutenant of the Musketeers.

It's always interesting to know a little history behind the story.

* (See more about the Sun King and The Musketeers later in French Faves A to Z)

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Do you know the story of Dumas'  D'Artagnan? Did you like the film The Three Musketeers (in any of its reincarnations)?

Please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by, and if you are part of the A to Z Challenge. I'll be sure to check your blog, and reciprocate. If you're not in the challenge, thanks for stopping by to visit! I try to reply to all comments.

***

The A to Z Blog Challenge is brainchild of Lee, at Tossing It Out.  Please visit the A to Z blog site to find out more information and the participant list.  There are also Twitter and Facebook presences if you want to check those!

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Image Credit: D'Artagnan character

Statue des d'Artagnan, by von Gustave Doré, Bronze, 1883, Place du Général Catroux, Paris 17. Arrdt.

I, Jibi44, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following licenses:

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License


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References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Batz-Castelmore_d'Artagnan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers

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