Miquelet (militia)

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Miquelet ("Little Michael, Mike") were irregular Catalonian militia which engaged in military operations against the Castilian and French armies, and in occasional banditry, from the secessionist revolt of 1640 (see Reapers' War) to the Peninsular War. The term later was used to mean a member of a corps of irregular troops raised in Roussillon for service against the Spanish army by Louis XIV in 1689, or of a similar corps raised by Napoleon in 1808. The term later was also used to mean a soldier of any of various local regiments of Spanish infantry, chiefly employed on escort duties. The occasional banditry aspect was reflected in the Dictionnaire de L'Academie francaise, 5th Edition, 1798: "MIQUELET. sm Il se dit d'Une sorte de bandits qui vivent dans les Pyrénées. Les Miquelets sont fort à craindre pour les voyageurs."

The police forces of the autonomous governments of Biscay (1784-1877) and Guipuscoa (1796-1936) were known as Miqueletes.