Walloon Guards

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Walloon Guards Guardia Valona
‎ Military coat of arms of Philip V
Active	1734 - 1820
Country	Spain
Branch	Spanish Army
Type	Infantry and Cavalry
Role	Royal Guard
Engagements	War of the Polish Succession War of the Austrian Succession Motín de Esquilache Spanish War of Independence
Commanders
Notable commanders	Ramón María Narváez

The Walloon Guards were an infantry corps originally recruited in Flanders, mainly in Catholic Wallonia, for the Spanish Army. The Walloons formed an elite unit tasked with the interior security of Spain and the maintenance of public order, eventually being incorporated as a regiment of the Spanish Royal Guard.

[edit] History

The Walloon Guards originated in the time when the Low Countries were under the Spanish Crown as the Spanish Netherlands. "Walloons" was the German (walah) name for their romanized neighbors. The first regiments were formed by the Flemish and Walloons to the number of 4,000 men and were recruited among the strongest and tallest to spearhead assaults or to cover retreats. After the independence of the United Netherlands in 1648 and the cession of the Spanish Netherlands to Austria at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1714, Walloons continued to serve the Spanish army together with soldiers from Switzerland, Ireland, and Italy.

When Philip of Anjou arrived in Spain to assume the crown as Philip V, he increased the body of troops charged with protecting to the monarch on the model the Bourbons used in France. Thereby the fidelity of the armed forces to the king was established during the 18th century, first with the Guard de Corps and later with the Walloon Guards.

Until the Austrian Netherlands were overrun and annexed by the First French Republic in 1794, the region continued to supply 400 to 500 per year to the Walloon Guards from a recruitment office in Liège. The three infantry regiments, Brabante, Flandes and Bruselas, were dissolved and redistributed to other regiments between 1791 and 1792. One last Royal Unit of Walloon Guards, similar to the others Guards units, persisted until the final dissolution of the regiment in 1820.