The Musketeers of the Guard (French: Mousquetaires de la garde; otherwise royal musketeers - French: Mousquetaires du roi; full name - Musketeers of military Household of King of France - French: les mousquetaires de la maison militaire du roi de France) were a fighting company of the military branch of the Maison du Roi, the Royal Household of the French monarchy.
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They were created in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry (the "carabins", created by Louis' father Henry IV) with muskets. The Musketeers fought in battle both on foot (infantry) and on horseback (cavalry). They formed the royal guard for the king while he was outside of the royal residences (within the royal residences, the king's guard was the "Garde du corps" and the "Gardes suisses").
Shortly after their creation, a second company of Musketeers was created for Cardinal Richelieu. At the cardinal's death in 1642, the company passed to his successor Cardinal Mazarin who disbanded his Musketeers in 1646. The Musketeers reappeared in 1657 with a company of 150 men. At Mazarin's death in 1661, the cardinal's Musketeers passed to Louis XIV. The two companies were reorganized in 1664, and one company took the name "Grey Musketeers" ("mousquetaires gris") from the color of their horses, while the second were called "Black Musketeers" ("mousquetaires noirs") on black horses. At roughly the same time, the size of the Musketeer companies was doubled.
The Musketeers were among the most prestigious of the military companies of the Ancien Régime, and in principle the companies were 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 shortly afterward. They were reformed on July 6, 1814, and definitively disbanded on January 1, 1816.
The following are some of the notable Musketeers: