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99-453: Théobald Dillon (1745 – 29 April 1792) was a French Royal Army officer. He was a distant cousin of general Arthur Dillon (who also had a brother named Theobald). He entered Dillon's Regiment as a cadet in 1761, gradually rose to be a lieutenant-colonel (1780), took part in the Capture of Grenada (1779) and the siege of Savannah in 1779, was appointed a knight of St. Louis in 1781,

198-401: A drummer . A garrison company had a captain, a lieutenant, two sergeants, a corporal, two lance-corporals, 44 privates and a drummer. A colonel's company in garrison had an additional ensign , while a grenadier company in garrison had an additional sub-lieutenant. The tactical formation was the field battalion of 16 companies with an authorized strength of 800 men. A garrison battalion had

297-420: A mestre de camp and a lieutenant-colonel with company and a major without a company. Each company had a captain, a lieutenant, a cornet , a quartermaster, two brigadiers, two carabineers and 35 troopers. In addition each regiment had a company of carabineers outside the squadrons, filling the same elite role as the grenadier company of a foot regiment. In 1767 the cavalry contained 35 regiments. One of these

396-421: A tricorn like the fusiliers , rather than a mitre or a bearskin . Bearskins came into full use by about 1770. During the 18th century a series of revised dress regulations made for repeated changes in the facing colours of individual infantry regiments. The Swiss and Irish mercenary regiments retained their red coats throughout this period, while other foreign units generally wore medium blue. Cavalry wore

495-400: A trumpeter . The carabineer regiment had a different organization. In 1690 the dragoons contained 33 regiments, of which two were foreign, as well as 50 independent dragoon companies. Each regiment had three squadrons; each squadron had four companies . The regimental staff included a colonel and a lieutenant-colonel with companies, and a major without company. Each company had a captain,

594-573: A "traitor and aristocrat." French Royal Army The first permanent army of France , which was paid with regular wages instead of being supplied by feudal levies , was established in the early 15th century under Charles VII . It was formed due to the need for reliable troops during the Hundred Years' War , though the Army was not disbanded because it saw continued use by the Kings of France following

693-782: A French invasion of the Electoral Palatinate , the Nine Years' War broke out in 1689 and pitted France against the League of Augsburg and other European states. The war ended with no major territorial gains or losses for either side, and the two alliances were at war again by 1701. Despite initial French successes at Friedlingen and Hochstadt , the allied armies under the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy inflicted major defeats on French troops at Blenheim , Ramillies , and Oudenarde . In Spain (the succession to that nation's throne

792-596: A campaign the artillery train and the siege batteries . Otherwise the gunnery cadre contained a number of ordinary commissaires (captains), extraordinary commissaries (lieutenants) and officier-pointeurs (sub-lieutenants). At the disposal of the artillery stood in 1690, a fusilier regiment , a bombardier regiment, two companies of miners , three of galiots and two of boatmen on the Rhine . The King's Fusiliers contained 88 companies with 272 officers and 4,720 men. There were five battalions and twelve gunnery companies outside

891-489: A captain, a lieutenant and a sub-lieutenant, as well as four quartermasters, one fourier, eight brigadiers, eight lancepessades (lance-corporals), 24 dragoons and a drummer. Of a troops 46 members, 16 served on foot. In 1690 the artillery consisted of a cadre of gunnery officers stationed at the fortresses. The organization was under the Grand Master of Artillery and contained two lieutenant-generals of artillery commanding

990-736: A colonel and a lieutenant-colonel with companies and a major without. Each company had a captain, a lieutenant and a sub-lieutenant and contained four sergeants, one fourier, eight corporals, eight lance-corporals, 40 fusiliers and two drummers. In 1767 the French army also had five mixed legions of light troops. Each legion had eight dragoon companies, eight fusilier companies and a grenadier company. In 1690 there were 112 cavalry regiments, including 105 French and seven foreign. There were also 43 independent companies of horse. 27 regiments had two squadrons and eight companies, and 85 regiments had three squadrons and 12 companies. The regimental staff included

1089-584: A genius at siege warfare, oversaw the building or improvement of many fortresses in Flanders and elsewhere. In 1688, the Catholic King of England, James II , was overthrown and William of Orange , the Dutch Stadtholder and old enemy of Louis, was installed as the next king. James fled to France, which he used as his base for an invasion of Ireland in 1690. As a result of James' ouster and, more directly,

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1188-452: A gift given by Heaven in answer to their prayers. Despite a climate of distrust, the queen became pregnant once more, a circumstance that contemporary gossip attributed to a single stormy night that prevented Louis from travelling to Saint-Maur and obliged him to spend the night with the queen. Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638, an event that secured the Bourbon line. At this time, Anne

1287-498: A great amount of her favorites as punishment for a plot in which the queen had cooperated with queen dowager Marie de' Medici in an attempt to depose Cardinal Richelieu, and among those fired were Madame de Motteville and Madeleine du Fargis. Queen Anne asked the Cardinal to intervene so that she might keep du Fargis. When he refused, she swore that she would never forgive him. Du Fargis left for Brussels, where her spouse had sided with

1386-408: A lieutenant, a cornet, a quartermaster, two brigadiers, 37 dragoons and a drummer. There were 17 dragoon regiments in 1767. The seven oldest were known by their title; the others by the name of their commanders. Each regiment had four squadrons; each squadron had two troops. The regimental staff included a mestre de camp and a lieutenant-colonel with troops, and a major without a troop. Each troop had

1485-677: A lieutenant-colonel and five chef de brigades (majors). During the 17th and 18th centuries twelve regiments of Swiss mercenaries were employed in the French Royal Army, notably the Swiss Guards . During the 10 August riot of 1792, supporters of the French Revolution , including members of the radical-leaning National Guard marched on the Tuileries Palace . King Louis XVI escaped with his family, but, after fighting broke out in

1584-414: A major revolt by the French nobility against Anne and Mazarin's government, broke out but was ultimately suppressed. In 1651, Anne's regency formally ended when Louis was declared of age. Accounts of French court life of her era emphasize her closeness to her son, and her disapproval of her son's infidelity to her niece and daughter-in-law Maria Theresa . She retired from active politics in 1661 and moved to

1683-517: A major victory at Denain in 1712, the war had turned into a stalemate and ended in peace that somewhat favored the French in 1714. Louis XV , the great-grandson of Louis XIV, was the only direct heir alive when the elderly king died in 1715. His reign was much more peaceful than his great-grandfather's, although three major wars occurred. First was the War of the Polish Succession of 1733. The second,

1782-724: A second time. The leader of the anti-Mazarin faction, the Prince de Condé , escaped to Spain, which soon, with the Royalists of the British Isles , went to war against France and its new ally, Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth of England . Under the command of Marshal Turenne , the Anglo-French army decisively defeated the Spanish in Flanders , part of which was a province of Spain. In 1660, Louis married

1881-478: A varied number of companies, mostly from different regiments and was commanded by the senior company commander. The French line infantry contained 69 regiments in 1767. The regiments had terrirorial or otherwise permanent titles. The nineteenth most senior regiments had four battalions, most regiments had two battalions while the junior regiments had one battalion. Each battalion had nine companies, eight of fusiliers and one of grenadiers. The regimental staff included

1980-481: A variety of green, blue or red regimental uniforms, largely according to the whim of individual colonels. The regiments of the Royal Household were similarly variegated, although dark blue dominated. The change from the white or off-white uniforms, traditionally associated with the line infantry of the royal army, to dark blue was completed in 1793 after the overthrow of the monarchy. White uniforms were restored after

2079-609: A war of movement. In 1765 it was replaced by the Gribeauval system , which revolutionized the French artillery; improving its cannons , howitzers , and mortars , by making them lighter, without sacrificing range. The new guns contributed to French military victories even during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars . The Royal Army during the Ancien regime was recruited through volunteer enlistment . Almost 90% of

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2178-732: The Battle of Rossbach in 1757. At the same time as the fighting in Europe, raiding parties composed of French-Canadian militiamen and Indians attacked English settlements in North America. This war, known as the French and Indian War , was the last of four wars that occurred in North America at the same time as a European conflict. However, by 1759, the British had gone onto the offensive in America and captured Quebec ,

2277-525: The Bourbon Restoration , although modified for a more modern appearance, introducing trousers rather than breeches, taller shakos, and Fleur-de-lis insignia. Dark blue coatees were adopted in 1819. Pikes appeared in France at the beginning of the 16th century. They were used by the army until the end of the 17th century when the pike and shot tactics were abandoned. The matchlock musket (mousquet)

2376-464: The Fronde . In 1651, when her son Louis XIV officially came of age, her regency legally ended. However, she kept much power and influence over her son until the death of Mazarin. In January 1648, while acting as regent, Anne received a request on behalf of artists who were affiliated with the crown or aristocracy. The artists, led by painter Charles Le Brun , wanted independence from the monopoly control of

2475-477: The Marquis de Louvois , the French Royal Army was restructured into a highly disciplined and professional force made up of permanent regiments under central control. Weapons, promotion, drill, uniforms and organisation were improved or introduced and the army nearly doubled in size. When Louis' father, Louis XIII , died, Anne of Austria , the queen, became regent. She and her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin , ordered

2574-514: The National Assembly , which also authorized the creation of the National Guard , which was intended to be used as a counterweight to the royal army. The regular army was weakened by the flight of many aristocratic officers. Faced with the creation of soldiers' clubs ( Jacobin committees), erosion of discipline, loss of their privileges as nobles and political mistrust, perhaps two thirds of

2673-483: The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle , with the exception of eleven towns and their surrounding areas. Lille , Armentières , Bergues and Douai were considered essential to reinforce France's vulnerable northern border and remain French to this day. The retention of Tournai , Oudenarde , Courtrai , Veurne , Binche , Charleroi and Ath made future offensives much easier, as demonstrated in 1672. From 1672 until 1678, France

2772-685: The War of the Austrian Succession , began when Maria Theresa inherited the Habsburg monarchy in 1740. Her father Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor had appointed her as his heir, and other European countries agreed to respect his wishes. However, the new Prussian king, Frederick II , ignored the agreement, known as the Pragmatic Sanction , and annexed Habsburg Silesia . Britain allied itself with Maria Theresa, while Louis XV forged an alliance with Frederick. Louis provided military support in

2871-523: The guild , which fined the artists or seized their work. The painters and sculptors petitioned Louis XIV and the Queen Regent to form a new organization. They wanted to found an academy that would be for the visual arts what Académie Française was for French literature ; this was to become the Académie Royale . Anne's regency formally ended in 1651, when Louis XIV was declared of legal majority at

2970-561: The 1780s, the political balance in France had shifted. The aristocracy had become despised by many lower-and-middle-class citizens who faced famine in the winter of 1788/89 and had almost no political freedom. At an earlier stage in his reign Louis had succumbed to pressure from the nobility and banned promotion to officer status from the lower ranks of the Royal Army. This measure served to embitter long serving non-commissioned officers who could no longer aspire to reach commissioned rank, although

3069-650: The American victory in the Battle of Saratoga , Louis XVI authorized an expeditionary force under the Count de Rochambeau to sail to America and aid the revolutionaries. The expeditionary force participated in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, which resulted in the colonies' independence. In 1784, Jean-François Coste was appointed Chief Consulting Physician of the Camps and Armies of the King. By

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3168-658: The August 1673 Treaty of the Hague which Denmark joined in January 1674. But following English defeat and withdrawal, the French armies from 1674 to 1678, with Sweden as their only effective ally, managed to advance steadily in the southern (Spanish) Netherlands and along the Rhine, defeating the badly coordinated forces of the Grand Alliance with regularity. Eventually the heavy financial burdens of

3267-578: The BBC series The Musketeers (2014–2016). She first appears as a character in the Dinosaur King season two episode "The French Conniption" as a young teen along with a young King Louis and others. She appeared in Legends of Tomorrow ' s season two premiere episode "Out of Time", played by Rebecca Roberts. She appeared in final episode of the third season of series As If , played by Yeşim Ceylan. She

3366-410: The French . When Austrian , British, Prussian, and Russian armies invaded France in 1814, Napoleon was forced to abdicate. Louis XVI's brother, the Count of Provence , was declared King Louis XVIII. Under Louis XVIII, no major changes were made to the army, beyond the recreation of several regiments of the pre-revolutionary maison militaire du roi . However, when Napoleon returned from exile in 1815,

3465-577: The French Army by forming standing infantry regiments to replace the Militia structure. The first of them (regiments Picardie , Piedmont, Navarre and Champagne) were called Les vieux corps (The Old Corps). It was normal policy to disband regiments after a war was over as a cost-saving measure with the vieux corps and the French Royal Guard being the only survivors. Regiments could be raised directly by

3564-647: The French colonial capital. Fighting also occurred on the Indian subcontinent during Louis XV's reign. During the War of the Austrian Succession , French troops captured several settlements in India, but its allies were defeated by British troops in 1756. On the whole, the Seven Years' War went badly for the French, who were forced to sign an unfavorable treaty in 1763. When Britain's North American colonies rebelled in 1775, France initially offered limited support. However, after

3663-567: The French conquest of much of the Austrian Netherlands possible; however, this territory was returned to Austria at the end of the war. The situation after the war was almost the same as before, but it set the stage for the Seven Years' War , which officially began in 1756, when Prussia and Austria again went to war. This time, however, France and Austria were allied and Britain and Prussia formed an alliance. French forces were defeated at

3762-434: The French throne in 1661 he inherited a large but loosely organized force of about 70,000 men. Like the other European armies of the period, it consisted of a mixture of mercenaries, guard units, local militias and levies conscripted only for specific campaigns and then disbanded. Organization, cohesion, training and equipment were not of the highest standard. Under Louis' two Secretaries of War Michel Le Tellier and his son

3861-506: The Fronde when Anne was Queen Regent. In 1662, Anne acquired the heart of her ancestor, Anne Elizabeth of France, and placed it in the Chapel of Saint Anne. She, herself, was interred in 1666 in the Chapel of Saint Sacrament, alongside the body of Marguerite d'Arbouze. They saw in the arms of this princess whom they had watched suffer great persecutions with so much staunchness, their child-King, like

3960-475: The Habsburgs, who surrounded France on two fronts, inevitably created tension between Louis and Anne, who remained childless for another sixteen years. Under the influence of Marie de Rohan, the queen let herself be drawn into political opposition to Richelieu and became embroiled in several intrigues against his policies. Vague rumors of betrayal circulated in the court, notably her supposed involvement, first, with

4059-512: The King and so be called after the region in which they were raised or by the nobility and so called after the noble or his appointed colonel. When Louis XIII came to the throne, he disbanded most of the regiments in existence, leaving only the Vieux and a handful of others, which became known as the Petite Vieux and also gained the privilege of not being disbanded after a war When Louis XIV came to

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4158-629: The Spanish court stipulated that she would return to Spain with her dowry, jewels, and wardrobe if he did die. Prior to the marriage, Anne renounced all succession rights she had for herself and her descendants by Louis, with a provision that she would resume her rights should she be left a childless widow. On 18 October 1615, Louis and Anne were married by proxy in Burgos while Louis's sister, Elisabeth of France , and Anne's brother, Philip IV of Spain , were married by proxy in Bordeaux . These marriages followed

4257-589: The Spanish princess Marie-Thérèse . In 1667 he claimed the Spanish Netherlands as her dowry, starting another conflict with Spain known as the War of Devolution . Turenne and Conde, who had been pardoned and allowed to return to France, commanded the French army. Their forces seized much of the Spanish Netherlands but, pressured by the Triple Alliance , Louis returned much of the French conquests in

4356-587: The age of thirteen. In 1659, the war with Spain ended with the Treaty of the Pyrenees . The following year, peace was cemented by the marriage of the young king to Anne's niece, the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Theresa of Spain . In 1661, the same year as the death of Mazarin, an heir to the throne was born, Anne's first grandchild Louis . Many other children would follow, but all in the legitimate line would die except for Louis. Sometime after, Anne retired to

4455-556: The anti- Habsburg stance of Louis' first minister, Cardinal Richelieu . Despite a climate of distrust amidst the Franco-Spanish War and twenty-three years of childlessness in which she suffered four miscarriages, Anne gave birth to an heir, Louis, in 1638 and a second son, Philippe two years later. When Louis XIII died in 1643, Anne outmaneuvered her opponents to become sole regent to her four-year-old son, Louis XIV, and appointed Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister. The Fronde ,

4554-651: The army was known as the French Revolutionary Army , and from 1804 to 1814, the Imperial Army , and during the Hundred Days in 1815, was reconstituted before being officially disbanded. Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793. By 1800, the First Republic, at war with much of Europe, had adopted a weak form of government that was overthrown by General Napoleon Bonaparte , who later proclaimed himself Emperor of

4653-424: The army, for the most part, went over to his side, and Louis fled. Napoleon was defeated by a combined Allied army in 1815 at Waterloo , and Louis XVIII was returned to the throne. Realizing that the remains of the existing army had no loyalty to the restored monarchy, the government of Louis XVIII undertook a wholesale disbandment of what had been Napoleon's regiments. In their place a system of Departmental Legions

4752-438: The arrest of legislative opponents, causing the enmity of many nobles and common citizens. When the bloody Thirty Years' War , in which France had sided with Protestant -governed countries against other Catholic nations in Europe, concluded, the Fronde civil war broke out and Mazarin was forced to flee. When Louis XIV came of age in 1652, the Fronde ended and Mazarin was permitted to return and appointed chief minister for

4851-453: The artillery formed the Royal Corps of Artillery which ranked as the 47th among the foot regiments of the line. It contained seven regiments. Each regiment had five battalions of four companies each, to a total of 20 companies; two of sappers , four of bombardiers and 14 of gunners. Outside the brigades there was a company of artificers in each regiment. The regimental staff included a colonel,

4950-426: The battalions. The 1st and 2nd battalions each had two companies of artificers , one of grenadiers and twelve of fusiliers. The 3rd and 4th battalions had each a grenadier company and 15 fusilier companies. The 5th battalion had 14 fusilier companies. The King's Bombardiers served the mortars and other heavy siege artillery and formed one battalion containing two bombardier companies and 13 fusilier companies. In 1767

5049-453: The commissioned ranks emigrated after June 1791. They were largely replaced by experienced non-commissioned officers. In July 1791, twelve foreign regiments of mostly German mercenaries were amalgamated into the line, followed by the disbanding of the Swiss regiments a year later. Major reorganizations of the army took place in 1791 and 1792. New officers were elected and the structure of the army

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5148-482: The conflict. Upon the outbreak of a conflict, an ordonnance would be issued to govern the length of service, composition and payment of units. The Compagnies d'ordonnance formed the core of the Gendarme well into the 16th century, and were stationed throughout France and summoned into larger armies as needed. There was also provisions made for francs-archers , which was a militia of bowmen and foot soldiers raised from

5247-439: The conspiracies of the Count of Chalais that Marie organized in 1626, and then those of the king's treacherous favorite, Cinq-Mars , who had been introduced to him by Richelieu. In 1626, the Cardinal placed Madeleine du Fargis as Dame d'atour in the household of the queen to act as a spy, but she was instead to become a trusted confidant and favorite of the queen. In December 1630, Louis XIII reduced Anne's court and purged

5346-479: The convent of Val-de-Grâce , where she died of breast cancer five years later. The couple had the following children: She is one of the central figures in Alexandre Dumas 's 1844 novel The Three Musketeers and its sequels Twenty Years After (1845) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847-1850), and has thus been portrayed in numerous film adaptations . Her lady-in-waiting Madame de Motteville wrote

5445-595: The convent she had commissioned, Val-de-Grâce , where she died of breast cancer five years later. Born at the Benavente Palace  [ es ] in Valladolid , Spain , and baptised Ana María Mauricia, she was the eldest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and his wife Margaret of Austria . She held the titles of Infanta of Spain and of Portugal (since her father was king of Portugal as well as Spain ) and Archduchess of Austria. Despite her Spanish birth, she

5544-530: The convent to Paris in 1621. She was named the new foundress of the convent in the same year. Her patronage included the building of a small church and an apartment for herself between 1620 and 1625, against the wishes of both Louis and Cardinal Richelieu. The Val-de-Grâce was commissioned by Anne in 1645, which was undertaken initially by Francois Mansart, who was dismissed in 1646 and succeeded by Jacques Lemercier. The Val-de-Grâce became Anne's main place of worship and would later gain dynastic significance during

5643-470: The couple together under amiable circumstances. Anne began to dress in the French manner, and in 1619 Luynes pressed the king to bed his queen. Some affection developed, to the point where it was noted that Louis was distracted during a serious illness of the queen. A series of miscarriages disenchanted the king and served to chill their relations. On 14 March 1622, while playing with her ladies, Anne fell and suffered her second stillbirth. Louis blamed her for

5742-453: The demands of regimental discipline and training still fell heavily upon them. Some of the now almost entirely aristocratic officer corps were still dedicated professionals but many neglected their responsibilities, preferring to spend excessive periods of leave as courtiers at Versailles or on their country estates. Many French soldiers sympathised with the masses from which they were drawn, and increasing numbers deserted in 1789. The bulk of

5841-504: The early 1660s but not completed until the late 1670s. Cavalry wore buff leather coats and breeches without specific uniform features until "grey cloth lined in the same colour" and dark blue for royal mounted units was ordered in November 1671. During the 1680s there was a movement towards more standardised dress, although dragoons and foreign infantry still wore coats in a wide range of regimental colours The guards regiments wore blue,

5940-495: The form of detachments from France's Irish Brigade , in support of Charles Edward Stuart during the Jacobite rising of 1745 . The Pragmatic Allies initially defeated the French in the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 but the battle had little effect on the wider war and has been described as "a happy escape, rather than a great victory". A series of French victories (including Marshal de Saxe 's great triumph at Fontenoy in 1745) made

6039-478: The government to the chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin , who was a protégé of Cardinal Richelieu and figured among the council of the regency. Mazarin took up residence at the Palais Royal near Queen Anne. Before long he was believed to be her lover, and, it was hinted, even her husband. With Mazarin's support, Anne overcame the aristocratic revolt, led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé , that became known as

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6138-619: The incident and was angry with Marie de Rohan, now the Dowager Duchess of Luynes, for having encouraged the queen in what was seen as negligence. The king's already strained relationship with the duchess worsened after the incident, leading him to demand her departure from the court. However, Rohan returned just a few months later with her new husband Claude, Duke of Chevreuse . Louis turned now to Cardinal Richelieu as his advisor, who served as his first minister from 1624 until his death in 1642. Richelieu's foreign policy of struggle against

6237-546: The influence of his mother in a palace coup d'état and had her favorite Concino Concini assassinated on 26 April of that year. During the years he was in the ascendancy Luynes attempted to remedy the formal distance between Louis and his queen. He sent away Inés de la Torre and the other Spanish ladies and replaced them with French ones, notably the Princess of Conti ( Louise Marguerite of Lorraine ) and his wife Marie de Rohan , with whom he organized court events that would bring

6336-498: The king of France, was the military part of the French royal household or Maison du Roi . The term only appeared in 1671, though such a gathering of military units pre-dates this. Two large foot regiments of the military household participated in the campaigns of the army; the French Guards Regiment and the Swiss Guards . Another well known unit was the Musketeers of the Guard . There were 90 French line infantry regiments in 1690. The companies were not distributed equally between

6435-421: The king's brother Gaston, Duke of Orléans against the monarch. After the invasion of Gaston in 1632, letters were discovered from du Fargis to people in Paris describing the plans of a marriage between Gaston and Anne after the death of Louis XIII. Anne was questioned and confirmed that the letters were written by du Fargis, but denied any knowledge of the plans. In 1635, France declared war on Spain , placing

6534-488: The middle and lower nobility and the higher bourgeoisie and one exceptional for promoted sergeants. The high nobility quickly reached high rank, the mean age of promotion to colonel being 36 years. The standard career path was based on seniority and was rather inert; the mean age of promotion to captain was 45 years. Promoted sergeants could normally not reach higher than to substantive lieutenants and captains by brevet although their social background significantly deviated from

6633-564: The mission to examine whether there was any truth to the rumor of an alliance between France and England , as this would force Spain to cut off diplomatic connections to France and disturb her network of couriers between the Spanish embassies of Paris and Brussels. On 11 August 1637, Anne came under so much suspicion that Richelieu issued an investigation. Her courier La Porte as well as the abbess of Anne's favorite convent Val-de-Grâce (where Anne had written many of her secret letters) were questioned and admitted to having participated in channeling

6732-527: The name of their proprietary colonels. The Swiss and German regiments had two battalions, the Irish one. The guard regiments of the Maison du Roi adopted complete uniforms in the early 1660s as a substitute for the cassocks with civilian clothing worn previously. As an example the Garden Francais were reported as wearing grey and red uniforms with silver embroidery shortly after 1661. The line infantry adopted clothing in various regimental colours decided on by their colonels, in an extended process starting in

6831-572: The non-noble classes, but the units were disbanded once war ended. Meanwhile, the bulk of infantry was still provided by urban or provincial militias, which were raised from an area or city to fight locally and that were named for their recruiting grounds. Gradually, the units became more permanent, and in the late 15th century, Swiss instructors were recruited, and some of the 'Bandes' (Militia) were combined to form temporary 'Legions' of up to 9000 men. The men would be paid, contracted to fight and receive military training. Henry II further regularised

6930-776: The palace courtyard, the Swiss Guards were massacred by the mob. Some Guards, including the commander, were captured, jailed, and later guillotined. In 1690 there were ten Swiss line regiments in French service; six with 16 companies each in three field battalions and one garrison battalion, and four with twelve companies each in three field battalions. Royal-Roussillon was a Catalonian foreign regiment with 18 companies in two battalions. There were also six German foreign regiments, seven Italian foreign regiments, five Walloon foreign regiments and three Irish foreign regiments . There were 23 foreign line regiments in 1767; eleven Swiss, seven German and five Irish. German regiments had permanent titles. The Swiss and Irish regiments were known by

7029-416: The queen and her household under control. As part of her role as a member of French royalty, Anne visited churches and convents across France, where she met Marguerite de Veny d'Arbouze at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce de la-Ville-d'Evêque. As well as securing from the King the position of Abbess at the Benedictine Val-de-Grâce de Notre-Dame-de-la-Crèche for Marguerite in 1618, Anne purchased lands and transferred

7128-500: The queen in an untenable position. Her secret correspondence with her brother Philip IV of Spain was not the only communication she had with the Spanish. She also corresponded with the Spanish ambassador Mirabel and the governor of the Spanish Netherlands . With the assistance of Anne's servant La Porte, who acted as courier, Madeleine du Fargis and Marie de Rohan acted as agents for her secret correspondence and channeled her letters to other contacts. In July 1637, Anne gave du Fargis

7227-462: The queen's secret correspondence. Anne initially swore on the Holy Sacrament that she had participated in no illegal correspondence, but finally admitted her guilt on 15 August. On 17 August, Queen Anne was forced to sign covenants regarding her correspondence, which was henceforth open to inspection; she was further banned from visiting convents without permission and was never to be left alone but

7326-678: The rank and file of the Gardes Françaises : the largest regiment of the maison militaire du roi de France and the permanent garrison of Paris, refused to obey their officers at a crucial point in the early stages of the Revolution . Some Gardes joined with the Parisian mob on 14 July 1789 and participated in the storming of the Bastille , the medieval fortress-prison thought of as a symbol of governmental repression. King Louis' powers were regulated by

7425-400: The rank and file; over two thirds came from the petty bourgeoisie or higher classes. The different career paths created a lack of social homogeneity in the officer corps. The military reforms after the Seven Years' War attempted to create a professionalized officer corps built on the petty nobility. However, the privileged career of the high nobility being retained caused the failure of

7524-433: The recruits came from the peasantry and the working class , while about 10% came from the petty bourgeoisie . Privates were usually promoted directly to the rank of sergeant and bypassed the rank of corporal . At the time of the French Revolution , a third of the sergeants came from the petty bourgeoisie or higher classes. Three career paths existed for officers; one privileged for the high nobility, one standard for

7623-416: The reforms. In consequence, many noblemen in the officer corps sided with the bourgeoisie in the struggle against the class prerogatives of the high nobility. Anne of Austria Anne of Austria ( French : Anne d'Autriche ; Spanish : Ana de Austria ; born Ana María Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII . She

7722-523: The regiments; the weakest, the Périgueux, had only 15 companies, while the Picardie had 210. The regimental staff included a colonel and a lieutenant colonel both of which also nominally commanded a company , and a major without company. A field company had a captain, a lieutenant, a sub-lieutenant (or ensign in the colonel's company), two sergeants, three corporals, five lance-corporals, 39 private soldiers and

7821-451: The regular infantry wore gray-white, and the Swiss mercenary regiments in French service wore red. In 1690, during the Nine Years' War , each regiment was given a uniform. Eighty-eight regiments wore gray uniforms with red facings , and fourteen princely regiments wore blue. The first regulations detailing specifics of uniforms is dated to 1704. Unusually, grenadiers for most of the part wore

7920-474: The story of the queen's life in her Mémoires d'Anne d'Autriche . She was portrayed by Geraldine Chaplin in The Three Musketeers (1973 live-action film) and The Four Musketeers (1974 film) . She appears in a French film based on the life of Louis XIV, Le Roi danse , portrayed by Collette Emmanuelle, and King Louis portrayed by Benoît Magimel (2000). She was portrayed by Alexandra Dowling in

8019-458: The structure still carries. Upon Louis' death in 1643, Anne was named regent , despite his attempts to prevent her from obtaining the position. With the aid of Pierre Séguier , she had the Parlement of Paris revoke the will of the late king, which would have limited her powers. Their four-year-old son was crowned King Louis XIV of France. Anne assumed the regency but to general surprise entrusted

8118-579: The supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Lansac , who was disliked by Anne and loyal to the king and the cardinal. Richelieu made Louis XIII a gift of his palatial hôtel, the Palais Cardinal , north of the Louvre, in 1636, but the king never took possession of it. Anne left the Louvre Palace to install herself there with her two small sons and remained as regent, hence the name Palais-Royal that

8217-1174: The time, Anne had many admirers, including the handsome Duke of Buckingham , although her intimates believed their flirtations remained chaste. Historian Desmond Seward alleges that during his 1625 visit to France, when the French court took official leave of the English embassy at Amiens , "Buckingham climbed into a private garden where the Queen was taking an evening walk", and "may even have tried to rape her", although "Anne's shrieks summoned her attendants." Anne and Louis, both fourteen years old, were pressured to consummate their marriage in order to forestall any possibility of future annulment , but Louis ignored his bride. Louis's mother, Marie de' Medici , continued to conduct herself as queen of France, without showing any deference to her daughter-in-law. Anne, surrounded by her entourage of high-born Spanish ladies-in-waiting headed by Inés de la Torre , continued to live according to Spanish etiquette and failed to improve her French. In 1617, Louis conspired with his favourite Charles d'Albert de Luynes to dispense with

8316-533: The tradition of cementing military and political alliances between France and Spain that began with the marriage of Philip II of Spain to Elisabeth of Valois in 1559 as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis . Anne and Elisabeth were exchanged on the Isle of Pheasants between Hendaye and Fuenterrabía . She was lively and beautiful during her youth. She was also a noted equestrian , a taste her son, Louis, would inherit. At

8415-459: The two most important territorial divisions and during the campaign season also the artillery of the French armies in Germany and Flanders respectively; twelve lieutenants of artillery (rank as colonels of infantry) commanding the other territorial divisions including the arsenals ; a number of provincial commissaries (rank as lieutenant-colonels of infantry) commanding the fortress artillery, and during

8514-593: The war, along with the imminent prospect of England's reentry into the conflict on the side of the Dutch and their allies, convinced Louis to make peace despite his advantageous military position. The resulting Peace of Nijmegen between France and the Grand Alliance left the Dutch Republic intact and France generously aggrandized in the Spanish Netherlands. The famed engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban designed his intricate fortifications during Louis XIV's reign. Vauban,

8613-452: Was 37. The official newspaper Gazette de France called the birth "a marvel when it was least expected". The birth of a living son failed to re-establish confidence between the royal couple. However, she conceived again fifteen months later. At Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 21 September 1640, Anne gave birth to her second son, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans , who later founded the modern House of Orléans . Both of her children were placed under

8712-493: Was a carabineer regiment and four were hussars . All regiments were known by their titles; not by the name of their commanders. Each regiment had four squadrons; each squadron divided into two troops . The regimental staff included a mestre de camp and a lieutenant-colonel, both of which had troops, and a major without a troop. Each troop had a captain, a lieutenant and a sub-lieutenant, as well as four quartermasters, one fourier, eight brigadiers, eight carabineers, 31 troopers and

8811-449: Was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown in 1620. After her husband's death, Anne was regent to her son Louis XIV during his minority until 1651. Anne was born in Valladolid to King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria . She was betrothed to King Louis XIII of France in 1612 and they married three years later. The two had a difficult marital relationship, exacerbated by her miscarriages and

8910-472: Was always to be in the presence of one of her ladies-in-waiting. This was soon followed up by a purge of her household, where those officials loyal to the queen were replaced by those loyal to the king and the Cardinal. Consequently, count Jean de Galard de Bearn de Brassac, known to be loyal to Richelieu, was appointed chamberlain of her household, and his spouse Catherine de Brassac replaced Marie-Catherine de Senecey as her Première dame d'honneur to keep

9009-526: Was authorised to wear the Order of Cincinnatus in 1785, and was awarded a pension of 1,500 francs in 1786. He became a brigadier-general in 1791. On 29 April 1792, following the loss of a skirmish with Austrian forces , Dillon was murdered by his own men outside the city of Lille. The troops apparently believed that their defeat by the Austrians was the result of a conspiracy on the part of Dillon, whom they called

9108-470: Was changed. Battalions of volunteers were authorized and subsequently merged with surviving units of the former royal army, to form amalgamated demi-brigades. This force underwent its first test during the Battle of Valmy in 1792, when an Austro-Prussian army invaded to restore the King's full powers. By now, the army was considered to be loyal to the First Republic , not to the king. From then until 1804,

9207-573: Was created with no historic connections to empire, republic or even the pre-1792 monarchy. His government appointed many aristocratic officers to the new army, which lost much of its morale, much as it had in 1789. In 1823, a French expeditionary force, the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis , aided Spanish troops loyal to the Bourbon King Ferdinand VII when his regime was threatened by an uprising . In 1830, King Charles X ,

9306-564: Was embroiled in the Franco-Dutch War , with England and its Royal Navy as an ally (from 1672 to 1674). The war began in May 1672 when France invaded the Netherlands and nearly overran it, an event still referred to as het Rampjaar or 'Disaster Year'. By late July, the Dutch position had stabilised, with support from Emperor Leopold , Brandenburg-Prussia and Spain ; this was formalised in

9405-515: Was forced to abdicate in the July Revolution . The army participated in little fighting, and the king's cousin, the Duke of Orléans was installed as Louis-Philippe I in what was supposed to be a constitutional monarchy. The army transferred its allegiance to Louis-Philippe's House of Orléans until his overthrow in 1848, when the short-lived Second Republic was established. The military household of

9504-501: Was introduced in France after the battle of Pavia in 1525. The French army abandoned the musket in 1700 with the appearance of the flintlock musket (fusil) . Different models of the Charleville musket , a .69 caliber standard French infantry musket was made from 1717 and into the 1840s. The Vallière artillery system of 1732 standardized the artillery pieces. The Valliere guns proved good in siege warfare but were less satisfactory in

9603-429: Was often taken to visit monasteries during her childhood. In 1611, she lost her mother, who died in childbirth. Despite her grief, Anne did her best to take care of her younger siblings, who referred to her with affection as their mother. At age eleven, Anne was betrothed to King Louis XIII of France. Her father gave her a dowry of 500,000 crowns and many beautiful jewels. For fear that Louis XIII would die early,

9702-560: Was referred to as Anne of Austria because the rulers of Spain belonged to the senior branch of the House of Austria , known later as the House of Habsburg, a designation relatively uncommon before the 19th century. Anne was raised mainly at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid . Unusually for a royal princess, Anne grew up close to her parents, who were very religious. She was raised to be religious too, and

9801-426: Was the war's cause), Spanish forces allied to the French lost Gibraltar . However, the heavy casualties suffered at Malplaquet in 1709 provided an opening for Marlborough's political opponents and after their victory in the 1710 British general election , he was removed from command and Britain sought to end the war. France's fortune returned under the leadership of Marshal Villars and Marshal Vendôme but despite

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