The French Musketeers
The History of the Musketeers
In the 1993 version of the movie, The Three Musketeers, Cardinal Richelieu plots to assassinate King Louis XIII of France. He disbands the musketeers (King's guards) to keep them from foiling his evil plot. Three musketeers do not accept this and with the help of a young man who wants to join the musketeers, they overcome all obstacles and save the day. The names of the 3 Musketeers were Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
The book, The Three Musketeers was written by Alexandre Dumas and published in 1844. He was not considered a "serious" writer because of the fictional works that he wrote. However he was a student of history. The book was actually a collaboration between himself and Auguste Maquet. Maquet brought him a rough outline for a book about Louis XIII - the King, Ann of Austria – the Queen, Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Buckingham. The story was drawn from actual sources and then filled out by Dumas to become the now famous story of the musketeers.
You can download the book The Three Musketeers in PDF format (1.25Mb) from us.
The story is based in the early 1600´s, which was considered to be a time of transition from the medieval to the renaissance eras. Louis XIII took the throne at nine years old, but his mother acted as regent until he came of age at 13. She continued to hold political power until 3 years later when she was exiled to Bloise, after the assassination of Concini, Marshall of d'Ancre. Richelieu was considered to be a confidant of the Queen Mother and it is believed that due to her influence, Louis arranged for Richelieu to be appointed as Cardinal.
When Louis was very young it was arranged that he would one day wed Ann of Austria. Ann was actually the daughter of Phillip III of Spain and her Austrian mother. Louis did not like or trust the Spanish so it became a concern as to whether he would go through with the wedding. Even with his dislike of the Spanish, he finally accepted his politically arranged marriage, however, there were rumors that they did not actually consummate the marriage until fours years later.
It was rumored that Cardinal Richelieu was the father of Louis XIV, however in his memoirs he wrote that he feared a plot to involve him with the queen. Richelieu believed firmly in "noble dignity" and "Royal firmness" which suited Louis as he wished to be known as "Louis the Just", so many at court discounted that rumor. Cardinal Richelieu was considered to be a trusted advisor and confidant to Louis however the court was a hotbed of political intrigue and plots, so while there are many accepted historical accounts, nothing is certain.
One of Cardinal Richelieu's biggest contributions to France was the developing of new strategies employed by the army. These strategies changed assaults from a massed charge to organized attacks by specialized units.
One such unit was the musketeers.
In 1622, the first "musketeers" came into being. They were a "unit of gentlemen" called the Carabiniers du Roi (translated as "police officers of the King"), commonly called the Gray Musketeers after the color of their horses. Then in 1661, a unit of 1,000 "noble volunteers" named the Cornette Blanche (translated as "White Cornet") was formed. It was commonly called the Black Musketeers. Both groups were heavy calvary.
Each group of musketeers could have been composed of French, English, Swiss and other Europeans. The French were known to hire many mercenaries. Each mercenary was "worth 3 men"...
- One man fighting for France.
- One man not fighting for the enemy.
- One man freeing a Frenchman for other duties.
Both groups of musketeers would have worn the King's emblem on their tunic (casaque or tabard). The tunics would most probably have been red, grey, black or blue. We can speculate that the red tunics were from the Cardinal's guards, the blue from the King's guard (blue is the Royal color of France) and the gray and black from the regular army musketeer groups.
The dress described as generally worn by a Musketeer during the mid 17th century was:
- A black or gray Musketeer hat, with red plumes and gilt trim.
- A blue musketeer tunic with a white cross, flames in the angles of the cross and edges (Gray Musketeers had the emblem in red on gray tunics and the Black musketeers had it in yellow on black).
- A blue jacket and breeches, with gold trim.
- Musketeer boots, which were black with red heels.
- An embroidered shoulder belt from which their sword would be slung.
- A cuirass would be worn under the tunic.
The King's emblem became the "musketeer emblem".
While history does not specifically record the musketeers as being Royal Guards. They have given us many clues that suggest that there was a branch of the Musketeers who did guard King Louis and Queen Ann.
References:
- Encarta online Encyclopaedia
- Brittanica online Encyclopaedia
- Wikapedia online Encyclopaedia
- The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
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