Slitherine

I wanted to share with you one of the very few period pictures of the early King's Musketeers (lately named 'Musketeers of the Guard’), those of the first company that served Louis XIII then the young Louis XIV between 1622 and 1646. Recognizable with the silver cross on their blue tabard :



Artist : S. della Bella, 'Mounted Musketeer galloping towards the left', in Various cavalry exercices, ca. 1642-45.
Public domain, no copyright. Source : Met (with high res)

Part of the mounted military household of the King (‘Maison à cheval’), the King's cavalry, this small elite company of 100 then 150 men fought on foot and mounted as well. They took part of the rescue of the fort of the island of Ré (1627), participated in the siege de La Rochelle (1627-1628), led the Enfants perdus during the storming of the Pas de Suse on 9 March 1629, routed two Lorrain regiments at Rouvroi (1632), etc.

And, of course, became famous thanks to Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers

Source : R. Masson, Défendre le Roi, 2017.

Another interesting engraving, this time concerning the King's Musketeers of the second period (from 1657 on).

It relates to the battle of Cassel in 1677 where the now two companies of King's Musketeers charged the enemy, while being on foot.

Here is the complete map of the battle : (Source with zoom, download...)

We'll focus on the red rectangle.



The first company of King's Musketeers (details) :





- in red : behind a hedge, the horses and horse-holders of the 1st Company of King's Musketeers
- in blue : the 1st Company of King's Musketeers charging the enemy with the musket and the sword, led by the Chevalier de Fourbin
(the words 'Mr de Fourbin' and 'Mousquetaires du Roy, Pre Compagnie' are written on the map)

The second company of King's Musketeers (details) :



- in red : horses and horse holders of the 2nd Company of King's Musketeers
- in blue : the 2nd Company of King's Musketeers led by Marquis de Jonvelle
(the words 'Mr de Jonvel' and 'Seconde Compagnie' are written on the map inside the bleu rectangle)

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(edit) Later, the Musketeers mounted their horses and fought on horseback till the end of the battle.

Source : Ph. J. E. de Smyttère, La bataille du Val-de-Cassel de 1677, ses préludes et ses suites, 1865

Very interesting!

The King's Musketeers during the 17th century

1) Origin of the first Company of King’s Musketeers

The first King’s Musketeers were raised by Louis XIII in 1622. They were recruited among Arkebusiers (‘Carabins’ in French) attached to the company of Chevau-légers of the Guard.

Size : 100 men (1622), then 150 men.

They fought during the rescue of the fort of the island of Ré (1627), the siege de La Rochelle (1627-1628), the storming of the Pas de Suse (1629), the battles of Rouvroi and Castelnaudary (1632), the campaign of Rousillon during the TYW (1639-1643).

They were disbanded in 1646 by Cardinal Mazarin on the pretext of making budgetary savings.

Raised again by Louis XIV in 1657 and immediately enlisted in Turenne’s armies for the last years of the Franco-Spanish war, they fought during the Siege of Stenay (1657), Mardyck’s defence (1657), the Siege of Dunkirk and the battle of the Dunes (1658).

Size : 100 men (1657), 150 men (1658)




2) Origin of the second Company of King’s Musketeers

The direct ancestors of the 2nd Company are Richelieu’s two Guards :

• the Cardinal’s mounted Gard (or ‘Cardinal’s Mounted Musketeers’) created in 1626 (50 men) and increased in number in 1631 (100-120 men)

• and the Cardinal’s Guard (or ‘Cardinal’s Musketeers’) raised in 1634 (100-200 men).

Unlike the King’s Musketeers, Richelieu’s Guards rarely fought on the battlefield : siege of Montauban (1629), seizure of Abbeville and Hesdin (1639).



In 1642, Richelieu died. In 1648, Cardinal Mazarin recruited his own Guard from Richelieu’s Musketeers (to protect him during the Fronde, 1648-1653) :

• 1648 : 100 Musketeers on foot

• 1653 : 100 additional Musketeers are hired as mounted Musketeers

In 1660, the Cardinal Mazarin turned his guard company over to the King.


3) From then on, there were two companies of King’s Musketeers.

The number of men increases : 300 men per unit (1663), 250-300 men per unit (from 1668), 250 men per unit (1693)

They took part in :

• 17 Sieges between 1663 and 1695

• the battles of Cassel (1677), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708), Malplaquet (1709)

J. Alaux, Storming of Valenciennes in 1677

Sources :
C. Bosson, Mousquetaires du Roi et leurs armes, Gazette des armes, n° 42, oct. 1976
R. Chartrand, French Musketeer 1622-1775, 2013
S. Lamoral Le Pipre de Neuville, Journal Historique des deux Compagnies de Mousquetaires du Roi et Institution des deux Compagnies de Mousquetaires du Roi
R. MASSON, Défendre le roi, 2017

King's musketeers in the game ?

They can be considered IRL as elite and mainly mounted infantry.
I guess in game they can be either elite Dragoons or Light foot.

1) French 1623-1634
For the attack of the Pas de Suse on 6 March 1629, Louis XIII demanded that his Musketeers join forces with the Enfants perdus (Forlorn hope) to force the barricades. The FoGR TT added them as Elite Light Foot ('Enfants perdus led by King's Musketeers'). Certainly their best place in game.

2) French 1649-1660
During the battle of the Dunes (1658), according to Le Pipre de Neuville, a detachment ('peloton') of King's Musketeers placed itself as skirmishers on the front line. Maybe they could be added as elite LF for the period. The issue with that is that I don't know the size of this 'peloton' (that may have been very small IRL : 150 ? 100 ? 50 ?).

3) French 1670-1690
During the battle of Cassel (1677), the two companies fought like Dragoons, first on foot, then mounted. Maybe they could be added as Elite Dragoons (250-300 men). The unit size is not an issue anymore as each of the 2 companies had between 250-300 during this period. However, as far as I know, this is the only open battle they fought during the period, being mainly used during sieges.

A quite interesting documentary about the real/historical King's musketeer d'Artagnan, showing the differences from the fictional character made up by A. Dumas in his novels, in French (1) : here.

The mounted king's musketeers were founded in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of carabins (who were mounted equipped with carbine) with muskets. Interestingly, the documentary remind us that, at this time, muskets were still a very heavy infantry weapon (about 6 kg (2)) that had to be fired from a forked rest the soldier stuck in the ground before him. It certainly wasn't easy to carry it or even less easy to use it on horseback, even for this elite troop.

My question : is it (another) indication that those mounted musketeers were first and foremost seen, from the beginning, as an elite (mounted) infantry using horses :
- mainly to travel, follow the King's coach or quickly reach the fighting zone on the battlefield or the trench during a siege before dismounting,
- and only incidentally to fight on horseback to pursue routing enemies or charge light foot and mounted dragoons ?

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(1) : Unfortunately, the automatically translated subtitles by Youtube are quite awful sometimes. For example : 'King Louis XIV' translated by... '2014'
(2) : there were lighter and smaller (and much more expensive) muskets in the 1620's though, such as this one.

Hmm sadly I can't view it - uploader has not made it available in the US.

I am so sorry to hear that !

This documentary can also be seen for free on the website of the public TV channel that made it, here. However, I don't know whether or not you can have access to it from the USA. Moreover, the only available subtitles and languages on this site are French and German...