6533b828fe1ef96bd128919a

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Défenseurs du roi : la garde de la cour de Versailles et sa réception à la cour de Dresde-Varsovie à la fin du xviie et dans la première moitié du XVIII

subject

description

According to contemporary historiography, the earliest guard units formed in the fifteenth century, at the same time as mercenary armies. Similar units were created throughout Europe, on the French model. Once the French court was transferred to Versailles, it developed a grandiose ceremonial protocol, which shaped the final form of the royal guard. The latter’s tasks were primarily related to the protection of the king and the court, public buildings and important assemblies, as well as royal property and production centres, but also to the distribution of royal mail and broad official functions. In wartime, however, the guard served as elite military units, joining field troops. The model of Louis XIV’s court, in terms of architectural and ceremonial grandeur as well as the role and tasks of the guard, was also adopted by the courts of the House of Wettin – first that of Saxony then those of Dresden and Warsaw. Although the income of the rulers of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was much smaller, their guard units were similar in size to those in France, made up of more than 6,000 soldiers. Indeed, the Wettin guard, like that of Louis XIV’s military household, played an important role in bringing the aristocracy closer to the monarch and his court, as well as in the providing of commanders and officers for the field armies.