Swiss Guard - Swiss Guards in France

Swiss Guards in France

There were two different corps of Swiss mercenaries performing guard duties for the Kings of France: the Hundred Swiss (Cent Suisses), serving within the Palace as essentially bodyguards and ceremonial troops, and the Swiss Guards (Gardes Suisses), guarding the entrances and outer perimeter. In addition the Gardes suisses served in the field as a fighting regiment in times of war.

Read more about this topic:  Swiss Guard

Famous quotes containing the words swiss, guards and/or france:

    “Realistic about how much one person can accomplish in a given day, women expect to have to make some trade-offs between work and family. Families, however, have absorbed all the stress and strain they possibly can. The entire responsibility for accommodation is taking place on the home side of the equation.”
    —Deborah J. Swiss (20th century)

    “For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
    To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
    God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
    A glorious angel. Then if angels fight,
    Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world—and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish—she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.”
    —Simone Weil (1909–1943)