By Francompagnie | Last updated: 14 dec. 2024
The King’s Musketeers – Key dates
Discover the key dates in the history of the King’s Musketeers, the legendary elite corps of the Ancien Régime. From their creation to their dissolution, through their exploits and reforms, relive the key moments of an epic that forged their legend and inspired numerous literary and artistic works.
Henri IV | reign from 1589 to 1610
1593 - The origins
Incorporation into the royal guard of the company of chevau-légers de la garde, to which was added a company of carabins du roi, gentlemen armed with light carbines.
Louis XIII, known as ‘the Just’, Reign from 1610 to 1643
Richelieu | Minister of State from 1624 to 1642
1622 - Creation
Creation of the Company of the King’s Musketeers. The rifles were replaced by ‘serpentine muskets’ and this elite company took the name of ‘Musketeers of the King’s Military Household’.
1626
Creation of a mounted bodyguard of 50 men, reduced to 30, for Cardinal Richelieu, following several plots and assassination attempts.
1629
After the brilliant attack by the Musketeers and Tréville at Suze, the company of the King’s Musketeers was detached from the authority of the chevau-légers and only received its orders from the King.
1631
Creation of a company of 120 chevau-légers for Richelieu’s personal guard, followed by another company of 100 men, intended solely for war.
1633
Creation of a new company of 100 musketeers on foot for Cardinal Richelieu’s ordinary guard.
1634
Creation of a new company of foot guards for Cardinal Richelieu.
1642
28th Nov. | Tréville, captain of the King’s Musketeers, was unofficially dismissed under pressure from Richelieu.
4th Dec. | Death of Richelieu. Disbandment of his Musketeers, the Cardinal’s guards.
5th Dec. | Mazarin was named successor to Richelieu.
Mazarin | Minister of State from 1642 to 1661
1643
14th May | Death of Louis XIII.
18th May | Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV, becomes regent until her son comes of age.
early 1643 | Tréville returns to lead the company of Musketeers
Louis XIV | reign from 1643 to 1715
1646
Mazarin dismissed the King’s Musketeers, officially for budgetary reasons, but unofficially to get rid of Tréville.
1648
25th Feb. | Creation of a company of 100 horse guards (dressed in red helmets) for Cardinal Mazarin following plots.
The Fronde forces the Court to take refuge in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, while Mazarin is banished and forced into exile. His guard company was disbanded.
1651
7th Sept. | Louis XIV came of age at 13 and was now old enough to reign.
1652
21st Oct. | Return of the King to Paris.
1653
3rd Feb. | Mazarin resumed his duties as Minister of State.
12 Feb. | Reinstatement of the Cardinal’s Guard (100 mounted Musketeers) and an additional company of foot Musketeers.
1654
7th June | Louis XIV is crowned King of France.
1657
Jan. | Re-establishment of the Company of Mounted Musketeers of the Royal Guard (100 musketeers) with their famous blue cassock.
1660
On the occasion of Louis XIV’s marriage to the Infanta of Spain, Cardinal Mazarin donated his company of mounted musketeers to the King as a wedding gift.
1661
9 March 1661 | Death of Mazarin
1667
22 Jan | D’Artagnan (Charles de Batz de Castelmore) becomes Captain-Lieutenant of the Grey Musketeers (1st Company).
1673
From now on, each of the companies will have a common red uniform, with gold braiding for the first and silver for the second, from the Maestricht headquarters onwards.
25 June | Death of d’Artagnan at the siege of Maastricht.
1701
At the beginning of the 18th century, as the art of war evolved, the Musketeers, who had become unsuitable, joined the rest of the cavalry units of the Military House and no longer took part in sieges. Their use in pitched battles is now limited to mounted units and heavy cavalry.
1715
1st Sept. | Louis XIV died at the age of 76.
Louis XV | reign from 1715 to 1774
1774
10th May | Death of Louis XV at the age of 64.
Louis XVI reigned from 1774 to 1792
1776
1st Jan. | Dissolution (effective) of the 2 Royal Musketeer Companies
1791
June | Following revolutionary attacks, the King flees to Varennes. Exile and dispersion of the nobility abroad (including some of the former Musketeers).
Sept. | Reconstruction of a semblance of the King’s Military House in exile with a company of Musketeers.
1792
August | The Musketeers and the army of the Princes in exile (counter-revolutionary army) join the Prussian army.
Sept. | Birth of the First Republic.
Nov. | Faced with the advance of the Republican armies, the King of Prussia ordered the princes to sack their armies, including the companies of musketeers.
1804 | Proclamation of the Empire - Coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte
1814
6th April Abdication of Napoleon 1st. Louis XVIII takes power. First Restoration
May | Reconstitution of the King’s Household, including the two companies of Musketeers
1815 - Disappearance
March | Return of Napoleon 1st – Suspension of the companies of Musketeers who disperse in the general confusion.
22 June | Following the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon 1st abdicates for the second time. Return of Louis XVIII on 8 July.
Brief reformation of the two companies of Musketeers.
31st Dec. | Definitive dismissal of the two Musketeer companies.
Header illustration credit
Paintings from left to right: 1. The King’s Musketeers by Eugène Leliepvre (Official Painter to the French Army)
2. Revue de la deuxième compagnie des mousquetaires noirs passée par le commissaire Plouy de Pincetaille dans la plaine des Sablons en 1729 par Paul Ponce Antoine Robert de Seri, on display at the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.
3. Black Musketeers of the Second Company (1814-1815) by Eugène Titeux.
References:
• Abrégé
chronologique et historique de l’origine, du progrès et de l’état actuel de la maison du roi et de toutes les troupes de France, par Simon Lamoral Le Pippre de Noeufville | 1734-1735
• Richelieu et la Monarchie absolue, par le Vte G. d’Avenel | 1887
• Les Mousquetaires du roi : une troupe d’élite au coeur du pouvoir, par Julien Wilmart | 2023
