Part 14

In 1822 when King George IV. visited Scotland, it was thought appropriate that the Royal Company should act as his majesty's bodyguard during his stay, especially as there was a tradition of a former archer bodyguard. They therefore performed the duties usually assigned to the gentlemen-at-arms. When Queen Victoria visited the Scottish capital in 1842, the Royal Company again did duty; the last time they were called out in her reign in their capacity of royal bodyguard was in 1860 on the occasion of the great volunteer review in the Queen's Park, Edinburgh. They acted in the same capacity when King Edward VII. reviewed the Scottish Volunteers there on the 18th of September 1905.

King George IV. authorized the company to take, in addition to their former name, that of "The King's Body Guard for Scotland," and presented to the captain-general a gold stick, thus constituting the company part of the royal household. In virtue of this stick the captain-general of the Royal Company takes his place at a coronation or similar pageant immediately behind the gold stick of England. The lieutenants-general of the company have silver sticks; and the council, which is the executive body of the company, possess seven ebony ones. George IV. further appointed a full dress uniform to be worn by members of the company at court, when not on duty as guards, in which latter case the ordinary field dress is used. The court dress is green with green velvet facings, gold epaulettes and lace, crimson silk sash, and cocked hat with green plume. The officers wear a gold sash in place of a crimson one, and an _aiguillette_ on the left shoulder. All ranks wear swords. The field dress at present consists of a dark-green tunic, shoulder-wings and gauntleted cuffs and trousers trimmed with black and crimson; a bow-case worn as a sash, of the same colour as the coat, black waistbelt with sword, and Balmoral bonnet with thistle ornament and eagle's feather. The officers of the company are the captain-general, 4 captains, 4 lieutenants, 4 ensigns, 12 brigadiers and adjutant.

Corps of the gentlemen-at-arms or yeoman type do not of course count as combatant troops--if for no other reason at least because they are armed with the weapons of bygone times. Colonel Clifford Walton states in his _History of the British Standing Army_ that neither the Yeomen of the Guard nor the Pensioners were ever subject to martial law. The British guards and household troops that are armed, trained and organized as part of the army are the _Household Cavalry_ and the _Foot Guards_.

The Household Cavalry consists at the present day of three regiments, and has its origin, as have certain of the Foot guard regiments, in the ashes of the "New Model" army disbanded at the restoration of Charles II. in 1660. In that year the "1st or His Majesty's Own Troop of Guards" formed during the king's exile of his cavalier followers, was taken on the strength of the army. The 2nd troop was formerly in the Spanish service as the "Duke of York's Guards," and was also a cavalier unit. In 1670, on Monk's death, the original 3rd troop (Monk's Life Guards, renamed in 1660 the "Lord General's Troop of Guards") became the 2nd (the queen's) troop, and the duke of York's troop the 3rd. In 1685 the 1st and 2nd troops were styled Life Guards of Horse, and two years later the blue-uniformed "Royal Regiment of Horse," a New Model regiment that had been disbanded and at once re-raised in 1660, was made a household cavalry corps. Later under the colonelcy of the earl of Oxford it was popularly called "The Oxford Blues." There were also from time to time other troops (e.g. Scots troops 1700-1746) that have now disappeared. In 1746 the 2nd troop was disbanded, but it was revived in 1788, when the two senior corps were given their present title of 1st and 2nd Life Guards. From 1750 to 1819 the Blues bore the name of "Royal Horse Guards Blue," which in 1819 was changed to "Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)." The general distinction between the uniforms of the red Life Guard and the blue Horse Guard still exists. The 1st and the 2nd regiments of Life Guards wear scarlet tunics with blue collars and cuffs, and the Royal Horse Guards blue tunics with scarlet collars and cuffs. All three wear steel cuirasses on state occasions and on guard duty. The head-dress is a steel helmet with drooping horse-hair plume (white for Life Guards, red for Horse Guards). In full dress white buckskin pantaloons and long knee boots are worn. Amongst the peculiarities of these _corps d'elite_ is the survival of the old custom of calling non-commissioned officers "corporal of horse" instead of sergeant, and corporal-major instead of sergeant-major, the wearing by trumpeters and bandsmen in full dress of a black velvet cap, a richly laced coat with a full skirt extending to the wearer's knees and long white gaiters. There is little distinction between the two Life Guards regiments' uniforms, the most obvious point being that the cord running through the white leather pouch belt is red for the 1st and blue for the 2nd.

The Foot Guards comprise the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards and the Irish Guards, each (except the last) of three battalions. The Grenadiers, originally the First Foot Guards, represent a royalist infantry regiment which served with the exiled princes in the Spanish army and returned at the Restoration in 1660. The Coldstream Guards are a New Model regiment, and were originally called the Lord General's (Monk's) regiment of Foot Guards. Their popular title, which became their official designation in 1670, is derived from the fact that the army with which Monk restored the monarchy crossed the Tweed into England at the village of Coldstream, and that his troops (which were afterwards, except the two units of horse and foot of which Monk himself was colonel, disbanded) were called the Coldstreamers. The two battalions of Scots Foot Guards, which regiment was separately raised and maintained in Scotland after the Restoration, marched to London in 1686 and 1688 and were brought on to the English Establishment in 1707. In George III.'s reign they were known as the Third Guards, and from 1831 to 1877 (when the present title was adopted) as the Scots Fusilier Guards.

The Irish Guards (one battalion) were formed in 1902, after the South African War, as a mark of Queen Victoria's appreciation of the services rendered by the various Irish regiments of the line.[1] The dress of the Foot Guards is generally similar in all four regiments, scarlet tunic with blue collars, cuffs and shoulder-straps, blue trousers and high, rounded bearskin cap. The regimental distinctions most easily noticed are these. The Grenadiers wear a small white plume in the bearskin, the Coldstreams a similar red one, the Scots none, the Irish a blue-green one. The buttons on the tunic are spaced evenly for the Grenadiers, by twos for the Coldstreams, by threes for the Scots and by fours for the Irish. The band of the modern cap is red for the Grenadiers, white for the Coldstreams, "diced" red and white (chequers) for the Scots and green for the Irish. Former privileges of foot guard regiments, such as higher brevet rank in the army for their regimental officers, are now abolished, but Guards are still subject exclusively to the command of their own officers, and the officers of the Foot Guards, like those of the Household Cavalry, have special duties at court. Neither the cavalry nor the infantry guards serve abroad in peace time as a rule, but in 1907 a battalion of the Guards, which it was at that time proposed to disband, was sent to Egypt. "Guards' Brigades" served in the Napoleonic Wars, in the Crimea, in Egypt at various times from 1887 to 1898 and in South Africa 1899-1902. The last employment of the Household Cavalry as a brigade in war was at Waterloo, but composite regiments made up from officers and men of the Life Guards and Blues were employed in Egypt and in S. Africa.

The sovereigns of France had guards in their service in Merovingian times, and their household forces appear from time to time in the history of medieval wars. Louis XI. was, however, the first to regularize their somewhat loose organization, and he did so to such good purpose that Francis I. had no less than 8000 guardsmen organized, subdivided and permanently under arms. The senior unit of the _Gardes du Corps_ was the famous company of Scottish archers (_Compagnie ecossaise de la Garde du Corps du Roi_), which was originally formed (1418) from the Scottish contingents that assisted the French in the Hundred Years' War. Scott's _Quentin Durward_ gives a picture of life in the corps as it was under Louis XI. In the following century, however, its regimental history becomes somewhat confused. Two French companies were added by Louis XI. and Francis I. and the _Gardes du Corps_ came to consist exclusively of cavalry. About 1634 nearly all the Scots then serving went into the "regiment d'Hebron" and thence later into the British regular army (see HEPBURN, SIR JOHN). Thereafter, though the titles, distinctions and privileges of the original Archer Guard were continued, it was recruited from native Frenchmen, preference being (at any rate at first) given to those of Scottish descent. At its disbandment in 1791 along with the rest of the _Gardes du Corps_, it contained few, if any, native Scots. There was also, for a short time (1643-1660), an infantry regiment of _Gardes ecossaises_.

In 1671 the title of _Maison Militaire du Roi_ was applied to that portion of the household that was distinctively military. It came to consist of 4 companies of the _Gardes du Corps_, 2 companies of _Mousquetaires_ (cavalry) (formed 1622 and 1660), 1 company of _Chevaux legers_ (1570), 1 of _Gendarmes de la Maison Rouge_, and 1 of _Grenadiers a Cheval_ (1676), with 1 company of _Gardes de la Porte_ and one called the _Cent-Suisses_, the last two being semi-military. This large establishment, which did not include all the guard regiments, was considerably reduced by the Count of St Germain's reforms in 1775, all except the _Gardes du Corps_ and the _Cent-Suisses_ being disbanded. The whole of the _Maison du Roi_, with the exception of the semi-military bodies referred to, was cavalry.

The _Gardes francaises_, formed in 1563, did not form part of the _Maison_. They were an infantry regiment, as were the famous _Gardes suisses_, originally a Swiss mercenary regiment in the Wars of Religion, which was, for good conduct at the combat of Arques, incorporated in the permanent establishment by Henry IV. in 1589 and in the guards in 1615. At the Revolution, contrary to expectation, the French Guards sided openly with the Constitutional movement and were disbanded. The Swiss Guards, however, being foreigners, and therefore unaffected by civil troubles, retained their exact discipline and devotion to the court to the day on which they were sacrificed by their master to the bullets of the Marseillais and the pikes of the mob (August 10, 1792). Their tragic fate is commemorated by the well-known monument called the "Lion of Lucerne," the work of Thorvaldsen, erected near Lucerne in 1821. The "Constitutional," "Revolutionary" and other guards that were created after the abolition of the _Maison_ and the slaughter of the Swiss are unimportant, but through the "Directory Guards" they form a nominal link between the household troops of the monarchy and the corps which is perhaps the most famous "Guard" in history. The Imperial Guard of Napoleon had its beginnings in an escort squadron called the Corps of Guides, which accompanied him in the Italian campaign of 1796-1797 and in Egypt. On becoming First Consul in 1799 he built up out of this and of the guard of the Directory a small corps of horse and foot, called the Consular Guard, and this, which was more of a fighting unit than a personal bodyguard, took part in the battle of Marengo. The Imperial Guard, into which it was converted on the establishment of the Empire, was at first of about the strength of a division. As such it took part in the Austerlitz and Jena campaigns, but after the conquest of Prussia Napoleon augmented it, and divided it into the "Old Guard" and the "Young Guard." Subsequently the "Middle Guard" was created, and by successive augmentations the corps of the guard had grown to be 57,000 strong in 1811-1812 and 81,000 in 1813. It preserved its general character as a _corps d'elite_ of veterans to the last, but from about 1813 the "Young Guard" was recruited directly from the best of the annual conscript contingent. The officers held a higher rank in the army than their regimental rank in the Guards. At the first Restoration an attempt was made to revive the _Maison du Roi_, but in the constitutional regime of the second Restoration this semi-medieval form of bodyguard was given up and replaced by the _Garde Royale_, a selected fighting corps. This took part in the short war with Spain and a portion of it fought in Algeria, but it was disbanded at the July Revolution. Louis Philippe had no real guard troops, but the memories of the Imperial Guard were revived by Napoleon III., who formed a large guard corps in 1853-1854. This, however, was open to an even greater degree than Napoleon I.'s guard to the objection that it took away the best soldiers from the line. Since the fall of the Empire in 1870 there have been no guard troops in France. The duty of watching over the safety of the president is taken in the ordinary roster of duty by the troops stationed in the capital. The "Republican Guard" is the Paris gendarmerie, recruited from old soldiers and armed and trained as a military body.

In _Austria-Hungary_ there are only small bodies of household troops (Archer Body Guard, Trabant Guard, Hungarian Crown Guards, &c.) analogous to the British Gentlemen at Arms or Yeomen of the Guard. Similar forces, the "Noble Guard" and the "Swiss Guard," are maintained in the Vatican. The court troops of Spain are called "halberdiers" and armed with the halbert.

In _Russia_ the Guard is organized as an army corps. It possesses special privileges, particularly as regards officers' advancement.

In _Germany_ the distinction between armed retainers and "Guards" is well marked. The army is for practical purposes a unit under imperial control, while household troops ("castle-guards" as they are usually called) belong individually to the various sovereigns within the empire. The "Guards," as a combatant force in the army are those of the king of _Prussia_ and constitute a strong army corps. This has grown gradually from a bodyguard of archers, and, as in Great Britain, the functions of the heavy cavalry regiments of the Guard preserve to some extent the name and character of a body guard (_Gardes du Corps_). The senior foot guard regiment is also personally connected with the royal family. The conversion of a palace-guard to a combatant force is due chiefly to Frederick William I., to whom drill was a ruling passion, and who substituted effective regiments for the ornamental "Trabant Guards" of his father. A further move was made by Frederick the Great in substituting for Frederick William's expensive "giant" regiment of guards a larger number of ordinary soldiers, whom he subjected to the same rigorous training and made a _corps d'elite_. Frederick the Great also formed the Body Guard alluded to above. Nevertheless in 1806 the Guard still consisted only of two cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments, and it was the example of Napoleon's imperial guard which converted this force into a corps of all arms. In 1813 its strength was that of a weak division, but in 1860 by slight but frequent augmentations it had come to consist of an army corps, complete with all auxiliary services. A few guard regiments belonging to the minor sovereigns are counted in the line of the German army. In war the Guard is employed as a unit, like other army corps. It is recruited by the assignment of selected young men of each annual contingent, and is thus free from the reproach of the French Imperial Guard, which took the best-trained soldiers from the regiments of the line.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The "Irish Guards" of the Stuarts took the side of James II., fought against William III. in Ireland and lost their regimental identity in the French service to which the officers and soldiers transferred themselves on the abandonment of the struggle.

GUARD-SHIP, a warship stationed at some port or harbour to act as a guard, and in former times in the British navy to receive the men impressed for service. She usually was the flagship of the admiral commanding on the coast. A guard-boat is a boat which goes the round of a fleet at anchor to see that due watch is kept at night.

GUARICO, a large inland state of Venezuela created by the territorial redivision of 1904, bounded by Aragua and Miranda on the N., Bermudez on the E., Bolivar on the S., and Zamora on the W. Pop. (1905 estimate), 78,117. It extends across the northern _llanos_ to the Orinoco and Apure rivers and is devoted almost wholly to pastoral pursuits, exporting cattle, horses and mules, hides and skins, cheese and some other products. The capital is Calabozo, and the other principal towns are Camaguan (pop. 3648) on the Portugueza river, Guayabal (pop. 3146), on a small tributary of the Guarico river, and Zaraza (pop. 14,546) on the Unare river, nearly 150 m. S.E. of Caracas.

GUARIENTO, sometimes incorrectly named GUERRIERO, the first Paduan painter who distinguished himself. The only date distinctly known in his career is 1365, when, having already acquired high renown in his native city, he was invited by the Venetian authorities to paint a Paradise, and some incidents of the war of Spoleto, in the great council-hall of Venice. These works were greatly admired at the time, but have long ago disappeared under repaintings. His works in Padua have suffered much. In the church of the Eremitani are allegories of the Planets, and, in its choir, some small sacred histories in dead colour, such as an Ecce Homo; also, on the upper walls, the life of St Augustine, with some other subjects. A few fragments of other paintings by Guariento are still extant in Padua. In the gallery of Bassano is a Crucifixion, carefully executed, and somewhat superior to a merely traditional method of handling, although on the whole Guariento must rather be classed in that school of art which preceded Cimabue than as having advanced in his vestiges; likewise two other works in Bassano, ascribed to the same hand. The painter is buried in the church of S. Bernardino, Padua.

GUARINI, CAMILLO-GUARINO (1624-1683), Italian monk, writer and architect, was born at Modena in 1624. He was at once a learned mathematician, professor of literature and philosophy at Messina, and, from the age of seventeen, was architect to Duke Philibert of Savoy. He designed a very large number of public and private buildings at Turin, including the palaces of the duke of Savoy and the prince of Cacignan, and many public buildings at Modena, Verona, Vienna, Prague, Lisbon and Paris. He died at Milan in 1683.