Musketeer

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For other uses of this term, see Musketeer (disambiguation). Musketeers redirects to The Three Musketeers.

A Musketeer (French: "mousquetaire") was an Early Modern type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of Early Modern armies, both in Europe and the East.

[edit] Musketeers in China

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Musketeers in China from the Ming dynasty

Musketeers were utilized in the Ming and Qing dynasties, although the Chinese had invented gunpowder centuries earlier and used in early firearms such as the huochong.

[edit] Musketeers in Spain

In the Spanish army, the Tercio (sometimes referred to by other nations as a Spanish Square) was a mixed infantry formation of about 3,000 pikemen and musketeers. It was nigh on invincible for its era, capitalizing on the brute strength and close-range abilities of the pikemen and the long-range projectile capabilities of the muskets. In practice, it appeared as a loosely formed phalanx in function, but was far more flexible and deadly. Their reputation was firmly established as a viable fighting force during the Battle of Pavia, where Spanish forces were successful in capturing the French king.

[edit] Musketeers in Sweden

Thanks to the reforms of Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, the Swedish Army in the mid-Seventeenth Century had the finest musketeers in Europe. Gustav's training manual revolutionized musketry and transformed the European battlefield.

[edit] Musketeers in Japan

Little known to the general reader, Japan also had musketeers. Introduced in 1543 by Portuguese merchants, by the 1560s muskets were being mass-produced locally.

Oda Nobunaga revolutionized musket tactics in Japan by splitting loaders and musketeers and assigning three guns to a man at the 1575 Battle of Nagashino, during Japan's Civil War. Popular records stating he used a three-line formation, like that of Maurice of Nassau, are incorrect according to onsite evidence.) The total victory he won at this battle led other daimyo to acquire muskets in large quantities, and they proved highly effective during the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 1590s ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, nearly 20,000 muskets were used, comparable to if not greater than the numbers employed on contemporary European battlefields.

Soon after, and during the Sakoku, however, the political power of the samurai led to muskets being banned in Japan as "unchivalrous"; this is a misconception brought on by romantic views. In actuality, the Japanese were fully capable of manufacturing their own muskets, and the shogunate even created several political positions to oversee their manufacture and inventory.

[edit] Musketeers in France

The Musketeers were a fighting company of the military branch of the Royal Household or Maison du Roi. They were created in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry (the "carabins", created by Louis' father Henri IV with muskets. Musketeers fought in battle both on foot (infantry) and on horseback (dragoons). They formed the royal guard for the king while he was outside of the royal residences (within the royal residences, the king's guard was the Garde du corps and the Gardes suisses).

Shortly after their creation, a second company of Musketeers was created for Cardinal Richelieu. At the cardinal's death in 1642, the company passed to his successor Cardinal Mazarin who disbanded the Musketeers in 1646. The Musketeers reappeared in 1657 with a company of 150 men. At Mazarin's death in 1661, the cardinal's Musketeers passed to Louis XIV. The two companies were reorganized in 1664, and one company took the name "Grey Musketeers" mousquetaires gris from the color of their livery, while the second were called "Black Musketeers" mousquetaires noirs. At roughly the same time, the size of Musketeer companies was doubled.

The Musketeers were the among the most prestigious of the military companies of the Ancien Régime, and in principle the companies were reserved for nobles. With the reforms of Michel Le Tellier – which mandated a certain number of years of military service before nobles could attain the rank of officer – many nobles sought to do this service in the privileged Musketeer companies.

In 1776, the Musketeers were eliminated by Louis XVI, for budgetary reasons. Reformed in 1789, they were eliminated shortly afterward. They were reformed on July 6, 1814, and definitively eliminated on January 1, 1816.

[edit] Notable French musketeers

The following are some of the notable Musketeers:

• Thomas de Treil de Pardailhan
• Monsieur de Tréville
• D'Artagnan
• Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars
• Jean-François Leriget de La Faye
• Charles François de Froulay
• François-Henri de Franquetot de Coigny
• Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnon
• Alexandre François Marie de Beauharnais
• Germain-François Poullain de Saint-Foix
• Louis II Sanguin
• Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

[edit] References

This article is based in part on the article Mousquetaire from the French Wikipedia, retrieved on September 9, 2006.

[edit] See also

• The Three Musketeers (disambiguation), and Alexandre Dumas, père's classic novel The Three Musketeers
• Various military operations named Operation Musketeer
• Beechcraft Musketeer, a trainer aircraft from Beechcraft.