French Musketeer 1622-1775

By René Chartrand and Graham Turner

The works of French novelist Alexandre Dumas have been reproduced time and again on stage and screen. Based on a genuine memoir by an officer named D'Artagnan, Dumas published The Three Musketeers. The King's Musketeers were formed in 1622 and were populated by young men of noble birth, but often of poorer means. The Musketeers served as a form of military academy, which enabled these men to qualify for commission into the regular army, but the academy was not just a schoolroom the Musketeers served in all major battles and campaigns of the period; their reputation for bravery was well deserved. This title explores the history behind the legends created by Dumas. Drawing on historical and fascinating accounts the truth of this most colourful and flamboyant of units is revealed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jul 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780968636

René Chartrand

RENÉ CHARTRAND was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including over 50 Osprey titles. He lives in Quebec, with his wife and two sons.

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WARRIOR 168

FRENCH MUSKETEER 1622–1775

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHRONOLOGY

THE KING’S MUSKETEERS: THE UNIT

RECRUITMENT

TRAINING

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

PARTICULAR SERVICES

APPEARANCE – UNIFORMS, COLOURS AND STANDARDS

EQUIPMENT – WEAPONS, ACCOUTREMENTS, HORSES

BATTLES

AFTER THE BATTLE

IMITATORS

THE LAST KING’S MUSKETEER

COLLECTING, MUSEUMS AND RE-ENACTMENT

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY

FRENCH MUSKETEER 1622–1775

INTRODUCTION

On a fine day during the year 1700, a work was published under the title Mémoires de Mr. d’Artagnan, Capitaine-Lieutenant de la première Compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi, Concernant quantité de choses particulières et secrêtes Qui se sont passées sous le Règne de Louis le Grand (Memoirs of Mr d’Artagnan, Captain-Lieutenant of the First Company of the King’s Musketeers, concerning a quantity of private and secret events that occurred during the reign of Louis the Great). Its publisher was Pierre Marteau in Cologne, Germany.

At least, that is what was printed on the title page. In fact, there was no publisher by the name of Pierre Marteau in Cologne or elsewhere. For some 40 years, anonymous publishers of French books had used the name of this non-existent publisher in instances when they would not obtain the approval of the royal censors. Moreover, the books were not even published in Cologne.

The book itself was written by Gatien de Courtiz de Sandras, born in Montargis, France, in 1644 and – this is where it becomes interesting – he had been a King’s Musketeer for some 18 years before becoming an officer in the elite Champagne Regiment. His real ambition was to earn his living as an author and, in 1688, he left the army and went to Amsterdam with a number of his manuscripts. These were mainly apocryphal memoirs of French political figures, historic accounts, novels and somewhat political pamphlets, and they seem to have had some literary success. Then, in 1700, his memoirs of d’Artagnan appeared. As a young musketeer, he had surely seen Capitaine-Lieutenant d’Artagnan, who was already something of a legend in his own time, before his death in 1673. So, it is possible that some of Courtiz’s memoirs of d’Artagnan contain many true facts (but also others that cannot be verified). The French censors certainly thought so. When Courtiz came back to France in 1702, he was promptly arrested and shut in the Bastille for nine years. He died in Paris during May 1712, shortly after his release. Three years later, Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’, passed away, the glow of his reign faded and d’Artagnan was soon totally forgotten.

Nearly a century and a half later, in the early 1840s, the prolific novelist Alexandre Dumas (1802–70) came across Courtiz’s apocryphal memoir of d’Artagnan. These memoirs in particular, as well as several other reminiscences from French noblemen of 17th-century France, inspired Dumas to come up with the extraordinary plot contained in The Three Musketeers. This novel was first serialized in the Paris newspaper Le Siècle from March to July 1844. The story’s success was outstanding and it was soon put out in book form. It was translated into English in 1846 and before long it was an international success. Eager to follow up with another bestseller, Dumas was already busy writing Twenty Years After, which was serialized from January to August 1845 before becoming another bestselling book. The public had a passion for the adventures of d’Artagnan and his companions, so Dumas wrote another sequel, The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, also initially serialized in 268 chapters from 1847 to 1850. This included a sub-novel with the title of The Man in the Iron Mask that became famous in its own right. The three novels became known as the d’Artagnan Romances.

King Louis XIII, c.1630. In 1622, he founded the King’s Musketeers. The two women represent France (at left) and Navarre (at right). Painting by Simon Vouet. Musée du Louvre, Paris. (Author’s photo)

Trooper and trumpeter, Cardinal Richelieu’s Guard, 1628. The trooper has a red cassock with a white cross. The trumpeter wears the cardinal’s red livery and his trumpet banner is embroidered with his coat of arms. Print after Marbot. Canadian War Museum, Ottawa. (Author’s photo)

The fictional musketeer Athos was an actual musketeer named Armand de Sillègue d’Athos d’Autevielle. Born in about 1615, he did not have much in common with the fatherly figure in the novel since he was actually quite young. He entered the King’s Musketeers around 1641 and was buried in Paris on 22 December 1643, having died from the results of wounds most likely sustained during a duel.

Porthos was simply a fictional character whose name was borrowed from the real-life Isaac de Porthau (1617–1702), born into a military family in Pau, in Béarn. His name appears in two 1642 rolls of the Gardes Françaises Regiment; it is uncertain if he actually served in the King’s Musketeers. He soon left the service, possibly because of battle wounds, and was for a time on the garrison staff of the citadel of Navarrenx, which was the sort of position often filled by invalided military men.

The novels’ fictional musketeer René d’Aramis de Vannes, or Aramis, was based on Henri d’Aramitz, born in Béarn in about 1620. He entered the King’s Musketeers around 1641. He probably went back to his native province in 1646 and quietly passed away there ten years later.

As for Charles de Batz de Castelmore d’Artagnan, he was also a real musketeer and differs from the above three musketeers in that the events of his life more closely resemble the plots of Dumas’s novels and Courtiz’s apocryphal memoirs. Several historians have carried out research to find out who the real d’Artagnan was and what his achievements were. We note in particular D’Artagnan, mousquetaire du roi by archivist Odile Bordaz. While Dumas gives a real sense of the social and political atmosphere of 17th-century France, he used artistic licence with regard to actual events and timelines. For instance, in The Three Musketeers, d’Artagnan arrives in Paris in the mid-1620s and there links up with the three musketeers. In fact, the first trace of d’Artagnan being in the King’s Musketeers was in 1633 when, on 10 March, he is listed as an ordinary, and undoubtedly quite young, member of the unit. He was indeed the younger son of a proud but not very wealthy gentleman in the overpopulated and poor province of Gascony in south-western France. Born between 1611 and 1615, he seems to have come to Paris in about 1630. After 1633, there is no documentary evidence of him until 1646 when we find him as ‘one of the gentlemen’ in the service of Cardinal Mazarin, the prime minister and the most powerful man in the kingdom, at a time when King Louis XIV was just a young boy. Unflinchingly loyal to the royal family, d’Artagnan found himself in the midst of delicate and