Scottish Guards (France)

Not to be confused with Scots Guards of the British Army.
Bodyguardsmen of Louis XVI

The Scottish Guards (French: Gardes Écossaises) was a bodyguard unit founded in 1418 by the Valois Charles VII of France, to be personal bodyguards to the French monarchy. They were assimilated into the Maison du Roi and later formed the first company of the Garde du Corps du Roi (Royal Bodyguard).

In 1450, King James II sent a company of 24 noble Scots under the command of Patrick de Spens, son of his custodian. This company took the name of archiers du corps or gardes de la manche. On 31 August 1490, this company, these of Patry Folcart, Thomas Haliday, and a part of the company of Robin Petitloch, became the first company of archiers de la garde du roi under the command of Guillaume Stuier (Stuart). At the beginning la compagnie écossaise des gardes du corps du roi included 100 gardes du corps (25 bodyguards and 75 archiers). Each bodyguard had four men-at-arms under his command, (a squire, an archer, a cranequinier and a servant), one of them acquired the name of premier homme d'armes du royaume de France. They were finally disbanded in 1830 at the abdication of Charles X.