"Louis XVI's household guard, 1791-92" Topic

Hi all,

When Louis XVI of France accepted the constitution of September 1791 he is, I believe, supposed to have been promised a household guard of 6,000 troops.

If I am right in thinking this, did this household guard ever materialise?

If it did not, I am confused; because one of the key demands made of him in (or around) May 1792, as the new war with Austria was going badly wrong, and suspicions of royal intentions intensified, was that the King should disband his Guard. Surely this demand didn't just apply to the famous Swiss Guards, of whom around 600 were slaughtered during the Storming of the Tuileries in August?

Can anyone put me out of my misery here? Have I got this badly awry?

Cheers all,
Redcoat

Swiss guards who fought in Paris and Gardes françaises are not per se household but à la suite.
The gardes fr were more or less part of the insurrection , so nearly 1/2 say of the " gardes " where on the other side.

Most of the rest , peacetime elsewhere , nobles in mounted units ( in shrinking numbers for savings) very much inadapted to what happend. Yet one can wonder why they did not do anything, maybe Louis's orders not to was the reason.
Some of the gardes du corps fought in the Tuileries.
Most units where scattered in outlying places around Paris suburbs. Versailles is nearly 1/2 -1 day away at the time.
No QRF back then.

There was a "Garde constitutionelle du roi" from 1791 onwards which as far as I remember were 1200 infantry and 600 cavalry

edit:

some information
link

link

info about uniformes

yes there was this short-lived Constitutional Guard to replace the Gardes Françaises converted in various news regiments, the last Gardes du Corps companies of the Blue military household being disbanded

if not it was the new urban militia the Parisian National Guard with a variable behaviour towards the royal familiy according the battalion district they came, the Girls-Saint-Thomas and Little-Fathers Battalions for the best