The cardinal's guard

 I painted three different tiny units for "Pikeman's Lament". One of them is armed with halberts. We see halberts used in small formations for example in a Hessian regulation [1] in a marching column. For some reason these solders have shoes instead of boots. Maybe they are ordered as a personal guard for the cardinal Richelieu himself. One of them have a more elaborated outfit with lace at his boots and therefore perhaps is to be usd as an officer.

Some guards using their swords. I changed some hats with greenstuff. (photo: A. Hanselmann, 2026)

As usually with these sets the riders fit on the horses very badly. But the details are very nice and sharp. One of the figures missed half of his head and had no hat at all and therefore my son formed a new hat with greenstuff. I was not angry about it because the manufacturer is in the Ukraine during real war now. (photo: A. Hanselmann, 2026)

Perhaps they are fighting their enemies in the blue cassocks... (photo: A. Hanselmann, 2026)

The second group of figures are from the same set [2]. These are more in poses as we know them from movies. Perhaps they are arresting  Eloïse d’Artagnan to get her message [3]? We can doubt that the cardinal's guard used their swords only very often although Dumas presents them doing so fighting the Musketeers of the king at many occassions.

 

I do like the ribbon on the "officers" hat. The guards with halberts are in two different poses in the set. I changed feathers and hats a little to make them looking more interesting. (photo: A. Hanselmann 2026)

Many details are visible from behind. Two of the guys have no cassocks and maybe are servants and could be used as arqubusiers as well. (photo: A. Hanselmann, 2026)

Finally we have some mounted guards [4]. We know mounted guards from the contemporary painting of them at Montauban [5]. Even if the cardinal's guard hat no muskets but arquebuses [6], these are much too short here if you compare them with the weapons on the painting. I suppose that the cardinal's guard much the same as the famous Mousquetaires du Roi were used as mounted infantry. They primarly fought on foot which was rare. Later the cardinal's guard [7] was incorporated into the Mousquetaires du Roi as a second company. Therefore for PML I ranked them as Elite or Veteran Dragoons [8].

Text: André Hanselmann

Photos: André Hanselmann

Notes:

1) "Instruction vor die Kriegs-Räthe und Diener vom 1ten Octob. 1600" p 483

2)  Red Box 72147 Guards of Cardinal Richelieu

3) "La Fille de d’Artagnan" F, 1994

4) Red Box 72148 Mounted Guards of Cardinal Richelieu

5) Nicolas Prévost: "Réduction de Montauban par le cardinal de Richelieu, le 21 août 1629"

6) Which would not make sense because they were later called musketeers.

7) Or: Les mousquetaires du cardinal Mazarin

8) See here: Mersey & Leck: "The Pikeman's Lament" Osprey, Oxford, 2017, page 18-19