1st Company Mousquetiers de la Garde

Here we have the 1st company of the Mousquetiers de la Garde, part of the Maison du Roi.

They were also called the Grey Musketeers due to the fact that all were mounted on greys. This famous regiment was founded by Louis XIII and Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan, famously and fictionally, served in their ranks. They duelled with the Cardinal's guard and Cardinal Richelieu eventually gave his guards to the King who formed the 2^nd company from them.

The figures are from Front Rank. The open right hand comes with an option of a carbine or, if you ask Alec nicely, he might send you a sprue of the pistol-sword-carbine option which used to come with these figures. It is a slightly tricky operation puting the sword into the open hand and I'm not totally convinced of the result, but the figures are incredibly detailed and a joy to paint.

As a brief aside, d'Artagnan was a Gascon and I live in Gascony. It is also famed for its douceur de vivre ("sweetness of life"), not to mention the rude things that the rest of the French population have to say about bull-headed Gascons.

Shortly I'll show a post of the 2^nd company of this regiment which, surely, was one of the most colourful of the SYW. It was also present at the battle of Vellinghausen so it did serve in the war!