Queen Marie-Antoinette had asked that it be uniformed in sky-blue but the conservative politician Antoine Barnave was able to persuade her that this apparently minor measure would lead to confusion with the German mercenary regiments of the former Royal Army.

Although the new corps had been organised and sworn in according to the requirements of the Constitution of September 1791, it almost immediately became the object of suspicion and hostility by the growing revolutionary movement.

[6] This appears to have been an attempt to link the new guard with its predecessor - the recently disbanded Gardes du Corps, which had been recruited solely from members of the nobility.

This measure was undertaken following a formal request from the Legislative Assembly addressed to King Louis, whose position had been weakened following the abortive flight to Varennes.

Lacking any particular commitment of loyalty to the monarchy, the National Guard was to prove unreliable when the Tuileries was finally stormed by revolutionary forces on 10 August 1792.