They were armed with a form of musket ("fusils") or steel-handled pikes, and were allowed to conduct a normal civilian life in times of peace.

At Catherine de' Medici's insistence, they were at first spread over several garrisons, but after the attempted kidnapping of King Charles IX near Meaux by Huguenots, the Gardes were brought back together specifically to protect the monarch.

Other privileges included leading the assault when a wall was breached during a siege, the first choice of barracks and special rights of trial.

In addition, the French Guards had responsibility for maintaining public order in Paris, in support of the various police forces of the capital.

[3] The subsequent image of the Gardes Françaises as a socially-elite palace unit led solely by courtier officers may be largely incorrect.

[4] The rank and file were recruited from all over France but through marriages and off-duty employment, they quickly established local ties in Paris, which were to influence their behaviour at the outbreak of the French Revolution.

The reported incident at the Battle of Fontenoy in which officers of the Gardes Françaises and their English counterparts invited each other to fire first is sometimes cited as an example of excessive chivalry amongst aristocratic opponents.

[7] During weeks of disturbances prior to early July 1789 leading up to the fall of the Bastille, the regiment initially obeyed orders and on several occasions, it acted against the increasingly-unruly crowds.

[9] However, in addition to local ties with the Parisians, the regiment was resentful of the harsh Prussian style discipline introduced by its colonel, the Duc du Châtelet, who had taken up his appointment the year before.

[11] The mutineers played a key role in the attack on the Bastille, where they were credited with both the effective use of artillery cannons and with preventing a massacre of the garrison after surrender.