[2] The first permanent army of France, which was paid with regular wages instead of being supplied by feudal levies, was established in the early 15th century under Charles VII.

It was formed due to the need for reliable troops during the Hundred Years' War, though the Army was not disbanded because it saw continued use by the Kings of France following the conflict.

There was also provisions made for francs-archers, which was a militia of bowmen and foot soldiers raised from the non-noble classes, but the units were disbanded once war ended.

[3][page needed] Meanwhile, the bulk of infantry was still provided by urban or provincial militias, which were raised from an area or city to fight locally and that were named for their recruiting grounds.

Like the other European armies of the period, it consisted of a mixture of mercenaries, guard units, local militias and levies conscripted only for specific campaigns and then disbanded.

[4] Under Louis' two Secretaries of War Michel Le Tellier and his son the Marquis de Louvois, the French Royal Army was restructured into a highly disciplined and professional force made up of permanent regiments under central control.

The leader of the anti-Mazarin faction, the Prince de Condé, escaped to Spain, which soon, with the Royalists of the British Isles, went to war against France and its new ally, Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth of England.

Their forces seized much of the Spanish Netherlands but, pressured by the Triple Alliance, Louis returned much of the French conquests in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, with the exception of eleven towns and their surrounding areas.

Lille, Armentières, Bergues and Douai were considered essential to reinforce France's vulnerable northern border and remain French to this day.

[8] By late July, the Dutch position had stabilised, with support from Emperor Leopold, Brandenburg-Prussia and Spain; this was formalised in the August 1673 Treaty of the Hague which Denmark joined in January 1674.

Eventually the heavy financial burdens of the war, along with the imminent prospect of England's reentry into the conflict on the side of the Dutch and their allies, convinced Louis to make peace despite his advantageous military position.

As a result of James' ouster and, more directly, a French invasion of the Electoral Palatinate,[10] the Nine Years' War broke out in 1689 and pitted France against the League of Augsburg and other European states.

[11] However, the heavy casualties suffered at Malplaquet in 1709 provided an opening for Marlborough's political opponents and after their victory in the 1710 British general election, he was removed from command and Britain sought to end the war.

At the same time as the fighting in Europe, raiding parties composed of French-Canadian militiamen and Indians attacked English settlements in North America.

However, after the American victory in the Battle of Saratoga, Louis XVI authorized an expeditionary force under the Count de Rochambeau to sail to America and aid the revolutionaries.

[18] At an earlier stage in his reign Louis had succumbed to pressure from the nobility and banned promotion to officer status from the lower ranks of the Royal Army.

Some of the now almost entirely aristocratic officer corps were still dedicated professionals but many neglected their responsibilities, preferring to spend excessive periods of leave as courtiers at Versailles or on their country estates.

The bulk of the rank and file of the Gardes Françaises: the largest regiment of the maison militaire du roi de France and the permanent garrison of Paris, refused to obey their officers at a crucial point in the early stages of the Revolution.

Some Gardes joined with the Parisian mob on 14 July 1789 and participated in the storming of the Bastille, the medieval fortress-prison thought of as a symbol of governmental repression.

Faced with the creation of soldiers' clubs (Jacobin committees), erosion of discipline, loss of their privileges as nobles and political mistrust,[19] perhaps two thirds of the commissioned ranks emigrated after June 1791.

By 1800, the First Republic, at war with much of Europe, had adopted a weak form of government that was overthrown by General Napoleon Bonaparte, who later proclaimed himself Emperor of the French.

Realizing that the remains of the existing army had no loyalty to the restored monarchy, the government of Louis XVIII undertook a wholesale disbandment of what had been Napoleon's regiments.

[20] In 1823, a French expeditionary force, the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, aided Spanish troops loyal to the Bourbon King Ferdinand VII when his regime was threatened by an uprising.

King Louis XVI escaped with his family, but, after fighting broke out in the palace courtyard, the Swiss Guards were massacred by the mob.

[25] The guard regiments of the Maison du Roi adopted complete uniforms in the early 1660s as a substitute for the cassocks with civilian clothing worn previously.

[47] The line infantry adopted clothing in various regimental colours decided on by their colonels, in an extended process starting in the early 1660s but not completed until the late 1670s.

[48] Cavalry wore buff leather coats and breeches without specific uniform features until "grey cloth lined in the same colour" and dark blue for royal mounted units was ordered in November 1671.

The Swiss and Irish mercenary regiments retained their red coats throughout this period, while other foreign units generally wore medium blue.

The change from the white or off-white uniforms, traditionally associated with the line infantry of the royal army, to dark blue was completed in 1793 after the overthrow of the monarchy.

In 1765 it was replaced by the Gribeauval system, which revolutionized the French artillery; improving its cannons, howitzers, and mortars, by making them lighter, without sacrificing range.