Musketeer
[2] There was also an illustration and description of how the Han people had adopted the Ottoman kneeling position when firing, while favoring the use of European-made muskets.
The Mughals, Marathas, Rajputs, Sikhs and Ahoms made use of musketeers, firing from cover, to ambush opposing infantry, cavalry and elephants.
Spanish field commanders wanted to bring the firepower of a small wall gun onto the battlefield yet have it be as maneuverable as an arquebus.
The solution was a bigger arquebus, but the additional weight made it extremely difficult to support the barrel during aiming and firing; hence, the musket rest, the precursor to the monopod.
[10] The Musketeers of the Guard were a junior unit, initially of roughly company strength, of the military branch of the Royal Household.
[11] At the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 the King's Musketeers served as regular cavalry, charging British infantry with drawn swords.
In the early decades of the corps, the musketeers had worn civilian dress under their cassocks, according to personal taste and means, but in 1677 a scarlet uniform was adopted.
[13] In terms of recruitment, entry into the Musketeers was much sought after by those sons of the aristocracy who did not possess the quarterings of nobility required for the Garde du Corps and Chevau-legers.
Accordingly for lesser gentry, or ambitious commoners, service in the Musketeers was the only way to join a mounted unit in the royal household and perhaps catch the King's eye.
These expensive and aristocratic regiments proved ineffective when Napoleon returned from Elba, mostly dispersing, though some accompanied Louis XVIII into brief exile.
[16] Decades later, starting in 1844, this group was the subject of the now-famous serial publication The Three Musketeers, first published in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844.
The Dutch rebels, also known as the Geuzen, adapted muskets for their guerrilla tactics during the early phases of the Eighty Years' War.
By the late 17th century, musket technology continued to evolve, with flintlock mechanisms gradually replacing the older matchlock designs.
Thanks to the reforms of Gustav II Adolf, the Swedish Army brought to maturity the new style of fighting that made Sweden into a great power in the 17th century.
The Ottomans, under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), embraced these weapons to maintain military superiority against European rivals such as the Habsburgs and the Safavids.
By the mid-19th century, the Ottomans had restructured their military to be more in line with European standards, though the empire continued to struggle in keeping pace with technological advancements.
strelets, стрелец, literally "shooter"; often translated as "musketeer", but more properly "harquebusier") were the units of Russian guardsmen l from the 16th to the early 18th centuries, armed with firearms and bardiches.
The bearded strelsty were organized into regiments, each with a long coat (kaftan) and pointed cloth hat of a distinctive colour.
[22] In the late 17th century, the Streltsy of Moscow began to actively participate in a struggle for power between different government groups, supporting dissidents and showing hostility towards any foreign innovations.
[23] After the fall of Sophia Alekseyevna in 1689, the government of Peter the Great engaged in a process of gradual limitation of the streltsy's military and political influence.
In order to counter their power, Peter began to raise a new regular army, still armed with muskets but disciplined, uniformed and organised along West European lines.
[24] The entire corps was technically abolished in 1689; however, after having suffered a defeat at Narva in 1700, the government retained some streltsy units in service.
[26] The Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments of the Imperial Guard replaced the streltsy as the political and military force closest to the tsar.
[28] A small musketeer force was authorized in Kongo mostly made up of the mestiço, who were mixed race Kongolese with Portuguese ancestry.
