As you know from yesterday’s post, Switzerland was well know for sending mercenaries abroad. Popes weren’t the only people who hired them. France‘s King Louis the 11th started a group to protect him called the Hundred Swiss (Cent Suisses) in 1480. Swiss worked for the kings of France on up to the revolution.
When the French Revolution started, about nine hundred Swiss Guards were protecting the Tuileries Palace. They didn’t fare well; they ran low on ammunition and were overwhelmed by the larger opposition.
- Approximately 600 of them were killed during fighting or after the surrender
- 60 were taken to city hall and killed in front of the crowd there
- Around 160 died in prison of their wounds in prison or in further revolutionary violence
Their bravery is commemorated by Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Lion Monument in Lucerne.* The lion is shown collapsing on the symbols of the French monarchy.
* Lucerne is one of the highlights of any trip to Switzerland and one of the most beautiful places in the world.
schwingeninswitzerland 