In fact the Swiss Guard (The world's smallest army) is the last of Switzerland's mercenary units still in existence, seems before they were neutral banker people, the Swiss were incredibly good at training their citizens to kill things in an orderly manner. Armies from all over Europe paid great amounts of money to have Swiss units in their ranks. The Swiss would provide men, materiel and officers to command the troops, they even came complete with their own regimental flags, independent of their employers. There was also an understanding (called a capitulation) that the troops were Swiss first, and their employer's troops second.
Anyhoo on August 10, 1792 the Swiss Guard (Cent Suisses/Gardes-Suisses), guarding King Louis XIV(I think) was massacred by a French mob at Tuilleres, 600 Swiss were killed (along with 3000 of the French), later that year (Sept 3) 157 Swiss Guard prisoners were slaughtered. This caused the Swiss to recall all mercenaries from their respective employers and with the exception of The Helvetic Legion serving Napoleon during his wars (Switzerland was an occupied nation at the time), the Swiss have only exported mercenaries to the Vatican since that time. will ---- Just chock full o'useless military trivia... ---- William H. Bowen Webmaster ALSTOM's T&D Energy Automation & Information Business "Your friendly neighborhood Webmaster!" [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.esca.com/ 425.739.3629 Voice 425.466.7016 Cell 425.739.3690 FAX ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howie Hamlin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 8:28 AM Subject: Re: My fellow Americans > Their forces are Swiss forces, FYI. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ben Doom" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 11:20 AM > Subject: RE: My fellow Americans > > > > : > Well the Vatican is it's own country. It is not part of Italy, just > > : > completely within it's borders :) > > : > > : Actually, it's a city a city, not a country > > > > Nope. It is a soveriegn entity. It is, in fact, its own nation. > > > > It also sports the armed force with the oldest uniform design -- the > > appearance was designed by Michelangelo. The actual tailoring has been > > modified to accommodate such things as automatic weapons (to go with the > > polearms) but the look of it is Rennaisance. > > > > > > > > --Ben Doom > > Programmer & General Lackey > > Moonbow Software > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
