Gendarmes

(gens d’armes) de la garde, a select body of men so called during the old government of France, and still preserved in that country; but their services are applied to different purposes. They consisted originally of a single company which was formed by Henry IV. when he ascended the throne. He distinguished them from his other troops, by stiling them hommes d’armes de ses ordonnances; men at arms under his own immediate orders. They consisted of men best qualified for every species of military duty, and were to constitute a royal squadron at whose head the king himself might personally engage the enemy, as nece ity might require. He gave this squadron to his son, the Dauphin, who was afterwards king of France, under the name and title of Louis XIII.