Osprey Men-at-Arms 153 : Napoleon's Guard Infantry (1)

The concept of the bodyguard is as ancient as the practice of an individual assuming the leadership of a group or tribe. From the Companions of Alexander to the Varangians of Byzantium, bodies of élite warriors, owing personal allegiance to their sovereign and obeying no others, have illuminated or stained the annals of military history with exploits as heroic as the huscarles of Byrhtnoth dying behind their shield-wall at Maldon, and as shameful as the Praetorians' betrayal of their trust by auctioning the throne to the highest bidder. Napoleon's Imperial Guards, especially those maintaining the closest contact with the Imperial person, probably represent the last true link in a chain of bodyguards spanning the ages. Though times and weaponry changed, the essence of the bodyguard remained unaltered. The anonymous Imperial Guardsman who remarked, in the most desperate days of the retreat from Moscow, 'We're cooked, but Vive l'Empéreur! all the same' was merely echoing, did he but know it, old Byrthwold at Maldon 821 years earlier: 'Courage shall be firmer, heart all the keener, spirit the greater, as our might grows less...' Philip Haythornthwaite describes the history, organisation and equipment of Napoleon's Guard Infantry and includes numerous illustrations and eight full page colour plates drawn by Bryan Fosten. The companion book is Men-at-Arms 160 : Napoleon's Guard Infantry (2).

Contents

• Infantry of the Guard - History
• The Regiments
• Uniforms
• Grenadiers a Pied
• Chasseurs a Pied
• Dutch Grenadiers
• The Plates