First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Osprey Publishing,
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© 2013 Osprey Publishing Ltd
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All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.
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ISBN: 978 1 78096 861 2
E-book ISBN: 978 1 78096 862 9
E-pub ISBN: 978 1 78096 863 6
Editorial by Ilios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com)
Index by Sandra Shotter
Typeset in Myriad Pro and Sabon
Artwork by Graham Turner
Originated by PDQ Media, Bungay, UK
Printed in China through Worldprint Ltd.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Francis Back in Montreal, Giancarlo Boeri in Rome, the staff at the Musée de l’Armée in Paris, at the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at the Brown University Library in Providence (USA) and at the Research Centre of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa for sharing much information as well as providing the encouragement to craft this study. All this material could never have come together in a handsome book without the fine editorial work and kind coordination of Marcus Cowper at Osprey. To one and all, I extend my heartfelt expression of deepest gratitude.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
When I was a boy, like so many others for well over a century, inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s novels and the cinema productions based on them, I played at being a King’s Musketeer with a crude wooden sword and a makeshift cassock; as a historian and curator, I had the wonderful opportunity to see documents and objects relating to that extraordinary corps and, as a senior person, I am now writing about them with fascination. Was the iconic King’s Musketeer fiction or was he real? Certainly this slim volume has much information about the real aspects of a musketeer: his world, his friends, his enemies, his outlandish bravery, his life’s mission, as well as his distinctive costume and weapons. Yet, there is more; the musketeer’s indescribable aura, intrigues at the very height of power and mysteries that will never be solved because of oaths of secrecy. It sounds like fiction, but much of it was real enough and worthy of boyhood dreams.
ARTIST’S NOTE
Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the colour plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. The Publishers retain all reproduction copyright whatsoever. All enquiries should be addressed to:
Graham Turner, PO Box 568, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP17 8ZX www.studio88.co.uk
The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter.
LIST OF RANKS
| Capitaine | Captain (the king) |
| Capitaine-Lieutenant | Captain-Lieutenant |
| Lieutenant | |
| Sous-Lieutenant | Sub-Lieutenant |
| Enseigne | Ensign |
| Cornette | Cornet |
| Maréchal-des-logis | Senior NCO such as a warrant officer |
| Brigadier | Senior NCO such as a sergeant-major |
| Sous-brigadier | Sergeant |
| Porte-Étendart | Standard-bearer |
| Porte-Drapeau | Colour-bearer |
| Fourier | Quartermaster-sergeant |
| Mousquetaire | Musketeer |
| Tambour | Drummer |
| Hautbois | Flautist |
| (Compiled from the 1739 Cinquièmee Abrégé de la Carte Militaire de France, pp. 16–17) | |