Saturday, November 18, 2017

Bodyguards - the Velites de Turin

To strengthen his reign, Napoleon Bonaparte put a lot of his relatives onto European thrones. Sometimes, there had be certain arrangements to be made to secure them. At least, so it seems if you look at the Velites de Turin.
They were created in March 1809 as a battalion in order to protect prince Borghese, Napoleons brother-in-law, who served as governor-general for the French departments in northern Italy. 

Having guard status and officially being part of the Imperial guard, they wore guard uniforms. Originally, most of the ranks were build up with Italian men while the officers came directly from the French guard grenadiers.
The Velites de Turin fought actively in the battle of Leipzig, mainly in the covering of the French retreat. They were also actively fighting during the campaign of 1814.


1 comment:

  1. Wonderful painting and basing on the Velites de Turin...

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