page_title: National Guard (France)
section_title: First Empire
hierarchical_section_title: National Guard (France) / Revolution until 1827 / First Empire
caption_attribution_description: The artist depicts the defense of Paris on the 30th of march 1814. In the centre, marshal Moncey gives his orders to goldsmith Claude Odiot, colonel of the national guard, for whom the painting was made.
context_page_description: The National Guard is a French military, gendarmerie, and police reserve force, active in its current form since 2016 but originally founded in 1789 during the French Revolution.
  For most of its history the National Guard, particularly its officers, has been widely viewed as loyal to middle-class interests. It was founded as separate from the French Army and existed both for policing and as a military reserve. However, in its original stages from 1792 to 1795, the National Guard was perceived as revolutionary and the lower ranks were identified with sans-culottes. It experienced a period of official dissolution from 1827 to 1830, but was reestablished. Soon after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the National Guard in Paris again became viewed as dangerously revolutionary, which contributed to its dissolution in 1871.
  In 2016, France announced the reestablishment of the National Guard in response to a series of terrorist attacks in the country.
context_section_description: Napoleon did not believe that the middle-class National Guard would be able to maintain order and suppress riots. Therefore, he created a Municipal Guard of Paris, a full-time gendarmerie which was strongly militarised. However, he did not abolish the National Guard, but was content to partially disarm it. He kept the force in reserve and mobilised it for the defence of French territory in 1809 and 1814. In Paris during this period the National Guard comprised twelve thousand bourgeois property owners, serving part-time and equipped at their own expense, whose prime function was to guard public buildings on a roster basis. Between 1811 and 1812 the National Guard was organized in "cohorts" to distinguish it from the regular army, and for home defence only. By a skilful appeal to patriotism, and judicious pressure applied through the prefects, it became a useful reservoir of half-trained men for new battalions of the active army.
  After the disastrous campaign in Russia in 1812, dozens of National Guard cohorts were called up for field duty the next year; four cohorts being combined to form one line infantry regiment. The 135ème to 156ème Régiments d'Infanterie de Ligne were thus formed. Many of these fought in the campaigns in Germany in 1813 and the invasion of France by allied Austrian, Prussian, Russian and British armies in 1814. Existing National Guard units, such as those of Paris, were deployed as defence corps in their areas of recruitment. Mass conscription was extended to age groups previously exempt from military service, to provide more manpower for the expanded National Guard. Students and volunteers from gamekeepers and other professional groups formed separate units within the National Guard. Clothing and equipment was often in short supply and even the Paris National Guard was obliged to provide pikes as substitute weapons for some of its new recruits. These field and regional units were disbanded in 1814 after the abdication of Napoleon I.
  Six thousand national guardsmen took part in the Battle of Paris in 1814. Following the occupation of Paris by the allied armies, the National Guard was expanded to 35,000 men and became the primary force for maintaining order within the city.
caption: The National Guard at the Battle of Paris in 1814
exif: {"Image Tag 0x0301": "20000/9091", "Image Tag 0x0303": "0", "Image Tag 0x5110": "1", "Image Tag 0x5111": "3780", "Image Tag 0x5112": "3780"}