French Royal Army ( 1652 – 1830 ) The French Royal Army ( 1652 – 1830 ) served the Bourbon kings beginning with Louis XIV and ending with Charles X with an interlude from 1792 until 1814 , during the French Revolution and the reign of the Emperor Napoleon I . After a second , brief interlude when Napoleon returned from exile in 1815 , the Royal Army was reinstated . Its service to the direct Bourbon line was finished when Charles X was overthrown in 1830 by the July Revolution . History . Army of Louis XIV . Under Louis XIV , the French Royal Army is considered to have been one of the most powerful in the world . When Louis ' father , Louis XIII , died , Anne of Austria , the queen , became regent . She and her chief minister , Cardinal Mazarin , ordered the arrest of legislative opponents , causing the enmity of many nobles and common citizens . When the bloody Thirty Years ' War , in which France had sided with Protestant - governed countries against other Catholic nations in Europe , concluded , the Fronde civil war broke out and Mazarin was forced to flee . When Louis XIV came of age in 1652 , the Fronde ended and Mazarin was permitted to return and appointed chief minister for a second time . The leader of the anti - Mazarin faction , the Prince de Condé , escaped to Spain , which soon went to war against France and its new ally , England , under the rule of Oliver Cromwell . Under the command of Marshal Turenne , the Anglo - French army decisively defeated the Spanish in Flanders , part of which was a province of Spain . In 1667 , Louis married the Spanish princess Marie - Thérèse . He claimed the Spanish Netherlands as her dowry , starting another conflict with Spain known as the War of Devolution . Turenne and Conde , who had been pardoned and allowed to return to France , commanded the French army . Their forces seized much of the Spanish Netherlands but , pressured by England , Holland and Sweden , Louis was forced to return the conquered territory , with the exception of some fortified towns . From 1672 until 1678 , France was embroiled in the Franco - Dutch War , again aided by England , now under the rule of King Charles II . The war did not go well for France , and England did not pursue the war after 1674 . The war ended favorably for the Dutch , although France gained much of Franche - Comté . The famed engineer Vauban designed his intricate fortifications during Louis XIV ' s reign . Vauban , a genius at siege warfare , oversaw the building or improvement of many fortresses in Flanders and elsewhere . In 1688 , the Catholic king of England , James II , was overthrown and William of Orange , a Dutch prince and old enemy of Louis , was installed as the next king . James fled to France , which he used as his base for an invasion of Ireland in 1690 . As a result of James ' ouster and , more directly , a French invasion of a German palatinate , the Nine Years ' War broke out in 1689 between France and minor European states on one side and the League of Augsburg , including England , the Holy Roman Empire , and the Dutch Republic on the other . The war ended with no major territorial gains or losses for either side , and the two alliances were at war again by 1701 . The British , under the Duke of Marlborough , aided by Imperial troops under Prince Eugene of Savoy , inflicted major defeats on French troops at Blenheim , Ramillies , and Oudenarde . In Spain ( the succession to that nation ' s throne was the war ' s cause ) , Spanish forces allied to the French lost Gibraltar . However , after the bloody Battle of Malplaquet in 1709 , Marlborough ' s reputation was tarnished and , after gossip at the English ( now British , after the union of England and Scotland ) court , he was relieved from command . The war ground to a stalemate and ended in a treaty that favored the French in 1714 . Louis XV ' s reign . Louis XV , the great - grandson of Louis XIV , was the only direct heir alive when the elderly king died in 1715 . His reign was much more peaceful than his great - grandfather ' s , although three major wars occurred . First was the War of the Polish Succession of 1733 . The second , the War of the Austrian Succession , began when Maria Theresa was crowned Holy Roman Empress in 1740 . Her father had appointed her as his heir , and other European countries agreed to respect his wishes . However , the new Prussia n king , Frederick II , ignored the agreement , known as the Pragmatic Sanction , and annexed portions of the Empire . Britain allied itself with Maria Theresa , while Louis XV forged an alliance with Frederick . Louis supported Charles , a descendant of James II , when he attempted to invade England with an assortment of Scottish Highlander clans . The Pragmatic Allies defeated the French in the Battle of Dettingen in 1741 , while the French won at Fontenoy in 1745 . The situation after the war was almost the same as before , but it set the stage for the Seven Years ' War , which officially began in 1756 , when Prussia and Austria again went to war . This time , however , France and Austria were allied and Britain and Prussia formed an alliance . French forces were defeated at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757 . At the same time as the fighting in Europe , raiding parties composed of French - Canadian militiamen and Indians attacked English settlements in North America . This war , known as the French and Indian War , was the last of four wars that occurred in North America at the same time as a European conflict . However , by 1759 , the British had gone onto the offensive in America and captured Quebec , the French colonial capital . Fighting also occurred on the Indian subcontinent during Louis XV ' s reign . During the War of the Austrian Succession , French troops captured several settlements in India , but its allies were defeated by British troops in 1756 . On the whole , the Seven Years ' War went badly for the French , who were forced to sign an unfavorable treaty in 1763 . Collapse of the royal army . When Britain ' s North American colonies rebelled in 1775 , France offered limited support . However , after the decisive American victory in the Battle of Saratoga , Louis XVI of France authorized an expeditionary force under the Count de Rochambeau to sail to America and aid the revolutionaries . The expeditionary force participated in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 , which resulted in the colonies ' independence . By the 1780s , the political balance in France had shifted . The aristocracy had become despised by many lower - and - middle - class citizens who had little to eat and almost no political freedom . Many French soldiers sympathized with the masses , and some mutinied in 1789 . The Gardes Françaises , elite troops of the royal bodyguard , were among the mutineers . Some Gardes melted into a mob of angry Frenchmen on July 14 , 1789 and participated in the storming of the Bastille , the medieval fortress - prison thought of as a symbol of governmental repression . King Louis ' powers were regulated by the National Assembly , which also authorized the creation of the National Guard , which was intended to be used as a counterweight to the royal army . The army was weakened by the flight of many aristocratic officers , perhaps two thirds of the commissioned ranks . The reorganization of the army took place in 1791 and 1792 . New officers were elected and the structure of the army was changed . This force underwent its first test during the Battle of Valmy in 1792 , when an Austro - Prussian army invaded to restore the King ' s full powers . By now , the army was considered to be loyal to the First Republic , not to the king . First Bourbon restoration . Louis XVI was guillotined , as were many other aristocrats , in 1793 . By 1800 , the First Republic , at war with much of Europe , had adopted a weak form of government that was overthrown by General Napoleon Bonaparte , who later proclaimed himself Emperor of the French . When British , Russian , Prussian , and Austrian armies invaded France in 1814 , Napoleon , whose empire had once extended all the way to Moscow abdicated . The dead king ' s brother , the Count of Provence , was declared King Louis XVIII . Under Louis XVIII , no major changes were made to the army . However , when Napoleon returned from exile in 1815 , the army , for the most part , went over to his side , and Louis fled . Second Bourbon restoration ; July Revolution . Napoleon was defeated by a combined Allied army in 1815 at Waterloo , and Louis XVIII was returned to the throne . His government appointed many aristocratic officers to the army , which lost much of its morale , much as it had in 1789 . In 1823 , a French expeditionary force aided Spanish troops loyal to the Bourbon king of that country when his regime was threatened by an uprising . In 1830 , Louis XVIII ' s brother , Charles X , now king , was toppled in the July Revolution . The army participated in little fighting , and the king ' s cousin , the Duke of Orléans was installed as Louis - Philippe I in what was supposed to be a constitutional monarchy . The army transferred its allegiance to Louis - Philippe ' s Orléans Dynasty until his overthrow in 1848 , when the short - lived Second Republic was established . Uniforms . From 1652 until 1685 , French soldiers wore no specific uniforms . The first uniforms for the French Royal Army were designed in 1685 . The guards regiments wore blue , the regular infantry wore gray - white , and the Swiss mercenary regiments in French service wore red . In 1690 , during the Nine Years ' War , each regiment was given a uniform . Eighty - eight regiments wore gray uniforms with red trim , and fourteen princely regiments wore blue . The first regulations detailing specifics of uniforms is dated to 1704 . Unusually , grenadier s for most of the part wore a tricorn like the fusiliers , rather than a mitre or a bearskin . Bearskins came into full use by about 1770 . The change from white or off - white uniforms to blue was completed in 1793 , and blue uniforms were kept in use after the Bourbon Restoration , although were modified for a more modern appearance , introducing trousers rather than breeches , taller shakos , and Fleur - de - lis motifs . Weaponry . Like most other late - seventeenth and eighteenth - century armies , the French Royal Army was equipped primarily with musket s . However , fusil s became standard firearms . Pikes were used by French forces early on during the reign of Louis XIV . Recruitment . Conscription was the French Royal Army ' s standard method of recruitment . However , recruiters sometimes encouraged voluntary enlistment . Most recruiters , though , were much more forceful , some even invading homes and churches to seize military - age men . Employment of Swiss mercenaries . Swiss mercenaries were employed in the French Royal Army , notably the Swiss Guards . During the 10 August riot of 1792 , supporters of the French Revolution , including members of the radical - leaning National Guard marched on the Tuileries Palace . King Louis XVI escaped with his family , but , after a brief skirmish in the palace courtyard , the Swiss Guards were massacred by the mob . Some Guards , including the commander , were captured , jailed , and later guillotined .