Garde du Corps ( France ) The Garde du Corps ( , " Bodyguard " ) was the senior formation of the King of France ' s Household Cavalry within the " Maison du Roi " . History . The oldest company in the Garde du Corps was the Company of Scottish Archers , later just the 1st Scottish Company or " Garde Écossaise " , formed in 1419 from Scots that fought for the French during Hundred Years ' War . In the Battle of Fornovo during the Italian Wars the Garde du Corps saved king Charles VIII from being captured by enemy forces . Later in the Italian Wars they failed to save Francis I from being captured in the Battle of Pavia . The last time the Garde du Corps campaigned was during the War of the Austrian Succession because it only went on campaign when the king was present . The last battle in which the Garde du Corps was present was Lauffeld on 1 July 1747 . Revolution and Restoration . The Garde du Corps featured conspicuously in several incidents in the opening stages of the French Revolution . On 1 October 1789 the officers of the Garde hosted a banquet to welcome their colleagues of a line infantry regiment of the Royal Army which had been brought to Versailles to replace the disbanded French Guards ( Gardes Francais ) . The latter regiment had joined in the attack on the Bastille six weeks before . The banquet was reported in Paris as a royalist provocation and an angry crowd of thousands marched on Versailles . During the night of 5 October about 500 members of the crowd broke into the Palace , killing several of the Gardes du Corps on duty . Other Gardes du Corps held the doors to the royal apartments until grenadiers of the National Guard – mostly former Gardes Francais – restored order . The Garde du Corps narrowly escaped massacre and , disarmed , was obliged to accompany the Royal Family to Paris . Most of this aristocratic regiment then dispersed to their estates or into exile . The Garde du Corps was formally dissolved in 1791 along with all of the Maison du Roi , except for the ill fated Swiss Guard . After the abdication of Napoleon I in April 1814 and the Bourbon Restoration , Louis XVIII recreated the Garde du Corps with the rest of the Maison du Roi . These units disappeared during Napoleon ' s return , at the start of the Hundred Days . After Waterloo and the return of the Bourbons the Garde du Corps was recreated again , almost the only unit of the old Maison du Roi to be given a further chance after the disappointing performance of these expensive and militarily obsolete regiments in 1815 . The Garde du Corps was however reorganised , reduced in numbers to about 1 , 500 and integrated more closely with the regular army . The reconstituted Garde du Corps served the returned Bourbons loyally until being finally abolished , along with all Guard units , by Louis - Philippe in 1830 after the July Revolution . Motto . The original motto of the Garde du Corps was " Erit haec quoque cognita monstris " ( They will be recognized , them also , with their brilliant deeds ) , but during the reign of Louis XIV it changed to " Nec pluribus impar " ( No unequal match for many ( suns ) ) , which also was Louis XIV ' s personal motto . The sword s of the guardsmen was inscribed with " Vive le Roi " ( Long live the king ) . Gardes de la Manche . The Gardes de la Manche ( ) was an elite detachment formed as the king ' s personal guard by Charles VII with men from the Company of Scottish Archers . They were the 24 oldest men of the 1st Scottish Company . The name came from the fact that they stood so close to the king as to be brushed by his sleeves . In 1775 this guard was reduced to 18 men . The captain of the Garde de La Marche was called the First Man - at - arms of France . A later , less successful , bodyguard was The Forty - Five , recruited by the Duke of Épernon to provide Henry III of France with protection in the midst of the War of the Three Henrys . They served Henry III and Henry IV of France , but were unable to prevent both monarchs being assassinated .