Musketeers with no guns?

[GuanoLad]

I've wondered about this for a while.

We all know of Alexandre Dumas' story about the Three Musketeers, mostly through the movie treatments. I have never read the book, so maybe the answer is in there.

If I was going to be labelled a Musketeer, wouldn't you think that would mean I'd get to wield a Musket? Instead, the movies all show them as being swordsmen, and indeed the sword seems to be their symbol of office!

Well heck, that just doesn't make any sense to me. Can anyone explain?

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-PIGEONMAN-

The Legend Of PigeonMan
- Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night

[Jophiel]

From what I recall, the Musketeers were an elite honor guard for the king. They did have muskets and presumably were quite good at using them, however due to the slow reload time and worthlessness at close quarters (except to club folks with) they had to also be exceptionally skilled at swordplay.

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"I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

[mangeorge]

Yep, they had muskets. Even on the tv show,IIRC.
Peace,
mangeorge

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I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000

[tomndebb]

The Musketeers were supposed to be a military outfit that was armed with muskets. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis were all noblemen who had joined the musketeers in much the same way that later generations would join the Foreign Legion. They were hiding out from bad luck with women or other calamities of honor. As noblemen, those three were, of course, swordsmen (especially in matters of honor). The movies generally leave out a lot of the (fairly long) novel, and several of them completely omit the scenes of siege warfare that make a modest appearance in the novel.

The 17th century musket was not the "rapid fire" weapon of the late 18th century (which we would consider hopelessly slow firing) and I'm not sure whether the French Musketeer was expected to draw his sword as soon as he fired his piece or whether they relied on other tactics. (The other principal member of 17th century infantry was the pikeman who attcked or defended using heavy spears (pikes).) At a guess (and I have not yet been able to find substantiation for this idea) the idea of an elite group of swordsmen called musketeers was a literary invention of Dumas. Generally, musketeers would have been general infantry. There may have been a picked cohort of sword-bearing musketeers in the French service, but I have not been able to find any information about them.

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Tom~

[GuanoLad]

Thanks folks, that mostly confirms my suspicions

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-PIGEONMAN-

The Legend Of PigeonMan
- Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night

[mrblue92]

I believe Keegan mentions this briefly in A History of Warfare... A pretty good read.