# The Three Musketeers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503 "2011-02-24T21:09:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/21 "2011-02-25T19:44:41Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Somewhere along the way (at least before the rise of Napoleon), the term _Musketeer_ came to simply mean a regular soldier. The standard, or center, companies of a french battalion were called musketeers. The musket was a matchlock gun. When they received flintlocks, or _Fusils_, the center companies were renamed _Fusiliers_. The term _Grenadier_ had become the designation for elite infantry. It seems to be a constant of military service that a group designed to use some specialist fighting technique tends to attract over time the best recruits, gets a rep for being an elite service, and the label is retained long after the actual fighting technique in question falls out of favour or becomes obselete or ubiquitous - Musketeers, Grenadiers, Paratroopers. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/22 "2011-02-25T19:55:50Z")
And there are plenty of modern units designated “Grenadiers” even though it’s been centuries since the primary weapon of the grenadier was the grenade. And that was back when grenades looked like cartoon bombs. And were named after the pomegranate, same as the island of Grenada and Grenadine. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/23 "2011-02-25T20:03:19Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > And there are plenty of modern units designated “Grenadiers” even though it’s been centuries since the primary weapon of the grenadier was the grenade. And that was back when grenades looked like cartoon bombs. And were named after the pomegranate, same as the island of Grenada and Grenadine. To make a police analogy, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the vast majority of whose members drive around in cruisers like American cops. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/24 "2011-02-25T20:04:33Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > You’re right , he was the Musketeers’ peg boy, IIRC. Peg boy? I don’t think so! d’Artagnan was the youngest of the four friends and comes to Paris to make his fortune. Porthos, Athos and Aramis are already members of the Musketeers and d’Artagnan’s goal in the book is to also become one. In the meantime he finds a position in another group of soldiers. But in all their plotting and intriguing, d’Artagnan is the lead. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/25 "2011-02-25T20:08:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s like I wonder why they named the condoms brand _Trojans_ after the side that _lost_. But history is unlikely to repeat itself. How could sperm cells build a wooden horse? ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/26 "2011-02-25T20:08:52Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Peg boy? I don’t think so! > > d’Artagnan was the youngest of the four friends and comes to Paris to make his fortune. Porthos, Athos and Aramis are already members of the Musketeers and d’Artagnan’s goal in the book is to also become one. In the meantime he finds a position in another group of soldiers. But in all their plotting and intriguing, d’Artagnan is the lead. I meant literal peg boy. 3 grown men enjoying the company of a young lad to the point the first thing they think of when they first meet him is doing him, all three of them, at the very same time. Hazing was very different in those times. Richelieu aint too clear on what fascinates him in d’Artagnan. I wont even mention Rochefort. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/27 "2011-02-25T21:08:42Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > It seems to be a constant of military service that a group designed to use some specialist fighting technique tends to attract over time the best recruits, gets a rep for being an elite service, and the label is retained long after the actual fighting technique in question falls out of favour or becomes obselete or ubiquitous - Musketeers, Grenadiers, Paratroopers. Although the term Fusilier is somewhat an exception. It meant a “standard soldier” to the French. The Germans first gave fusils to their Jagers, or light infantry. So Fusilier just meant “light infantry” to them. Only the British use the term Fusilier as an elite term. And that’s because the Royal Fusiliers deliberately decided to designate themselves as elite. They started off as the guards for the artillery powder wagons. They were the first to be issued fusils since no one liked having all those burning match cords around huge loads of gunpowder. Since the artillery used Grenade symbols, so did the Fusiliers. The symbol of a flaming grenade was also the traditional mark of a grenadier. So, the Fusiliers decided that since they had the grenade symbol, they were an elite unit. And apparently have fought well enough to make the claim stick. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/28 "2011-02-25T22:49:10Z")
“Pomegranateers” doesn’t have the same ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/29 "2011-02-28T06:01:39Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > To make a police analogy, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the vast majority of whose members drive around in cruisers like American cops. Q: What is taxidermy’s greatest triumph? A: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/30 "2011-02-28T14:26:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sometimes I really wonder why it took so long for the bayonet to be invented. Once you’ve got the muskets, the bayonets really don’t require any technological innovation, and no more expense than a pike: You could go straight from the idea to the implementation. It’d pay for itself instantly, since you no longer need separate soldiers to wield the separate weapons. Heck, a common soldier could even invent one in the field, by lashing a knife or dagger onto the barrel with leather thongs or the like-- It wouldn’t be as sturdy as a manufactured one, but it’d have to still be better than no bayonet at all. Well, I’m not the biggest expert on firearms evolution, but all the pictures I’ve seen of early cannonades/arquebuses are all pretty beefy unwieldy things, that often needed a support stick just so the operator could hold it up long enough to even roughly aim at something. Think more like a heavy machine gun (or very small artillery piece, which is what they were) than a modern slim rifle. They seemed to get smaller over time (I suspect partly because people realized that was more effective, and partly because metallurgy and manufacturing technology improved enough to be able to make a lighter gun that wouldn’t explode). There’s not much point in putting a bayonet on a 40 pound early gun (just like a modern .50 caliber machine gun doesn’t have a bayonet fitting), so there’s no reason to invent the bayonet until guns got light enough to use as a spear. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > It takes 15 to 20 seconds to load a musket Just pointing out that for D’Artagnan’s time, it probably took a lot longer – a minute or more. By the time of the American Revolution/Napoleon, good troops could could do 4 or 5 rounds a minute, but that’s with paper cartridges, much better muskets, and lots of drilling. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/31 "2011-02-28T15:05:42Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > By the time of the American Revolution/Napoleon, good troops could could do 4 or 5 rounds a minute, but that’s with paper cartridges, much better muskets, and lots of drilling. I was always under the impression that one of the advantages the British Army had over the French was that, being a relatively small professional army as opposed to the French mass conscript army, its training level was higher, most notably in this area. I seem to remember the British soldier with a Brown Bess would be expected to fire 4 rounds a minute, as opposed to 3 by Johnnie Frenchman. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503/32 "2011-02-28T15:10:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s like I wonder why they named the condoms brand _Trojans_ after the side that _lost_. Well, in that circumstance, when you are shooting, you don’t want to hit your target. In other words, you want to lose! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-three-musketeers/572503.md?page=1)