The Swiss Guard Guardia Svizzera
The Vatican Hosts the World's Smallest Professional Standing Army
The elite bodyguards of the Pope are the last of the old-school mercenaries and have been the army of the Vatican for the past 500 years
One of the oldest military corps in the world, the Pontifical Swiss Guards (Guardia Svizzera) have been protecting the Pope since 1506. In the high renaissance era Germanic military mercenaries like the Swiss Guards and the landsknechts were all the rage in Europe. By the 18th century many of the courts of the time included bodyguards of Swiss mercenaries. The Guards' bravest page in history was written during the infamous "Sack of Rome" by Spanish and German troops on May 6, 1527. The Swissmen performed a model rear-guard action to allow the escape of Pope Clement VII from the Vatican to the safety of the Castel Sant' Angleo. In this action 147 of the 189 Guards, including their commander, died fighting the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. To honor this sacrifice new members of the Guard are always sworn in on May 6th each year under their patrons St. Sebastian and St.Maurice. French King Louis XVI saw a similar scene when over 700 of his Swiss guardsmen of his own guard were killed in 1792 at the Tuileries Palace trying unsuccessfully to save his head from the mob.
The modern Swiss Guard, which only narrowly avoided action as recently as WW II is still a combat ready force. While most tourists see the Guards in their famous multicolored dress uniforms complete with the same type of Marion helmet that the Spanish conquistadors made famous, they also are a modern force as well. Each member of the Guard has served his time in the regular Swiss Army before being allowed to join on a sponsorship from his local canton. A more sedate field uniform is available as is hard and soft body armor, Heckler and Koch MP5 series sub guns, SiG Sauer 550 assault rifles, and SiG P220 handguns with which they train regularly. Since 1970 they have been the Pope's sole military unit and have protected his personage in some of the most highly threaten environments in modern history.
The Guards size has fluctuated over time, but since 2003 consisted of 134 men. The men are organised and ranked so as to form a full sized regiment of 1000 or so if fully mobilized. The commander is a colonel, his second in command and the unit’s chaplain are lieutenant colonels, and the lesser officers are all either majors or captains, as is fitting for outfitting a full regiment. Thirty senior privates are ranked as sergeants major or master sergeants and the basic guardsmen (Halberdiers) are ranked as sergeants and corporals all. It’s hard to think of a situation that would require this mobilization but the capacity is nonetheless maintained, just in case there is another sack.
These professional soldiers carry on their 500 year old tradition with all the seriousness and élan of their predecessors.
Sources
The Pope's Army: 500 Years of the Papal Swiss Guard. Royal, Robert. Crossroads Publishing Co, 2006.
The Great Regiments Vezio Melegari 1969
The official Vatican website on the Swiss Guard
