Composition
The household was akin to the Household Division of the British Army in that it comprised a number of both cavalry and infantry units, serving as the sovereign's personal guard as well as elite troops during war. Some of its units were limited to gentlemen, like the gardes du corps and musketeers, and units drawn from the elite of the army, made up of commoners. However, it was impossible for commoners to rise to officer rank in units of the military household. On the field of battle, the "Maison du Roi" fought around the king and the "porte-cornette blanche" (the king's white standard), although the corps also fought in the absence of the king. The "Maison du Roi" made up — along with the "Cavalerie d'ordonnance", the six "Vieux" and the six "Petits-Vieux" — the only permanent army of the kingdom.
Read more about this topic: Maison Militaire Du Roi De France
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Every thing in his composition was little; and he had all the weaknesses of a little mind, without any of the virtues, or even the vices, of a great one.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)
“The composition of a tragedy requires testicles.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)