Tag: pike
Why does the Pope have Swiss guards?
You gotta be tough to dress like this. Why does the Pope have Swiss guards anyway? This question kept nipping away at the back of my mind and was really the instigating force behind me writing The Forest Knights books (ALTDORF & MORGARTEN). I mean look at this guy–he’s dressed like a Smurf. How did they ever become the Pope’s elite bodyguard? The answer you will most often hear is because they are “neutral”, peace-loving. They don’t take sides. Ahh, that’s nice. The friendly, peace-loving mountain people are neutral. They don’t want to hurt anyone. Unless you try to cross their border. …by 1912 the Swiss Army included 281,000 men and could call on an additional 200,000 auxiliary troops…Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visited Switzerland that year. As the Kaiser observed Swiss army maneuvers, Swiss President Ludwig Forrer told his guest that “we have the resolute intention of protecting our independence against any attack on this [land], our dearest possession, and of upholding our neutrality against anyone who fails to respect it.” In a conversation depicted on a contemporary post-card, the Kaiser queried what the quarter of a million Swiss Army would do if faced with an invasion of...
read more