The Swiss Guard: Tradition and Change Over Five Hundred Years
Among the myriad artistic and cultural attractions the Vatican offers to the modern visitor, one particularly unique and eye catching sight is that of the colorfully uniformed Swiss Guards solemnly standing watch at its entrances. In their blue, red and yellow “clown suits” and seemingly lacking any modern weapons, they might strike the uneducated observer as merely a decorative or ceremonial force, or at most as glorified bouncers, but such an impression would be sorely mistaken. In actual fact, the Papal Swiss Guard is a world-class security force with a long and storied history stretching back over 500 years.
The officially accepted date for the foundation of the Papal Swiss Guard is January 22, 1506. On this day “towards evening” a band of 150 Swiss mercenaries entered the Vatican. They had come at the request of Pope Julius II, born Giulano della Rovere, who had come to power just three years earlier in 1503. Julius’ papacy is notable, amongst other things, for the energetic military career that he conducted during his tenure, his “two main political purposes [being] the consolidation of his power over the Papal States and the expulsion of the foreign powers… [in] the Italian peninsula.” The Swiss had already long been viewed as producing the most superior fighting men in Europe for centuries – a contemporary historian wrote that “the Swiss are exceedingly frightening to many, like lions among wolves.” Thus it is not surprising that a pope as militarily active as Julius should want a force of such elite troops on his side, particularly considering that Swiss mercenaries were present among the forces of France and other major European powers of the day, among which the papacy was a significant player. Indeed, Swiss soldiers had already been used by the papacy in past conflicts, although no permanent force had been maintained.
Julius would use his new contingent of Swiss fighters to no minor effect, leading him in 1512 to dub them “Defenders of the Liberty of the Church” following his victory at Pavia, in which the newly-formed force played a significant role. Despite being put to use militarily, generally as a supplement to other more numerous papal forces, it was not until two decades after its creation that the Swiss Guard would face its first true trial. On May 6, 1527, a dissenting cardinal named Pompeio Colonna, ostensibly acting on behalf of Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, entered the city of Rome with a large force and clashed with papal defenders. The 147 Swiss Guards guarding the main point of attack were all killed, but not before taking with them “about 900 of the invaders.” The 42 left alive served to defend the pope as he retreated to the fortified Castel Sant’Angelo, where his remaining guards and soldiers were replaced with German and Spanish troops from the invading army. While they were given “permission… to join the new guard, only 12 of them accepted.” Not until 1548 would the Swiss guards resume their duties in the Vatican, their reestablishment eased by a positive response to recruiting efforts in the remaining Catholic regions of Switzerland. In honor of the brave sacrifice of the 147 Guards who fell that day, new recruits to the Swiss Guard are still sworn in on May 6.
Robert Royal writes that “after a half century of battles and turmoil, the papacy and the Swiss Guard entered into a period of relative peace toward the end of the sixteenth century.” During this period, the papacy worked to develop a closer relationship with the Swiss, engaging in negotiations in which the commandant of the Swiss Guard often played a crucial role. Also of note during this period was the involvement of Swiss Guards in the naval Battle of Lepanto (near Corinth) on October 7, 1571. This engagement not only serves as a reminder of the ongoing strife between Christian Europeans and the Turks along their eastern border, but also of the continued role of the Swiss Guard in particular as a military force, something that would become noteworthy perhaps only when contrasted with their role in the years since the creation of a unified Italian state in the mid-19th century. Following this engagement and the subsequent (but unrelated) death of the Guard’s commandant in 1592, one historian simply and succinctly states that “we cannot mention any event of importance” relating to the Swiss Guard until the late 18th century, a peace aided by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that ended large scale warfare between Protestants and Catholics in Europe.
On February 13, 1798, this long period of peace was shattered when the revolutionary French Directory invaded Rome, “took possession of Castel Sant’Angelo, arrested the papal commanders, and disarmed the papal forces.” With Swiss permission, the now defunct Guards were allowed to return, which most did… just as “revolutionary troops [in Switzerland]… proclaimed the Helvetic Republic and dissolved the old confederation,” leading to military strife and the eventual (if short-lived) victory of revolutionary interests. Ironically, the troops required to hold on to a newly-acquired Switzerland were drawn largely from Italy, and by November of 1799 the French republic established in Rome had come to an end. In 1809, the newly self-declared emperor Napoleon once again sent forces to capture the pope at his summer home – not wanting “the Swiss to shed their blood in vain… he [the pope] ordered them to lay down their arms.” They were again disbanded, but with Napoleon’s fall on April 4, 1814, the pope returned to Rome and the guard was easily reassembled by its previous commandant, Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen.
It would not be long, however, until the papacy (and the Swiss Guards sworn to serve and protect it) would face yet another set of challenges, this time domestic. During the chaos leading up to the establishment of the modern Italian state, crowds surrounded the papal palace in protest of “the pope’s political rule over central Italy,” viewing the Swiss Guard as complicit in the ongoing temporal power of the church as manifested in the ongoing existence of the Papal States. Events escalated when the Swiss Guards tried to disperse the crowd, and their commandant, Franz Xaver Leopold Meyer von Schauensee, ended up in the hands of the rioters and was only able to escape a grisly death by recalling his past service against the foreign domination of the Austrians. The pope was forced to comply with the crowd’s wishes and order the Guard back to their quarters – “the Roman newspapers reported on their departure and replacement by the Civic Guard, who now effectively held the pope under house arrest.”
The pope eventually escaped and sent Commandant Meyer on a mission around Italy to gather forces for the defense of the much-threatened Papal States. The effort would prove to be in vain – in 1870 the Church’s temporal power and the Papal States (with the exception of the Vatican City itself) ceased to exist. On September 20 of that year, Italian troops took Rome – Pius IX, aware of the futility of resistance, ordered his troops “to resist only until a breach opened in the city wall and then to surrender… to minimize casualties.” In May of 1871, the king signed a “law of guarantees” which defined the Church as “a free Church within a free State,” and the pope himself as “sacred and inviolable.” Between this date and that of the signing of the Lateran Treaty in 1929, “relations remained unsettled,” and indeed no pope during these years would ever “set foot outside the precincts of the old Leonine City.” Thus the Guard was confined to guarding the pontiff, the start of a new role distinctly different in many respects from the one it had historically played.
The 1929 Lateran Treaty served to clearly define “the relationship between the Holy See and the Italian Government.” The years since then have seen the ongoing development of the Swiss Guard from a specialized military attachment to a truly modern security force. Certainly, the 20th century also saw some important developments in the Guard’s history. The First World War saw many Guards recalled for active military duty in Switzerland. In 1906, the 400th anniversary of the Guard was celebrated “in a relatively quiet way,” with a grander celebration in 1927 commemorating the 147 Guards who died during the sack of Rome. During the Second World War, Guards acted as intermediaries between the Vatican and the occupying German troops as well as protecting the Vatican from a potential onslaught of Romans seeking respite, and even passed out portions of their meager rations to street children through the “grated windows between the kitchen and the mess hall.” German threats to kidnap the pope never materialized (largely due to the failure of Hitler’s generals to actively cooperate with his plans), but had they been put into action, such designs would surely have provided the ultimate test of the loyalty and dedication of the Guards.
Today, the Swiss Guard is in every respect a world class security force, akin less to an army than to the United States Secret Service – they operate behind the scenes as well as filling their more public roles, accompanying the pope and patrolling his palace in plain clothes. Supplementing their traditional halberds and swords is the weaponry of the modern Swiss Army, “such as the H&K submachine gun and the SIG Sauer 9 mm pistol;” Guards “also train at close-quarters fighting… tactical movement… security and counter-terrorism techniques.” While their modern guns and specialized training are not visible to the eye of the tourist, they are readily available to the Guards at all times should they have the need to employ them.
In addition to their security role, however, the Swiss Guard also provides one of the few points of public interaction with representatives of the Vatican. Thus an emphasis on their historical traditions and role is appropriate. This emphasis is perhaps best seen in the colorful uniforms worn by the Guards, which themselves have a fascinating history. Modern guards wear brightly striped Renaissance-style pantaloons with matching tunics and black berets “on which ranks are indicated.” Metal helmets and chestplates are still worn for ceremonial occasions. A simpler, more modern-appearing blue military uniform is worn for drill exercises; a gala uniform akin to a modern military dress uniform is also worn on certain occasions.
While the uniforms of the Guard have gone through many iterations throughout their 500-year history, the modern uniforms were mainly designed by the Commandant Jules Répond, who was Commandant of the force between 1910 and 1921. Drawing heavily on depictions of the original Guards in frescoes by Raphael, he gave the uniforms a complete redesign. Various elements were included to reflect the Guard’s long history: on both sides of the helmets is engraved an oak tree, symbol of the della Rovere family of Pope Julius II, and the blue, red and yellow hues of the uniforms “are the traditional colors of the Medici.” Rumors attributing the design of the uniform to Michelangelo have not been proven, although it is not inconceivable that he might have designed the originals which Raphael depicted in his frescos, especially given his close relationship with Julius II.
The Swiss Guard’s unique status as both a fully functional security force and a ceremonial, historic military unit is reflected in its entrance requirements. In addition to more standard items such as completion of basic Swiss military training and service and an age of under 30 years, the entry requirements currently posted on the Guard’s website also include items such as Catholic faith, Swiss nationality, “irreproachable reputation,” and celibacy until the age of 25, then only to be abandoned by those having achieved the rank of Corporal. Perhaps due to these rigorous requirements, sources indicate that the Guard has faced a degree of difficulty in filling their ranks in recent years, and recruitment efforts have been stepped up across Switzerland to ensure the ongoing survival of this elite military force. One guard in the late 1990s, asked whether or not he enjoyed his post, simply replied "Not really. We have a midnight curfew, and if you want to go to discotheques or pick up girls, it's not great,” a statement which clearly points to shifting social and cultural values as factors in the increasing difficulty of recruitment.
The Swiss Guard is fascinating both in terms of its modern role, and in the sense of the major changes it has experienced over the past five centuries. It is a role that has constantly changed with and been defined by the shifting nature of the papacy it is sworn to serve and protect. When the Guard was created by Julius II in 1506, the Church was a very real temporal power, and as such it directly needed military forces to defend that power from others who were often all too willing to go to war with it despite its religious role. Thus, the dual role of the Guard as both military force and personal bodyguard remained largely unchanged until the end of the Church’s temporal power in 1870. The years since then have seen the ongoing modernization of the Guard, and its establishment as a formidable personal security force even as military concerns have been abandoned. It has also increasingly come to serve a public relations role of sorts: today, the brightly uniformed guards represent a historic tourist attraction in and of themselves, and are the most visible representatives of the Vatican on a day to day level. Again, this shift has occurred as a natural result of the changing concerns of the papacy. In their modern capacity, the guards not only provide protection to the pope, but also serve to recall to visitors the storied past of the papacy, much like Raphael’s painted portrayals of their early-16th-century predecessors that one may still see in the Stanza di Eliodoro.
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Researching this topic, I was fascinated not only by the history of the Swiss Guard itself, but also by the extent of past papal military involvement. I knew that the papacy had engaged in military activity, but perhaps had never realized (or perhaps never truly considered) the full extent of the Church’s involvement in the political and military affairs of Europe, particularly during the Renaissance. The idea of the aged Julius II heading up his own armies and marching into battle still somewhat astounds me. I was also struck by the strength of the tradition of the Swiss Guard itself, that after being compromised and even disbanded so many times during its history, it was still reformed, and that even to this day, its requirements for entry still seem so heavily steeped in old tradition. On the whole, I found this a fascinating opportunity to learn about a topic I never even knew existed.
Works Cited:
Royal, Robert. The Pope’s Army. The Crossroad Publishing Company: New York, 2006.
“The Swiss Guard – History.” www.vatican.va. Vatican: the Holy See.
The Swiss Guards. The Swiss Guards. http://www.schweizergarde.org/
Barrie, Allison. “Stripes and Solids: Protecting the Pope.” Foxnews.com. April 17, 2008.
Majanlahti, Anthony, “Introduction: The Broken City,” selections from ch. 1 in The Families Who Made Rome. London, 2005.
“Web Gallery of Art, image collection, virtual museum, searchable database of European fine arts (1000- 1850).” RAFFAELLO Sanzio; The Mass at Bolsena (detail). /html/r/raphael/4stanze/2eliodor/2bolsen2.html>
Bachmann, Helena. Time Europe; 6/3/2002, Vol. 159 Issue 22, p41.
Stanley, Alessandra. (1998, April 10th). Rome Journal; Pope’s Little Army Scrambles to Recruit a Chief. The New York Times, Section A; Page 4; Column 3; Foreign Desk.
“Pope Julius II.” Photograph. Religion 262 Interim 20011: Catholic Rome, Lutheran Wittenburg. St. Olaf College. Web. 27 Jul. 2010.
