Louis-Philippe, the “citizen-king,” had created the French…

Louis-Philippe, the “citizen-king,” had created the French Foreign Legion in March 1831 as a unique elite unit within the French Army, in which foreigners have been forbidden to enlist since the July Revolution in 1830.

Although the Legion is created as a unit for foreign volunteers, a secondary purpose of the Legion is the removal of disruptive elements from society and repurposing against the enemies of France.

Recruits include failed revolutionaries from the rest of Europe, soldiers from the disbanded foreign regiments, and troublemakers in general, both foreign and French.

In late 1831, the first Legionnaires had landed in Algeria, the country that is to be the Legion's homeland for one hundred and thirty years and shape its character.

The French Revolution had abolished mercenary troops in its citizen army, but Napoleon I and the Restoration Monarchy have both made use of Swiss troops.

Four Swiss infantry regiments had been employed by Napoleon, serving in both Spain and Russia.

Two of the eight infantry regiments included in the Garde Royale from 1815 to 1830 were Swiss and can be regarded as successors of the old Gardes Suisses.

When the Tuileries were stormed again, in the July Revolution, the Swiss regiments, fearful of another massacre, had been withdrawn or melted into the crowd.

They will not be used again.

In 1832, disbanded veterans of the Swiss regiments and another foreign unit, the Legion de Hohenlohe, are recruited into the newly raised French Foreign Legion for service in Algeria.