January 22: The first 150 Swiss Guards come to the Vatican to guard the Pope in 1506.

Pope Sixtus IV

The Swiss Guard is comprised of very well trained to serve as bodyguards and escorts in European courts since the fifteenth century with Swiss soldiers. They are really regiments of mercenaries to guard the kings of France, Spain, Naples, and families of high european nobility who distrusted his own countrymen. Indeed, many of poisonings and stabbings in the high courts led to distrust the courtiers servers.

The Vatican s Swiss Guard

The use of Swiss mercenaries to care for kings, popes, and noble european lies in the way Swiss soldiers managed to build their reputation through responsibility, loyalty, strength, and discipline. Switzerland was a poor country and the young men had to emigrate to seek their fortune abroad. By having these values of military training, recognition as the best soldiers with special tactical battle, Swiss soldiers were, therefore, considered the best troops of the European fifteenth century.

Pope Sixtus IV between 1471 and 1484 formed an alliance with the Swiss Confederation and erected barricades on the Via Pellegrino after analyzing the possibilities of recruiting Swiss mercenaries. The covenant was renewed by Innocent VIII, in order to use them against the Duke of Milan, between 1484 and 1492. Pope Alexander VI was between 1492 and 1503, hired the Swiss company of the king of France. Then, during the time of the Borgias, the Swiss guards were in charge of the Italian Wars and collaborated with the Holy Roman Empire in Vienna, Austria.

Pope Francis is friendly with Swiss guards

The Vatican Swiss Guard enlisted to defend Naples in an orderly French invasion by King Charles VIII of France. A soldier who participated in the struggle was Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Bishop of Lausanne, Switzerland and later Pope Julius II in 1503. Knowing the skills and values of Swiss mercenaries, Pope Julius II asked the Swiss Diet 200 guards to provide him permanently, for the Vatican. A first contingent of 150 mercenaries arrived in Rome on January 22, 1506. The Pope gave them the title of "Defenders of freedom of the Church".