royal guards
Monarch's armed escorts
Royal guards are soldiers or officers charged with protecting a monarch, royal family, or royal residence.
The term often evokes ceremonial units in distinctive uniforms—the British Royal Guard in red tunics and bearskin hats, for instance.
Some royal guards perform genuine security functions; others are largely ceremonial, maintaining tradition through formal drills and parades: Tourists gathered to watch the changing of the royal guards.
- Varangian GuardByzantine emperor's foreign soldiers
- Swiss GuardPapal security force
- Queen's GuardBritish palace protectors
- janissariesOttoman professional foot soldiers
- knightsTitled warriors on horseback
uniforms · bearskin hats · ceremonial swords · praetorians · elite units · regalia · honor guard · sentry duty · standing at attention · musketeers · regiment · Buckingham Palace · palace gates · changing of the guard · heraldry · security patrols · monarchy · pageantry
- guards and soldiersbodyguards, sentries, watchmen, sentinels, gatekeepers
- uniformed servicesArmy, Air Force, National Guard, military, firefighters
- elite guardshonor guard, ceremonial guard, presidential guard, bodyguards, Swiss Guard
- honor guardshonor guard, color guard, colour guard, tomb guard, presidential guard
- Hawaiian KingdomKamehameha, King Kamehameha, throne room, noble families, noble rank
- House of SaudMohammed bin Salman, princes, princesses, crown prince, heir apparent
royal guardsrank and file
Ordinary members collectively
line infantry · foot soldiers · conscripts · enlisted men · militia
royal guardsregicides
Murders of monarchs
assassins · revolutionaries · usurpers · insurgents · rebels
royal guardsinsurgents
Those fighting established authority
revolutionaries · people's army · citizen soldiers · sans-culottes · Bolsheviks