Tag Archives: Swedish Livgardet life guards

Livgarde and Livgardet in Reception

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We’ve talked about the Swedish Livgardet and Danish Kongelige Livgarde a few different times over the years, as, well, they deserve it. Besides being historic frontline combat units with a long history, and their current dual-hatting as royal guards on public duties while training to fight if things go sideways, they just look great doing it.

Case in point, the Swedish Livgardet late last month fell in for a state reception for King Felipe VI of Spain, complete with their 6.5mm Carl Gustav-made Mausers and bearskin grenadiers helmets.

Likewise, the Danish Livgarde, complete with horse soldiers of the Gardehusarregiment, assembled for a state reception for new ambassadors to Copenhagen. Always nice to see the traditional hussar pelisse hanging over the shoulder of braided dolmans. Of note, the foot guards are in their scarlet gala tunics and bearskins rather than the more commonly seen black tunics. The red tunics are only for special occasions such as royal birthdays.

In other, related news, the British Army’s five regiments (actually just single battalions) of foot guards will continue to use bearskin grenadiers’ hats after testing found a synthetic replacement, proposed by animal rights wackos at PETA and urged on by Pam Anderson of all people, “didn’t meet the standards required.”

1st Battalion Irish Guards for a special St Patrick’s Day Parade today at their Barracks in Hounslow, 3.16.2017. MOD photo by Sgt. Rupert Frere.

Some 110 replacement ceremonial caps were purchased by the MOD in 2020 at a cost of £145,000, with the fur coming from Canada’s black bear cull surplus– in other words, pelts that would have been harvested regardless of the Guards. 

Some 14 nations still have bearskin caps in use for military dress uniforms, a practice picked up in most respects from Napoleon’s Old Guard. 

Grenadiers of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, by Hippolyte Bellangé, 1843

Livgardet at 500

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Before the Swedes discovered heavily-armed neutrality in 1814, they had perhaps the fiercest military in Northern Europe, frequently engaged under the command of fighting king Gustavus Adolphus and the subsequent trio of Carolean ruler/warlords – Charles X, Charles XI, and Charles XII– everywhere the waters of the Baltic touched and beyond. With that in mind, it should be no surprise that the oldest and most renowned unit in the Swedish military, whose ensign carries a score of hard-earned battle honors, is the modern Livgardet, or Life Guards.

These guys.

Today’s unit was formed from an amalgamation of the Svea Livgardet (who had previously absorbed the I 13/Fo 53 Dalarna and I 14/Fo 21 Hälsinge Regiments, which dated to 1625 and 1630 respectively) and the Life Guard Dragoons, with the senior infantry regiment dating to a group of 16 volunteers from the Central Swedish town Dalarna, selected in 1521 to serve as bodyguards for Gustav I.

Some 2,600-strong today, besides its ceremonial duties as the royal family’s household troops and public taskings (performed by the 10. Livbataljonen, the King’s Guards Battalion, which includes a horse guard element), the Livgardet also includes the only active-duty MP battalion in the Swedish Army (11. Militärpolisbataljonen), a mechanized battalion equipped with Patria AMV 8x8s (12. Lätta mekaniserade bataljonen), a constabulary/counterintelligence battalion for securing the capital (13. Säkerhetsbataljonen), runs Sweden’s military working dog school, maintains the country’s primary martial bands (three of them!), and provides training and organization to six battalions of the home guard stationed around Stockholm.

Make no mistake, they are no chocolate soldiers. Much like the guards units of other European armies, they train for a real-world wartime mission. The Livgardet specialize in urban warfare and combat in the country’s heavily forested areas, training regularly for wartime missions.

You gotta love those AK5s, license-produced FN FNCs made by Carl Gustav

In honor of the 500th anniversary of the Livgardet this year, one of the most metal bands in the world, Sweden’s own Sabaton– who hail from Dalarna where the unit was born no less– this week released an English dub of The Royal Guard. The Swedish version, which released last month, already has over 2 million views on YT.

The video, in true Sabaton fashion, is a bit bloody and over the top, showing the band as 18th Century royal guards fighting off a swarm of Turkic Janissaries in the throne room, but it does have some basis in reality. In 1713, Charles XII, Tsar Peter the Great’s regular nemesis, was hiding out in Ottoman-controlled Moldova with a small band of his royal guard when he outstayed his welcome and scrapped with the locals at Bender in what was widely regarded as a swirling and confused action, with the Swedish king at times even sniping at the Ottomans with a carbine from cover until his forces were captured.

Nonetheless, the motto of the Livgardet is Possunt nec posse videntur (roughly, “They do what appears to be impossible”)