In Austria-Hungary there are only small bodies of household troops (Archer Body Guard, Trabant Guard, Hungarian Crown Guards, &c.) analogous to the British Gentlemen at Arms or Yeomen of the Guard. Similar forces, the “Noble Guard” and the “Swiss Guard,” are maintained in the Vatican. The court troops of Spain are called “halberdiers” and armed with the halbert.
In Russia the Guard is organized as an army corps. It possesses special privileges, particularly as regards officers’ advancement.
In Germany the distinction between armed retainers and “Guards” is well marked. The army is for practical purposes a unit under imperial control, while household troops (“castle-guards” as they are usually called) belong individually to the various sovereigns within the empire. The “Guards,” as a combatant force in the army are those of the king of Prussia and constitute a strong army corps. This has grown gradually from a bodyguard of archers, and, as in Great Britain, the functions of the heavy cavalry regiments of the Guard preserve to some extent the name and character of a body guard (Gardes du Corps). The senior foot guard regiment is also personally connected with the royal family. The conversion of a palace-guard to a combatant force is due chiefly to Frederick William I., to whom drill was a ruling passion, and who substituted effective regiments for the ornamental “Trabant Guards” of his father. A further move was made by Frederick the Great in substituting for Frederick William’s expensive “giant” regiment of guards a larger number of ordinary soldiers, whom he subjected to the same rigorous training and made a corps d’élite. Frederick the Great also formed the Body Guard alluded to above. Nevertheless in 1806 the Guard still consisted only of two cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments, and it was the example of Napoleon’s imperial guard which converted this force into a corps of all arms. In 1813 its strength was that of a weak division, but in 1860 by slight but frequent augmentations it had come to consist of an army corps, complete with all auxiliary services. A few guard regiments belonging to the minor sovereigns are counted in the line of the German army. In war the Guard is employed as a unit, like other army corps. It is recruited by the assignment of selected young men of each annual contingent, and is thus free from the reproach of the French Imperial Guard, which took the best-trained soldiers from the regiments of the line.
[1] The “Irish Guards” of the Stuarts took the side of James II., fought against William III. in Ireland and lost their regimental identity in the French service to which the officers and soldiers transferred themselves on the abandonment of the struggle.
GUARD-SHIP, a warship stationed at some port or harbour to act as a guard, and in former times in the British navy to receive the men impressed for service. She usually was the flagship of the admiral commanding on the coast. A guard-boat is a boat which goes the round of a fleet at anchor to see that due watch is kept at night.
GUÁRICO, a large inland state of Venezuela created by the territorial redivision of 1904, bounded by Aragua and Miranda on the N., Bermúdez on the E., Bolívar on the S., and Zamora on the W. Pop. (1905 estimate), 78,117. It extends across the northern llanos to the Orinoco and Apure rivers and is devoted almost wholly to pastoral pursuits, exporting cattle, horses and mules, hides and skins, cheese and some other products. The capital is Calabozo, and the other principal towns are Camaguán (pop. 3648) on the Portugueza river, Guayabal (pop. 3146), on a small tributary of the Guárico river, and Zaraza (pop. 14,546) on the Unare river, nearly 150 m. S.E. of Carácas.