The corps was established when Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, (1553-1580) nicknamed “Testa di Ferro” (Ironhead), created the “Guard of Honour of the Prince”, a company of about fifty men under the command of a captain who had their baptism of fire in the victorious battle of St. Quintin, on the 10th of August 1557.
After having been constantly amplified, in terms of men and tasks, in the 1630s the unit comprised at least 400 men divided into four companies, one of which was the “Company of His Highness’s Cuirasses”, whose members began to wear the monogram of the State authority on the breastplate of their armours. Despite the constant change in institutional forms, this tradition has been handed down to our days.
"Savoyard" helmets are a distinctive form of late Italian close-helmet worn by cuirassiers, the heavy cavalry outfitted with plate armor worn only to the knee and armed with pistols and swords. The term Savoyard is a reference to the large number of these helmets that the Swiss captured from the troops of the duke of Savoy during an unsuccessful assault on the city of geneva during the night of December 11–12, 1602. These helmets are also referred to as Todenkopf ("death's head," in German), an illusion to the eerie skull-like quality of the face defense. This example, which is unusual in having a fully embossed human nose, has a decidedly more cheerful countenance.
After having been constantly amplified, in terms of men and tasks, in the 1630s the unit comprised at least 400 men divided into four companies, one of which was the “Company of His Highness’s Cuirasses”, whose members began to wear the monogram of the State authority on the breastplate of their armours. Despite the constant change in institutional forms, this tradition has been handed down to our days.
"Savoyard" helmets are a distinctive form of late Italian close-helmet worn by cuirassiers, the heavy cavalry outfitted with plate armor worn only to the knee and armed with pistols and swords. The term Savoyard is a reference to the large number of these helmets that the Swiss captured from the troops of the duke of Savoy during an unsuccessful assault on the city of geneva during the night of December 11–12, 1602. These helmets are also referred to as Todenkopf ("death's head," in German), an illusion to the eerie skull-like quality of the face defense. This example, which is unusual in having a fully embossed human nose, has a decidedly more cheerful countenance.
