Who are the imperial guard?

Answer 1

Imperial Guard is a term for the soldiers who guard an Emporer or a King. This term has been used with Napoleon's troops and the King/Queen of England, Czar of Russia. In the 18th Century, many kings wanted an army of troops who were dedicated to him and would prevent the civilians or the army leaders from over-throwing him.

For more modern countries, the Imperial Guard troops were men specially selected to guard the King. This was not an honorary position.

In Napoleon's army, he established a complete army of Imperial Guard troops that included cavalry, infantry, artillery and engineers. These acted as his special shock troops in battle. He would keep them in reserve and only use them to exploit a victory or when needed. He still had an elite group of troops who were his personal escort. These were light cavalry called the Chasseurs de la Guard.

The Imperial Guards for England provide protection for the Queen and her palaces. They are considered military troops and the soldiers do serve in war. During WW2, there was a Guards Division that consisted of battalions from the various Guards regiments. The British Guards consist of 2 cavalry regiments and 5 infantry regiments. The infantry regiments may look identical but there are variations in button spacing and insignia and plumes to distinguish each one.

The 5 British Guards Regiments are:

Grenadier Guarrds

Coldstream Guards

Scots Guards

Irish Guards

Welsh Guards.

Imperial Guard could also refer to a miniatures wargame where the Imperial Guard are the main army of the Imperium of Man which spans thousands of worlds. They are kept busy holding of alien menaces, traitors, and demons on all sides. There are millions of guardsmen for every planet in the Imperium. I did not include the name of the game for fear of using copyrighted text.