A garde d'honneur is French for "guard of honour". It dates from the time of the French ruler Napoleon. The well-dressed guards were obliged to fight with the little French leader. This cause of this was Napoleon's great dream: world domination. The guard of honor is a beautiful wall decoration to hang in the hall or living room. It will look great in combination with another historical poster .
How the garde d'honneur was created
We now know that the garde d'honneur is a guard of honour . But how did the garde d'honneur come about? What was his job? And how did you become a garde d'honneur? We will answer all these questions for you in this blog! 
Origin of the garde d'honneur
The garde d'honneur arose around 1812. The French tyrant Napoleon was in power in the Netherlands. The Netherlands was controlled from Paris and the Netherlands had nothing to say. Napoleon, in his drive to conquer, was busy conquering all of Europe, but this was certainly not without a struggle.
This required many troops for the French emperor. Every land that was conquered therefore had to contribute in the form of troops to the French. In the beginning the numbers were not too bad, certainly for the elite group in the Dutch cities.
There were some young men between the ages of 18 and 30 years old had to fight. The elite are not so concerned about this. After all, they bought out young men in the lower ranks to fight in their place.
Must read: Find the best history poster at Walljar now!
Trouble arose in Russia
But the problems really started when Napoleon arrived in Russia. Due to the tactics of the Russians, the French suffered great losses. Since Russia is so big, they fought from city to city.
When a city threatened to be captured by the French, the Russians set fire to the city and removed all food and drink. The further the French fought into Russia, the more soldiers died from it:
- famine
- cold
- injuries
- diseases
That was when Napoleon gave the order for the conquered lands to supply more troops. That is why the garde d'honneur unit was established in the Netherlands. All young men from the elite also had to participate in this. Buying out was no longer an option.
The uniform of the garde d'honneur
The men had to buy a uniform themselves. The beautiful uniforms that you see on Walljar's wall decoration were therefore not cheap. The elite spent a lot of money on these suits because they wanted to be well protected and of course wanted to look good, because hey, they are elite after all. Then the garde d'honneur unit was sent to the front to fight or used to protect strongholds.
Wall decoration of the garde d'honneur
In the historical collection of Walljar you will find the historical poster of the garde d'honneur. The wall decoration of the garde d'honneur can often be seen with a horse. Horses were the main means of transport in the early 19th century.
The garde d'honneur had to travel all over Europe, so a horse was handy. you see that the garde d'honneurs came from different cities in the Netherlands. Every city had its own uniform. So choose the wall decoration of the uniform that you like best!
Order your favorite garde d'honneur!
Would you like a historical poster or a poster of the garde d'honneur unit? Then view the historical collection of Walljar and choose the garde d'honneur from one of the cities of the Netherlands!