Swiss Guard: From The Sack of Rome to Vatican Independence

The Swiss Guard had been disbanded by Emperor Charles V and was replaced by his German henchmen. The Papal States were occupied by the Habsburg. 1534, the cardinals elected Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paul III. His main aim was to correct the political blunders of his predecessor Clement VII and the restoration of the state of affairs under Julius II.

He built an alliance with the Republic of Venice aimed against the Turks who became more and more powerful in the East and had started to throw their weight about in Europe. He brought the Habsburgs with Charles V and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria into the alliance. In consequence, Paul III was allowed to send the Germans home and to reform the Swiss Guard. He excommunicated Henry VIII of England and put England under interdict. He convened the Council of Trient and issued the Papal Bull Sublimis Deus forbidding the enslavement of human beings.

The Swiss Guards remained with the Popes for the following centuries. They entered into a long process of reorganisation under the first commander stemming from the noble family Pfyffer of Altishofen in 1642. Members of that family led the guard for 200 years with only two short interruptions. The Pfyffers petitioned the Popes for the use of the little church of San Pellegrino which the halberdiers restored and embellished with their own money. Many of the Pfyffer commanders were buried in that church.

1798, the Revolutionary French army conquered Rome, and the Swiss Guard was disbanded once again while Pope Pius VI had to leave Rome. But already in 1800 they were back with Pope Pius VII. This time they would remain. The newly unified Kingdom of Italy annexed all the Papal States, and in 1870 Italian troops marched into Rome. The Papal troops inside the City had been advised to spare human life and to surrender by Pope Pius IX. The Papal army was dismissed with exception of the Swiss Guard who joined their master in sulking in the Vatican.

The Swiss Guard took over the exclusive duty of guarding the Pope, the Holy See, and Castel Gandolfo, the Popes’ summer residence in the hills. The sulking of the Popes only ended when Italy finally granted the Vatican independence in 1929.

In between 1870 and 1929, the Popes spent their lives in a limbo summed up in the statement of the ‘Roman Question’. King Victor Emmanuel II had first promised the Pope not to annex the Papal States loyal to the Pope; after he had annexed them he promised not to annex Rome. Instead, Rome became the capital of unified Italy. This left other states in a quandary, as they accepted the Pope as a head of state, but now he had no state to head.

In 1910, the commander of the Swiss Guard took out his drawing book and redesigned the ‘ancient’ uniform of the guard as we know it today. Based on sketches from the 16th century, he took up the design introduced by the Medici Popes (they had added red to the yellow and blue of the della Rovere colours). This ended a long period where the uniforms had constantly changed reflecting the newest designer trends.

1906 marked the 400 year jubilee for the Swiss Guard. In memory of the heroes of the Sack of Rome, a monument was unveiled in the Damasus Court which forms part of the living quarters of the guard. A yearly laying of wreaths precedes the swearing in of new recruits on May 6.