Praetorian Guard / Real Life

• Named after the guards to the Emperors of Rome. However, as mentioned in the trope description, they weren't all that great at their job: between killing Caligula, and his next two successors bribing them upon claiming the throne, they came to the conclusion that they had the right to remove Emperors they didn't like, and not being paid off by the guy when he took the throne was grounds to do so.
  • And in all fairness, Caligula was, well, The Caligula. His behavior being a combination of being a Bad Boss, Too Dumb to Live, and especially a severe case of Bullying a Dragon. Caligula pretty much got away with most of the depravities, but doing them to the Praetorians would lead to his death.
  • Given that Claudius' bribe was offered mere minutes after the Praetorians slaughtered his nephew Caligula, along with the late Emperor's wife and daughter, it may have been intended as a please-don't-kill-me-too bribe. Considering that, by all accounts, he never wanted to be Emperor and had the job forced on him by the Praetorians after Caligula's death, bribing them was basically the only option he had if he wanted to live.
  • As mentioned above, after the murder of Commodus (not directly by the guard), they murdered his Senate-appointed successor Pertinax, and then literally auctioned off the empire to the highest bidder. This led to a civil war even faster than usual because the legions were outraged by that decision—because they weren't included in the bribe. After Septimius Severus won said war, he reaped vengeance upon the guardsmen responsible for Pertinax's death and had him deified, then banished the rest of them from the city and replaced them with soldiers from his own legions.
• Augustus had his own Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards, the Imperial German Bodyguard, whose job it was to protect him from the Praetorian Guard (whose loyalties were much more suspect).
• Even during the time of the Republic, officials of Rome had his Lictors as a personal bodyguard. While they were less armed than normal examples of this trope, they carried an executioner's axe outside of the city, and lictors assigned to a dictator were the only people allowed to have any weapon within the city of Rome proper (inside the pomerium).
• Constantine the Great eventually dissolved the Praetorian Guard and replaced it with a guard of his own creation: the Scholae Palatinae.
• The Varangian Guard of the Eastern Roman Empire mixed this with Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards, as they were Vikings and later Anglo-Saxons employed by the Emperor as his personal bodyguard. The guard frequently went to the battlefield as well as being the palace guard.
  • Unlike their predecessors, the Praetorians, the Varangian Guards were very loyal and well-trusted precisely because they were foreigners (and thusly not mixed up in local politics). Although loyal specifically to the office of emperor, there were instances such as the Roman Emperor Nikophoros Phokas who was murdered by John Tzimiskes who became the Roman Emperor by doing so and whom the Varangians become loyal to rather than avenging Nikophoros.
  • The Varangian Guard was founded in 988 and recruited from Rus and Viking warriors. After 1066, the majority of the guardsmen were defeated Anglo-Saxons fleeing from William the Conqueror. The last action of the guard was the Last Stand of Constantinople in 1453, making it a Long Runner as a military unit.
• The line between 'army' and 'bodyguard' was generally a blurry one in medieval Europe, as most rulers would have household troops: warriors who would live under the king's roof and get reimbursement in the form of wages and food in return for their service as bodyguards in peace and as soldiers in war. Depending on the size of a king's household, all or some of them would serve the role of personal bodyguards on the battlefield.
• The Kheshig, the personal guard of Genghis Khan and his descendants. Unlike most examples of the trope, the Kheshig (or at least the parts of it closest to the khan; at its height the Kheshig was 10,000 men strong and was its own army unit) was personally recruited by the khan from amongst his friends, family and personal followers and each new khan had to assemble his unit; this made the unit marginally more reliable than the average version of this trope.
• Napoléon Bonaparte's Imperial Guard, which was also used as a reserve in some battles. It got pretty big though, by the invasion of Russia it had around 100,000 troops. Above-average height was a prerequisite for membership, which is why Napoleon is stereotyped as being so short. Napoleon himself was only a little bit on the short side, an inch or so below average (for a nobleman, that is — he was a few inches taller than the average peasant), but by surrounding himself with six-foot-plus giants, he made himself seem very short indeed by contrast. Napoleon and the Guard had deep feelings of mutual respect for each other. The oldest Guardsmen were nicknamed the Grognards ("grumblers") because they were free to complain or criticize in the presence of the Emperor.
• The United States Secret Service handles this for the President and other officials, as well as visiting diplomats. Interestingly, the protective mission is barely 10% of the manpower: the rest serve as federal police attached to the Department of Homeland Security, where they investigate (among other things) counterfeiting (which is what they were originally created to deal with—by Abraham Lincoln, shortly before his assassination), cybercrime, and identity theft, thoroughly unrelated work. The Secret Service ended up with the duty of presidential bodyguards because when it was decided (after a few too many assassinations) that a permanent and well-trained squad of bodyguards was needed, the Secret Service was the largest federal law enforcement agency (the FBI did not exist yet, while the U.S. Marshals were deemed to be too closely linked with the judiciary branch) and thus the only one with sufficient manpower for the job. Also, a little-known division of the Secret Service is the C.A.T. or Counter Assault Team, which is made up of former US Military Elite types. These are the guys who travel around in the presidential convoy and stay at the White House in full combat kit with one objective: stopping assaults on the president.
  • Prior to the Secret Service's establishment, the White House has occasionally been guarded by militia or army units in times of war or unrest; in calmer times, a day shift of security guards and a night shift of watchmen monitored visitors and crowds. From its beginning, White House security has opted for plain clothes or understated uniforms when in the public eye, as no President has wanted the residence of the chief executive to resemble an armed camp.
• Mexico has the Presidential State Major. You see them, and you could swear you're looking at a detachment of American SOCOMs.
• During the presidency of Salvador Allende, he had the Group of Personal Friends as his guard. They took a stand when Allende's most trusted general lead the rest of the country's armed forces in a bid to overthrow Allende. After Allende's suicide, the organization was dissolved, and its membership was executed by the new government.
• Swiss Guards is the name that has been given to Swiss mercenary soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts from the late 15th century until the present day. They are now represented in some sense by the Papal Swiss Guard, which is the only Swiss Guard that still exists (they guard The Pope).
• The Late Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi's bodyguards were the Revolutionary Nuns, an all-female group dubbed the Amazonian Brigade in the west. The group was widely assumed to have been formed for the spectacle, and several former members claimed that they were regularly abused by male senior military leaders.
• And another example with the Dahomey Amazons, a contingent of female soldiers recruited due to the attrition of the male population through war and slavery. Some of them served as the king's bodyguards.
• Republican Italy still keeps around the Corazzieri, a regiment of the Carabinieri notable for having all soldiers extremely tall and wearing shining armor that served as royal guard during the monarchy. Nowadays they guard the president, the government, and the Parliament.
• During the Ancien Regime the King was guarded by the Maisone Militaire du le Roi du France (Military Household of the King of France), a collection of oversized units (with regiments being brigade-sized, and companies regiment-sized) tasked with protecting the King, guarding and policing Versailles and Paris in peacetime, and serving as elite troops during wartime. Most units would be disbanded in the lead-up to the French Revolution for budgetary reasons (only the Bodyguards, the Swiss Guards, and the French Guards were maintained until the Revolution). The units were:
  • The Gardes du Corps (Bodyguards), a four-squadron cavalry regiment tasked with guarding the inside of Versailles and and serving as the King's most trusted enforcers - and as such they'd form the core of many royalist movements after their disbandment during the Revolution. They're most prominently featured in The Rose of Versailles, as the co-protagonist Oscar serves with them for most of the series.
    • They originated during the Hundred Years War as a company of Scottish mounted archers provided by Scotland to their ally the Dauphine Charles (later King Charles VII of France). While the ranks of all companies eventually became completely French, the first company maintained the name of "Scottish Company", while the other three were the "French Companies".
  • The Garde de la Porte (Gate Guard), an infantry company (of actual company size) tasked with guarding Versailles' gates. By the time of Louis XVI they had earned a reputation of such inefficiency that the infamous scam artist Jeanne Valois quipped one only needs a hat and a sword to walk past them and reach the King and Queen, and actually pulled it off with her husband (Marie Antoinette was guarded by the Bodyguards and they turned Jeanne and her husband away).
  • The Garde de la Prévôté de l'Hôtel (Guard of the Palace Provost), tasked with keeping the peace and enforcing the law inside royal residences. They were commanded by the Grand Provost of France.
  • The Garde Suisse (Swiss Guard), a hundred Swiss guards, originally tasked with guarding directly the King during wartime, later with being the second-to-last line of defense, and resuming their role after the Musketeers were disbanded for budgetary reasons. A detachment of the unit was destroyed performing the task during the French Revolution on August 10 1792, when Republicans assaulted the Palace of the Tuileries and the Swiss held the line so the royal family could take shelted at the National Assembly.
    • The original core of the regiment were the Cent Suisses (Hundred Swiss). These were the only part of the unit to be officially part of the Military Household, the rest being simply attached because everyone would think twice before meddling with the Swiss Guards.
  • The Gardes Françaises (French Guards), the premier infantry regiment of France, and the only unit in the Maison Militaire to be composed almost completely by commoners even among the officer corps (aside for the Swiss, the rest were mostly or entirely aristocrats). During peacetime they guarded the exterior of Versailles alongside the Swiss Guard and contributed to policing Paris - the latter circumstance backfiring horribly on the monarchy when, on July 13 1789, the entire rank and file deserted to join the riots in Paris, later playing a decisive role in the Storming of the Bastille as they were the only ones who knew to use the cannons.
    • They're heavily featured in The Rose of Versailles after Oscar transfers to them, and in La Seine No Hoshi, where they feature as the protagonist's usual opponents by virtue of enforcing the law in Paris.
  • The Chevau-léger de la Garde du Roi (Light Cavalry of the King's Guard), a light cavalry unit.
  • The Gendarmes de la Garde (Gendarmes of the Guard), a heavy cavalry unit. They weren't officially part of the Military Household, but served with them because it was preferable having a regiment of elite armored cavalry between the king and any enemy during wartime.
  • The Mousquetaires de la Garde (Musketeers of the Guard), two dragoon (mounted infantry - they fight on foot, but move on horseback) companies tasked with defending the King directly whenever outside a royal residence (the Bodyguards and the Swiss Guard performing the task otherwise), with their use of muskets being a novelty when they were founded. The protagonists of The Three Musketeers are part of this group.
    • At the time of the founding under Louis XIII they counted a single company, with the Cardinal Richelieu quickly imitating the King and forming his own company. Richelieu's company was later inherited by his successor the Cardinal Mazarino, at the death of which passed to Louis XIV and were integrated with their colleagues.
  • The Grenadiers à Cheval (Horse Grenadiers), a cavalry unit created by Louis XIV to support the Musketeers with grenades and blast open a path for them during wartime. Unique among the Household units they had no task actually guarding the King.
• Irish chieftains in the Middle Ages were known to recruit displaced Scottish nobles, known as Gallowglass warriors. They were known to be able to hold their lines far stronger than the Irish light warriors and were armed with thick armor and huge axes or swords. They were distant enough from the politics of the Irish clans to be considered perfect bodyguards and were a major part of the Irish stopping the Normans from flooding over from England.
• France still keeps the flamboyant Garde républicaine (Republican Guard) around. It's an elite unit of the Gendarmerie (military branch of the Police) and although it's best known for taking care of all shiny things (its mounted regiment is the biggest one in the world, and the last one in France. Individual member often partake in the Olympics) it also ensures security of all officials and sees combat once in a while.
• The Janissary Guard of the Ottoman Empire gets a special mention for the inflation it suffered. Originally, it only consisted of a few hundred slave-soldiers who had been taught to fight from childhood. While they were highly effective at first, that very effectiveness made them powerful. It didn't take all that long before (despite still nominally being slaves) the Janissaries were running the empire. Over time, their numbers increased until practically the entire army was Janissaries, they recruited openly from the free population, most of them didn't do any fighting or have skills for that matter, and they killed several sultans for thinking it was time to put the guard down.
• Norway has Hans Majestet Kongens Garde (His Majesty the King's Guard), who don't differ wildly from other examples of royal guards. During the union with Sweden, they served as messengers between the Norwegian and the Swedish capital. They were eventually made obsolete, and king Oscar I reformed them as a detachment under his direct command serving in Norway. King Haakon VII adopted them as his own guard when he became king of the newly independent Norway. During the second world war, they were known as "The Black Devils" by the German soldiers, due to their ferocity and black uniforms. Also, their bowler-like hats were insisted upon by Swedish princess Louise because she was so impressed by the Italian Bersaglieri troops who wore similar hats. And their colonel-in-chief is a penguin.
• Mao Zedong had a personal bodyguard as well. This might be traced from China's Imperial Guard. It existed in various forms over the ages and was noted for recruiting foreigners, including Russians captured in illegal settlements along the frontier. It was briefly featured in Shanghai Noon, as the Chinese lead played by Jackie Chan was a (rather clumsy) member of it.
• The Soviet Union also had a praetorian guard in the form of the Kremlin Regiment, who were used to arrest any member of the Party if needed, guard Lenin's tomb, and march daily near the Russian version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. These guards fought in WWII, being entrusted with the defense of the Kremlin itself, and killing some 1,200 German troops (they were arranged as snipers to do this). The Kremlin Regiment still serve the Russian Federation today, however recently (2013) some of the Tsarist era regiments were restored and god knows how this salad of historical artifacts will settle together.
• The KGB's 40,000-man Ninth Directorate, even known by the nickname 'Praetorians' in some circles, charged with providing security for the party members and their families, securing government telephone lines, and operating the Moscow VIP subway, Metro-8. Given that, in more than 70 years, no Soviet head of state was ever assassinated, despite Civil War, World War, and succession, they seemed to do their job. They were also the most visible portion of the KGB, wearing dress uniforms in their marches around Red Square.
• Red October era Soviet Russia had the Latvian Riflemen. Before this, the Latvian Riflemen were a general military unit of men conscripted in the Baltics to fight Germany in the Great War.
• The Imperial Guards regiments in Tsarist Russia had a habit, like the original Praetorian Guard, of killing emperors who crossed them and putting someone else (usually some pretty girl to make everything better) on the throne. Just ask Ivan VI and Peter III. The Decembrist Revolt of 1825 also involved many Guard officers.
• Guard Yeager Regiment, Finnish Army, which is the last surviving direct descendant of the Russian Czar's Imperial Guards Regiments and today acts as the Presidential Guard. The conscripts serving in the unit are trained for both guerrilla and Urban Warfare and are considered similar elites as Parachute Rangers. The honorary march of the regiment is older than independent Finland and dates to Russo-Turkish War of 1878.
• Japan:
  • Prior to the rise of the de facto ruling shogunates, th Imperial family was guarded by the original samurai, the upper ranks of whom tended to be Imperial bloodline descendants that were removed from the nobility. These descendants ultimately gained renown specifically as warrior families (bushi), chief among them being the Heike and the Genji. The growing power of the Heike and Genji would ultimately see them serve as essentially Dragon-in-Chief with competing Emperors, culminating in the Kamakura Shogunate essentially kickstarting feudalism in Japan.
  • During the Edo period, there were the "hatamotos", literally "those who gather around the flag" or more loosely "bannermen", who were a hand-picked force of elite samurai under the direct command of the shogun and who had privileges almost in par with those of a Daimyo.
  • The leadup to the Meiji Restoration actually saw two groups of non-Tokugawa Shogunate affiliated samurai rise to such rank: the traditional samurai-family led Mimawarigumi, and the more famous, Rōnin/lower-class samurai led Shinsengumi.
  • In Imperial Japan, there was an Imperial Guard. They distinguished themselves well in combat in World War II. After the war, they were 'civilianized' but were still given the task of protecting the Imperial family, the family's properties, as well as being the firemen on the palace grounds in case a fire broke out.
    • It must be noted that the pre-war Imperial Guards, while tasked to guard the palace grounds, they're not allowed to enter the palace buildings. The indoors are secured by the Palace Police, who were headed by a career Imperial Household Ministry bureaucrat who also had military officer experience. This distinction actually secured Japan's surrender in August 1945: in the midnight of August 15, 1945, certain pro-war officers of the Imperial Guard killed the divisional leader and issued an order in his name to put Hirohito on house arrest while they were trying to destroy the record containing Hirohito's surrender proclamation. They were lost in the palace buildings when pro-peace units arrived to control the situation since they were never allowed to enter the buildings.
• India
  • The National Security Guard aka the Black Cats. This organization was created as an elite bodyguard unit after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by two policemen on her protection detail. This group carefully screens applicants, puts them through specialized VIP protection training, and are noted for their distinctive black camouflage. One slight aversion is that the NSG Black Cats aren’t exclusively for the Prime Minister’s protection - any national or state-level political leader or his/her immediate family who is deemed to be a high-priority terrorist target is assigned a Black Cat protective detail.
  • The President's Bodyguard, the seniormost regiment in the country's army. They're trained as cavalry and paratroopers, and maintain some splendid◊ parade uniforms◊ in the 19th-century style.
• Brunei has the Gurkha Reserve Unit, meant to protect the Sultan and his immediate family. They also assist friendly military and law enforcement forces when their GRU is needed, especially in humanitarian ops.
• The Livgardet in Sweden. The band Sabaton wrote a song about them.
• Nazi Germany had several:
  • The Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service/RSD) initially provided security solely for Adolf Hitler in the Nazi Party's home state of Bavaria but their duties grew to the protection of all high-ranking Nazi Party functionaries. As such, they could request without restriction the cooperation of any police authority in protecting their charges. While the FBK (below) provided close security for Hitler, the RSD guarded him and his entourage, including his staff, accompanying party members, and adjutants. As such, they used different vehicles from the FBK.
  • The SS-Begleitkommando des Führers (SS Escort Command of the Führer) was an eight-man protection squad sourced from the SS-Begleitkommando, a twelve-man unit, tasked with close, personal protection of Adolf Hitler outside Bavaria. They accompanied him on all his trips and public appearances. These were the only armed personnel that Hitler would let near him. Eventually expanded into the Führerbegleitkommando (Führer Escort Command/FBK), they would be the only organization that provided close, personal security for Hitler, as well as protecting his various residences and field headquarters.
  • The SS regiment Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (Bodyguards SS Adolf Hitler) was formed as a guard unit for Hitler, his offices, and residences. Originally an SA unit, Heinrich Himmler demanded that it be renamed to be under the SS. Commanded by Sepp Dietrich, Hitler's original chauffeur and chief bodyguard, they evolved into a Waffen-SS tank division that perpetrated the massacre of American POWs in Malmedy, Belgium.
  • Unlike the previous examples, the Führerbegleitbrigade (FBB) was composed of army officers, not SS officers. They were tasked with the escort and protection of Adolf Hitler at the front, first commanded by Erwin Rommel. Similar to the Leibstandarte, they evolved into Hitler's personal war unit at the front and were instrumental in routing the 20 July plot. The officer responsible for this, Otto Ernst Remer was promoted to major general and commander of the FBB, later the division-sized unit Führerbegleitdivision.

---