The life of LOUIS IX. is stated to have been twice preserved,--once in France, and afterwards in Egypt during the Holy War, by his faithful and valiant Scots attendants; and that monarch, after his return from Palestine, in 1254, increased the number of Scots who attended his person to about one hundred, and constituted them a Corps of Guards.[7] The practice of having armed Scots attendants appears to have been continued by the succeeding sovereigns of France, and Charles V. is stated to have placed this corps on a regular establishment. [Sidenote: 1415] [Sidenote: 1420] [Sidenote: 1421] [Sidenote: 1422] [Sidenote: 1423] [Sidenote: 1424] [Sidenote: 1429] [Sidenote: 1440] When King Henry V. of England, after having gained the memorable victory at _Agincourt_, on the 25th of October, 1415, and captured many of the principal towns and castles of France, was acknowledged as heir to the French throne by Charles VI., the Scots Guards appear to have quitted the court, and to have taken part with the Dauphin (afterwards Charles VII.), in his resistance to the new arrangement which deprived him of the succession to the crown. At the same time 7000 men were sent from Scotland, under the command of John Earl of Buchan, to assist the Dauphin, and these auxiliaries having evinced signal gallantry on several occasions, especially at the battle of _Baugé_, on the 22nd March, 1421, when the Duke of Clarence and above a thousand English were killed, King Charles VII. selected from among them one hundred "Men at Arms," and one hundred "Archers," whom he constituted a corps of Guards for the protection of the Royal Person, which corps was subsequently designated the "GENDARMES ECOSSOISES:" at the same time, the Scots Commander, the Earl of Buchan, was appointed Constable of France. The Scots continued with the French army, and signalized themselves at the capture of _Avranches_, in Normandy, in 1422; and at the battle of _Crevan_, in 1423. An additional force of five thousand men was sent from Scotland to France in 1424, and the Scots gave proof of personal bravery at the battle of _Verneuille_, in 1424; and in the attack of an English convoy under Sir John Falstolfe, in 1429; and after these repeated instances of gallantry, Charles VII. selected a number of Scots gentlemen of quality and approved valour, whom he constituted a Guard, to which he gave precedence before all other troops in France, and this guard was designated LE GARDE DU CORPS ECOSSOISES.[8] The Scots GENDARMES, and GARDE DU CORPS, continued to form part of the French military force until about the year 1788; but for more than a hundred years before their dissolution the officers and men were nearly all French. [Sidenote: 1484] [Sidenote: 1495] [Sidenote: 1509] [Sidenote: 1515]