The irony is that the French army joined the revolution in 1789.
Louis XVI’s biggest mistake was that he allowed Austrian soldiers in to defend him against French citizens.
Hmm. Did not King George send German mercenaries against the American Colonists as well. . .?
Hmmm...weren’t they Swiss, not Austrians?
I know about the Swiss guards of King Louis XVI, most of whom were massacred by the revolutionaries in 1792 defending the Tuileries (the royal palace).
The impressive memorial the Swiss erected to the memory of their fallen brothers, the “Lion of Lucerne”, is mentioned in Mark Twain’s book “A tramp abroad”.
Its creator, Danish neo-classicist Bertel Thorvaldsen, was a celebrated sculptor of the early 19th century.