Why are the "Three Musketeers" called musketeers?

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Accepted answer

They were assigned to the Musketeer's unit. Unit names rarely designate the actual weapons - for example, there was a regiment of Fusiliers in the UK army in 1962, but they didn't use flintlocks (Fusilier is a word that means "flintlock shooter" 1), nor do the Grenadiers fight exclusively with grenades. And the Horse Guards... Or to choose another example, every modern cavalry unit uses transport other than horses.

Musketeers was an elite unit as mentioned by @lawson and the wikipedia page, and I believe that they are the equivalent of household guards for the king. The Musketeers were assigned to the King (Remember that the King actually had very few armed forces; most were managed by others, or by France, and separate from his command).

Also, muskets are a pretty stupid weapon for urban fighting; although they ride all over the country, the unit is based in Paris, and designed for Paris.

1 hat tip to CGCampbell, who notes: fusilier: a member of any of several British regiments formerly armed with fusils. Fusil: a light flintlock musket. Flintlock: an old-fashioned type of gun fired by a spark from a flint. OED:fusilier

Upvote:0

Because the book shows very little warfare. In most incidents they were involved in, they conducted special missions, participated in casual scruffling or in the duels, where the muskets are useless.

Even in warfare the use of muskets of the time was very limited: they mostly were used for the first volley, and then the shooters switched to cold weapons, because the recharging the muskets took too much time.

Upvote:1

Technically not a sabre, but a rapier. The sword was technically a secondary weapon to the musketeers, and in the book it specifically mentions that they are outfitted with their sword, two pistols, and a musket. At the end of the book we see the fab four fighting at the siege of La Rochelle. There they truely show off their marksmanship as they outperform all of the other members of their units. If you haven't read it then I highly recommend it. There are many good translations of the book, and many good audio versions. There was also a Russian TV series which was VERY close to the book, with only a few minor differences.

Upvote:2

Sabre was a commonplace weapon
Every nobleman at the time had and fought with saber - in this sense the heroes of the novel all engage in the same behavior, regardless of whether they are members of the Musketeers unit, cardinal guards, or others (d'Artagnan is initially assigned to another unit, he becomes a Musketeer later in the novel.)

Musketeers did have muskets
Musketeers of the Guard (Mousquetaires de la garde) is the name of an elite royal guard, like Swiss guards protecting the Pope, Praetorian guard in Rome, Cossacks to Russian Czar, Secret Service to the US President, etc. They did carry Muskets, which feature prominently in the episode when the four heros hold a fort during the siege of La Rochelle. Musket was a weapon used for war, but not for street fighting (where it was quite slow, useless and not in line with the customs.)

They were not the only ones with muskets, but they were the first
At the time of the events musket was already in the wide use, but Musketeers were the first unit armed with Muskets (quoting the WIkipedia article cited above):

They were founded in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry (the carabins, created by Louis' father Henry IV) with muskets. The Musketeers fought in battles both on foot (infantry) and on horseback (cavalry). They formed the royal guard for the king while he was outside of the royal residences (within the royal residences, the king's guard was the Garde du corps and the Gardes suisses). [...]

Shortly after the Musketeers were established, a second company was founded to report to Cardinal Richelieu. At the cardinal's death in 1642, the company passed to his successor Cardinal Mazarin, who disbanded his Musketeers in 1646. He revived the Musketeers in 1657 with a company of 150 men. Upon Mazarin's death in 1661, the cardinal's Musketeers passed to Louis XIV.

Upvote:3

While they fight with Sabers most of the time during the novel, they are members of a military unit called the "Musketeers of the Guard", which is where the name comes from. Notably all the musketeers in the novels are loosely derived from real people of the same name who were members of this organization.

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