Elite Gendarmes of the Imperial Guard

The Elite Gendarmerie of the Imperial Guard (French: Gendarmerie d'élite de la Garde impériale) was a French gendarmerie unit formed in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte as part of the Consular Guard which became the Imperial Guard in 1804. In time of peace, their role was to protect official residences and palaces and to provide security to important political figures. In time of war, their role was to protect the Imperial headquarters, to escort prisoners and occasionally to enforce the law and limit civil disorder in conquered cities.

The gendarmerie played a secondary role in the first campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars, ensuring the movements of the Emperor and the protection of lines of communication. Sent to Spain in 1808, the unit conducted counter-insurgency operations against Spanish guerrillas in addition to its usual service as a public force, sometimes also acting as heavy cavalry such as in Medina de Rioseco. Recalled from the peninsula in 1812 for the Russian campaign, the elite gendarmes of the Guard saw combat at the Battle of the Berezina, then at Leipzig, Montmirail and Vauchamps during the War of the Sixth Coalition.

Renamed the Gendarmes des chasses du roi under the First Bourbon Restoration, the gendarmerie retook its old name during the Hundred Days and took part in the Waterloo campaign. It was definitively disbanded at Châtellerault upon the Second Restoration.