Papal Zouaves

In addition to involvement in the suppression of brigandage between 1864 and 1868, the Papal Zouaves were employed in humanitarian relief when a cholera epidemic devastated Albano during early 1867. All members of two companies of the 1st Battalion were decorated by Pope Pius IX for their work in burying the dead and tending to the infected.[10]

One thousand five hundred Papal Zouaves assisted in the notable Franco-Papal victory at the Battle of Mentana, fought on 3 November 1867 between French-Papal troops and Italian volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi.[11]

In his report to the Pope, the commander of the Papal forces, General Kanzler, praised the elan of the Zouaves, citing a determined bayonet charge as a particular example.[12]

The Zouaves suffered the brunt of the fighting, sustaining 81 casualties in the battle, including 24 killed (the Papal forces suffered only 30 dead in total) and 57 wounded.[13] The official French report of the battle prepared by the French commander, General de Failly, also cited the bravery of the Papal Zouaves.[14] The youngest victim, aged seventeen, was English Zouave Julian Watts-Russell.[15]

The Zouaves also played a role in the final engagements against the forces of the newly united Kingdom of Italy in September 1870, in which the Papal forces were outnumbered almost seven to one.[16] The Zouaves fought off enemy lancers on the 13th,[17] withdrew with Papal artillery under heavy fire on the 20th[18] and made preparations for a counterattack against the Italians before being told of the surrender at the Capture of Rome.[19]

Several Zouaves were executed or murdered by the Italian forces following the surrender, including a Belgian officer who refused to give up his sword.[16][20]

After the Capture of Rome by Victor Emmanuel in 1870, 760 French soldiers of the disbanded Papal Zouaves, led by Colonel de Charette, offered the French Government of National Defense their service.[22] They were renamed as Légion de Volontaires de l’Ouest (Legion of the Volunteers of the West)[1] and, by 7 October 1870, the contingent, composed of 64 officers, 1,620 men, 80 cavalry, 80 gunners, was organised into:[22]

• three six-company battalions, plus three depot companies
• squadron of mounted éclaireurs
• mountain battery

While retaining their grey and red Papal uniforms, the Zouaves fought the Prussians and their other German allies outside Orléans, with 15 killed or wounded between 11 and 12 October 1870, and also engaged the enemy at Patay.[23] Expanded to two battalions totalling about 1,800 men,[24] the new force with its experienced core of former Papal Zouaves fought with distinction at the Battle of Loigny where the 2nd Battalion charged with the bayonet, losing 216 out of 300 men (18 officers and 198 men) while covering the retreating and shattered 16th Corps.[22] The Volontaires were armed with Chassepots and Remingtons.[22] The unit was disbanded after the entrance of Prussian troops into Paris.

Some Spanish Papal Zouaves fought on the Catalan Front as the Carlist Zouaves (Spanish: Zuavos Carlistas), commanded by Alfonso de Borbón, the brother of the Carlist King Carlos VII, who asked him to enter the Catalan front, naming him General in Chief of the Zouaves.[21] The Carlist Zouaves were also joined by many of the young aristocrats who previously fought side by side in Rome with the Infante Alfonso for the pontifical cause.[21]

The Zouaves are mentioned in Victor Hugo's poem Mentana.[29]

A bombing of the Zouave barracks at Palazzo Serristori, Rome, is the start of the 1977 film In the Name of the Pope King.[30]

• Corsican Guard
• Noble Guard
• Palatine Guard

• Villarrubia, Eleonore (December 23, 2008). "The Pope's Legion: The Multinational Fighting Force That Defended The Vatican". Retrieved 27 July 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)