The Three Musketeers - Captain de Tréville

Monsieur de Tréville, real name Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Comte de Troisville, was the respected captain of the musketeers guarding Louis XIII. A close adviser to the King, he is a man of great honour and integrity. He inspires loyalty in his men and gives it back without reserve. Possibly the embodiment of the musketeers' motto "One for all and all for one!".

Captain de Tréville flanked by the musketeers Aramis, Porthos and Athos

 

The Captain is a minor modification of the King and Country Gustavus Adolphus mini. It was chosen due to the colours of the model being a close match for the Musketeer uniform. It only needed a change of hair and the addition of the musketeer cross on the back of the cape. While I'm fine converting the cheaper Lemax figures myself, I wanted this model to be perfect, so I enlisted professional sculptor Ian Mountain, whom I had worked with before, to make the conversion. I then proceeded to paint it to match the rest of the figure. I wanted to give the impression of greying hair to his flowing locks to indicate his seniority. With the changes, he no longer looks obviously like Gustavus, at least to my eye.

"Sire, I have this urgent missive for you." - "What is it? Is Spain on the move again?"

 Frequent duels between musketeers and red guards were a regular point of contention between the Cardinal and the Captain.

"Your musketeers were caught duelling again!You must punish them!" - "I will look into it and give them their just deserts.

"I heard you disobeyed the prohibition of duelling again and fought the Cardinal's guards?" - "Yes, my captain, but..." - "Silence! I only want to hear one thing out of  you... Did you win?" - "We did, sir!" - "Good."

"This is d'Artagnan, captain. He's the one who bested and injured Monsieur de Jussac in single combat." - "No small feat. I hear you want to become a musketeer, boy?" - "More than anything, captain!" - "Well, at least you're a Gascon."

The Three Musketeers - The Royal Carriage

A King always travels in style and none has more style in abundance than King Louis of France. Covered in the royal fleur de lys heraldry, the King's presence is clearly announced and all who witness this carriage's passing will know it holds an important member of the Royal household, most likely the King himself. Not so good for visits to one of the King's mistresses, but no doubt he has more discrete carriages at his disposal should such a need arise.

The King descends from his carriage and is greeted by the Cardinal under the watchful eyes of his faithful musketeers.

The model is based on a Lemax victorian carriage with a heavily modified rider. The casting and painting on the original model was very bad and I did my best to improve it, but some casting flaws were beyond repair. The ugly thread reins were replaced with florist wire. The driver was completely resculpted to wear the King's livery. His hat was donated by a 54mm figure, with some added sculpting to enlarge it.

 

The King and Queen returning from a short ride in the King's carriage. 

The downside of announcing the identity of the passengers is having to deal with the occasional assassination attempt.

 For completeness' sake, this is the Lemax model it was based on, though in reality they don't look quite as nice and clean as in the promotional pictures:

The Three Musketeers - King Louis off to War

It's the Musketeer's job to keep the King out of harm's way, but it's not the King's job to make that an easy task. When war is being waged, all kings will eventually have to make a show of being a warrior in the thick of the action, albeit from a safe distance, and so we have King Louis here decked out in his finest battlefield threads.

"It is your duty to protect France. And therefore... me."

The figure is actually King & Country's retired model of the British King Charles, but as he strikes a passing resemblance to the King Louis model, he will work perfectly well in that role.

No begging from the women can sway this brave warrior from his plan to put his guards into grave danger.

The Three Musketeers - King Louis and Queen Anne

The King, His Majesty Louis the XIII, known as Louis the Just, with his queen, Anne of Austria, daughter (and later sister) to the king of Spain and rumoured to have a soft spot for a certain Duke of Buckingham, another mortal enemy of France. Not an easy mariage. Both models are from King & Country.

The King, the son of Henri IV and Louis XIV...

The Queen. I added a small base to the queen, as K&C robed figures tend to be supplied without one, but I feel that looks a bit odd next to the other figures.

It's not easy being the Queen of France and a sister of the King of Spain

The King and Queen taking a stroll through the park, followed by their courtiers.

The Three Musketeers - The Royal Courtiers

The Royal court of King Louis is of course frequented by a myriad of greater and lesser nobles, hoping to catch the King's eye and favour. This gentleman and his wife are the Duke of Vendôme, César de Bourbon, a half-brother of our beloved sovereign no less, and his wife Françoise de Lorraine. Having dabbled in intrigues and conspiracies, he will spend a larger part of his life in exile, but that's just the way of the 17th century courts.

The models are actually King & Country's (prepainted) ECW King & Queen, but after having them originally pegged to stand in for our benevolent rulers, they have been recast in new roles. I added a base to Françoise, as I felt she was missing something without it.

I have just as much royal blood as Louis, well, on our father's side anyway.

I married a King's brother, because of a treaty between Henry IV and my father, Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine