Guardia Mora

The Guardia Mora (Moorish Guard), officially the Guardia de Su Excelencia el Generalísimo (En: The Guards of His Excellency the Generalissmo) was Francisco Franco's personnel ceremonial escort. it was formed in February 1937 from personnel drawn from the Guardia Civil in Tétouan and the II Tabor of Grupo de Regulares de Tetuan No.1. Their white and red hooded cloak, based on the chilaba, was worn over the white parade uniform of Regulares officers.[1]

Guardia Mora
The Guardia Mora of Francisco Franco between 1936 and 1939
Active1937–1956
Country Spain
AllegianceFrancisco Franco
BranchHousehold troops
TypePraetorian guard
RoleHorse Guards
Garrison/HQRoyal Palace of El Pardo, Madrid
EngagementsSpanish Civil War
The Guardia Mora escorts Italian Count Ciano and The Count of Jordana in San Sebastián, 12 July 1939.

The Guardia Mora was not controlled by the Spanish military but by the Casa Militar de Su Excelencia el Generalísimo y Jefe del Estado, the Military House of His Excellency the Generalissimo and Head of State.[2]

History

The Guardia Mora has its origins in the early stages of the Spanish Civil War. In July 1936 as Military Commander of the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco managed to fly to Spanish Morocco, where he took control of the Spanish Army of Africa,[3] consisting mainly of Morrocan Regulares and Spanish Legion units. These professional troops were transported to Spain and began to advance towards Madrid. Already in October 1936, when he was appointed head of state during an official ceremony in Burgos, Franco attended the event accompanied by an escort formed by Moroccan soldiers from the existing Regulares regiments, mounted on horseback.[4] Thereafter, Franco began attending public events flanked by a large escort of Moroccan guards. The British historian Paul Preston has pointed out that the Guardia Mora became a symbol in itself and the best example of the new power that was being built around the figure of Franco.[5]

After the end of the Civil War, the Moroccan units of the Army of Africa were either disbanded or returned to Spanish Morocco, but a select group of soldiers and officers remained on the peninsula, as mounted guards, performing ceremonial functions and providing protection for the Head of State. When Franco moved his official residence to Madrid, the Guardia Mora followed him, and once established in the capital they came to have a permanent quartering in the Palace of El Pardo, official residence of the "generalissimo."[6]

The Moorish part of the Guardia Mora was dissolved in 1956, after the independence of Morocco [7] with the Guard itself continuing on with Spanish personnel only. Upon Franco’s death and the ascension of King Juan Carlos as the head of state, the guard regiment was integrated into the new army under the king and formed the basis of the "Regiment of the Royal Guard" (Regimiento de la Guardia Real); the modern day Guardia Real.[8]

Notes
  1. The Spanish civil War 1936-39 (1) The Nationalist Forces by Alejandro de Quesada Osprey Men-at-Arms 495 Copyright 2014 ISBN 978-1-78200-782-1
  2. http://www.guardiareal.org/Menu/Historia/resena/
  3. Preston, Paul. Franco. p. 138. ISBN 0-00-686210-1.
  4. Preston, Paul (2011). Franco «Caudillo de España». Barcelona: Random House Mondadori. p.234
  5. Preston, Paul (2011). Franco «Caudillo de España». Barcelona: Random House Mondadori. p.234
  6. Cardona, Gabriel (2012). El gigante descalzo: El ejército de Franco. Aguilar
  7. Payne, Stanley G. (1987). The Franco Regime, 1936–1975. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
  8. Reseña histórica

See also
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