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====The Foreign Regiments and the birth of the Legion====
Since the Middle Ages, the French monarchs had mercenaries from all over Europe to serve in their army. There were regiments of Swiss, Spanish, Irish, and Scots. These regiments or ‘foreign formations’ were a feature of the French army from 1300 until the French Revolution. Napoleon was wary of these regiments, and he disbanded the Irish regiments which had served in the French army since the seventeenth century.