ISBN10: 0824523954, ISBN13: 9780824523954, [publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company] Hardcover With the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the world witnessed the pomp and honor of the Swiss Guard, the 'Pope's Army.' Now best-selling author and Crisis columnist Robert Royal takes us through the colorful 500-year history of the military guard that has witnessed every major Vatican event for half a millennium. Topics include: origins; five hundred years of fortitude; the Medici Popes; the sack of Rome; siege, dissolution, rebirth and the Napoleonic war; the unification of Italy; the Pope's imprisonment; two World Wars; the Nazi occupation of Rome. 224 pages.
[Wellington, WLG, New Zealand] [Publication Year: 2006]