Latest / Ridiculous History / "Right on," Said the Pope: How the Swiss Guard became the Elite Protectors of the Vatican

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"Right on," Said the Pope: How the Swiss Guard became the Elite Protectors of the Vatican · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's hear for a super producer, mister
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Max Williams.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Huzzah, huzza.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Is that what the Swiss say? Did they invent hazza?
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: That'd be pretty cool.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Have a story for y'all.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: And before we get into the story, I've been bullying
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you're an old brown?
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Is that it's true? So?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Is this the first time I'm Yeah, this is the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: first time I'm in air since my vacation and the.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: First time in New York.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I guess now that like I'm back,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I can say more details. I don't dox myself. I
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: went to the NBA, guys, I'm a big sports Fanily,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the lilne of Hawks were drafting number one overall. That
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: is not the cool story I have to tell. So
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: at the number eight overall pick, this guy named Rob
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Dillingham got drafted by San Antonio Sports. I really liked
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Rob Dillingham and he's gonna be great pro And I
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: was so I was celebrating, like that's a great big
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of love that I didn't realize the guy in front
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  Speaker 2: of me was celebrating like so much harder than I was,
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  Speaker 2: because I was, you know, so self absorbing in myself.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm just standing there. I'm talking about buddy Mike.
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  Speaker 2: My buddy Mike had been talking to the guy in
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  Speaker 2: front of him and then ook at my phone and like, oh, Mike,
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  Speaker 2: Rob Dillingham got traded in Minnesota Timberwolves, and my buddy
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  Speaker 2: Mike's like, hey, hey, happening a dude in front of me.
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  Speaker 2: I tell that dude there. I told that dude. Long
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  Speaker 2: story short. I broke the news of Rob Dillingham being
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  Speaker 2: traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves to Rob Dillingham's older brother, Oh,
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  Speaker 2: I can die happy? His response, Oh yeah, I didn't
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  Speaker 2: want to go to San Antonio, Minnesota.
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  Speaker 3: Way better. Was he Swiss?
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  Speaker 2: He was not Swiss, and he was nothing with this
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  Speaker 2: episodeh this is this is.
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  Speaker 1: To show us that he had a fantastic time in
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  Speaker 1: New York. Are you and Dillingham's younger brother gonna hang out?
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  Speaker 2: I did not get his number.
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  Speaker 1: I was hoping you were gonna be like his number
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  Speaker 1: one trusted news source. Now like he calls Max to
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  Speaker 1: see what's what's really breaking down, both in the US
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and in Switzerland. Swazah, we are. We are finally doing it, folks.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't too too long ago that we did a
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  Speaker 1: fantastic little episode on Vatican City, which I think we
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  Speaker 1: all still want to travel to at some point, right.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I don't know. It seems a little scary
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  Speaker 3: for some weird vibes in Vatican City.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't want to live there because we would
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  Speaker 1: have to convert to we have to become part of
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  Speaker 1: the priesthook.
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  Speaker 3: Right do they receive tourists? Do you have to be
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  Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily We could say it's a religious pilgrimage, you know,
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  Speaker 3: just to kind of tick the boxes, but I don't know,
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  Speaker 3: I think probably secular tourism is also okay, it is
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  Speaker 3: in fact a historical site.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Or we could try to join the Swiss Guard.
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  Speaker 1: This is what we were talking about in part of
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  Speaker 1: the Vatican City episode, right, I believe that was the
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  Speaker 1: episode and we all got so fascinated with this that
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  Speaker 1: we said we should do an entire show on the
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  Speaker 1: Swiss Guard, And thanks to our research associate mister Max Williams,
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  Speaker 1: we are doing so to day.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, the Swiss Guard they have they dress eerily similar,
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  Speaker 3: maybe not exactly, but like it reminds me of those
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  Speaker 3: what are those guards called that kind of look like
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  Speaker 3: the dudes that guarded the wicked Witch of the West
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  Speaker 3: Palace and the yeah, the Beefeaters. They look kind of
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  Speaker 3: beefeater esque. But they also their helmets have this cute
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  Speaker 3: little little plume versus the weird giant like you know,
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  Speaker 3: and play kind of hat.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, this is uh, this is from that kind
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  Speaker 1: that school of very specific military uniforms that are uh,
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  Speaker 1: much less homogeneous than the uniforms that you'll see in
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  Speaker 1: a lot of modern militaries today.
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  Speaker 3: Fancy looking, they got a rough you know, they've got
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  Speaker 3: the kind of peaked helmet. Uh, I mean, I know,
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  Speaker 3: I know that like legitimate Swiss Guard. Probably this is
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  Speaker 3: more of like a traditional kind of ceremonial outfit or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: But it doesn't look like it would be very conducive
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  Speaker 3: to to do in war. But neither is Switzerland. Yeah, Uh,
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  Speaker 3: it's the It's complicated, right, It's.
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  Speaker 1: The country that is legendary for its banking.
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  Speaker 3: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: You hear a lot about Swiss chocolate and the mountains
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  Speaker 1: and the outrageous cost of living and how expensive it
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  Speaker 1: is to be a tourist. There U better known as
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  Speaker 1: the the Swiss Confederation. It's a small, landlocked country right
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of Europe. It's not super big. It's
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  Speaker 1: about fifteen nine and forty three square miles, making it
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  Speaker 1: not a micro nation, but the thirty first biggest country
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  Speaker 1: in Europe. So it's a small guy amid a land
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  Speaker 1: of small guys.
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  Speaker 3: That's right. I mentioned the Swiss not being particularly interested
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  Speaker 3: in warring, and that's because around fifteen fifteen, the Swiss
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  Speaker 3: Confederacy lost brutally in a battle against the French, the
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  Speaker 3: Battle of Marignano, and this apparently created a sort of
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  Speaker 3: domino effect of events that led to moves towards neutrality. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: This comes to us from Evan Andrews in Wya, Switzerland
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  Speaker 1: and Neutral Country, writing for history dot Com. It was
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  Speaker 1: after this defeat that you were describing that the Swiss
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  Speaker 1: Confederacy says, look, we've got enough land. We're not gonna
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  Speaker 1: try to take over other neighboring kingdoms. And as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, we're not gonna try to start fights
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  Speaker 1: with anybody. We're just for now we're gonna stay like
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  Speaker 1: Switzerland for the Swiss, and we're just gonna watch our
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  Speaker 1: own backs. And then the Napoleonic Wars happened. This is
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  Speaker 1: what made Switzerland a permanently neutral nation because in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight France invaded them, even though they didn't do
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  Speaker 1: anything right.
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  Speaker 3: Switzerland was invaded by France and later on was made
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  Speaker 3: a satellite I guess city state of the Napoleonic Empire,
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  Speaker 3: like a vassal or puttot. That's exactly right, that's what
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  Speaker 3: I was looking for, ben thanks, And this did force
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  Speaker 3: them to compromise their new found neutrality. But after Napoleon
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  Speaker 3: got his gear banded to him, well okay for a minute,
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  Speaker 3: then he lost it. He got his ass handed to
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  Speaker 3: him in Waterloo, as we know, and then the European
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  Speaker 3: powers decided that neutral Switzerland sounds like actually a pretty
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  Speaker 3: good deal. It allows them to be part of the
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  Speaker 3: international community in such a way where they can kind
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  Speaker 3: of weigh in on things without having exactly having skin
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  Speaker 3: in the game, kind of, if that makes sense. Because
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  Speaker 3: during the Congress of Vienna they signed this declaration affirming
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  Speaker 3: the Switzerland would be perpetually neutral within the international community.
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  Speaker 3: And we know things like the International Criminal Court is
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  Speaker 3: a thing that takes place in.
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  Speaker 1: Switzerland do very much to that neutrality. Yeah, Switzerland's neutrality
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  Speaker 1: made a lot of sense at the time, as this cooler,
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  Speaker 1: this geographical cooler between Austria and France, right, and having
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  Speaker 1: one country that is definitely always going to be peaceful
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  Speaker 1: is pretty helpful in the grand scheme of things. So
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  Speaker 1: the buffer almost right, right, yeah, or the cooler like
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  Speaker 1: that Bartender movie or that Roadhouse movie.
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  Speaker 3: Roadhouse, Yes, wasn't the cooler just like karate chops and
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  Speaker 3: kicks ass, though the Swiss are a little more, a
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  Speaker 3: little more taciturn.
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  Speaker 1: Their martial art is neutrality. So this stance here makes
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  Speaker 1: sense at the time, it makes sense now, but it
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  Speaker 1: also makes it even stranger that His Holiness the Pope,
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  Speaker 1: the leader of the Catholic Church, is protected specifically even today,
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, by the Swiss Guard. So in
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  Speaker 1: today's story, we're gonna look at how this small group
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  Speaker 1: from a neutral country became the personal bodyguards for one
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  Speaker 1: of the most powerful living people on the planet. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't really click, doesn It's sort of weird. Why don't
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  Speaker 1: they have like Vatican its like again, like the beefeeders
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  Speaker 1: in London, what did the Swiss have to do with
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  Speaker 1: the pope at all? And it turns out it does
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  Speaker 1: go back to that whole neutrality thing in a way
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  Speaker 1: that you might not expect, right, And we have to
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  Speaker 1: answer this by explaining, yes, Switzerland, despite being a neutral country,
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  Speaker 1: does have a military, kind of like how Japan has
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  Speaker 1: a self defense force instead of an army. Switzerland's defense
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  Speaker 1: systems were once upon a time, like many other systems
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  Speaker 1: in feudal Europe, it was up to the local town
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  Speaker 1: right or the local community to raise a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: people who were maybe farmers most of the time threat yeah,
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  Speaker 1: militia esque, and they became an organized army or they
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  Speaker 1: became an ad hoc army.
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  Speaker 3: For a time, a little more organization got injected in
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  Speaker 3: the proceedings, right.
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  Speaker 1: Right, seventeen ninety eight, eighteen oh three, the Helvedic era.
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  Speaker 1: Wonder if that has anything to do with the health
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  Speaker 1: I hope there was a war over foughts. That's going
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  Speaker 1: to start a war in and of itself that led
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  Speaker 1: to the first organized party in Switzerland. During during these
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  Speaker 1: decades and the decades following seventeen ninety eight, Switzerland was
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  Speaker 1: into the idea of creating what they would call a
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  Speaker 1: confederate army. In eighteen fifteen, like you were saying earlier,
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  Speaker 1: when Europe's major powers recognized neutrality and independence. For Switzerland,
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  Speaker 1: national defense becomes a huge defining strategic goal for their military.
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  Speaker 1: So maybe not adventuring abroad, but making sure no one
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  Speaker 1: can come in.
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  Speaker 3: Right, And isn't it fight too, like I sort of
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  Speaker 3: briefly touched on it, But the idea of an expansionist
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  Speaker 3: sort of I guess what's the word I'm looking for,
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  Speaker 3: sort of philosophy. I guess maybe that's not even the
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  Speaker 3: right word. But you know, we might argue in today's
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  Speaker 3: climate that the US is not expansionist in the ways
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  Speaker 3: that we used to think of what that meant, meaning
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  Speaker 3: that we're like always out there seeking other lands to conquer.
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  Speaker 3: We officially don't do that, but we also totally do
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  Speaker 3: do that through like proxy wars and all kinds of
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  Speaker 3: other things, Right, wouldn't you say? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it depends on how narrow of a scope we
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  Speaker 1: want to use to define expansion because to your point,
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  Speaker 1: the US has not picked up a fifty first state
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  Speaker 1: in our lifetime, but they've also done a lot of
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  Speaker 1: other things.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of occupation, which one could argue is in
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  Speaker 3: its own way, sort of an ad hoc form of expansionism,
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  Speaker 3: whereas the Swiss they're not doing that, they're not seeking that,
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  Speaker 3: they're not setting up, you know, military outposts in other
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  Speaker 3: countries because they're not participating in the war. Therefore they're
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  Speaker 3: not getting any of the spoils. And if you go
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  Speaker 3: to the Swiss Info channel, you'll see that they do
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  Speaker 3: have an army. The current army is at one hundred
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  Speaker 3: and forty seven thousand people, whoa way bigger than I
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  Speaker 3: would have thought.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, it's actually higher than the one allowed by law.
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  Speaker 1: The regular number, according to the Swiss government, should be
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  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand around about ballpark one hundred thousand, with
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  Speaker 1: a maximum of one hundred and forty thousand. And the
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  Speaker 1: Swiss government has said, yeah, we know the law hasn't
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  Speaker 1: caught up, but we need to.
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  Speaker 3: Have our numbers right around here for right now.
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  Speaker 1: Because I like this word, because it is this is
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  Speaker 1: a very Swiss thing to say. It is inappropriate to
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  Speaker 1: reduce the current size of the army given the geopolitical
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  Speaker 1: situation highly inappropriate. And then again, you can't really be
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  Speaker 1: fully neutral if you can't protect yourself, right, that's a
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  Speaker 1: big part of this.
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  Speaker 3: So it's not like they're just hanging out there in
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  Speaker 3: the wind. They definitely can put their money in their
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  Speaker 3: Swiss bank accounts where they're mouth bazar, you know. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And they're also at they're a legit military. They're actively training,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, they're not ceremonial. And the
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  Speaker 1: one important statistic for anybody wondering about that maximum army
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  Speaker 1: size or current army size, that's one hundred and forty
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  Speaker 1: seven thousand people out of a population of around eight.
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  Speaker 3: Point seven million and eight point six million, I would say,
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  Speaker 3: And do they have like something resembling the draft over there?
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  Speaker 3: Isn't that right? Us? You put a little note in
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  Speaker 3: here about Swiss conscription.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Switzerland does have conscription, or it has a mandatory
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  Speaker 1: military service. We should say, once you become an adult,
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  Speaker 1: if you're a male citizen, then you have to serve
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  Speaker 1: in the armed forces of Switzerland. Women may also volunteer
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  Speaker 1: for any position. This was interesting because you know how
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  Speaker 1: people are really divided on the draft here in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. Yeah, right, in twenty thirteen, Switzerland held a
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  Speaker 1: referendum and said, hey, should we get rid of conscription?
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  Speaker 1: Should we abolish it such that every Swiss citizen can
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  Speaker 1: just decide if they want to serve in the military
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  Speaker 1: or not. Seventy three percent of people in Switzerland voted
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  Speaker 1: to keep conscription, so.
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  Speaker 3: They're on board with it. They're weirdly on board. Very interesting.
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  Speaker 3: You got a wonder too with what did you mention
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  Speaker 3: the population ben of Switzerland?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, eight point it's eight point five seven in twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 3: One would I mean, you know, I'm just doing some
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  Speaker 3: what you call cocktail math here, but like you know,
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  Speaker 3: with that many people in the population, which obviously isn't massive,
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to
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  Speaker 3: keep one hundred and forty thousand soldiers voluntarily, you know, enlisted.
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  Speaker 3: But also doesn't it seem like a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: safer army to be enlisted into than say the US
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  Speaker 3: army or you know, the UK. Yeah, and then also
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people without getting two in the weeds
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  Speaker 3: in this. You're absolutely right. I agree with you. That's
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  Speaker 3: a great point.
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  Speaker 1: About one fifth of the people who get conscripted get
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  Speaker 1: found unfit for military service or civilian service, because if
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  Speaker 1: you don't want to go to the military, right, if
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: you only go into the military, you could go for
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: civilian service, like helping the elderly or reconstructing sites of
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: cultural heritage. If you get exempt from the service, you
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: have to pay an extra three percent income tax until
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  Speaker 1: you're thirty.
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  Speaker 3: Seven, I could add up.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: See, so they've got they've got a system of carrots
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and sticks.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Here, they've got their Swiss hooks and you. So the
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  Speaker 3: law of neutrality, which is what we're talking about here,
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  Speaker 3: was codified in the Hey Conventions of October eighteenth, nineteen
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  Speaker 3: oh seven as part of international customary law. And I
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  Speaker 3: believe this is from the Yeah, Federal Department of Foreign
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  Speaker 3: Affairs of Switzerland's official website. So, yeah, they have something
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  Speaker 3: called customary law. And this defines the rights and obligations
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  Speaker 3: of a neutral state. Reading directly from the resource, the
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: most important of these rights is the inviolability of a
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: neutral states territory.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is FAFO. This is legitimate FAFO. They're very
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: careful to say, with this doctrine of our neutrality that
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: we are not going to go out to Hungary or
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: whatever and wreck a town. But if the Hungarians or
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: anyone comes in or threatens the sanctity of our state
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: and our sovereignty, then we are going to react swiftly
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and with overwhelming force. Again, it's a trained force. As
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: a trained military, they're not just you know, skipping about
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in their furry plumed caps like. They can definitely defend
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: their territory. There are some other ones, the actual obligations
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of the neutral state themselves, sort of the flip side
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of it, which includes not allowing belligerent.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: States to use its territory. Yeah, so a lot of
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: this is international community type stuff, refraining from engaging in
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: war and not supplying mercenary troops to belligerent states and
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: against belligerent states. Is that defined clearly? Is it like
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: if you're not in the UN? Or like, what is
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: a belligerent? It could change depending on the climate. I
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: imagine it could.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Belligerent states don't usually see themselves as belligerent, you know,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: things like Department of the Offense. But so o wait,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: now I'm imagining the Swiss has the Swiss government has
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: something like that, but it's in a Brooklyn accident and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: they're like Department of Defense and it's just like a fence.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: I'm loving the idea of their borders are just guarded
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: by like a single white picket fence. It's very well
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: maintained and it's governed by the Department of Defence.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, Defense, So the there are some tricky things here.
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  Speaker 1: Belligerent or nation would be defined by a nation that
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: violates agreements of the international.
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  Speaker 3: Community, so change yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And the other thing though, is the banking, because are
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  Speaker 1: you not helping a belligerent state?
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Are you not?
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: If you're moving money, are you not in some way
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: supplying troops for a belligerent state?
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: You are at the very least a conduit to the
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: funds that are paying for and supplying troops to I'd
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: love to take a minute here just to talk. I
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: know we've probably talked about this in the past, just
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: to somewhat demystify Swiss banking. It's not dissimilar to the
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: way their tax loopholes in Delaware here in the United States,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: but this is on a much more international kind of stage.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: And what exactly are the benefits of a Swiss bank account?
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: And it almost seems like that time maybe has passed
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: a little bit, Like I feel as though I've been
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: reading that. It's no longer what it used to be
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: in terms of like the James bondness of it all.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now you want to have something more like a
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: freeport if you can swing that, or banks in different countries,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: maybe closer to the stereotype of a Swiss bank account.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: So back in the day, they were associated with money
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: laundering writ large right, stolen Nazi gold artifacts stolen during
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: World War Two, drug lords and cartels and business tycoons
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: swirling away their money to avoid paying taxes, and they
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: were the idea was like in the world of fiction
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and film, the idea was, no matter who you were,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you just had to have this number, the banking number,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: and then a couple of other codes, and you could
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: go in and play with ungodly amounts of money without
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: necessarily verifying your identity. And the Swiss banking institutions would
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: never give you up upon pain of death. That is
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: no longer true. They have to verify your identity.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Now this is where you see like the Jason Bournes
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: of the world going in and doing a retinal scan
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: and getting a suitcase full of like different identity passports,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: handgun and like currency from different countries but it does
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: appear though. While Swiss banking is still considered of the
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: highest level of client confidentiality possible in the world, there
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: is something called the Financial Secrecy Index of twenty twenty two.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: It is no longer what it used to be in
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: the fact that they use. It's not used as a
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: tax shelter as much. Apparently today there's practically no untaxed
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: money left in Switzerland and the days of that complete
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: anonymity that you're talking about are long gone.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can still sort of do it setting up
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: an account by number only, but it's more expensive. It's
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: pretty much the same process of verification, and the only
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: difference is a couple of folks in upper management will
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: know your identity, but there are still records of ownership.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Swiss law is still it still forbids you to accept
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: money as a banker if you are if you have
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: suspicion that it might be the result of a crime.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: And also it's still like it's still against the law
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: for a banker to just come out and reveal your information.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Privacy still is a big deal. If we were Swiss
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: bankers and say Max came out and said Jonathan Strickland
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: has secreted to weigh money and he's avoiding paid tax
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: or whatever. If if Max came out and said that
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: our bank would be in trouble and Max himself would
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: risk prison time. So they do take it seriously. But
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: it has changed and I would argue for the better.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: And one thing we didn't answer. So we've busted some
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: myths about Switzerland. Yes there's a military, there is conscription.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Yes there's more to the banks than James Bond would
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: have you believe. But even if they have a military, note,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: we haven't answered the question yet. How did some of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: these folks end up in the Vatican.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, you know, Switzerland definitely not what you would
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: consider an imperialistic power. They certainly have gotten beefed up
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: with some people over the years. However, especially around the
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: sixteenth century CE, a lot of their military force was
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: exerted through these those I guess those groups you were
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: talking about, those sort of like disparate little almost militias,
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: mercenary groups, which is also why that mercenary language is
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: used in their neutrality code. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And according to Britannica and the Swiss Guards are a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: group of Swiss soldiers who are entirely responsible for the
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: safety of the Pope. They're sometimes called the world's smallest
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: army because calling them the world's littlest army would have
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: been too cute and would have made it sound like
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the Swiss Guards were a bunch of children, which.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: They are not.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Now they are independent of the overall Swiss armed forces.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: They are employed by the Roman Catholic Church directly under
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the Pope's leadership, and they swear fealty to the Pope.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Is a big to do in a big ceremony of
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Belvidere or court.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: The competition just.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Like any elite force, because believe it or not, these
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: guys are like special forces kind of. It's very there's
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a very intense competition. To be included in the Guards.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: You have to be Roman Catholic surprise. You have to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: be single, you have to be a male with Swiss citizenship.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: You can be anywhere between nineteen to thirty years old.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: You have to be at least five foot eight, and
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: you have to have a high school degree or professional diploma,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and then you have to complete basic training with the
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Swiss military. So I guess they're not like necessarily Navy
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: seals or army rangers, but they do have very specific criteria.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: And of course you can imagine if you grow up
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and you're a Catholic kid getting the job protecting the pope.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Is that you know, that's like a spiritual calling.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, no, I get it. I'm sorry, man, I gotta
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: ask the question everyone's asking in their minds. At least,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: at what point do they get issued the knives? You know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: the Swiss Army ones. I know, I mean, it's gotta
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: you know, there has to be some connection. They call
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: it a Swiss Army knife, and I know we're not
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: talking about the Swiss Army anymore, but I had to
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: just take a tiny little derailment and ask about the knives.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I associated with my times in boy Scouts. By
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the time I was an Eagle Scout, I had I
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: had too many Swiss Army knives. It was invented by
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: an American soldier or the The idea of the Swiss
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: army knife was coined by American soldiers in World War
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Two because they couldn't say the word of a messer
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: meaning armors officers knife.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: You know, it's funny too. The standard issue military Victory
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Victor and Knox soldiers standard issue zero eight Swiss Army knife.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Not the little red guy with all the attachments. Only
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: has the regular knife, the bottle opener, the serrated saw,
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: the tiny knife, and the Phillips said screwdriver. It's a
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: little more abbreviated, but Victoria Knox does make all the
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: one hundred percent. But this one is actually issuing knife. Yeah,
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: it is actually issued standard issue knife and it's got
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: a bigger grip. It's a little more ergonomic. You know,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: those little kind of weird round ones, elliptical ones probably
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: wouldn't be so good in the you know and probably
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: gottleness type situation. But back super useful. Car.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I have them in my go bags and stuff. They're
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: just good to have.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: They're good to have. Yeah, I actually I got I
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: got myself a multi tool recently. Ben. It's not a
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Swiss Army knife, but it's a leather Yeah, it'd be
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: a bit of a leatherman. Yeah, I'm a bit of
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: a I've become a bit of a leatherman. But back
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: to the Swiss Guard in the Vatican. Historically, these new
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: recruits had to prove that they didn't have any physical deformities.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: This is good, don't like ugly. Well, well, that's that's right.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: This is more than not having you know, bone spurs
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: or you know, fallen arches or something or something that
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: would impair your ability to fight. Of course, yeah, that's true,
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: but it does there does seem to be an implication
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: of we want our boys to be hotties, to be
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: an Abercrombie and fished feel it does feel that way.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, and honestly that wasn't uncommon in a
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: lot of high level like personal guard militaries in European history.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: No, yeah, it's we have to get.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Oh man, there were some aristocrats that were so ridiculous
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: about this even goes into the history of the necktie and.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: How people had to be decorated anyway you had a
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: weird accessory. Can we just take a minute to point out.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I have done multiple things about how I've talked on
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: this show and stuff.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: They want you to know the necktie is so weird.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Why to what end? It does nothing? It's the most
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: absolutely useless accessory one could poss I guess you could
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: use it as roping in an emergency situation. Originally, the
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: idea was similar to a handkerchief to wipe one's face.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Check out.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I did a brain stuff video on there that should
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: be still on YouTube, which is why do we have neckties?
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: That answers the questions so far as current research allows
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: us to know.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: In addition to the proving that no physical deformities exist,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Commanding officers or officers in the higher ranks typically would
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: come from noble blood.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Right, because nepotism was the primary door in. And imagine
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: if you become Swiss guard, right, and you're from a
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: noble family. This is a huge opportunity for your family
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: because now you kind of have eyes behind the curtain
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and you can learn all all kinds of things in
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the great Game of Thrones. And here is the answer
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: for how these guys ended up at the Vatican. We
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: do have the answer. It's the fifteen hundreds Swiss mercenaries
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: are getting this reputation as the best soldiers in the world.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Because remember this is before they said we're not going
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to send mercenary troops out Willie Hilly, So they were
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: called the Helvetians. And Roman scholar Tacitus, from whom we
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: get the phrase tactics famously Talkie wouldn't shut up. Yeah,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Taciturn there's a going he said. The Helvedians are a
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: people of warriors, famous for the valor of their soldiers,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: and they served all these rulers through all these different
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: European countries, France, Spain, you name it. In the fourteenth
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: fifteenth century they started some of these mercenaries started serving
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: the papal states. This was not unusual at the time.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: So now, while modern Swiss guard might only kind of
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: have what would be considered basic training, they certainly at
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: this point had a reputation for being high quality you
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: know operatives.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, for sure, especially you know, working as a
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: mercenary then and now can have a pretty high attrition rate.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: So if you are looking to hire some muscle and
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: you see mercenaries that have a lot of experience, you're
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: going to realize that they have survived for reason. So
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: these guys were considered for time, I would say, one
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: of the gold standards in higher guns. It wasn't until
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: fifteen oh five when a bishop, a Swiss bishop, acting
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: on behalf of Pope Julius the second, said hey, what
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: about this, Julie, Why don't we just have a Swiss
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: contingent that's permanent and operates you know, not through a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: weird system of paying mercenaries, but under your direct control.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And Pope Julius the second looked around and said, right, hu,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: because that's how he talked exactly.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah he did. He's modern day yes, surfirst length. So
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: on January twenty second of fifteen oh six, the first
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: contingent of one hundred and fifty Swiss Guardsman under the
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: leadership of Captain Casper von Silentin, showed up in the
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: Vatican to do their PayPal duty. Yes, that sounds a
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: papal duty. What sounds to euphemistic. It does a little bit.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: But we're we're a techy meat shower. We'll get to
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: that one later, sure will. I'm glad you brought that out.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: We were just talking about that, all right, Max, We'll
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: be with us something that would do.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: So they Everything was going well, jolly good win win
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: situation for the first cup of decades, but within those
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: like by fifteen twenty seven, their heroism and their actual
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: valor was testing. It's one of the darkest most heroic
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: events in Swiss Guard history in fifteen twenty seven, the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Sack of Rome. It's the sixth of May and according
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: to folks like Thomas Weibel, the professor of media engineering
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: in Burn. The unrestrained looting and pillaging by Lutheran mercenaries
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of Charles the Fifth, the elected but still uncrowned Holy
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Roman Emperor, was a long time in the making. Long
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: story short. A bunch of wars, Charles five is beefed
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: with a guide named Francois the First. Charles wins, Clement
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: the Pope said no, no, dude, not right on. You
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: didn't really win and didn't support Charles. So at the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: same time, there's this other guy, Henrietta of England, you
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: know who we're talking about, and he went cold on
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Charles the fifth. And now Charles the Fifth has this huge,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: huge army and he owes every single person in that
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: army money, so he has no way to pay for
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: his troops. And the army said, look, we have to
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: do something right because now the army is risking starvation,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: let alone missing their wages. So they look round to
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: try to find a place that has money.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: That's right, and somebody says, you know who's got money,
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: the Italians in Florence. Let's go hit up Florence. They've
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: got money, right, Surely they'd be willing to part with them.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: So they go to Florence. It was not an easy journey.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: And while they were besieging Florence is apparently a lovely city.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I've never been, but I would like to go. I
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: have my editors in Florence right now.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: They two takes place like a lot of and I
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: mean they've used historical maps and so, like I always have.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: That's the most use.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: He's basically been there. Yeah, it's the same. It's like Washington,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: DC and the fallout too or Fallout three, whichever one
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: that one is. So while they're besieging Florence, they noticed
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: that no one is really looking after Rome, which is
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: a little odd. So a lot of soldiers rebel and
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: they decide to run off and do their own thing
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: and take down Rome, sack it as it were. So
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: in the view of what looked to be a gnarly catastrophe,
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: the Pope decided to try to bribe the imperial commander,
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: Charles the third, the Duke of Bourbon, with a big
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: old chunk of change. But Bourbon could not be bought
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: right he wanted. He just wanted the spoils.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Well, and also at this point, adding to the cannery,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the problem with mercenaries is that they're very effective. But
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: even now, mercenaries are a gun that can sometimes shoot you,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: right they go to the high well, yeah, but then
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: also they might just quit, they might.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: Cower it out.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: They're not as reliable as a trained army, or they're
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: not as reliable as a state level army. But anyway,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the mercenaries at this point are totally mutenous. They don't care,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and so they're just out now to become reavers, to ravage,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: to pillage for personal gains. So they attack Rome on
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the morning in May sixth and there are hardly any
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: other soldiers in a defensive position, so they run over
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: it like a plague locust or like a tsunami wave.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: And there were forty two Swiss guards who bring the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: pope to safety. Is incredibly cinematic, using an underground tunnel,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: while the remaining one hundred forty seven men take up
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: essentially suicide positions on Saint Peter's Square to protect the
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Vatican and the Basilica. They are one hundred and forty
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: seven men against twenty thousand attackers. This is like their
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Alamo moment. They're overwhelmed. Every single one of those one
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty seven people die, and the next day
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: the city falls into the hands of not a rival power,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: not a rival theocracy, nor a rival king, but a
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: group of mercenaries land pirates basically.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: And by the way, I just have to say the
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: name of this guy that we're referring to here, Thomas Viiebel.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: He has an incredible I guess title. He is the
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: professor of media engineering at the fach fash hook Shula
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: Graubunden and the hoch Shula de Kunsta in Baden. Sorry,
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: the mony python I mean has had to say that.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: And according to viible here, this event, this month long
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: disaster that we call the sack of Rome today was
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: reframed as an act of religious war rather than an
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: act of desperate mercenaries. Yeah, and it went down in
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: history as an unprecedented war crime. We're talking in tens
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: of thousands of victims. Easily ninety percent of Rome's art
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: treasures are stolen or vandalized or completely destroyed. The Pope
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: is held prisoner in Castel sant Angelo for six months.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: He has released only in exchange for the surrender of
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: extensive territories. The city of Medina Parma, a couple other cities,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: four hundred thousand ducats. It's crazy. All the Swiss Guards
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: who managed to get the Pope to safety in that castle,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: they were killed. The Swiss Guards didn't really become a
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: thing again until Clement's successor, Paul Third, reformed them in
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: fifteen forty eight. So the Sack of Rome is a
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: real horror story. That is a dark time in the
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: history of the Swiss Guard. But worry not, they did
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: make it. They are still around in the modern day.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: You know, after that nearly complete annihilation, and things have
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: been a lot more you know, positive since then.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: It doesn't mean it's been in four now, yeah, it does,
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: just right. It doesn't mean it's been entirely without conflict.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: There was a early, nearly similar event that happened during
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: World War Two. Britannica writes that the Swiss Guards prepared
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: for similar self sacrificing during World War Two when the
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: vastly outnumbered guardsmen took up defensive positions as German forces
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: rolled into Rome. However, Hitler chose to spare the Vaticans.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: So they were ready to do it. They were gonna
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: throw their lives on the line for ill Papa, but
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: they did not have to do.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: So it's another four now situation, right because Adolf Hitler,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: going back to the original points about expansionist powers, Adolf
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Hitler's Germany was very much an expanse of power, expansions
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: of power. So the Vatican would have been in the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: menu at some point, and probably right then at that moment.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: The only reason he didn't attack the Vatican is because
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Italy was naxis power with Mussolini.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: Oh that's a really good point, Ben, because I mean,
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: taking down the Vatican is a symbolic act in a
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: lot of ways too, right. I mean it's sort of like,
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: you know, we are flexing on your religion, on your culture,
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: and you know we are owning you entirely. But since
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Mussolini was an ally of Hitler, it probably made sense
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: that he let it give him a past.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: They were also, you know, even Musolini aside, there are
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of Catholics in the world in positions of power, right,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: So this is a great way to make your own
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: empire go extinct. In the modern day, the Swiss Guard
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: today has a hybrid role because they're seen often as
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: serving in a ceremonial fashion. They definitely dressed the part.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: The uniforms were probably not designed by Michelangelo, but they've
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: still got the hal birds and the swords and doublets
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and berets dooms. Yeah, but they still served their original purpose.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty one, they helped Oh there's a crazy story.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: They helped prevent an assassination attempt against John Paul the
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Second in Saint Peter's Square and one of the guys
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: who rushed to the Pope's aid. He was Swiss Guard,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't dressed the part. He was playing clothes
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: so he could blend in with the crowd. He became
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: a hero this playing clothes guardsman.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: He became.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: He got named Commandant of the Swiss Guards, the leader
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the Swiss Guards, in nineteen ninety eight, and he served
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: in that role until he was murdered by the second
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: highest ranking officer. Because the competition never stops.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: Oh he was just like jealous of what he Oh
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: my god, that's surely there's more to that story. But yeah,
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: I think for now, well, I think we'll jump to
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: that particular conclusion. And we got some modern stats from
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: the website and wanted in Rome. Currently, the Swiss Guard
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: is led by Commander Christophe Graff. They are one hundred
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: and thirty five members strong, members soldiers, what have you.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: And they wear the full what is it in full
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: compliment that means in the full uniform, right, the regalia
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: of the.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, the full compliment that means the full Yeah.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, if all the positions are filled, they got one
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: hundred and thirty five I see, got it, including thirty
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: four new recruits that are sworn in or going to
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: be sworn in. No, we're just torn in on May
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: sixth of twenty twenty four. Congratulations you guys. Was a job, yes,
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: was hod And then you know you mentioned the plane
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: clothes guy. Surely there's a bunch of those, because I mean,
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: they give themselves away pretty hardcore. And it does seem
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: like the ones that are wearing the you know, the
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: the plumes and the rough and the halbirds aren't exactly
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: batt already. I guess they could. Can they deflect a
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: bullet with those swords? Like? Do they have firearms? Like?
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: Or are we just looking to the plane closed ones
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: to actually do the dirty work.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: So from my research, what it was is that there's
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: like a number of them who are up in the
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: get up but many of them, like all of them,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: are trained to actually fight modern stuff. They have modern weapons.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like the petry.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: They're kind of part of the terrorism.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah much like yeah, exactly, Well they're also I would say, yeah,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: it's important to know that these guys are competent military operators.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: You know, some of them rotate in and out. I'm
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: sure of the more pomp aspects of the gig, right,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: it's not always your turn to wear the costume.
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: But what have a circumstance been? What of the circumstance?
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: And they also, like I think it blew my mind too,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: knowing that they're trained to use rifles, because when you
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: look at you just think maybe what you were kind
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: of originally thinking as well, Like these guys are hopefully
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Jedi level with halbirds, you know what I mean, like
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: knocking bullets out of the air.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: It's a big blame. It's a big old it's a
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: big old sword. But yeah, but you never bring a
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: halbird to a rifle fight. So thankfully they also have.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe I think it's a cane sword thing. Maybe the
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: halbirds are really long rifles.
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: Maybe that'd be kind of cool. A gun knife. I
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: guess that's what a bandet is, but we accidentally reinvented
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: it and maybe yeah, yeah, we're gonna take full credit
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: for it. I think I maybe mentioned on this or
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: maybe stuff that I once, you know, I once, I don't.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: We'll never forget this. I went to like kind of
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: a trashy flea market when I was a kid, and
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: they have those like kind of like I don't know,
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: probably not fully legal, like weapons type stands, or you
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: can get a taser or like a big old knife
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: or in this occasion, a taser knife for when stabbing
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: or tasing just isn't enough you need you gotta have
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: both in one and one.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: You Yeah, I see those. I don't personally have one
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: in essay, if you're listening. But we do have so
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: many other things we want to explore with you folks
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: who've got a great, great bunch of odd facts about Switzerland.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: Some of which were actually new to me. But I'm
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: on the fence.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Would we save these for an episode on Switzerland itself?
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: I think so. I will just quickly say that I
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: think it's crazy that Switzerland has seven thousand legs, just
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: to give you a little taste, and it doesn't to
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: your point earlier ben fall under our micro nation category,
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I think one hundred percent. There's a lot
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: to talk about their craftsmanship. Max. We were talking off
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: air about just their attention to detail and machining and
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: manufacturing of like military implements as well.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: And watches of course, the Swiss watches. I'm gonna write
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: an episode on that. Man.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: I gotta talk about the fact that they have four
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: national languages.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: That's always getting to what language are we going to
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: record the Switzerland.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: We got to do Romance, which is which is like
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: the Swiss language that no one speaks, but it's still
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: an official language, just.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: Like a town in the mountains. Well, we'll learn about
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: I think we have several Switzerland episodes ahead. I'm gonna
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: go with English if that's okay. All right.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: By the way, their their website, their their website from
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: the government like auto translates to a bunch of different languages.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're good.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Also they have a lot of international customers. We're gonna
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: leave that one there, but it did change that much.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: So uh, No, you'll do your part of our Switzerland
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: podcast in English, Max, and I will do it in
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: romani Ish. Uh And then we should get the overall vibe,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: the general gist in the meet Yeah, thanks so much
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: for tuning in Ridiculous Historians. Thanks to our super producer
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: mister Max Williams, our composer Alex Williams and.
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Eve Chef Coats and Christo raciotis here in
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: spirit a J. Mohammas Jacobs, the Puzzler, Jonathan Strickland, the
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: quizt got some really fun crossover episodes coming up in
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: the very near future. Gonna get back up with our
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: buddies Zaraon and Elizabeth over on Ridiculous Crime, as well
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: as something we've sort of teased. I'm just gonna say,
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: Smithsonian's put that out there.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Thanks all suits, Rachel, Doctor, Rachel Big Spinach, Lance, shout
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: out to the good people Zurich and Geneva. Can't wait
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: to explore on the podcast and on the ground.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: to your favorite shows.