Are the Pope's colourfully uniformed guards just for show? The question has frequently been asked in the wake of John Paul II's death. The answer is that these soldiers are indeed not only "stood up" for ceremonial purposes. They are members of the Swiss Guard - often referred to as the papal guards or Swiss mercenaries - an elite, company-sized military force that has defended a succession of popes for more than five centuries and not always without bloodshed.

Recognisable by their Renaissance-era striped uniforms (legend has it the uniform was designed by Michelangelo), armour, halberds and helmets plumed with Ostrich feathers, the Swiss Guards are best known to outsiders as the armed men who stand watch throughout the Apostolic Palace, including at the doors to the Pope's private apartments and the exterior gates of the Vatican. The guards are a favorite subject of photographers and tourists, and their quiet presence is an impressive show of force much like the US marines at the White House and the various regiments that guard Buckingham Palace.

Like American marines and British guardsmen, the Swiss Guard are crack soldiers, trained and equipped to fight an armed enemy should the need arise. They have long served as contract mercenaries to non-Swiss heads of state and others.

The Swiss Guard officially assumed Papal defence duties on January 22 1506. The unit's most desperate action occurred 21 years later, on May 6 1527, when 147 guardsmen - out of 189 - were killed in a defensive action that enabled Pope Clement VII to escape from attacking Spanish forces.