Did the Three Musketeers actually have muskets?

The Musketeers were a real unit in the 17th century French army.

They were part of the King's bodyguard,were a cavalry unit numbering just over 100,and were equipped with 2 pistols,a sword, and a carbine,which was shorter and lighter version of the musket specifically designed for cavalry use.

Aww.. Its a very good question for sure. Mm Well Yeah its true that they had muskets because director is not so fool to call them musketeers for no reason.

All the musketeers in the novel or movie are tremendously equipped with a musket and lots of weapons are with them. Anyways, I am not going to provide you with all details simply answer is YES to your question :P

A very good question. If you never read the book chances are you would never know by watching the films. Alexandre Dumas based his book upon Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan, capitaine lieutenant de la première compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi (Memoirs of Mister d'Artagnan, Lieutenant Captain of the first company of the King's Musketeers.

Alexander Dumas printed this book in 1844, and it was plot set in 1625. In 1625 Muskets were very primitive and unreliable, they still functioned more like Arquebusier requiring a matchlock to ignite the firing pan, to fire the weapon. It was highly unreliable and fairly inaccurate, which is why military doctrine at the time formed musketeers into groups that fired in volleys. Normally armies would fire a few volleys before entering into melee combat with whoever was not struck down from the volleys. The name musketeer refers more to the military unit the charters were in rather than how the fought.

A musketeer was of course armed with a musket. It was a relatively brand new and complicated weapon, hence the special status. The swashbuckling with rapiers is a Hollywood feature. Their primary weapon would be the musket.

Same goes for a.o. grenadiers. They were armed with early hand grenades and very dangerous. Both to the thrower and the recipient.

Yes.

They could still kill somebody. You could fire it once at least before going into close quarter. Hence why they still carried swords.