In Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings series, Philip the Fair and his sons always seem to have a small company of archer retainers on hand to do any of their dirty work when needed. Is this true? I never thought of France relying a great deal on archers.
I am not aware of French monarchs having a guard of archers as early as Philip the Fair.
Later, the French Kings did have a guard of archers, first formed as the Company of Scottish Archers, or Guard Ecossaise, formed in 1418 from Scots who had fought for France in the 100 Years War.
Eventually, the Scottish company was augmented by 3 further companies of French Archers, the final company being established in 1515. Each of these companies originally numbered less than 100 men.
Together, they were named the Garde du Corps, or bodyguard of the King. The Scottish company gradually became less and less actually Scottish, and by the late 16th century was really Scottish in name only.
The Garde du Corps survived until 1791, was revived after Napoleon went into exile, was disbanded when Napoleon returned, was revived again after he was defeated, and was finally dissolved in 1830.
I would be interested to hear if there were earlier companies of archers in service to the Kings of France. I have not heard of such as early as Philip the Fair.