50 Fun Facts About The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers, published in 1844, was written by which French author?

It was the first of his three d'Artagnan Romances and was written with the help of ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.

The young hero d'Artagnan leaves his family in which region of France to seek his fortune in Paris?

His hot Gascon temper gets him into three duels on his first day in the city.

Which three musketeers befriend d'Artagnan and are known as 'the three inseparables'?

D'Artagnan is not actually a musketeer for most of the book; he serves in the less prestigious King's Guards under Des Essarts.

Which powerful churchman is the musketeers' chief antagonist, scheming against Queen Anne?

Dumas gives him a personal motive too: he resents the queen for rebuffing his advances.

What mark, branded on Milady de Winter's shoulder, reveals her criminal past?

The executioner who branded her reveals at her trial that she had seduced and abandoned his brother, a priest.

Which musketeer turns out to be Milady's former husband, having left her for dead in a forest?

As the Comte de la Fère he abandoned his castle and joined the guards under another name, seeking solace in wine.

D'Artagnan races to London to recover which gift from the Duke of Buckingham to save the Queen's honour?

Milady had stolen two of them, but Buckingham had replacements made in time.

Who is Constance Bonacieux, the woman d'Artagnan falls in love with at first sight?

Her husband is d'Artagnan's landlord, and the relationship is never consummated before Milady poisons her.

How does Milady kill Constance Bonacieux?

She finds Constance hiding in the same convent and poses as another victim of the Cardinal to gain her trust.

The novel's climactic military setting is the siege of which Protestant stronghold?

Athos wagers that the four friends can hold the St Gervais bastion for an hour; they last an hour and a half.

Milady seduces which puritan guard into helping her escape and assassinating the Duke of Buckingham?

Buckingham really was assassinated by a John Felton in 1628; Dumas folded the historical event into his plot.

At the end of the novel Richelieu gives d'Artagnan a blank commission for which rank?

He offers it to each friend in turn: Athos thinks it beneath him, Porthos is retiring to marry, and Aramis is joining the church.

D'Artagnan's servant Planchet is hired after one of the musketeers sees him doing what from the Pont de la Tournelle?

Porthos took it as a sign of good character; Planchet proves brave, clever and loyal.

Athos's servant Grimaud is only allowed to speak in emergencies. How does he otherwise communicate?

Each musketeer's servant mirrors his master: Aramis's Bazin is pious, Porthos's Mousqueton is a would-be dandy.

Between which years is the novel set?

Its sequel, Twenty Years After, jumps to the Fronde and the English Civil War.

The novel was first serialised between March and July 1844 in which newspaper?

Dumas framed the book as a recovered manuscript, the Mémoires of the Comte de la Fère.

Which collaborator worked with Dumas on The Three Musketeers, its sequels and The Count of Monte Cristo?

He researched and drafted outlines; Dumas expanded them in his own style. Maquet later sued for co-authorship and lost.

When the ghostwriter went to court demanding co-authorship and royalties, what was the outcome?

One critic summed it up: 'Dumas without Maquet would have been Dumas: what would Maquet have been without Dumas?'

Dumas said he was inspired by a 1700 'memoir' of d'Artagnan written by which author?

He found it while researching a history of Louis XIV; the names Athos, Porthos and Aramis appear in it.

The real Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan died in 1673 at the siege of which city?

He was killed during the Franco-Dutch War, decades after the events of the novel; he was also famous for arresting Nicolas Fouquet.

The historical d'Artagnan is famous for arresting which disgraced finance minister of Louis XIV?

The arrest at Nantes in 1661 followed Fouquet's lavish party at Vaux-le-Vicomte.

The real Musketeers of the Guard were founded in 1622 when which king armed a company of light cavalry with muskets?

In 1664 they split into Grey and Black Musketeers, named for the colour of their horses.

After 1664 the two musketeer companies were known as the Grey and the Black Musketeers, distinguished by what?

The Grey Musketeers rode matched grey horses and the Black Musketeers black ones.

The author's grandmother was an enslaved woman from which colony, now Haiti?

His father, a mixed-race general in Napoleon's army, was the son of a French marquis and Marie-Cessette Dumas.

In 2002, for the bicentenary of his birth, Dumas's ashes were re-interred in which Paris monument?

President Jacques Chirac presided, placing him among France's luminaries.

The sequel Twenty Years After sees the musketeers try in vain to save which doomed monarch?

They also face Milady's vengeful son Mordaunt during the Fronde and the English Civil War.

The final d'Artagnan Romance, The Vicomte of Bragelonne, is often split into three volumes, the last of which is titled what?

It ends the saga with Aramis's plot to swap Louis XIV for his twin.

In the 1998 film of the saga's final volume, who played both Louis XIV and his imprisoned masked twin Philippe?

Byrne played d'Artagnan, Irons Aramis, Malkovich Athos and Gérard Depardieu Porthos.

Richard Lester's 1973 film was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for which band?

Lester had directed A Hard Day's Night and Help!; the film eventually starred Michael York, Oliver Reed and Richard Chamberlain.

The 1973 film's producers split one shoot into two movies without telling the cast, prompting the Screen Actors Guild to require what?

It stipulates that a single production cannot be split into instalments without prior contractual agreement.

The 1993 Disney film's end-credits song 'All for Love' was performed by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and whom?

Adams co-wrote it with Mutt Lange and Michael Kamen; Tim Curry played Richelieu in the film.

Who played the scheming cardinal in the 1993 Disney adaptation starring Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland?

Waltz played the cardinal in 2011 and Heston in 1973; Price was a villain in the 1948 version.

Paul W. S. Anderson's 2011 film added what anachronistic vehicles, one of which the musketeers hijack from Buckingham?

Milla Jovovich played Milady in a cast that included Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz and Mads Mikkelsen.

Who played d'Artagnan in the 2023 French two-part film starring Vincent Cassel and Eva Green?

The two films were shot back to back over 150 days on a combined budget of about €72 million.

In the BBC's 2014 series The Musketeers, which Doctor Who star played the cardinal in the first series?

Marc Warren's Rochefort took over as villain in series two, and Rupert Everett's Marquis de Feron in series three.

Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, the 1981 cartoon with canine musketeers, was a co-production between Japan and which country?

Its sequel, The Return of Dogtanian, adapted Twenty Years After.

The 3 Musketeers candy bar, introduced by Mars in 1932, originally came in three pieces of which flavours?

Wartime shortages saw the strawberry and vanilla pieces phased out, leaving only the chocolate.

A 2004 Ukrainian musical of The Three Musketeers cast which future head of state as d'Artagnan?

In that version the three musketeers were gender-flipped and played by women.

Which silent-film swashbuckler starred as d'Artagnan in the 1921 adaptation?

Gene Kelly took the role in the star-studded 1948 MGM version with Lana Turner as Milady.

A popular 1978 Soviet musical adaptation, D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers, starred which actor?

His plumed hat and 'Pora-pora-poraduemsya' became a Soviet pop-culture fixture.

A 1936 Disney Silly Symphony about mouse musketeers mixed the novel with which nursery rhyme?

Disney returned to the story in 2004 with the direct-to-video Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.

Which character plays d'Artagnan in Disney's 2004 direct-to-video film in which three classic cartoon stars become musketeers?

The trio become musketeers to protect Princess Minnie from Captain Pete.

William Barrow's 1846 English translation, still in print, removed what from the novel to suit Victorian standards?

Translator Richard Pevear called most modern versions 'textbook examples of bad translation practices'.

Who is Milady's second husband's brother, who imprisons her in England after a warning from d'Artagnan?

Her second husband died of a mysterious disease, apparently poisoned by her; the marriage was bigamous anyway since Athos was alive.

Which of the musketeers is described as a dandy of 'homeric strength', the least cerebral of the four?

He ends the novel retiring to marry his wealthy mistress.

Aramis wavers throughout the novel between women and court intrigue and which other calling?

His servant Bazin dreams of the day his master finally joins the church.

In which town does d'Artagnan first clash with Rochefort, who mocks his horse on the road to Paris?

He swears revenge but misses several chances before their paths cross again near the novel's end.

Porthos's servant Mousqueton was originally a Norman with which less dashing name?

Porthos renamed him for a better ring; the vain valet is lodged and clothed in lieu of pay.

Aramis's servant Bazin, a pious man, longs for the day his master will do what?

Bazin hails from Berry and has always dreamed of serving a churchman.

Which translator's 2018 Pegasus edition began the first complete English d'Artagnan cycle in over 150 years?

Ellsworth, also known as game designer Lawrence Schick, planned nine volumes including The Count of Moret.