{ { Infobox military unit
| unit_name = Life Guards
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| image =
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| caption = Coat of arms of the Life Guards. | dates = 1521–present (lineage) 2000–present(current form) | disbanded = | country = | countries = | allegiance = Swedish Armed Forces | branch = Swedish Army | type = Household Infantry and Cavalry | role = Infantry, Ceremonial | size = 1,300(4 active battalions, 3 bands, 6 reserve battalions) | command_structure = OPIL (2000–2005)SweAFHQ (2005–present) | garrison = Kungsängen | garrison_label = | nickname = RHQ | patron = | motto = Possunt nec posse videntur("They do what appears to be impossible") | colors = Infantry: yellowCavalry: white | colors_label = | march = Infantry: Quick: (W. Körner)Slow: (I. Gustavsson)Old: (unknown) Cavalry: Quick - Canter - | mascot = | anniversaries = 14 January | equipment = | equipment_label = | battles = | decorations = | battle_honours = Swedish War of Liberation (1521) Thirty Years' War Rain (1631) Lützen (1632) Oldendorf (1633) Wittstock (1636) Leipzig (1642) Second Northern War Warszawa (1656) Fredriksodde (1657) March across the Belts (1658) Scanian War Halmstad (1676) Lund (1676) Landskrona (1677) Great Northern War Narva (1700) Düna (1701) Kliszow (1702) Pultusk (1703) Holowczyn (1708) Helsingborg (1710) Russo-Swedish War Svensksund (1790) | battle_honours_label = | flying_hours = | website = | commander1 = Colonel Stefan Nacksten | commander1_label = Commander, Life Guards | commander2 = Colonel Stefan Nacksten | commander2_label = Assistant Commander/Executive Officer Stockholm Area | commander3 = His Majesty The King | commander3_label = Honorary Colonel-in-chief | notable_commanders = | identification_symbol = | identification_symbol_label = Branch insignias (infantry) | identification_symbol_2 = | identification_symbol_2_label = Branch insignias (cavalry) | identification_symbol_3 = | identification_symbol_3_label = Unit insignia | identification_symbol_4 = | identification_symbol_4_label = | identification_symbol_5 = | identification_symbol_5_label = }}
The Life Guards (, designation LG) is a combined Swedish Army cavalry/infantry regiment. Its responsibilities include the defence of Stockholm as well as provision of the royal guard of honour for the King of Sweden and the Stockholm Palace. With traditions dating from 1521, the regiment is one of the oldest military units in continuous operational existence in the world. It was established in its present form in July 2000, following a merger of the Svea Life Guards and the Life Guard Dragoons. Headquarters are mainly located in Brunna north of Kungsängen in Upplands-Bro Municipality and at the "Cavalry Barracks 1" in central Stockholm.
History
Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1521, when the men of Dalarna chose 16 young able men as body guards for Gustav Vasa, thus making the Life Guards one of the world's oldest regiments still on active duty.
The King's Battalion's Life Company is the world's oldest company. Since the year 1523 the section, now enlarged, has been known as the Royal Corps of Halberdiers and, under various names, the regiment has had its natural home at the Palace in Stockholm. The Halberdiers were transformed in 1619 into the Household Company which accompanied Gustavus Adolphus wherever he went in Europe. It was from this time too that the unit was classed as a regiment. In 1633 the company brought the king's body home from Lützen and thereafter formed the basis of Queen Christina's new guards regiment within the royal household.
The three following Carolean kings – Charles X, Charles XI, and Charles XII – required a government organization that was more mobile and the guards officers and soldiers accompanied them to the various battlefields under the name of His Royal Majesty's Guards. With the destruction of the palace in Stockholm by fire in 1697 the guards' natural responsibility for the defense of the capital disappeared. The new palace was completed in the 1750s and there was again a need for Life Guards and Household Troops for defending the capital.