I've been researching the Gendarmes and some of this information left me in doubt. I have relied on Article Burgundian Army of myArmoury and a few excerpts from Wikipedia on the subject.

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The French kings sought a solution to these problems by issuing ordinances (ordonnances) which established standing armies in which units were permanently embodied, based, and organized into formations of set size. Men in these units signed a contract which kept them in the service of the unit for periods of one year or longer. The first such French ordinance was issued by King Charles VII at the general parliament of Orléans in 1439, and was meant to raise a body of troops to crush the devastating incursions of the Armagnacs. [...] In 1434, the pay for the members of the company was set as 120 livres for gendarmes, 60 for coutilliers, 48 for "archers", and 36 for the non-combatants.

I fought that the first Ordinance was in 1364, when the Kingdom of France tried to create an standing army of 6.000 men-at-arms, but only achieve 3.000. I mean, as they would be only have arisen in 1445, if there are already in pay records of 1434? And this led me to the question, it would be correct to say that Ordinances actually had Gendarmes? Towards an organization with very heavy cavalry/gendarmes (rider and horse in plate armour), "medium" cavalry and mounted archers? If they were, It makes sense to say that these gendarmes had a prominent role in the expulsion of the englishmen from France? I mean, the armor for the horse would probably protected it from most of the arrows of the english longbowmen, right?

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Charles in fact started with basically feudal forces, found, like the English and French before him, that they must be paid in order to be kept on foot for a lengthy campaign, and, in 1471, took the further step to a standing army, by forming Compagnies d'Ordonnance of 600 men-at-arms, on similar lines to the French. A lance consisted of the Gendarme or man-at-arms, fully-armoured and equipped with a heavy lance (Burgundian ones were supposed to have at least frontal armour for the horse and seem sometimes to have had shields); a coustillier—in this case armed with javelin and sword and thus perhaps intended to act as a light cavalryman; a page; and no less than three mounted archers: in Charles the Bold's army these were still mounted infantry, not the cavalrymen they afterwards became, even their secondary weapon—a two-handed sword—being unsuitable for mounted use. Many of them were English longbowmen. The archers operated separately from the men-at-arms, in their own 100 man companies, the lance in fact, in this army as others, being a sort of administrative hangover from the feudal noble and his followers.

What does this "mounted infantry"? It would be soldiers who only would use the horse to get around and when in battle they would fight on foot? What kind of sword is that? The Zweihander (as big as the soldier) or the common "Greatsword" (about 1.20-1.30 meters in total length)?

And finally, what kind of armour a heavy Gendarme would have beetween de late fourteenth century to middle sixteenth centuries? The full plate armour (with or without mail inside?) and a barding or "half-barding" for the horse? What's the purpuseof that "golden" rider? A commander?

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Raimond de Fourquevaux wrote the following in his 1548 military manual:

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First of all the men of armes shall be armed with soulleretz, whole grefues, cuisses, curets with tasses, gor|get, pouldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, helmet with beuer, gossets, & great pieces: all which I haue specified perticularly, be|cause of the men of armes at this present, who will be called men of armes, and notwithstanding are armed and furnished but like vnto light horssemen: and you knowe that a man that is armed light, shall neuer do the effect that a man may do that is well ar|med, who can not be hurt by hand-strokes, where as the light horsseman is subiect vnto blowes vpon many parts of his body, because that his harnesse is not so heauie, nor so sure as the men of armes ought for to be, and not without cause, for the paines that a light horsseman and other light armed ought to take, there is no man able to indure with a complet harnesse, nor horsse able to carry him: but as for the men of armes, who are appointed to abide firmely the assaults of their enemies, and not to runne from the one side to the other, may be laden with heauie harnesse; and to carry sutch a waight, they ought to haue strong and great horsses, for besides this, the horsses must be  barbed.

He specified sabatons (soulleretz) and mail gussets among the various other elements of a complete harness. I'm unsure what "great pieces" refers to here.

Then they wore mail at least to cover the armpit in the end of middle-16th, that's interesting. By the way: "man of arms" means in a general sense in France, Gendarmes?

But a question I'd never noticed before, the picture that I showed shows Gendarmes with exposed and blackened plate harness. But I recently read that they used all kinds of feathers and colorful "surcoats" (maybe heraldry?). But I also saw some pictures, most of the sixteenth century, showing them without those clothes over the armor, by chance it went out of fashion, or maybe it was optional?


By the way, I still don't understand why this Gendarme wears golden armour ...

There's some evidence that French mounted archers continued to carry and shoot bows/crossbows - including from the saddle - into the early sixteenth century, such as at Marignano 1515. Royal enactments from as late as 1526 indicate use of bows/crossbows while mounted.

Yes they did, and that's a perfect illustration of just how complicated the evolution of the Ordonnance companies (and their descendants) was.

That's an interesting topic. However, will I be right to assume that gendarms weren't really effective as a military unit? At least the battles that I've studied in which they were present, gave me such an impression, I'll admit though that I've never studied the topic deep enough to make any solid conclusions.

One thing gendarmes and other heavy or medium cavalry were good it is checking or at least slowing down opposing pike formations. Marignano 1515 constitutes an outstanding example of this. Charges from French men-at-arms, though unable to break Swiss pikers on their own, did force Swiss units to slow down, halt, or retreat at various points during the battle, allowing other French units to deploy more effectively.