It is best known for taking part in many right-wing demonstrations in France in the s and s. Commander Louis Cuignet prospected in the ranks of the army in search of a forceful leader.
Few in number at the start, the first police reports mention about fifty members in January During the winter of to , the Camelots du Roi damaged or even destroyed statues erected in Paris or in the provinces representing Dreyfusards or Republicans. They were much more an armed force than a force of political proposal. The idea was to stir up trouble to remind public opinion of the royalist cause and thus bring in new recruits.
The members of Les Camelots had great admiration for Charles Maurras as a writer and as a politician. In November , the Council of Professors of the Faculty of Letters, chaired by Dean Alfred Croiset, authorized Thalamas, who did not have the title of Doctor of Letters, to provide a free course once a week throughout the winter on history pedagogy.
This course was divided into twelve small courses. Trained by Maxime Real del Sarte, the Camelots du Roi decide to interrupt the lesson given by the professor every Wednesday, even if it meant resorting to violence. During the first lesson, on 2 December , students and Camelots invaded the Michelet amphitheater and caused a hellish uproar. Maxime Real del Sarte grabbed Thalamas and slapped him. The young people left the room, spread out on the boulevard Saint-Michel, broke through the police roadblocks, crossed the Seine, and arrived at the statue of Joan of Arc, where they laid a wreath of flowers.
On 23 December, wanting to rehabilitate Joan of Arc, Maurice Pujo undertook to devote a free course to her in the middle of the Sorbonne, in the Guizot amphitheater. He traced in front of his listeners a historical picture, comparing the state of France in the XVth century with that of his time. He was wrapping up when a peace officer, followed by a Captain of the Guard and a line of soldiers, asked him to come out.
