"The Three Musketeers"

  They came from the mind of Alexander Dumas the Elder. He wrote the novel The Three Musketeers in 1884. The setting is 17th-century France, and the musketeers-- Athos, Porthos, and Aramis-- are swordsmen who serve King Louis XIII. Together they defeat Cardinal Richelieu in his plot to embarass the royal family. The confusion about whether the musketeers were real arises because Louis XIII and Richelieu did indeed exist. But like many authors, Dumas used historical figures as foils for his fictional characters.