Sunday, 14 January 2024

Flags of Denmark in the War of the Spanish Succession: The King's Lifeguard of Foot

I have been working on some Danish flags of the early 18th century as a small thank you for a splendid gift of two part-painted Crimean War armies and the chap is happy for me to put them on my blog so this is the first.




Danish troops fought extensively against the forces of Louis XIV between 1688 and 1715. As a relatively poor country Denmark relied on subsidies from its richer allies like Britain and the Netherlands.

Den Kongelige Livgarde (til Fods) (The King's Lifeguard of Foot) was first raised in 1658 by Frederick 3rd. It had 18 musketeer companies and two grenadier companies. There were 3 battalions, each of six musketeer companies.

One battalion of the Guards served in Ireland in 1688-1690 with the forces of William III. The first battalion was in the service of the Netherlands and Great Britain from 1701-1714 at a strength of 7 companies of around 740 men total.

The flag shown here is from the Triomphes Louis XIV and was apparently captured at Ramillies 1706.

And the uniform was something like this in the WSS:



12 comments:

  1. Nice flag and a good trade. Two Crimean War armies? Does this suggest you will be gaming with them some day?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jon. :-) Yes, the plan is to paint the remaining figures (the armies came part painted) and game with them as soon as possible - which may be some time yet as my figure painting skills are very rusty (and were never brilliant anyway!).

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete
  2. Excellent David - I have long admired your beautiful work but to date, unfortunately, most of them have not been in any eras I have a collection for! Hopefully, WSS is your "next big thing" and perhaps some GNW too?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! :-) I'm glad to hear you may find a use for some of my flags now. Yes, there are many more WSS flags to follow and GNW are certainly on the list too. (I have a small stockpile of WSS flags I did for commissions over ten years ago and will be adding them to the blog too. Although I do own the copyright, I asked the chap who commissioned them as a matter of courtesy if he is happy for me to do so and he is.)

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete
  3. That is lovely with the blue grey making the red and gold seem even richer:).

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Steve. :-) These heraldically rich flags do usually justify all the work, don't they?

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete
  4. Beautiful flag David, thanks for sharing.

    Willz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Willz. :-) More Danish WSS flags to come soon...

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete
  5. Hell yes! That's going to be my next wargame unit.. many thanks for the mental nudge to pull out the paint brushes! :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! :-) My pleasure; I look forward to seeing them in action with your troops.

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Thank you, Ray. :-) I do like the heraldry - although probably not so much while I am in the middle of creating it! ;-)

      All the best,

      David.

      Delete

Saturday 6th June 2020 I've decided to allow comments from Anonymous Users but I'll still be moderating posts, as I'm sure the spam will probably flood in now! We'll see...