Generic guidons for French dragoon regiments with no known emblems

A fair number of French dragoon regiments, at periods between the 17th century and the Revolution, had guidons where we do not know the emblems they carried on the reverse. (Quite often in Pierre Charrié's book Drapeaux Et Étendards Du Roi we come across the term "motif inconnu".) As it is unthinkable that a regiment on the wargames table should not have a flag, it has become a sort of tradition that such regiments carry guidons with the sun in splendour motif on both obverse and reverse. These three versions allow such regiments to have a guidon.

I have noted in square brackets above the guidons an example for each of a regiment with a guidon of that colour and the period where the emblem is unknown.

A Polite Request...

I have recently seen a number of posts here and there (on Facebook, for instance) using my flags but without any acknowledgement of their origin. Some people do mention me and the blog, and I thank those who do.

May I repeat (as noted in the Template and Flag Copyright note in the left column) that as a small return for the free flags I offer "I  ask for an acknowledgement of the author (i.e. me, David) if you use them; please give a link to this blog on your blog or website [or Facebook page]."

The link is:  https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your co-operation!

David.

Flags of the Spanish Walloon Foot Guards "Reales Guardias Valonas" 1750s

For regimental details, see the entry on the Spanish Foot Guards previously. The Walloon Guards were first raised 1704 and saw much distinguished service in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Like the other foot guard regiment, they saw minimal service in the Seven Years War.

The uniform was the same as that of the Spanish Foot Guards as shown in my previous posting. 

This flag set is also one of those commissioned by Lewis Simpson-Jones. :-)

There's a useful history of the Walloon Guards in the Spanish Service (in French) dated 1858 for free download here: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_7mIOAAAAQAAJ

Flags of the Spanish Foot Guards "Reales Guardias Españolas" 1750s

There will be a number of extra Spanish flag sets coming along soon, of which this is the first. I was recently commissioned to produce Spanish infantry flags and cavalry standards by Lewis Simpson-Jones. We agreed that I would charge him less for the flag work and he would thus be happy for me to post them on my blog soon! So it is thanks to him that I am able to fill in some of the gaps in the coverage of Spanish flags sooner rather than later... :-)

The Spanish Household Troops included many purely ceremonial units (like the Halberdiers) but only the Spanish "Reales Guardias Españolas" and the Walloon Foot Guards "Reales Guardias Valonas" actually served in the field. Both regiments had 6 battalions each, with each battalion of one grenadier and six fusilier companies. This changed in 1759. In 1762 chasseur (light) companies were added.

The Guards regiments saw much action in the War of the Austrian Succession.

In the Seven Years War the Spanish Guards marched against Portugal with the army of the Marques de Sarria in 1762. Kronoskaf records that the chasseurs of the regiment were posted to protect a bridge of boats on the River Esla where the army would cross.

The flags in the War of the Austrian Succession were slightly more elaborate than these, which represent the flags carried in the 1750s:

And this plate from NYPL (https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-996a-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 ) shows the uniforms as they probably were mid-century: