Friday, 25 April 2025

Flags of Dutch Infantry Regiment Bülow 1679-1695, Welderen 1695 on [also called Oranje-Gelderland]

First raised 1602 or 1628. Gelderland. One battalion strong with 10 or 12 companies at various times.

Colonels: Willem van Bülow 1679-1695; Steven van Welderen 1695-1710; Gijsbert van Welderen from 1710




Actions:

1689 Battle of Walcourt [780 men strong in August/September]
1702 Battle of Nijmegen
1702 Defence of Hulst and taken prisoner
17093 Siege of Bonn
1703-1704 To Portugal
1707 Battle of Almanza
1708 Back to Flanders
1709 Siege of Tournai
1709 Battle of Malplaquet; 45 killed and 209 wounded in action
1710 Siege of Aire; 28 killed and 89 wounded in action
1712 Battle of Denain; 169 prisoners

And this was the uniform 1690 and 1703:



Friday, 18 April 2025

Jacobite Colour of the King's or Irish Foot Guards

Stevens records 26 companies at 80 per company for a total of 2080 private soldiers in June 1690.  2 battalions strong. Uniform red with blue facings. At the Boyne they were 1980 strong.

The regiment was a former English one which went over to James on his arrival in Ireland. It was commanded by William Dorrington. Dorrington was captured at Aughrim on 12th July 1691.



Mark Allen suggests that the colour described by Stevens and depicted here was perhaps a royal colour and that the regiment, which later became Dorrington's in French service, carried as regimental colours those of Dorrington's which I have already depicted (= Rooth later, with the same flags; see below).

 



Wednesday, 16 April 2025

The colours of Jacobite Infantry Regiment Lord Grand Prior 1689-1691

Captain John Stevens records in his Journal that the Lord Grand Prior's Regiment in June 1690 consisted of 13 companies, each of 62 men for a total of 806 private soldiers at full strength with 39 corporals, 26 sergeants, 12 ensigns, 13 lieutenants, 1 captains, 1 major, 3 lieutenant colonels, plus reformado officers (i.e. officers with no companies of their own), for a complete total of 910. The drummers wore blue lined white. The grenadiers had caps with the logo of a flaming city and the motto "The fruits of rebellion", the same as the colours. The musketeer uniform was red lined white.

Two regimental and one Colonel's colour were carried. The regiment was also called Fitzjames after its colonel. Originally the regiment had two battalions with 22 companies and a strength of 1100.



Sunday, 13 April 2025

Granby's 71st Foot 1745-1746: totally speculative (but rather splendid) colours for the regiment

I created these as a favour, being somewhat intrigued by the regiment, and others creating armies for the '45 may find some use for them according to the mantra "every wargames unit deserves to carry flags"!

Lord (or the Marquis of) Granby's Foot was originally sponsored by his father John Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland. (The Marquis of Granby later became famous for his command of British troops in the Seven Years War; his cavalry charge at Warburg 1760, where he lost his hat and wig, gave rise to the expression "going bald headed at it".) The 71st was a provincial Nobleman's Regiment which, on becoming half completed, was taken into the Line on 4th November 1745. Consisting of ten companies, it was widely scattered with six companies at Leicester, two at Loughborough and two at Harborough. Once accepted into the regulars they were gathered together, initially at Nottingham on November 12th then afterwards they marched to Warwick on November 19th and then to the camp formed near Lichfield. At this stage there was still the threat of the Jacobite army heading towards London but, once they turned back at Derby, the regiment was sent to Newcastle upon Tyne on January 9th where it remained for the rest of the '45. Inactivity and poor quarters led to a mutiny and some desertions. On 27th June 1746 they were sent back to Leicester and there paid off with a bounty of 10s and 6d per man, which amounted to the large sum of £400, as the regiment had reached the unusually high number of 780 men. It was disbanded in August.




As can be seen from the attached list of officers in the 71st it was very much a family regiment; this list is taken from an out of copyright biography of the Marquis of Granby which can be found here: https://archive.org/details/someaccountofmil00mann Granby himself spent much of his time with the Duke of Cumberland as an aide de camp and did not serve with his regiment.

Most of the provincial units seem to have been clothed in blue. A grenadier cap of the 71st still survives with the cap of maintenance and peacock crest of the Granby/Manners coat of arms. A portrait of Granby probably depicts the uniform of the 71st, in blue with red facings. We have no information on any colours they carried, if they did at all, but if they did I feel they should have been as attractive as these "recreations" of mine, whose general design I based on those of the surviving colour of Scipio Duroure's infantry regiment 1745 which shows his coat of arms. The Regulation of 1747 stipulated that henceforth no colonel was "to put his arms, crest, device or livery on any part of the appointments of the Regiment under his command".  This would include the coats and drums of the drummers and the caps of the grenadiers, as well as the regiment's colours. This assertion of central authority, taking away many of the privileges colonels of regiments had previously enjoyed, applied throughout much of Europe from this period.

 


Thursday, 10 April 2025

Flags of Dutch Infantry Regiment Haersolte 1684, Salm 1701, Ranck 1701, Rantzau 1712

Province of Utrecht then Holland, 1 battalion

Oberst Rutger van Haersolte 1684; Rijn-en-WildGraaf van Salm (or Rhinegraf) 1701; Coenraad Ranck 1701; Hans Bertram von Rantzau (or Rantzow) 1712; the regiment was disbanded 1717.

The flag at the top of the sheet below was captured by the French at Fleurus in 1690 and depicted in the Triomphes Louis XIV; the flag below that is my very speculative Colonel's flag (done by request; feel free to use it or not!).




Service:
1690: Battle of Fleurus [Hall records that, from a total of 746 officers and men, 383 were killed and missing in action, 9 wounded in action and 112 prisoners; the depicted flag was captured that day]
1694: Siege of Huy
1695: Siege of Namur
1702: Battle of Nijmegen
1703: Siege of Bonn
1706: Battle of Ramillies; 8 wounded
1706: Siege of Menin; 10 killed and 19 wounded
1708: Battle of Oudenarde; 3 wounded
1708: Battle of Wynendael
1709: Siege of Tournai citadel
1710: Siege of Aire; 28 killed and 78 wounded

And the uniform in the late 17th to early 18th century (after Hall): 



Monday, 7 April 2025

Flags of Dutch Infantry Regiment Königsmarck or Rabenhaupt-Sucha 1672; it's complicated! See text...

After Pieter Wouwerman’s painting The Storming of Coevorden 30th December 1672

The 17th century Dutch artist Pieter Wouwerman painted "The Storming of Coevorden 30th December 1672" which depicts several flags, although only one is at all clear and has the Groningen arms in its top corner. (There is also a black and white engraving of the storm which is very similar to the painting but is, of course, less helpful.) A good resolution image of the picture can be found here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/De_bestorming_van_Coevorden%2C_30_december_1672%2C_SK-A-486.jpg for thsoe who would like to examine the detail.

We know that the Dutch regiments which were involved in this action were Groningen regiments Königsmarck (disbanded 1678; blue coated in 1672 and also fought at Seneffe 1674) and Rabenhaupt-Sucha (I48 in Mugnai, first raised 1671 as Carl von Rabenhaupt-Sucha, 1673 Arend Ludolf Gockinga, 1686 Barend Johan van Plott (which fought at Bentheim 1674 and Seneffe 1674 as well as Coevorden): given on 1/3/1703 to Ludolf Luyrt Ripperda. Uniform in 1702 was all off white; in 1703 it had red cuffs and waistcoat.




We do not know which flags belonged to which regiment. We do not even know with certainty that the artist has accurately depicted the flags carried at Coevorden, although the use of the arms of Groningen in the foremost flag leads us to believe that some attempt at authenticity has been made. In the absence of any other visual evidence it is the best we have. I have shown in my flag sheet top, the clearest and most detailed flag; below that the next most detailed flag but much of which is not clearly visible. The third flag down is my wildly speculative version of the two green flags where the corner silver streamers are clear but the central motif is only a very slight suggestion of some silver central device. The bottom flag is a Dutch flag captured at Fleurus in 1690 which also has a Groningen shield in the corner and may relate to these flags but whose identity is not known. The pale yellow flags were probably Colonel's flags and the green ones company or regimental flags.

So, make of this what you will! I would like to give the artist a good talking to about his failure to depict the flags clearly enough for our purposes but as usual I suppose we have to be grateful for the little information we do have from the painting!

Friday, 4 April 2025

Colours of the pro-Hanoverian Volunteer Unit the Yorkshire Blues in the '45

Various volunteer units were raised by "patriotically inclined" pro-Hanoverian nobility, gentry and clergy during the '45 and the Yorkshire Blues was one such unit. The money raised by the patriotic association in York, £31,420, funded four companies of infantry, each of 70 men plus sergeants, corporals and drummers. The unit lasted about four months. The name described their uniform, which was blue faced with red and of fairly simple cut and design without lapels.




This blog post: https://defendingthelegacy.blogspot.com/2017/01/flag-of-yorkshire-blues-regiment-in-1745.html put me onto a contemporary print, which unusually details the design of the regiment's flags, although it does not give the colours used. The coat of arms of York in the centre is known but the field of the flags is not. That blog post suggests blue, which is as good a colour as any and probably more likely than most, and I have followed that in my reconstructions of the flags. I have also produced an entirely speculative union flag design; it is quite likely that no such flag was carried but I like to be thorough in these matters! I have also shown the design with the inscription plus one without; the contemporary print shows both and it is not clear if both were used or the design with the inscription is entirely the fantasy of the print maker. One can never be sure in these matters!

The unit saw little action, mostly being used for garrison or escort work, as far as I can tell, but I would be keen to hear more if anyone does have more information.

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

The colours of Jacobite Infantry Regiment Lord Louth 1689-1690

Captain John Stevens records in his Journal that Oliver, Lord Louth's regiment in June 1690 consisted of 13 companies, each of 62 men for a total of 806 private soldiers at full strength. He describes the brown on the flags as "filamot", obviously a distortion of the French feuille morte or "dead leaf". Their uniform was white lined and faced filamot, clearly a popular colour with some Jacobites.

The flags are a little sombre but have their own quiet appeal. As I am sure I have said before, not all flags can be wildly colourful!


 According to this webpage: https://www.louthnewryarchives.ie/online-exhibitions/landowners-county-louth/louth.shtml "Matthew, the 7th Baron Louth, joined the Jacobite cause in 1689 and commanded an infantry regiment at the seige of Derry.  He was outlawed and exiled, and died in September 1689. The 8th Baron Louth, Oliver, was only 21 when he succeeded to the title in 1689.  He joined the Jacobite forces and was outlawed, and was in Limerick at the surrender in 1691."

Louth's, Bellew's and Slane's regiments are discussed in "Louth Regiments in the Irish Jacobite Army" by Diarmuid Murtagh in Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, 1953, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1953), pp. 8-15:

"There is an early report upon Louth's and Bellew's which is of passing interest. Writing from Dungannon under date 6th April, 1689, Major-General Pusignan reports : "I have seen the regiments of Bellew, of Gormanstown and of Louth, which have not got a single sword, and not enough muskets. The companies are stronger in pikes than in muskets, and of these very few of what there are are capable of being fired." Despite this lack of equipment, Pusignan led them both north to join the besieging army before Derry."

A return for the three regiments of 27th September, 1689 suggests that by then the regiments had acquired many more muskets but that only Bellew's had pikes, and "we find Slane's with the very unusual equipment of 100% muskets. This contained the germ of disaster, as the Huguenots were to find at the Boyne, for in the days before bayonets, a proportion of pikes or their equivalent was essential to protect the battalion from the charge of cavalry."

Bellew and Louth's regiments were part of the front line during the Boyne campaign and, along with Slane's, fell back on Limerick after the battle and formed part of the garrison. All three regiments took part in the campaign of 1691 and fought at Aughrim, where they suffered heavy casualties. Lord Slane was taken prisoner and Lord Bellew mortally wounded, lingering to die in the following January, with what suffering can perhaps be imagined. On his monument in Duleek church his widow Lady Margaret recorded that he "was shot in the belly at Aughrim fight".

Monday, 24 March 2025

The colours of Jacobite Infantry Regiment Earl of Antrim 1689-1690

Captain John Stevens' Journal reports on the Earl of Antrim's Regiment in June 1690 (and describes the flag as I have depicted here):

13 companies, each of 50 men to a total of 650 private soldiers.

Uniform was white lined red.

The regiment seems to have disappeared from the Jacobite army lists after the battle of the Boyne.




This design seems to have formed the basis for the subsequent designs of French Irish regimental flags to 1791.

Friday, 21 March 2025

The colours of Jacobite Infantry Regiment Lord Bellew 1689-1691

Another Jacobite flag set here, the colours of Lord Bellew's Regiment of Foot 1689-1691.

Captain John Steven's records in his Journal that Lord Bellew's regiment consisted of 13 companies, each of 62 men for a total of 806 private soldiers at full strength. He describes the brown on the flags as "filamot", obviously a distortion of the French feuille morte or "dead leaf". At a distance the flags must have looked a little dark and sepulchral! The regiment's uniform was red lined in orange tawny.


 

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

The colours of Jacobite Infantry Regiment Gordon O'Neill 1689-1691

I've been working on some very cryptic source material for late 17th century Dutch infantry flags of late and have not yet completed the flag sheets as the material is so very difficult to interpret satisfactorily; so, as it is some time since I last posted anything, to keep things ticking over on the blog here are the colours of Jacobite infantry regiment Gordon O'Neill 1689-1691.

Captain John Steven's records in his Journal that Gordon O'Neill's regiment consisted of 13 companies, each of 62 men for a total of 806 private soldiers at full strength. Their uniform was red lined white and faced red.

 


Monday, 10 March 2025

Highly Speculative Reconstruction of the flags of Dutch Infantry Regiment 16 Cromwell/Dolman/Cary/Van Marion/Van Meynderswijk

I've been asked to reconstruct plausible flags for various Dutch infantry regiments. Boxel's 1672 Dutch Manual of Arms gives a list of infantry flags, usually with cryptic detail, and says of this unit (then Dolman) "Root en Wit verdeelt" which means "red and white divided". Mugnai in his Helion volume on the Dutch army of 1660-1687 claims this means divided in four. Taking this as a starting point, I looked through Hall's volume on Dutch infantry flags of 1685-1715 to see if any flags of that period were quartered in design and the only flag quartered is that of Haersolte, 1701 Salm, 1701 Ranck, 1715 Rantzouw; it is depicted in the Triomphes Louis XIV in blue and chamois. I have used the detail of that flag for this highly speculative but very attractive recreation of the flags of  Cromwell/Dolman/Cary/Van Marion/Van Meynderswijk (IR16 in the Helion volume). The top flag is a battalion flag and the two flags below on each sheet possible designs of the colonel's flag. The heraldry of the two variants is that of Holland and Gelderland, the two provinces to which the unit was attached. First raised in 1605, it was an English unit until 1665, hence the very English names of the first three colonels. It fought at Maastricht in 1673 and Seneffe in 1674. In the 1660s the regiment was red coated. The regiment was disbanded in 1678. 




Friday, 7 March 2025

Reconstruction of the flags of Dutch Infantry Regiment 9 Pfalz-Birkenfeld/Hüffel (after fragmentary remains depicted in Triomphes Louis XIV)

These flags are my reconstruction of the flags of Dutch IR 9 Pfalz-Birkenfeld/Hüffel after the very fragmentary remains depicted in the Triomphes Louis XIV of a flag captured by the French at Neerwinden in 1693. The fragments appear to be those of the colonel's flag and the corner details strongly suggest the main motif was a saltire, unusual for a non-Scottish unit in Dutch service. Hall in his book on the Dutch suggests the possibility of the Dutch lion at the centre of the flag, as I have shown it here. The upper flag with a red field is a very speculative regimental flag, the flag below the colonel's flag. I was also asked to depict the flags with a motto so also offer these for those who might like them.

Pfalz-Birkenfeld IR No.9 Province of Holland, 1 battalion

Oberst 1673-1704 Johan Karl Pfalzgraf von Birkenfeld; 1704 on, Friedrich Johann Baron von Hüffel

Service:
1702: Siege of the citadel of Lüttich
1703: Siege of Bonn
1706: Battle of Ramillies; siege of Ath
1709: Battle of Malplaquet
1710: Siege of Aire
 


 

And the uniform in the late 17th to early 18th century was something like this:

 




 

Saturday, 22 February 2025

French Cavalry Standards at Warburg 1760 - Problems and Solutions

As so often with 18th century French cavalry standards, we do not know the emblems emblazoned on many of the standards carried by the French cavalry at Warburg. The list below shows what we do know and my suggested standards offered on the blog:

Montcalm - completely unknown (solution: use whichever of my generic standards appeals!)
Beauvilliers - Aurore with fringe gold and silver but emblem unknown (see below for my suggested solution)
Bourbon - Done and on the blog; see: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2022/06/experimental-french-cavalry-standards.html

Royal Étranger - Done and on the blog; see: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2022/06/french-cavalry-standard-royal-cavalry.html
Archiac - Red with gold embroidery and fringe but emblem unknown (solution: use one of my generic red standards)
Saint Aldegonde - Done and on the blog; see: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2023/08/warburg-french-flags-project-standard.html

La Reine - Known and still to do
Balincourt - Yellow with gold  embroidery and fringe but emblem unknown (solution: use one of my generic yellow standards)
Crussol - Red with gold embroidery and fringe but emblem unknown  (solution: use one of my generic red standards)

Royal Piémont - Done and on the blog; see: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2022/07/french-cavalry-standard-royal-piemont.html
Descars - Aurore with gold embroidery and fringe but emblem unknown (solution: use one of my generic aurore standards)
Espinchal - Ponceau with black border and gold embroidery and fringe but emblem unknown (see below for my suggested solution)

The generic French cavalry standards can be found on the blog here: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2024/05/generic-standards-for-french-cavalry.html and here: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2024/07/further-generic-standards-for-french.html (for the aurore and ponceau red ones)

As noted above, I still have the standard of the regiment La Reine to do!



And for detailed information on the battle of Warburg and the French regiments there please see: http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1760-07-31_-_Battle_of_Warburg

Friday, 14 February 2025

Guidons of the Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons) c.1690-1715

Percy Sumner, in his article (with J. O. Dalrymple) UNIFORMS AND EQUIPMENT OF THE ROYAL SCOTS GREYS PART I—1678 TO 1751 in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. 15, No. 59 (Autumn, 1936), pp. 151-170, quotes from the letters of Colonel Lord John Hay of January 1705 describing the regimental standards as "embroidered upon blue damask" with blue staves. Sumner then goes on to say that, of course, the standards of dragoons were guidons. He speculates that they probably bore the white saltire of St Andrew before the Union with England in 1707 and that the mention of embroidery suggests a badge placed on them, "most likely the Thistle and Crown, with the motto "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" in the centre". This is my reconstruction of the guidons based on that description.




I am not entirely convinced by the mention of the white saltire so I have done two versions, one with and one without. These can be regarded perhaps as the pre and post 1707 versions, if you so wish, or use the version without the saltire for the whole period!

And a detailed account of the regiment can be found here: http://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php/Scots_Dragoons

Thursday, 13 February 2025

Four Generic English Queen Anne Cipher Dragoon Guidons for 1702-1714

Written records tell us (e.g. the Great Wardrobe Accounts (" Boughton Papers ") preserved in the Round Tower, Windsor Castle) that English dragoon and cavalry guidons and standards of the period 1689-1715 often carried the monarch's cipher with a crown above on a coloured damask sheet, with various fringes. I therefore offer these four generic dragoon guidons with Queen Anne's cipher for the period 1702-1714, which will be useful for the all too many English dragoon regiments of the WSS for which we do not know their guidons. 



Sunday, 9 February 2025

Three Damask Troop Guidons of the Royal Regiment of Dragoons 1685

At the coronation of James II in 1685 the 8 troop guidons of the Royal Regiment of Dragoons (later the 1st Dragoon Guards) were recorded. I have depicted the guidons of the Lieutenant Colonel, with the golden escarbuncle, a badge of Henry II; of the 1st troop captain, two silver ostrich feathers in saltire; and of the 6th troop captain, a phoenix in flames, a badge of Queen Elizabeth I.



The Kronoskaf site has a detailed history of the regiment here: http://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php?title=1st_Royal_Dragoons

Saturday, 1 February 2025

Three Generic Damask Cavalry Standards With Queen Anne's Cipher For The Period 1702-1714

The three damask cavalry standards with Queen Anne's cipher, useful for the period of her reign 1702-1714:


I shall do further variants with the William III cipher and that of William and Mary...

Three More Generic Plain Damask English Cavalry Standards for the 1690s-1715

Here are three further coloured plain damask cavalry standards that will be useful for the period 1690s to 1715.



Friday, 31 January 2025

1685 Standards of Peterborough and Plymouth's Horse Regiments (which will also be useful as "generic" standards for other regiments)

As we know so little, these plain damask standards will also be useful as generic standards for other British cavalry regiments of the period up to 1715. I shall be doing more standards of this type in other colours plus some with the ciphers of William and Mary and Queen Anne, some of which are recorded authentic standards. (And Peterborrow is a contemporary spelling; no standardisation at that period!)



The Earl of Peterborough's Horse was first raised by James II in 1685 as part of his moves against Monmouth's Rebellion. It remained loyal to James until he ran away. It fought under William III in Ireland in 1689-1690 and was at the battles of the Boyne 1690 and Aughrim 1691 plus various sieges. It fought in the Nine Year's War from 1694 to 1697.

During the War of the Spanish Succession it served entirely in Spain and was at the battle of Almansa in 1707 and the battles of Almenar and Sarragossa in 1710 plus numerous sieges before being captured at Brihuega in 1710. It was exchanged in 1711 and returned to England. It later became the Second or Queen’s Regiment of Dragoon Guards.

The Earl of Plymouth's Horse was also first raised by James II in 1685 as part of his moves against Monmouth's Rebellion but was too late to participate in its suppression. Like Peterborough's Regiment it remained loyal to James until he ran away. It campaigned in Scotland 1689 against a Jacobite rebellion. It also took part in the Nine Year's War where in 1692 took part in the unsuccessful attempt to relieve Namur and in the Battle of Steenkerque; in 1693 in the Battle of Landen; in 1694 in the siege of Huy; and in 1695 the siege of Namur. At the end of 1697, it returned to England.

In the War of the Spanish Succession it served entirely in Flanders, being at the battles of the Schellenberg and Blenheim in 1704, Ramillies in 1706, at Oudenarde in 1708 and Malpaquet in 1709 plus many sieges. Later the Third or Prince of Wales’ Regiment of Dragoon Guards.

For much more detailed accounts of both regiments see the following Kronoskaf WSS pages:

Earl of Peterborough's Horse http://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php?title=Harvey%27s_Horse

Earl of Plymouth's Horse http://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php?title=Wood%27s_Horse

Friday, 24 January 2025

Two Further Troop Standards of the English Royal Regiment of Horse 1685

For text see the previous post; here are two further troop standards of the Royal Regiment of Horse, later Royal Horse Guards Blue:



Troop Standard of English Royal Regiment of Horse 1685

First raised 1650 as a Cromwellian regiment of horse. Transferred to royal service on the restoration of Charles II in 1660; became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment in 1661, later called the Oxford Blues in contrast to the red coated Life Guards. In 1685 it was part of James II's army that defeated Monmouth's Rebellion. In 1688 it was part of William III's army and it fought in Ireland at the Boyne after fighting in Flanders at the battle of Walcourt. It did not serve abroad until the War of the Austrian Succession where it fought at Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in 1745, suffering heavy casualties. It was renamed The Royal Horse Guards Blue in 1750. In the Seven Years War it fought at Minden, 1759, Warburg 1760 and Villinghausen 1761.

This was one of the troop standards in 1685:




At least eight other troop standards are known for this regiment in 1685 and I shall be posting some of the others later.

We have a major problem with depicting British cavalry standards between the 1690s and the 1740s in that we know very little about them. That being so, wargamers who wish to field British cavalry units in the War of the Spanish Succession can choose to have no standards (which would be heresy) or use earlier standards. Given the longevity of high quality cavalry standards in many nations at this period, it seems to me that the latter course makes perfect sense. It would probably be best, though, to avoid standards carrying the ciphers of disgraced monarchs like James II in the 1690s and early 1700s!

The uniform in 1685 included a blue coat lined red with gold buttons and buff breeches.

Monday, 20 January 2025

Colours of North and Grey's British Regiment of Foot in the War of the Spanish Succession

First raised 1685 by John Granville, Earl of Bath. In the War of the Spanish Succession the proprietor was from 15th January 1703 until 1715: William, Lord North and Grey



The flags here depicted are shown in a manuscript drawing of 1726 in the Bodleian Library which mostly depicts the flags of Grove's Regiment, the successor to North and Grey's, later the 10th Foot. The MS seems to show the then current flags of Grove's Regiment mixed with those of the previous North and Grey's. The interpretation of the illustration in S M Milne's Standards and Colours of the Army 1661-1881 is that these flags with the sun in splendour on a red field are the flags of North and Grey's Regiment as carried in the War of the Spanish Succession.


Uniform in the War of the Spanish Succession is debatable; the left hand figure is as shown by Kronoskaf WSS and Baccus's guide to WSS uniforms; the right hand figure is based on the description in C S Grant's guides to the Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough's Wars.


Kronoskaf's WSS site has a very long and detailed account of the formation and history of the regiment here: http://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php?title=Sir_Beville_Granville%27s_Foot based largely on Cannon's account of the history of the 10th Regiment of Foot dated 1847 which can be downloaded as a PDF from archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/cihm_48345

 

(I have depicted the colours of the Earl of Bath's Regiment in 1685 on one of my two sheets of British flags, which I can email on application; send a message via my Contact Form on the blog if you wish me to send them to you.)

Tuesday, 7 January 2025

Colours (or flags) of British Royal Scots or 1st Foot 1685 to probably 1707 (plus uniform WSS)

I recently did these as a favour so thought I'd also post them on the blog in case anyone else needs or wants them.

Kronoskaf's WSS site has a humongously large account of the regiment which saves me a vast amount of effort so I refer anyone needing a detailed account to that site here: http://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php?title=Royal_Foot

 


And this was probably the uniform in the WSS:


And here are the flags with Simon Miller's splendid troops in a photograph he recently sent me (he still has to finish the bases):