For text see the previous post; here are two further troop standards of the Royal Regiment of Horse, later Royal Horse Guards Blue:
Being a uniform and flag design service to wargamers and to the imaginary crowned heads of 17th and 18th Century Europe, especially of the Seven Years War period - now By Appointment to the Court of Saxe-Bearstein! (But please note that the uniforms and flags presented here are not fictional - they are genuine 17th and 18th Century uniforms and flags that are as authentic as I can make them from my sources.)
Friday, 24 January 2025
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.)