Wednesday, 12 November 2025

Flags carried by French Infantry Regiments Silly 1702-1705 then Maillé de la Tour Landry 1705-1714

Raised 7th May 1702 by M. de Silly
1705 Given to Charles André, M. de Maillé de la Tour Landry
1714 Disbanded



The red bars nebulé are found on the heraldry of Maillé de la Tour Landry but also in the form of a single bar on those of the Silly family so the flags may possibly date from 1702 and not only from 1705.

Service:

1702 Garrisons in Flanders
1703 Rhine
1704 Battle of Blenheim [where it was posted on the left flank, far away from the fiasco that was the occupation and defence of the village of Blenheim! It was one battalion strong and in the 2nd line, brigaded with French infantry regiments Bourbon and Enneville under the Chevalier de Montmorency]
1705 November The journal of the Marquis de Dangeau (which can be found on Google books and archive.org) for November 1705 mentions the surrender of the French garrison at "Santvliet" which included the regiment de Maillé, "a new and very weak regiment" ("un régiment nouveau très-foible" which last word I interpret as faible; either a mistranscription or a variant of the word from the pre-standardised 18th century! The description may in part be an attempt to excuse the capitulation of the place). Does this perhaps suggest the regiment was badly knocked about at Blenheim and "reformed" under new management i.e. M. de Maillé de la Tour Landry?
1705-1714 Garrisons in Flanders

Anna Beek in her sheet showing flags captured from the French in the WSS depicts the ordonnance flag, under the erroneous name of Regiment O'Brien. It was, according to Fouré (Trophées de la Guerre de Succession d'Espagne), captured at the siege of Bouchain in 1712.

And this was the uniform in 1705:



Monday, 10 November 2025

Standards of the English Life Guards and Horse Grenadiers Under Queen Anne 1702

Building on, and in a way completing, my recent posts on the English/British Guards cavalry are these standards of the Life Guards and Horse Grenadiers of 1702, early in the reign of Queen Anne and using her cipher. As before I refer the reader to the complex accounts of these units on Kronoskaf's War of the Spanish Succession pages. These units unfortunately did not actually serve in the War of the Spanish Succession but their standards may be of use given the paucity of flags for this period. I have recreated these standards from verbal descriptions in the Great Wardrobe Accounts. They add a little variety with a green variant!