Monday 14 December 2009

Dutch regiments in English service: Horse

In this article on Dutch regiments on the English Establishment the regiments of horse will be discussed. Whereas there were few regiments of foot, there were far more regiments of horse in English service and pay. (The designation "in English service" is a bit superfluous perhaps.) The reason for this large number of horse, compared to foot, is not known to the author, and he would be interested to hear.

The regiments were in service from the Glorious Revolution until the end of the Nine Years' War. According to papers from the treasury (Calendar of Treasury Book, Volume 21: Warrant Books July 707 26 - 31) the regiments were in pay from 21 December 1688 until 31 December 1697. Below the regiments are listed with some details on the date of raising and its colonels.

Regiment Montpouillan
Raised 8 February 1672 and maintained by the province of Holland. Colonels were Armand de Caumont de la Force, Marquis de Montpouillon (marquess de Rada of the later 6th Foot was probably his son) since the regiment's raising, and from 21 November 1697 Armand de Caumont, Marquis de Maduran was colonel.

Regiment Nassau - Zuylestein
Raised 17 October 1588 and maintained by Holland. This regiment was throughout command by Willem Frederik van Nassau - Zuylestein, the later Earl of Rochford. See also this post on Dutch officers that received an English peerage.

Regiment Soppenbroek
Raised 8 February 1672 and maintained by Holland. Willem Roeleman, vrijheer Quadt - Soppenbroek was colonel from 1675 until 25 December 1688. From that time on the colonelcy was bestowed on Paul Didier de Boncourt.

Regiment Riedesel
Raised 8 February 1672 and maintained by Holland. Colonels:
George, Baron van Riedesel since 6 October 1688
Erik Gustaaf, graaf Steinbeck since 1690
Gerard Pijper since 1697
Frederik Ulrich, Count of Oost-Friesland since 23 April 1698

Regiment 's Gravenmoer
Raised 21 August 1577 and maintained by Holland. Since 23 March 1669 Adam Baron van der Duyn van 's Gravenmoer was colonel. He was succeeded on 1 January 1694 by Zeno Diederik van Tengnagel (also found under the name Gansneb).

Regiment Schack
Raised 8 February 1672 and maintained by the province of Holland. The only colonel during the whole period was Bogislaf Sigismund Schack, who was colonel of the regiment since 24 December 1681.

Regiment Oyen
Raised 28 April 1621, maintained by Holland. Colonels were Mattheus Hoeufft van Oyen since 3 October 1683, and Johan Zeger Baron van Rechteren since 14 May 1691.

Regiment Ginkel
Raised 14 January 1625 and maintained by Utrecht. Godart van Reede, heer van Ginkel, the future Earl of Athlone and Baron Aughrim, was the only colonel in this period. He held the colonelcy already since 4 May 1665.

Regiment Lippe
This regiment was raised 8 February 1672 and was maintained by the province of Overijssel. Otto, graaf van der Lippe was colonel since 1683. Succeeded on 18 February 1690 by Robert, baron van Ittersum tot Nyenhuis. He in turn was succeeded by Otto Frederik van Vittinghof, called Scheel or Schell, heer van Nederhemert, on 14 September 1692.

The list given here is that as found in for example the Army Estimates for 1690, 1691 etc as found in the Journal of the House of Commons, or the Calendar of Treasury Books given above. The Dutch official history on the army of the republic (Het Staatsche Leger), however, does not indicate that Ginkel's regiment was in English pay, and instead lists another (Berlo) (see Staatsche Leger VI pp. 260 and 264). However, in that same volume on pp. 426 - 428 an overview is given of Dutch regiments that remained in English pay. That list is in agreement with the lists from the Army Estimates as is presented here.

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