Tuesday 2 March 2010

German regiments in English (and Dutch) pay

As said previously, the author wasn't aware very much about the complexity of the German regiments that were in English pay during the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession.
One of the problems is the lack of information, currently available to the author, on these German regiments. A lot has been written about them of course, so a lot of reading needs to be done by the author.

Secondly, the composition of the regiments is sometimes difficult to establish. Not so for the War of the Spanish Succession, luckily. However, during the Nine Years' War is seems that some German states didn't hire out regiments of their establishment as one piece. Instead it seems that a sort of 'foreign service' regiment was formed from a particular regiment by detaching companies, bearing the same name. According to the Dutch Army history (Het Staatsche Leger) several regiments were increased in strength during the war by adding several companies, supporting the 'foreign service' regiment hypothesis. Also, the number of companies of in a regiment could grow beyond the normal 7 - 12 companies. This ad-hoc formation of regiments, and their temporary nature, means it is sometimes problematic to establish a proper lineage.

To conclude this posting an overview of German states that hired out regiments to Great Britain. Information on war and number of regiments is given as well, but is not complete.
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel NYW 2F
Hanover (and Celle) NYW (only Hanoverians) 4H, 4F; WSS 3H, 3(2)D, 8F
Hessen-Kassel WSS (with Dutch Republic) 4H, 2D, 9F (part remained paid by the Landgrave)
Holstein-Gottorp NYW some 2130 men (lacks further information); WSS (with Dutch Republic) 2D 2F
Liège WSS (with Dutch Republic) 1D 3F
Münster WSS (with Dutch Republic) 3F
East Frisia WSS (with Dutch Republic) 1F
Osnabrück WSS (with Dutch Republic) 1F
Öttingen WSS 1F
Prussia WSS (with Dutch Republic) 2H, 5F
Saxe-Gotha NYW 1H,1D,1F; WSS (with Dutch Republic) 2D, 2F
Saxony WSS (with Dutch Republic) 1H, 2D, 8F
Trier WSS 1F

To be continued ...

1 comment:

Ray King said...

Hi,I'm about to build the Hanoverian regiments of St.Pol's brigade at Blenheim in 1704.
I was wondering under who's pay these regiments were either Holland or England.
The reason I'm asking is I need to know the colour of officer's shoulder sashes.
In a booklet I have by August Kuhn it states that the officer's waist sash were yellow, but the shoulder sash could be orange or crimson???