Tuesday 16 March 2010

Huguenot regiments in Savoyan service ...

but paid by the Maritime Powers ...

While reading through Die Regimenter der europäischen Staaten im Ancien R&égime des XVI. bis XVIII. Jahrhunderts by Georg Tessin, and of course being pedantic with respect to the chapter on English regiments, the author noted something new to him. These were a number of regiments raised in 1689 and 1690 in Switzerland, formed from French Huguenot refugees, that were in service of the Duke of Savoy but paid for by both the Dutch Republic and England. The regiment of dragoons under Miremont mentioned earlier was also part of this force. (As both powers financed a variety of princes together, they are simply referred to as the Maritime Powers.)

Information is not widely available unfortunately. Some bits can be found in the aforementioned book by Tessin. Also War, Religion and Service. Huguenot Soldiering, 1685 - 1713 by Glozier and Onnekink, and The Army of the Duke of Savoy 1688 - 1713 by Gian Carlo Boeri give some details on this subject. Furthermore, there is a website dedicated to the Army of the Duke of Savoy at the battle of Marsaglia in 1693 in which these regiments took part.

Some more digging in literature will probably result in a future article on this subject with names of colonels.

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