Hello all! It's been a few days, but here's a few more pictures of work in progress on my French infantry regiment, d'Humieres, from the War of the Grand Alliance, or Nine Years War. First up is the drummer. The information I had on him was drawn initially from the series of articles written by Mark Allen in Wargames Illustrated, from Issue 49 (I think!?) onwards. As an introductory series to uniforms and units of the period, they've been a really useful source of basic information, but as they're long out of print, I had to pop over to WI and buy a CD of scanned pages which detailed the articles. It's been worth it so far, but as with all sources, it's worth looking at others, or the original works where the information was drawn from - but more on that another time. The follow up notes in a later edition of WI (also on the CD as one of the articles), suggested that the livery for the drummer could be based on that of the regiment's Colonel-Proprietor, Louis-Francois d'Aumont, who was 'in charge' between 1689 and 1702. The yellow colours, and black and white lace are based on an illustration of a trumpeter of a cavalry unit of the d'Aumont family, and so inference is drawn that the infantry musicians may have had the same 'uniform'. My interpretation doesn't quite match the picture of the trumpeter's clothes, and it's not clear if the white cross was used by the 1690's, but it's not a bad approximation!
Next up are more shots of my pikemen, from different angles, showing off their grey uniforms, red cuffs, breeches and hose, and the details such as five o'clock shadow and different neck scarves and gauntlets. Little touches that just add a bit more realism!
Finally, there's a picture of one of the standards from the regiment. This is the Drapeaux d'Ordonnance, or 'Regimental' colour; the other being the Drapeaux de Colonel, which was a white cross on a white background. French regiments normally carried one of these Colonel's colours in the first battalion, and the 'Regimental' colour. Other battalions of the same regiment would then carry 2 or even 3 of these regimental colours. I've had to repaint this Drapeaux d'Ordonnance twice, as I wasn't happy with the initial colours at first - they started out as being far too greeny-blue! It's believed that the tassels or cordeliere, were used to wrap and tie up the material of the colours when they were furled, but there's debate about how long they were, or even when they introduced - either by the start of the 17th century, or sometime after 1700!! The white cravate or scarf at the top of the colours was introduced by the French to their standards, after the Battle of Fleurus, in 1690, when French artillery fired on their own side. White sashes began to be worn by French officers, and the scarves were added, though not universally ( and sometimes not even in white), by the infantry and cavalry, to avoid 'friendly fire'! As usual, the standard is hand painted, paper sandwiched over aluminium foil and glued/stiffened with white PVA glue. The cravate is made out of green stuff, and the tassels greenstuff and twisted fuse wire.
Over the last few weeks, I've gained so much help from people on the League of Augsburg 'Fighting Talk' Forum, that I feel it's only right to offer continuing thanks to these fine fellows. Many people deserve a mention, but above all is 'Arthur' who really has come up trumps with some wonderful information on the d'Humieres regiment. More information on the unit when I have made further progress - I'm continuing on the command stand at the moment! Until next time!!
