Reinforcements for King Louis (Part 10: Du Roi Regiment & Grenadiers de France)

The 18th Century arms-race continues this week, with yet more reinforcements for the Army of Louis XV.  You can never have enough French infantry, so here are another eight battalions; four battalions apiece from the Du Roi Regiment and the Grenadiers de France.  That means that I’m now well over two-thirds of the way toward my objective of 63 battalions for the Battle of Minden and I’ve almost reached the 49 battalions required for the Battle of Dettingen (still rather a lot of cavalry to paint, however).

Above:  The Du Roi (‘King’s’) Infantry Regiment was first raised by Louis XIV on 2nd January 1663.  The intention was for the sons of the most élite noble families in France to start their military careers in the regiment, which would also serve as a ‘model’ regiment for the development and demonstration of new drills and tactics.  Initially designated as the 14th most-senior line infantry regiment in the army, it was promoted to 12th in 1671 and was still in that position of seniority during the Seven Years War.

The regiment saw extensive action during the War of Devolution, the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years War and the Wars of Spanish, Polish and Austrian Succession.  During the Seven Years War the regiment was engaged at the Battles of Hastenbeck, Krefeld, Minden, Corbach, Vellinghausen, Neuhauss and Wilhelmsthal.  Although most of these engagements were defeats for the French, the regiment consistently acquitted itself well and never suffered any catastrophe.

Above:  The Du Roi Regiment was one of the larger infantry regiments in the army, being consistently organised throughout its existence as four battalions.  

These are all Eureka Miniatures 18mm French Infantry figures.  I’ve gone for the ‘with turnbacks’ option to show off the coat-lining and the lace on the waistcoat.

Above:  The Du Roi Regiment was dressed in the usual off-white, unbleached wool coat (often interpreted as ‘grey’), though was slightly more colourful than most regiments, with blue cuffs, tail-turnbacks, waistcoat and breeches.  The exact shade of blue is a matter of some uncertainty, being depicted as everything from ‘French’ or ‘Royal’ blue to light sky-blue.  I’ve opted for the medium ‘Turquin’ blue shown in most artistic depictions. 

The uniform was further decorated with ‘aurore’ lace buttonholes – three sets of three on each side of the breast, another three on each cuff and another three on each pocket.  The waistcoat was decorated with evenly-spaced lace buttonholes.  Buttons were brass and hat-lace was ‘false gold’, while officers’ buttons and lace were gold.  Belts and equipment were natural leather and gaiters were white canvas, secured with black garters.

Above:  The Colonel’s Flag of the Du Roi Regiment had the usual white cross on a white field, but the arms of the cross were decorated with fleurs-de-lys and in 1753 had the motto ‘PAR DECORI VIRTUS’ added to the arms of the cross.  The ordonnance flags had the same decoration, though with alternating red and green cantons (green uppermost at the hoist). 

There is some slight disagreement among the details; Kronoskaf says that the motto started with ‘PER’ rather than ‘PAR’, the picture above shows blue cantons, David Morfitt’s version on Not By Appointment shows more fleurs-de-lys and most versions show gold lettering in a Roman font.  These flags are by Maverick Models.

Above:  The Du Roi Regiment, somewhat unsurprisingly, dressed its drummers in the King’s Livery of blue with red cuffs and smallclothes and lace of mixed silver and crimson.

Above:  The Grenadiers de France were a new regiment, that had only been in existence for seven years at the start of the Seven Years War, having been raised on 15th February 1749.  The regiment was formed from 48 grenadier companies, belonging to 24 regiments that had been disbanded at the end of the War of Austrian Succession.  The King had been lobbied to keep the grenadiers and the best of the officers from these regiments in his service and so this new regiment was created.

Despite being a new regiment, the Grenadiers de France were numbered 40th in order of seniority among the infantry regiments of the line (out of 119 regiments).  The regiment fought at the Battles of Hastenbeck, Krefeld, Bork, Minden, Vellinghausen, Wilhelmsthal and Nauheim, almost always being grouped in reserve formations with regiments of the Grenadiers-Royaux.

Above:  The Grenadiers de France were organised into four ‘brigades’.  These brigades were battalion equivalents, each comprising 12 companies and numbering some 720 men of all ranks when at full strength (which like almost all French units, was rarely, if ever achieved). 

Somewhat astonishingly, the Colonels of the 24 disbanded regiments were maintained on-strength and each would command one of the four brigades for two months of the year, on rotation!  There was therefore no regimental Colonel, though oversight was conducted by the General-Inspector, being the Marquis de Saint-Pern until 8th March 1761 and the Comte de Choiseul-Stainville thereafter.

In wargames terms, it’s often rather subjective as to whether regiments given the title ‘grenadier’ or ‘guard’ should be given elite status when they just recruited in the normal manner, like any other regiment.  However, in this instance, they did actually selectively recruit from the grenadier companies of other regiments, so I would argue that they can be considered to be a true ‘elite’.

Above:  The uniform coat of the Grenadiers de France was coloured royal blue, with scarlet collar, tail-turnbacks and half-lapels.  Cuffs and small-clothes were blue and buttons were white metal.  The lapels were normally worn closed across the breast (with hooks and eyes), though officers and NCOs normally wore their coats open, having longer lapels (as shown above).  There are some slight variations in sources, with some (such as the one below) showing scarlet cuffs and others (above) showing blue turnbacks and no collar.

The lapels were decorated with eight white lace buttonholes.  There were another three buttonholes below the lapels, another three on each cuff and another three on each pocket.  The collar also had a buttonhole on each side, as well as white lace edging.  The waistcoat was also decorated with white lace buttonholes.  The coat was further decorated on the right shoulder with a fringed white epaulette, though Kronoskaf shows it wrongly on the left shoulder.  There seems to have been a blue shoulder-strap on the left shoulder to hold the cross-belt in place.

Above:  Sources disagree as to whether the Grenadiers de France had whitened belts or if they were just left in their natural colour.  I went with natural leather, but should probably have gone with white, as that seems to be the colour shown in most artistic depictions.  The cartridge pouch is always shown as natural leather.  One thing to note is that the waist-belt for the sword (which for the rank-and-file was of the curved grenadier pattern) was apparently worn over the coat by the rank-and-file and under the coat by NCOs and officers.

The regiment’s headdress was the characteristic grenadier bearskin cap in black or dark brown fur, which was brushed upward to form a point.  The bearskin is not normally depicted with a front-plate, though one source (above) shows a brass (?) grenade badge being worn by an officer and NCO.  The cap’s bag was scarlet, with a tassel in scarlet or white.  The bag could be worn hanging loose or could be tucked in to form the infamous cul de singe or ‘monkey’s arse’.  These Eureka figures are depicted in the latter style.  Unlike the grenadier officers of most Germanic nations, French grenadier officers wore grenadier caps as opposed to hats, like the British.

The regiment’s drummers wore the King’s Livery with bearskin caps.

Above:  The Grenadiers de France as mentioned above, did not have a single Colonel, so there was no Colonel’s flag (some speculative designs are seen in sources and wargames flag-sheets, though these are apparently incorrect).  Each brigade therefore carried Ordonnance flags of the same pattern.  These had the usual white cross, emblazoned with the Arms of France, with cantons of alternating dark blue and white.  Most sources show the dark blue canton uppermost at the hoist, though Kronoskaf disagrees and has it the other way around.  The blue cantons were each decorated with 18 fleurs-de-lys, arranged in four rows (5-4-5-4) and the white cantons were each decorated with 18 blue grenades with red flames.

I must admit that when I did these, I was working on the assumption that each ‘brigade’ had a pair of flags in the same manner as an infantry battalion.  However, I’ve subsequently read that each brigade only included a single ensign carrying a flag.  Ah well, they look nice… 😉

These lovely flags are by the talented David Morfitt and are available for download from his super Not By Appointment blog.  I printed them off on my own laser-printer (the best investment I ever made!).

This week I’ve made a start on a new army, the Saxons.  That said, it’s not strictly a new army, as I’ve already got four of the six Saxon cavalry regiments that fought alongside the Austrian army during the Seven Years War.  However, I really need some Saxon infantry to fight alongside the French in the Western Theatre of war and it would also be nice to expand this further into a full Saxon army for the War of Austrian Succession.  Anyway, here’s the first regiment.  More soon!