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Foot Regiments
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Régiment de Dumbarton
(The Royal Regiment of Foot – Scotish Establishment; ranked 1st Regiment of Foot. See also Regiment de Dumbarton)
The Royal Regiment of Foot, the oldest Infantry Regiment of the Line, was formed in 1633, when Sir John Hepburn, under a Royal Warrant granted by King Charles I, raised a body of men in Scotland for service in France. By 1635, he commanded a force of over 8,000, including many who had fought as mercenaries in the "Green Brigade" for King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. It was by virtue of the Royal Warrant that the entire Regiment was considered as British; a regular force in a standing Army which could be recalled to England at will. In 1661, the Regiment was, in fact summoned to England to bridge the gap between the disbandment of the New Model Army and the creation of a Regular Army, organized along the same lines as the Engish units in foreign service. The Regiment was thus the original model for all others.
- 1625.03.28 John Hepburn's Regiment.
- 1627 Entered Danish service.
- 1630 Entered Swedish service, formed with Mackay's Highlanders (raised 1626), Stargate's Corps, and Lumsden's Musketeers, the Green or Scots Brigade.
- 1633 remnants of Green Brigade merged into Hepburn's Regt.
- 1633.01.26 Royal Regiment of Foot (placed on Scottish establishment for King Charles I's Scottish coronation).
- 1635 Régiment de Hebron [Hepburn]. Entered French service.
- 1637 Régiment de Douglas.
- 1655.10.21 Régiment de Dumbarton.
- 1662 Transferred to English service; ranked as 1st regiment of foot.
- 1662 returned to French service.
- 1667 returned to English service for Dutch war.
- 1667 returned to French service.
- 1633.01.26 Col. Sir John Hepburn
- 1636 Col. George Hepburn
- 1637.12 Col. Lord James Douglas
- 1645 Col. Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus
- 1655.10.21 Lt-Gen. Lord George Douglas, 1st Earl of Dumbarton, KT
Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit - Nobody assails me with impunity (Latin)
The Tangier Regiment of Foot
(English establishment; ranked 2nd Regiment of Foot)
On 14th October 1661, The Tangier Regiment, was first paraded on Putney Heath under the command of the Earl of Peterborough. The Regiment was raised to garrison the port of Tangier in North Africa, which King Charles II had acquired as part of the dowry, when he married Catherine of Braganza, the Infanta of Portugal.
This was in the early days of the Regular Army, as ex Royalist and Cromwellian troops were forged into a new force. The new Regiment, which arrived in Tangier in 1662, was joined by Parliamentarian companies from the garrison of Dunkirk and two units from the Royalist Force, which had been serving in Flanders; they officially took over Tangier from a small naval garrison. The Portuguese inhabitants were not happy with these arrangements and left on the Engish ships, leaving a civilian population made up of only wives and families of the military.
Tangier was considered a valuable acquisition, as it commanded the entrance to the Mediterranean and was ideal as a trading centre, however, there had been years of previous conflict with the Moors. In addition, Tangier needed a mole to protect its harbor from the Atlantic weather and the building of this lasted the next twenty-two years of English occupation.
War broke out with the Moors, in 1663 and after some heavy casualties a truce ensued. However war began again, when the new Governor, The Earl of Teviot, a soldier of fortune who had served with the French Army until 1660, took command. He began extending the fortifications, which resulted in fierce fighting, but during a sally in May 1664, he was killed and by that stage of the occupation, half the garrison had died. Lord Bellasye, the new Governor concluded a peace and returned to England leaving Colonel Norwood in command. Unfortunately, Norwood died in 1668, followed by his successor, the Earl of Middleton, in 1675; the new Governor was then the Earl of Inchiquin, who only a few months later was replaced by the Earl of Plymouth, one of the Kings natural sons. In January 1676 the War with the Moors resumed after the anger of the Bey of Tunis over the death of one of his sons by English hands.
- 1661.10.01 Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Foot also known as the Tangier Regiment.
- 1663 absorbed Sir Robert Harley's Regiment of Foot, and Lord Rutherford's Regiment of Foot.
- 1661.09.30 Col. Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, KG [also 3rd Horse; Capt. Gen. Tangier]
- 1663.04.09 Col. Andrew Rutherford, 1st Earl of Teviot [killed at Tangier]
- 1664.06.10 Lt-Gen. Henry Norwood
- 1668.05.15 Lt-Gen. John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton
- 1675.03.05 Col. William O'Brien, 2nd Earl of Inchiquin
- 1675.10.10 Col. Charles FitzCharles, Earl of Plymouth
Mottoes: Pristinae virtutis memor - Mindful of former virtue (Latin); Vel exuviae triumphans - Even in defeat triumphant (Latin).
The Admiral’s Regiment
(English establishment – Navy; ranked 3rd Regiment of Foot)
The first unit of English Naval Infantry, originally called the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot and soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment, was formed on October 28, 1664, with an initial strength of 1,200 Infantrymen recruited from the Trained Bands of London as part of the mobilization for the Second Dutch War. James, the Duke of York and Albany, Lord High Admiral and brother of King Charles II, was Captain-General of the Company of the Artillery Garden, now the Honorable Artillery Company, the unit that trained the Trained Bands. It was the fourth European Marine unit formed, being preceded by the Spanish Marines (1537), the Portuguese Marines (1610) and the French Marines (1622). It consisted of six 200 man companies and was initially commanded by Colonel Sir William Killigrew, with Sir Charles Lyttleton as Lieutenant-Colonel. Killigrew had commanded an English regiment in Dutch service and many of the regiment's initial complement of officers had served there as well.
The Holland Regiment was also raised to serve at sea and both of these two "Naval" regiments were paid for by the Treasurer of the Navy, by Order of Council, of 11 July 1665. They were also different in that they had no pikemen, every man being issued a musket. The Holland Regiment remained on the naval establishments until May 1667. The name "Marines" first appeared in official records in 1672.
The Regiment’s appearance is very distinct, being dressed in yellow rather than the red of the other Regiments. John Churchill, was the most famous member of this Regiment. A Company of Guards served as Marines to augment the Marines of the Admiral's Regiment during the Naval battle of Sole Bay in 1672. Churchill's conduct as an ensign in the Guards during the battle so impressed James that he commissioned him a Captain in the Admiral's Regiment after four Marine Captains died during the battle. Churchill still serves in the Regiment and led a Battalion of the Regiment in the land battle of Enzheim, in 1674.
- 1664.10.28 The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, or The Admiral's Regiment formed as the first marine regiment by conversion of Sir William Killigrew's Regiment.
- 1672 three more regiments formed and soon disbanded: Prince Rupert's Marine Regiment [1672-1674], Fitzgerald / Hamilton / Widdrington's Regiment of Marines [1672-1674], and Lockhart's Regiment of Foot [1672-1674].
- 1662 Sir William Killigrew
- 1664 Adm. James Stuart, Duke of York.
The Holland Regiment
(English establishment – Navy; ranked 4th Regiment of Foot)
The Regiment originated from The Trained Bands of London, which were reviewed by Queen Elizabeth, in Greenwich Park, on 1 May 1572. After the review, Captain Thomas Morgan selected 300 men to form a company which he took to the Netherlands where they and their descendants continued to fight for the next 76 years until the power of Spain was broken. After the defeat of Spain, England and Holland began to quarrel and, in 1665, the Dutch called on the English units still in Holland to renounce their allegiance to the King of England. With few, exceptions both officers and men refused to swear allegiance to Holland and they were at once discharged and faced a life of almost certain ruin and destitution in a foreign country.
The English Ambassador, Sir George Downing, at his own expense arranged for the men to be returned to England and, on the 31st May 1665, King Charles II instructed that they be formed into a regiment to be known as The Holland Regiment, and he appointed Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sydney, a man from Kent, to be its first colonel. This regiment took its place as the fourth in the order of precedence behind The Royal Scots (1st), The Tangier Regiment (2nd), and The Lord High Admiral’s Regiment (3rd). It was originally designated, together with Lord High Admiral’s Regiment, as a “Maritime” regiment and as such took part in several naval actions. In 1667 the regiment became a land regiment. The uniform at that time consisted of a red tunic with buff lining, and the breeches, waistcoat and stockings were also buff.
In 1672, exactly one hundred years after Queen Elizabeth had reviewed the trained bands, the regiment was given a Royal Warrant allowing them to raise volunteers by beat of drum in the City of London. In those days recruiting parties carried a colour, and this is the origin of the privilege, which allowed The Buffs to march through the City of London with drums beating, bayonets fixed and colours flying.
The regiment received its nickname of "The Buffs" because it had been issued buff coats - armour made of soft leather - first when it served abroad in Holland and later when it was a Maritime Regiment of Foot. It was later given buff-coloured facings and waistcoats to distinguish itself from those of other regiments and had their leather equipment in buff rather than dyed the traditional white.
- 1572 Thomas Morgan's Company formed for service in Holland.
- 1605 expanded to brigade of four regiments.
- 1665 The Engish brigade, numbering three English and four Scottish regiments were required to take the oath of allegiance to the States-General or be cashiered. The English refused and disbanded in Holland. The Scots continued in Dutch service.
- 1665.05.31 The Holland Regiment formed in England from repatriated veterans of the three disbanded English regiments in Dutch service.
The Irish Regiment
(Irish establishment; ranked 5th Regiment of Foot)
In 1674, it was raised as an Irish Regiment to fight the French in Holland under Col. Daniel (O'Brien), 3rd Viscount Clare.
- 1674.08.08 Col. Daniel O'Brien, 3rd Viscount Clare
- 1675.08.02 Maj-Gen. Sir John Fenwick, Bt.
- 1676.09.11 Col. Henry Wisely
Motto: Quo fata vocant - Whither the fates lead (Latin)
