KINGDOM OF SPAIN - WALLOON REGIMENT BOURNONVILLE 1701 - 1707 (Sample for future booklet)

This is an example of my future (?) booklet. It will be about the Spanish Army, probably, Infantry, split by Vice-Kingdoms, and insiede that of Milan, split by nationalies. Let's start with one example,

KINGDOM OF SPAIN  WALLOON REGIMENT 

BOURNONVILLE 1702 - 1707

This regiment had been raised in 1702 .

It was recruited in Hainaut Particular attention seems to have been paid to the physical appearance and stature of the soldiers. 

The regiment was distinguished by an unusually rich and expensive uniform. The coat was white and made of fine English cloth imported from London. The cravat was of Brussels lace, while the waistcoat and cuffs were yellow.

Taken together, these details suggest that Bournonville was far from being an ordinary Walloon infantry regiment. Its recruitment, the exceptional stature required of its grenadiers, the quality of the cloth and lace, the extensive use of gold and silver, and the elaborate personal equipment all point to a unit whose appearance was deliberately intended to reflect the prestige of the Bournonville family and of its colonel-proprietor.

Coronela
Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

THE MILANESE REGIMENTS UNDER FELIPE V: REGIMENT MONTEMARCIANO

In my relentless search for uniforms, I have managed to reconstruct the German regiments in the service of Philip V of Spain and, above all, the five Neapolitan regiments raised in 1704 — Airola, Vicco, Eboli, Cavaselice and Garofalo — as well as the four regiments from the Milanese area, including Ferrari, Franchi Borromeo and Montemarciano, the subject of this post.

The Montemarciano Regiment had the unusual distinction of being the only one not to wear a white uniform like the other regiments raised in the Duchy of Milan, perhaps because its colonel came from Senigallia. It was formed with troops recruited in Milan and Lodi and organised into 12 companies plus one grenadier company, for a total strength of about 600 men.

The regiment took part in the sieges of Ivrea and Vercelli in 1704, where it suffered such heavy losses that it had to be disbanded and incorporated into the Ferrari Regiment, with a corresponding change of uniform.

REGIMENT MONTEMARCIANO 1704
Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

Its uniform was a striking blue, with red cuffs and facings throughout. A small gem, both in terms of the uniform itself and the history of military dress.

REGIMENT MONTEMARCIANO 1704
Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

THE WALLOON REGIMENTS IN ITALY UNDER FELIPE V 1701 - 1707

As part of my continuing research into the uniforms of all the Spanish regiments that served in Italy between 1701 and 1707, I am pleased to present this table devoted to the Walloon regiments — that is, units recruited in the territories of present-day Belgium — which served the cause of Philip V of Spain. 

The uniforms of the two regiments with the Grenadiers:

Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

THE SWISS REGIMENTS UNDER FELIPE V's SERVICE IN ITALY - 1701 - 1707

 

These were three regiments that served the cause of Philip V. One of them had already been raised under Charles II of Habsburg — the Capuol Regiment, later Albertini — while the other two were raised directly under contracts concluded with Philip V. This can also be seen in the considerable strength of the regiments themselves.

They were extensively employed during the campaigns in Lombardy and Piedmont. Two of them took part in the Siege of Turin, which is an important point, and all suffered very heavy losses, in some cases amounting to as much as two-thirds of their effective strength.

Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

Reconstructing their uniforms required a certain familiarity with the available sources, although the evidence for them is in fact quite well attested and sufficiently clear. It is also important to note that the Amrhyn Regiment was the first to receive a blue coat only at the end of 1706 — that is, once the Italian campaign had effectively come to an end.

ORGANIZATION

Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

THE SPANISH DRAGON REGIMENTS IN ITALY 1701 - 1707

This plate represents the first systematic attempt to assign an uniform to every dragoon regiment operating in the Italian territories, whether in the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples or the Viceroyalty of Sicily.

Some units presented no particular difficulty, while others proved remarkably challenging. Without going into excessive detail here, the regiments that produced the most interesting results, from several different points of view, were the Amarillos (“Yellows”) Dragoon Regiment, better known as Caylus, although between 1701 and 1703 it was associated with Monroy:

Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE

The later Monroy Regiment, raised by the former colonel of the Amarillos after his transfer to Sicily; and the Bozelli, or Bosely, Regiment, whose apparent presence in both the French and Spanish armies understandably caused considerable confusion.

Briefly, among all these units, the ones that actually saw significant battlefield service were the Caylus/Amarillos Regiment, which took part in the siege of Turin; the Bozelli Regiment, which, although usually regarded as French in 1706, fought at the Battle of Turin as part of the French army around Lucento:

Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE

                        

 and the Monroy Regiment. Bozelli was in fact a regiment raised in Lombardy directly on behalf of King Philip V of Spain, but incorporated into the French army until 1707, when it formally passed into Spanish service.

Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

The Monroy Regiment proved particularly difficult. For a long time it seemed impossible to find any reliable information about its uniform. I had assumed that it wore green, in accordance with the royal regulations of 1702, which already required newly raised dragoon regiments to adopt green coats, but the facing colour remained unknown.

Eventually, however, I found the decisive clue in a contract preserved in the Archivo General de Simancas. It states that the regiment was:

“vestido de paño verde con vueltas amarillas a costa del Coronel Duque de Monroy”

— dressed in green cloth with yellow facings, at the expense of Colonel Duke de Monroy —

and that it was formed in twelve companies.

Official Uniform
Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE

 Uniform with tricorne
Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE

This also confirms an intuition I had previously had, but which until now remained unsupported. The Duke de Monroy, former commander of the prestigious Dragones Amarillos — the “Yellow Dragoons” — appears deliberately to have retained yellow as the distinguishing colour of his new regiment, thereby recalling his former command.

It is a small but fascinating story, long forgotten, which can now be brought back to light.

But what an effort it took to get there.

 

1744 BATTLE OF MADONNA DELL'OLMO - THE NEW MAP

 Yesterday I went to Chiusa Pesio to see Military Road No. 104, built in 1940 by some 300 men under my grandfather’s command, in preparation for a possible invasion of France from southern Piedmont—an invasion that, in the end, never took place.

On the way, I passed through Cuneo, near Madonna dell’Olmo, and it reminded me of a map I had made some time ago. So I decided to go back to it and improve it.

Stepping away for once from the War of the Spanish Succession and moving instead into the War of the Austrian Succession, here is the result.

Copyright Michele Savasta Fiore

THE SPANISH CAVALRY REGIMENTS IN ITALY 1701 - 1707

 I admit — with a certain amount of embarrassment — that I had doubts about whether to publish this chart or not. The reason is simple: this is the very first chart ever produced showing the uniforms — extraordinarily colourful ones — of Philip V of Spain’s army operating in Italy. I began researching some of these regiments for pleasure, others out of curiosity, and in the end, step by step, I found myself with the entire chart completed.

For those who value precision, investigation, and the opening of new avenues of research, this is a real gem.

Then I reflected on it. And I said to myself: I know this is only a drop in the ocean compared with the world’s problems, and that it will be of interest to barely 0.01% of the global population, who have lived through this uniformological gap for 300 years without giving it a thought. Even so, I would like some trace of this work to remain, so that if anything should happen to me, someone might still benefit from it.

Too decadent? Perhaps.

In any case, this is my work, and I am very pleased to share it.

I will not explain here how I arrived at the reconstruction of each individual uniform, where the various pieces of information came from, or the exact formation and evolution of every regiment. Partly because doing so would require an enormous amount of additional work, and partly because I would prefer to reserve that material for a future booklet devoted specifically to the subject.

That booklet would also include an appendix on the Italian regiments that served in Flanders.

I must also confess that this is an army that has always fascinated me in particular, and one that has remained somewhat overshadowed in the history of the War of the Spanish Succession by its powerful French ally.

Back in 2020, during the height of the lockdown, I had already prepared the Spanish Dragoon regiments for Kronoskaf. And the spirit of Kronoskaf — where culture and the sharing of knowledge come before everything else — still remains, for me, the guiding principle behind making these researches available to the small number of people who love History in all its details.

From now on, I will try to remain focused on my existing projects. But for me, research of this kind has a very particular attraction: every regiment that still has to be investigated becomes a personal challenge to be solved.

The judgement, as always, is yours.