WAR OF SPANISH SUCCESSION: ARMY OF THE DUCHY OF MANTUA - MILIZIA TROOPS

The Duchy of Mantua-Montferrat also raised local militia units in the Montferrat region, whose members were particularly hostile towards the Piedmontese. These formations were primarily employed for patrol duties and garrison service, engaging in a form of low-intensity warfare. They nevertheless became involved in several incidents of friction with the local population of the Duchy of Savoy, earning a particularly poor reputation among its inhabitants.

A total of 580 men were enlisted and distributed among several garrisons to maintain control of the territory, specifically as follows:

Their deployment was as follows:

- 60 men at Castel'Alfero;

- 60 at Bruzolo, 60 at Vercelli (after its occupation in 1704); 

- 200 at Avigliana (together with detachments from the Montferrat regiments); 

- 100 at Crescentino–Verrua (after Verrua was captured in 1705); 

- 100 at Trino Vercellese.

Their uniform essentially consisted of civilian clothing made of dark woollen cloth, without cuffs or turnbacks, and a hat of the late seventeenth-century style, with its brims not yet turned up into the fully developed tricorne. They wore the red-white cocarde with the Monferrato's colours. Instead of the standard haversack issued to the regular Montferrat regiments, they carried a simple cloth sack. Their footwear likewise consisted of sturdy boots of civilian origin, reflecting the fact that these men were primarily urban levies drawn from merchants and the lower artisan and labouring classes, with only limited means to equip themselves at their own expense. To distinguish themselves, they wore a red-and-white cockade, the traditional colours of Montferrat.

The Militia colours could simply have displayed the colours of the Monferrato coat of arms (rather than those of Mantua), making them both easy to produce and immediately identifiable as Monferrato troops. Given their simplicity, it is likely that each detachment carried one, and it is almost certain that the larger contingents possessed their own colours.

The black and yellow straps to celebrate the Gonzaga House.