The Froulay Infantry Regiment is a unit whose uniform requires a particularly careful reconstruction, based not only on the limited surviving evidence but also on a broader process of uniformological deduction. The regiment was raised on 22 March 1702 by Victor-Maurice, Comte de Broglie, and initially bore his name.
During the War of the Spanish Succession, command of the regiment passed through several hands. Victor-Maurice, Comte de Broglie, remained its colonel from its creation until April 1703, when the regiment was transferred to an officer identified in the sources only as the Chevalier de Froulay. In 1711, it passed to N. de Tiraqueau, under whose name it continued to serve until its disbandment in 1714.
The regiment began its wartime service in 1702 with the Army of Flanders. In the following year, after passing to the Chevalier de Froulay, it was transferred to the Italian theatre of operations. Its most important and best-documented service took place in 1706, when it participated with 1 battallion - in the Siege of Turin from May until September. On 7 September, it was also present at the disastrous Battle of Turin, which ended in a decisive defeat for the Franco-Spanish army. It was deployed in the zone between the Dora and the Po river.
In 1707, the regiment was transferred back to Flanders. There it took part in the defence of Ath, where the garrison was eventually compelled to surrender and the regiment was taken prisoner. It was exchanged later that same year and subsequently assigned to the Lines of the Lauter, where it continued its service during the final phase of the war. In 1711, it became the Régiment de Tiraqueau, before being finally disbanded in 1714.
The gaps in the surviving uniformological evidence can, however, be partly addressed by considering that the regiment’s proprietor had already owned a cavalry regiment towards the end of the seventeenth century. That earlier unit wore red facings, red breeches and gold buttons. It is therefore reasonable to deduce that the infantry regiment raised in 1702 adopted the same distinctive colours and details.
When the regiment changed proprietor in 1703, its uniforms would almost certainly not have been altered immediately. In such cases, it was common practice to retain the existing uniform even after a change of ownership, both because military dress tended to preserve a degree of continuity and, more practically, because replacing an entire regiment’s uniforms would have involved a considerable and unnecessary expense.
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