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; 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; 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.

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.