SPANISH ARMY - REGIMENT DRAGOON GRAFTON

This dragoon regiment was raised in 1705 as the Regiment of Grafton, although contemporary documents could still occasionally refer to such formations as tercios. It belonged to the group of foreign units serving Philip V during the War of the Spanish Succession and was generally regarded as a British, or more precisely largely Irish, regiment in Spanish service.

Its manpower appears to have been recruited principally among Irish exiles who had left their homeland during or after the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697), together with Irish and British soldiers who had been captured, deserted, or otherwise passed into Bourbon service during the first campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession. It is quite possible that a large proportion of them were Catholics and that many entered Spanish service voluntarily, although the precise circumstances of recruitment probably varied considerably from man to man.

The regiment took its name from its first colonel, who appears in Spanish sources under forms such as Grafton, Grafeton or similar variants. Modern research has identified him as Henry Crofton, his surname having apparently been transformed in Spanish documentation into Grafton. The unit was initially stationed in the Kingdom of Naples, where its formation seems to have been somewhat improvised: at first it apparently lacked sufficient horses and equipment, a circumstance not unusual for newly raised dragoon regiments.

The regiment therefore formed part of the Spanish dragoon establishment in southern Italy during the final years of Bourbon rule in Naples. When the Austrian forces conquered the Kingdom of Naples in 1707, several Spanish dragoon units were lost or captured. The Grafton regiment, however, escaped this fate. Together with the Ferrari Dragoons, it was transferred to Sicily, while other regiments, including the Viejo and Nuevo Dragoons, fell into enemy hands. Its operational trajectory can therefore be summarised as Naples – Sicily – Spain, making it one of the more interesting examples of the mobile foreign regiments employed by Philip V in the Italian and Spanish theatres.

After its period in Sicily, the regiment was transferred to the Iberian Peninsula and continued to serve in Philip V’s army during the later stages of the war. It is still recorded in the years following 1710 and survived the extensive reorganisations that followed the conflict. By about 1715, command had passed to Julián O’Callaghan, another officer of Irish origin. The regiment subsequently became associated with the name Dublin, and its later institutional history was continued by the Regimiento de Dragones de Dublín, whose foundation was traditionally traced back to 25 June 1705.

The regiment is also associated with the Battle of Villaviciosa, fought on 10 December 1710, although the precise role of the Grafton Dragoons and the fate of their original colonel require some caution. Some accounts refer to a Grafton serving in the Bourbon army at Villaviciosa and state that he was killed in action, but other evidence appears to show Henry Grafton/Crofton still connected with the regiment at a later date. For this reason, the statement that the regiment’s colonel was killed at Villaviciosa should probably be treated as provisional until the identification of the officer concerned can be established with certainty.

Overall, the Regiment of Grafton represents a particularly interesting example of the multinational character of Philip V’s forces: an essentially Irish or British exile formation, raised in Spanish service in 1705, initially employed in Naples, transferred to Sicily after the collapse of the Bourbon position there in 1707, and subsequently moved to Spain, where it survived the war and eventually developed into the later Dublin Dragoon Regiment.

This is the graphic and  text standards I have reached and that I want to use in my future booklets. (As for the text, I think I will develop it further, explaining how the reconstruction of each uniform was arrived at). However, as far as the graphics are concerned—which is what interests me most at the moment—I think the overall level is satisfactory.

I am also considering preparing some hand-painted gouache illustrations and then seeing how the final result compares.

Guidon Coronela
Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE

Guidon Ordonnance
Copyright Michele SAVASTA FIORE