Kingdom of France: Regiment flags - Historical index

Last modified: 2013-06-22 by ivan sache
Keywords: regiment | infantry |
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• Infantry regiments in 1771
• Infantry regiments in 1789

See also:

• France
• Kingdom of France: Regiment flags

Other sites of interest:

• Nec Pluribus Impar, a webzine on the History, Wars and Armies in the XVII-XVIIIth centuries, by Jean-Louis Vial
• Praetiriti Fides, Exemplumque Futuri, a collection of documents on the military history of the Ancient Regime
• Vexillologie militaire européenne, by Arnaud Bunel

Infantry regiments in 1771

The chart entitled Tableau Militaire des Drapeaux, Etendarts et Guidons des Troupes au Service de la France, les Années de leur Création et les Noms de Mrs les Commandants, les Colonels d'Infanterie et les Mestres de Camp de Cavalerie et de Dragons pour l'Année 1771 was designed avec privilège du Roy in Paris chez le Sieur Chaligny, Cour des grandes écuries du Roy. Aux Thuileries.
A fac-simile of the chart was published in 1874 by Desjardins (Recherche sur les drapeaux français, plates XIII-XLII) [djg74]. Desjardins explains that the Cabinet des Estampes of the National Library keeps a black-and-white copy of the chart, whereas a coloured copy is kept in the Archives Départementales de Seine-et-Oise (A.1544). The coloured version corrected the black-and-white version and was made for the Dauphin, later King Louis XVI. The chart shows the arms of the Dauphin on top and has two vertical blue mergins charged with dolphins and fleurs-de-lis. On the back of the chart, the District Commissioners of Versailles wrote that it was found in 1790 during the inventory of the castle of Versailles, hanging on the wall of the small staircase of the Queen's apartments.
A high-definition image of the coloured chart is available on the website of the Archives Départementales des Yvelines.

Chaligny's chart lists 93 infantry regiments, with one vacant (40.) and the seven artillery regiments with the same number (47.).

In 1882, L. Mouillard published Armée française. Les régiments sous Louis XV. Constitution de tous les corps de troupe à la solde de France pendant les guerres de succession à l'Empire et de Sept Ans (Dumaine, Paris). The book contains 47 plates of uniforms and flags.
The plates are shown on the Praetiriti Fides, Exemplumque Futuri website.
There are minor differences with the table given above for the French regiments: Béarn and Bourbonnais are swapped (7. and 8. respectively); 40. is given as Grenadiers de France; 47. is listed as Royal Artillerie only; and Enghien is listed as 85.
There are also a few discrepancies concerning the foreign regiments. Mouillard calls 51. Pfeiffer; 66. La Marck; 77. Diesbach on one plate and Bulkeley on another one; 78. Curten on one plate and Clare on another one; 83. Booth; 84. Fitz James; and 91. Ardennes.

Ivan Sache, 4 March 2006

Infantry regiments in 1789

Arnaud Bunel (Vexillologie militaire européenne) lists 107 line infantry regiments in 1789, five of them being vacant.
The list of these regiments, the names of their officers and the places where they stationed can be found in État Militaire de la France pour 1789 (31st edition, by M. de Roussel, published by Onfroy, Paris). According to the preface of the book, the État Militaire was released every year on 1 May; corrections had to be sent to Roussel or Onfroy before the 15 February. Most of the chapters of the État Militaire 1789 are available online on the Napoleon Series website.

Ivan Sache, 3 March 2006