The
Reign of Queen Anne
In
1703 as a result, so Davis says in Volume II of his History
of The Second Queen’s (1887), of valour at the defence
of Tongres, the Regiment became Royal and should therefore have
changed its colour, both of facings and Colours, to blue. That
it did not is proof of its pride of belonging to the old Queen,
since the “Royal” distinction was extremely rare at
that time. The green Colour was retained by the Regiment until
1768.
The Colours themselves were altered at this time since from 1688
infantry regiments began to be reorganised into three divisions:
two of musketeers and one of pikemen. Each division held a stand
of Colours as it could operate independently. This organisation,
which was general on the continent and had been the model used
by Gustavus Adolphus in the Swedish Army of the Thirty Years’War,
and by Marshal Turenne in the French Army, persisted until the
introduction of the bayonet during the reign of Queen Anne. The
Colours in all regiments, therefore, were first reduced from ten
to three, and then when pikes disappeared, to two - with the exception
of The Queen’s. |