Tuesday 14 May 2013

Regiment Nizza, Nine Years War Savoy

I know. They should be wearing broad-brimmed hats, not tricorns. You may already have seen this post on my Lead Legion Painting Service page, but since this is my 15mm wargaming blog, I really have to cross-post it here.

The Regiment Nizza, recruited from the area around the now-French city of Nizza (Nice), fought in the armies of Viktor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont (later King of Sicily, although he swapped Sicily for the Kingdom of Sardinia soon after) during the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession.

Like all of the Duke's line regiments, it was named for the region it was raised and recruited from, rather than named for it's colonel, which was more common at the time. However, in Piedmont-Savoy this practice ceased rather early, with the Duke himself effectively being the Colonel of all his line regiments, foot and horse alike.

Regiment Nizza
In 1689 Regiment Nizza was one of three battalions of foot from Peidmont-Savoy sent north to fight for France in Flanders. In 1690, when the Duke changed sides, the regiments were disbanded by the French and their soldiers forcibly conscripted into French regiments. By 1691 however, sufficient soldiers had escaped French service to re-constitute the regiment, around a solid core of it's original personnel.

The regiment consisted of a single battalion of 16 companies in 1693 (the time period I'm recruiting my army for). One company were Grenadiers.

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Harumph! Take that you button-counter! Wrong hats indeed!

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  2. Really nice Unit. I hope mine come out half as good.

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    Replies
    1. Course they will. What scale are you using over at your club again? 28mm isn't it?

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