The Glorious Revolution - William of Orange's Order of Battle - Part 2: Foot

Dutch Garde te Voet

Following up on my last post, I am here including the information I have found about the infantry which William of Orange led on his November 1688 invasion of England. Unlike the cavalry, the foot regiments seem to have been brought over in their entirety.

Foot

Unit Name	Co.’s	Men	Coat/Lining	Notes
Footguards	25	2522	Blue/oran.	1.
Wiinberg	12	660	Red/white	2.
Birkenfeld	10	550	White/red
Holstein	10	550	White/red	3.
Fagel	10	550	Red/yellow
Brandenburg	10	550	D. Blue/red	4.
Nassau	12	660	Grey/red	5.
Hagedoorn	10	550	Grey/yel.
Carlson	12	660	?
Mackay	12	660	Red/blue	6.
Balfour	12	660	Red/yellow	6.
Ramsey	12	660	Red/white	6.
Babington	12	660	Red	7.
Sydney	12	660	?	8.
Tollemache	12	660	Red/green	9.

1.  Alias Garde te Voet. Normally contained three battalions, it may have been divided into four battalions during the invasion. See "Brigading" below.
2. Colonel was Ditmar van Wijnbergen.
3. Difficult to identify, but likely to be the Alt-Holstein Regiment, a subsidy regiment from Brandenberg which entered Dutch service in August, 1688. This regiment is also known by its colonel's name, Kurt Christof von Schwerin.
4. Not a subsidy regiment, part of the regular Dutch army but led by the brother of the Elector of Hanover.
5. Led by Prince Walrad van Nassau-Saarbrucken, who was also colonel of a regiment of Horse by the same name.
6. Part of the Anglo-Scots Brigade.
7. English, would eventually enter British service as the 6th Regiment of Foot.
8. English, would later become Lord Cutts Regiment and disbanded in 1697.
9. English, would eventually enter British service as the 5th Regiment of Foot. Colonel's name variously spelled Tolmach, Talmash, or Talmouth.

Brigading

A list of the army's quarters on December 6/16th 1688 gives an idea of how the foot may have been brigaded, with place names in parentheses:

• Headquarters (Collingborn Kingston)
• Marshal Schomberg with the Staff (Collingborn St. Andrews)
• 1 Guards' battalion (West Everley)
• Prince van Birckenfeld (Chute)
• 3 Guards' battalions (North Tudworth, South Tudworth, Haxton)
• Birckenfelt's Brigade  (Apleshire, Shaddesden, Kimpton, Trouxon)
• Sidney's Brigade (Ambesbury)
• General Nassau, with 1 battalion (Great Bodwin)
• 1 Battalion of Wynberg's Brigade (Little Bodwin)
• 2 other battalions of Wynberg's Brigade (Burbich)

Therefore I propose that the army may have been brigaded thus:

Brigade	Regiments
Guards	Garde te Voet (4 battalions)
Birkenfeld	Birkenfeld, Holstein, Fagel, Brandenburg
Sydney	All regiments of Anglo-Scots Brigade
Wijnberg	Wijnberg, Hagedoorn, Carlson, Nassau

Brigades at this time were often temporary and ad-hoc, so the compositions would certainly have changed frequently, however this may give an idea of how the army was organized, based on the document, which is linked below.

Works Cited

“Manuscripts and Special Collections.” pwa2221 image 1 - Conflict - The University of Nottingham. University of Nottingham. Accessed September 14, 2022. http://mssweb.nottingham.ac.uk/elearning/view-text.asp?resource=Conflict&ref=pwa2221&theme=1&view=text&page=1.

 

Marquess of Cambridge. “THE MARCH OF WILLIAM OF ORANGE FROM TORBAY TO LONDON—1688.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 44, no. 179 (1966): 152–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44222821.

Sapherson C. A. 19901988. The Dutch Army of William Iii. Leeds: Raider Books.

http://www.reenactor.ru/ARH/PDF/Sapherson_00.pdf 

Soli Deo Gloria!