Regiment d'Humieres

[Bitbag]

Hi all

Firstly, a massive thanks for all the assistance in recent days over colours, cravates, tassels etc of the French forces. All greatly appreciated!!

My next query is about Regiment d'Humieres in 1693. Over the last couple of years I've followed Giles Allison's blog 'Tarleton's Quarter', with great interest. With all the posts Giles adds, he tries to put in information about the units he's painted, and I'd like to emulate that idea.
http://gilesallison.blogspot.co.uk

So first up, with the pikemen already there to be seen on my own blog, is Regiment d'Humieres. Mark Allen's WI articles list the Mestre de Camp in 1689 as Louis-Francois d'Aumont. I know from these articles that the regimentwas formed in 1629, was present in the Landen ( Neerwinden) campaign in 1693, and that they had red cuffs, waistcoats, hose and breeches, and 'white' lace and buttons. Their colours were (?bluey-) green with white squares in each quarter. Eugene Lelievpre? suggests that the livery for the drummers was the Aumont livery of yellow with black and white lace and a white cross on the front and black of the coats, although this is by inference only and based on a portrait of d'Humieres' cavalry regiment.

Beyond that, I don't know anything!! I'm wondering if there's any connection between the regiment and Duc d'Humieres the Marshal of France (and infamously) Walcourt in 1689. He died in 1694. CS Grant on p59 of Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough's Wars Vol.1 lists a 'Dampierre, D'humieres and Saillant Regiment' in the WSS, so I'm wondering if colonels changed etc. Also he describes cuffs and collars as green, so I'm wondering when they changed from the red, or if it's the same regiment? How did they fare at Landen? How many battalions did they have? Mark Allen lists 2:?

Any help will be gratefully accepted. I'm on far safer ground with the ECW, so when there's any questions on the Victory without Quarter board, I'll do my best to return the favour and answer questions, instead of posting 'em all the time!!

Many thanks again!!
Andy
http://haveacare.blogspot.co.uk/

[Arthur]

Hi Andy

There were two D'Humières infantry regiments during the reign of Louis XIV : the first one belonged to Nicolas de Crevant, marquis d'Humières and it bore the name of its colonel-proprietor from 1677 to 1684 when D'Humières got himself killed at the siege of Luxembourg. After his death, the regiment was given to the Marquis de La Châtre and renamed after its new owner.

The unit you are interested in was indeed raised in 1629 as Nettancourt. It became the property of the Dampierre family in 1652 and changed hands again in 1689, acquiring the name D'Humières in the process. It later became the Régiment de Charost in 1702, then Béthune in 1709 and finally Saillant in 1712.

From 1689 until 1702, its colonel-proprietor was Louis-François d'Aumont, marquis de Chappes, which explains why the unit is sometimes listed as Chappes for the 1690's. The marquis de Chappes took on the title of Duke of Humières in 1690 when he married Anne-Louise-Julie de Crevant, the third daughter of Louis de Crevant, first Duke of Humières. Louis de Crevant (shown in the portrait below) was the Marshal of France who had been defeated at Walcourt - and the father of the Nicolas de Crevant who had been killed at the siege of Luxembourg in 1684. However, his only and very indirect connection with the new D'Humières regiment was that it was commanded by his son-in-law : he himself never had anything to do with it.



The unit originally boasted a single battalion but a second one was added in 1692 from drafts provided by the Feuquières, Brie, Dauphiné and Bassigny infantry regiments. As a result, D'Humières fielded two battalions at Neerwinden where it was brigaded with the Navarre regiment. I don't have any details about its performance there but it seems to have done its job quite adequately (according to Susane, one captain Daubenton was killed during the battle and seven other officers were wounded as well).

You have the correct flag and uniform details : the Etat général des troupes de France 1692 manuscript indicates grey coats lined red, while Le Corfey's Etats des troupes françaises 1698 gives grey coats with red cuffs and lining, red waistcoats and red stockings, yellow buttons and presumably yellow hat lace. The green cuffs mentioned by Grant are most likely borrowed from Lienhart & Humbert, who are not a reliable source for the pre-1720 era as they frequently contradict period documents.

The Aumont livery is appropriate for musicians, though it's neither clear nor certain that the white cross was used in the 1690's :



Pierre Charrié confirms the dark green drapeaux d'ordonnance with a white square in the middle of each quarter (all four quarters identical). Below is Robert Hall's interpretation of Charrié's description :



Hope this answers most of your queries.

[Bitbag]

Arthur

This is simply wonderful!! Thank you so much - just a brief reading of this is so helpful, and I'm sure that when I've had time to digest it properly it will mean so much more - I was more excited about replying to say a big thank you!! Now I'll go back to it and read it properly.

Certainly the plate seems to suggest that I've got much of the detail right on my drummer, thanks to Mark Allen's WI plate. I was going to keep my powder dry and not show him off until I had his fellow soldiers done on the rest of the base, but I might just have to take some pics now and give him a solo show. Keep an eye on the blog over the next few days for him!

Do you think it's ok to add on some of the information you've provided? I'll credit you on there. As someone who's starting out in the period, its often confusing as to where to find information, and I'm slowly getting ideas. On a limited budget as well, sometimes it's tricky getting hold of sources as well, so I do appreciate any help from people.

I think I may have to slightly redo my colours - they are slightly too bluey green - possibly a mis-interpretaion by me thanks to the scanning of the Mark Allen plates on the WI CD. Also the squares might be too small. We'll see. One of the penalties of hand painting flags I suppose I might put a pic of those up as well, to see what people think.

Once again, many thanks. I can't fault this forum so far!!!

Andy
http://haveacare.blogspot.co.uk/

[Churchill]

Ray.

[Arthur]

Hi Andy

Be my guest if you want to use the stuff I posted above on your blog - I merely compiled it from a variety of sources anyway.

If you're curious about it, the regimental history bit comes from Louis Susane's Histoire de l'ancienne infanterie française (which also was Mark Allen's main source for his WI articles). The D'Humières family history was gleaned from several pieces on that particular household (including a surprisingly useful French-language Wikipedia page) and Pierre Charrié's seminal Drapeaux et étendards du Roi supplied the flag info as usual. The uniform details come from several sources, all of which are excellently summarised by Robert Hall in his CD-ROM on Louis XIV's infantry - and to a much lesser extent by René Chartrand in his very commendable Osprey MAA. The D'Humières/Aumont musician livery is lifted from an original Hussard du Marais plate by Eugène Lelièpvre which I scanned for the occasion.

[Bitbag]

Thanks Arthur

I'll summarise all the info you've provided, and when the regiment is complete, I'll post it up on my blog. Greatly appreciated!

Unfortunately, my Osprey Chartrand is mis-placed at the minute - somewhere in storage at my parents' house I think.
The Hall Plates I'm curious about, so I've already started to look for the French infantry CD online to purchase. When I have the pennies, I think that'll be on my to buy list! I'll try and have a look on French Wiki - I managed to staggeringly scrape an A at GCSE French, so although it's a little rusty, it might be quite straightforward to try and understand the gist of most of what's there.

I've redone my flag this evening, with a slightly darker tone, and now I'm happy with it. The info you've given me has really spurred me on to get this regiment done now, so I'm keen to get it done before Partizan at Newark, on the 1st September, then get some more pics on the blog. Progress will be charted over the coming weeks. Nice target if I can meet it!!

Once again, many thanks, and I'll stay in touch.

Andy