League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

Dear All,

a couple of questions re the humble Karpus.

Was the Karpus a Swedish early version of the service cap, that could be worn alongside the standard issue tricorn hat?

or

would specific regiments have received the Karpus as an alternative to the tricorn?

essentially, can I mix in the odd Karpus headed figure into my tricorn headed figures within the same regiment?

thanks

CHAS

There are only a few examples of regiments being issued both karpus and tricornes. The general rule was that they either had karpus or tricornes.

The karpus was based on the headgear worn by ordinary peasants and it was issued to the provincial regiments (mainly the infantry, but also the cavalry to some extent) during the interwar period of 1679-1700, thus replacing floppy hats. During the Great Northern War a transition occurred from karpus to tricorne with the northern regiments being the ones who retained the karpus for the longest time.

The karpus was better suited for the Swedish climate than the tricorne but it was also more expensive and had less status since tricorne was the headgear worn by noblemen.