Post
by Arthur » Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:49 pm
You're technically right, Jan, but as was often the case during Louis XIV's reign, regulations were not always strictly enforced. The royal ordinance of June 22 1671 specified that only three flags would be carried per battalion : one white drapeau colonel and two coloured drapeaux d'ordonnance. In the case of multi-battalion regiments, the second, third or fourth battalions would carry three drapeaux d'ordonnance in the field, the drapeau colonel being the first battalion's prerogative.
Prior to this however, it had been customary for each company of foot to have its own flag. With the promulgation of the 1671 ordinance, the surplus flags should have been retired and placed in storage. Period accounts show that this does not always seem to have been the case and that regimental commanders did pretty much as they pleased regardless of what regulations instructed them to do. Thus in 1712, the one-battalion Béarn regiment surrended one white flag and three drapeaux d'ordonnance at Le Quesnoy while in 1709 the Boufflers regiment lost three drapeaux d'ordonnance at Malplaquet when it should have had only two.
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know.