Danish Army c.1704

A section devoted to questions and answers for this period.
Tacitus
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Tacitus » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:29 pm

janner wrote:In the meantime, how reliable do you think this page is?

http://www.thewaroffice.co.uk/Blenheim/ ... rigade.jpg
The uniforms on that page follow the regulation of 1699 as reported by Torstein Snorrason. Karsten Skjold Peterson has however in his research found conflicting information. According to him Prince Georg had blue coats and orange facings 1700-1704 (and an unknown uniform 1705-1711). Prince Carl had also blue coats 1700-1704 (with red facings 1704) and an unknown uniform 1705-1712.

The colours seems odd to me. The only one I recognise is the Livgarde colour to the left, which was used by the battalion in English service according to Lars-Eric Höglund.

Höglund describes two colours for Prince Georg and none resemble the website's colours. One set of green colours (with different motifs) were issued to the regiment in 1695, and the battalions in English service had a set of orange colours.

Prince Carl had yellow colours according to Höglund.

The details on these colours are shown in the attached picture.
Despite coming many centuries after my 'own period' of study, and coming with an anticipation that there would be better/more extensive record keeping, it's interesting to see that there is still often no right or wrong, just informed guesswork ;-)
Yes, it is very surprising to find out how little we actually know about this period when you begin to study it. As a teenager I read Peter Englund's book about Poltava and was captivated by his vivid description of the raging battle scenes. But years later when I studied the primary sources I realised that they barely said anything more about the actual fighting than mere one-sentence summaries. Englund was just using his imagination to paint a picture to his readers and was not reporting historical facts.
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Churchill
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Churchill » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:03 pm

Ray.
Last edited by Churchill on Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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janner
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by janner » Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:10 pm

Great stuff, Ray. I'm assuming the various shades of grey are 'artistic interpretation' on the French website. Not that I'd expect the dyes to be that reliable anyway.

Thanks again, Tactitus, apart from an aged Osprey that tucked away somewhere, Lars-Eric's two-part volume is the sum of my uniform reference works on the period so far :oops:

Slowly slowly catchee monkey, as they say :lol:
Tacitus
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Tacitus » Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:12 pm

Churchill wrote:There's another website to look at...
http://royalfig.free.fr/index.php?/category/33
I would not put too much faith in that website. There is quite alot that makes me doubtful. The most embarrasing are the duplicates. Jutland and Jyske are the same regiment, yet he treats them as two separate regiments with slightly different uniforms. And he does the same thing with Fuenen and Fynske as well as Zeeland and Sjaellandske.

But there is yet another website to look at...

http://www.tacitus.nu/karoliner/armeer/ ... anteri.htm
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janner
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by janner » Tue Jan 07, 2014 8:17 pm

Is that your website Tacitus or is the title just a coincidence?
Tacitus
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Tacitus » Tue Jan 07, 2014 8:36 pm

It's no coincidence, that is my website :)

I have promised the people here to translate it to English. But that work is going very slow and is often interrupted for many months at a time.
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Churchill » Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:35 pm

Ray.
Last edited by Churchill on Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:36 am, edited 3 times in total.
Tacitus
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Tacitus » Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:46 pm

Churchill wrote:Well done on your website Tacitus, lots of information there, but that is now three different facing colours for the Württemberg-Oels regiment alone!!!

http://www.thewaroffice.co.uk/Blenheim/ ... rigade.jpg

http://royalfig.free.fr/index.php?/category/33

http://www.tacitus.nu/karoliner/armeer/ ... anteri.htm

which one is correct...red, yellow or blue :?:
The first link does not contain any Württemberg-Oels regiment. It is Prince Georg's regiment with orange facings that is depicted there. Carl Rudolph von Württemberg is listed as its commander but he was from the Württemberg-Neuenstadt line and not from Württemberg-Oels.

The second link's yellow facings must be based on the journal of the English envoy Vrigny. He appearantly described the newly raised Württemberg-Oels regiments as having grey coats with yellow facings. But that contradicts the enlistment patents for these regiments. According to them the infantry regiment should have had grey coats with blue facings and the dragoon regiment should have had blue coats with red facings. It is however possible that Vrigny got Württemberg-Oels confused with Prince Carl's regiment which was in the same area and had according to Snorrason (but not Skjold Petersen!) grey coats and yellow facings.
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by Dfogleman2 » Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:26 am

Tacitus wrote:It's no coincidence, that is my website :)

I have promised the people here to translate it to English. But that work is going very slow and is often interrupted for many months at a time.
And an excellent site it is! Google translate does a pretty good job of translating it.
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Re: Sash colours - Denmark

Post by janner » Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:59 am

It is excellent. A true labour of love :D

I've adjusted the thread title to better reflect the content and help future searches for this information :)
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Re: Danish Army c.1704

Post by janner » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:05 pm

I ordered enough Brits to bring my initial force up to strength from Front Rank on New Years Day and they've reached Denmark already. To anyone who has experience of our postal system, this is nothing short of meraculous :lol:

Looks like I'll have to start a fresh thread and get my first unit finished...
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Re: Danish Army c.1704

Post by Churchill » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:33 pm

Ray.
Last edited by Churchill on Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tacitus
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Re: Danish Army c.1704

Post by Tacitus » Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:11 pm

Churchill wrote:Hi Tacitus,

Sorry about that with the first link, I must have copied and pasted the previous page by mistake.
I've corrected that link now!!!

Cheers,

Ray.
Well, that is strange. I do not know of any source that say Württemberg-Oels had red facings so he must have misread something.
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Re: Danish Army c.1704

Post by footslogger » Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:45 pm

Nice site, Tacitus. Thanks for doing all the work.

I don't like your data as I already painted two battalions of Prinz Carl as gray with yellow facings :oops:
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Re: Danish Army c.1704

Post by Dfogleman2 » Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:44 pm

footslogger wrote:Nice site, Tacitus. Thanks for doing all the work.

I don't like your data as I already painted two battalions of Prinz Carl as gray with yellow facings :oops:
Footslogger: You may be right, after all. Snorrason says that grey an yellow were the colors until 1712. Even if one accepts Skjold Peterson's blue red, that would only necessarily be for the period 1701-04. I don't know who is right. Maybe some who know more on this can chime in?
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