Régiment de Nivernais..

...it's been a while since my last update, but here's some proof that I've not been idle in my absence...


..these guys are the latest regiment to join the forces of Louis XIV as part of the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession project - in fact the entire month has been a bit of a War of the Spanish Succession moment in time! J

As per Nettancourt, this regiment is solely made up of Minifgs 15's - the flag is from the excellent Warflag site..


..I'm quite keen on making sure that my armies are not full of Guards regiments, Household troops, or elite formations, and I'm happy to say that these guys fulfil that criteria quite nicely.. not that they're to be sniffed at!


The regiment was created on September 17 1684 and took the name of the province of Nivernais - and apart from this there is precious little information about the regiment.

They were one of 30 (!!) new regiments that Louis XIV raised between September 1st and 30th for home defence as a result of his fears at the time of a new coalition being formed against him.

By raising one regiment a day, he avoided any problem of precedence among these new regiments; suffice to say that during the Seven Years' War, the regiment ranked 86th - not 'elite' then!

The regiment carries no battle honours during the War of the Spanish Succession, but were obviously present at the action on the Schellenberg (as that's my starting point for the regiments I'm currently painting), where they were brigaded with Regiment Bearn (who had two battalions present), under the command of Brigadier de Montandre.. they were in the second line though. I guess I'm going to have to take to the books and see what I can find there - I'm assuming they would have been present at some of the other major engagements as well.

The regiment went on to serve in Italy during the War of the Polish Succession (which was new war to me - and one worth of a separate post I think).

During the War of the Austrian Succession, the regiment initially served in Flanders (1742) and the Lower Rhine (1743) before being sent back to Flanders (1744/1745) and finally Genoa where it was stationed in 1747 and 1748.

So there you have it - evidence if any were needed that not all regiments lead the assault, carried off the enemies flags, and featured prominently at the schwerpunkt - some were destined to serve failthfully in the line, largely un-noticed, but important none the less..

By the by - during the French Revolution, on March 4 1790, the region of Nivernais was renamed Nièvre named after the Nièvre River - it's now part of the current region of Bourgogne (which is well known for its white wine, Pouilly Fumé).