"Firing into the Brown" #61 - Housing developments, Navarre and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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From this...

To this... 

Fairly straight forward (and cleverly designed) builds, the only downside of them are the very plain roofs - I had some Wills wood planking plasticard in a spares box and chopped that up to break the plainness. The Saloon roof is a bit gimcrack but I was running out of the planking, and in my mind they were too.. 😏  it will look fine painted..

The ridge cover is made from paper and is just to cover the join...  all of these except the Saloon are glued, so the roofs don't lift off - any inside gaming action will be transferred to an off table floor plan for the particular building..

..then to this (undercoated) - time to get the dry brushes out...   muted palate based on brown and grey I think..

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Another in those occasional "regiments of renown" series featuring the histories of various regiments painted in haste at the beginning of a project, but not documented here for posterity... so we come to French infantry regiment "Navarre", part of my War of the Spanish Succession collection... 

This wargame unit has the unique feature of being the only regiment in the collection that wasn't painted by me - this regiment was painted by my old wargaming buddy DG, and was part of the original pile of painted figures and bags of unpainted ones that he passed to me when he decided the period just wasn't for him back then in errr.... 2006? I think, he gave me the parcel just after Salute that year...

There is a very (very) good potted history of this regiment on the Kronoskaf WSS site (link below) so there's little point in me repeating the good work completed there, but by way of a framework to hang some 'rabbit holes' on (😏), 

• the regiment was created in 1558 from protestant soldiers originally members of the 'Bandes de Guyenne' who were recruited in the region of the Garonne River. The bandes (there were many) by the way were the first permanent, paid, infantry units in the service of France, modelled on the organisation of the Swiss units (mercenaries in French pay).

• When the regiment was formed, as usual for the time it took its name from the first colonel of the regiment, but in November 1562, on the death of the King of Navarre, the regiment was assigned to guard his son, Henri de Navarre (the reason being, that like his Dad, Henri was a First Prince of the Blood ie. the most senior male member of the French royal dynasty who was not in the present Kings line) so somewhere between 1568 and 1570, it became known as the Garde du Roi de Navarre (King of Navarre's Guards). NB. Henri became King of France in 1589 on the death of Henri III who was childless.

• As one of the first regular regiments, Navarre (along with regiments Picardie, Piedmont and Champagne) was in Les Vieux Corps - the Old Corps - equivalent in the British Army of the time to the Guards regiments in terms of seniority and longevity

• At the start of the War of the Spanish Succession, the regiment counted three battalions - but not for long as almost the entire regiment was captured at Blenheim, when they were part of the forces occupying Blenheim village. It wasn't until the following year following a prisoner exchange that the regiment was able to reach its old strength. Other than Ramillies, the regiment was present at all the major engagements in Flanders.

• During the War of the Spanish Succession, the regiment was commanded by:

• 

  Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, the Duchess
   of Burgundy - she would have been about
  24 in this portrait

  from14 November 1696: François-Édouard Colbert, Marquis de Maulevrier - he was the nephew of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, one of the most powerful men in Louis XIV's council. It wasn't to save him as he was only 31 when he died (in Paris) on April 1st, 1706, apparently by suicide and possibly as a result of jealousy and insanity following a failed love affair with Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, the Duchess of Burgundy. He was playing for high stakes as she was the wife of the Dauphin, and the mother of the future Louis XV but she surely was a looker (see right)

• from 4 April 1706: Gilbert de Chabannes, Marquis de Pionsac (also recorded as Ponziac/Pionsat) - he died in April 1720 at the grand old age of 73. Not sure what caused him to give up the Colonelcy, but he certainly made Brigadier. It's possible he moved to the Guards.

• from 16 February 1709 till 6 March 1719: Jean, Marquis de Gassion - he was the 3rd Marquis of that name (which is confusing) and not to be confused with the earlier Jean de Gassion who performed a pivotal role at the battle of Rocroi and who Cardinal Richelieu called la Guerre ("War") - he was his great uncle. Jean III is simply described in all the references as a "Lieutenant General in the Kings Armies" - his father (Pierre de Gassion) was president of the Parliament of Navarre, which may explain his promotion. There's no reference as to when he was birth or death, but based on the fact he was the eldest and his parents married in 1670 I'm going to guess he would have been mid to late 30's, when he got the colonelcy. Interestingly - his mother was also a  Colbert - his Grandparents would have been the same as Francois-Edouard's...   wheels within wheels..  😏

These are Minifigs and painted by DG some time pre-2006, but based my me - the flag is from Warflag.com

References:

• Navarre Infanterie - Project WSS (kronoskaf.com)

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...