"Firing into the Brown" #77 - Bearn, Kings 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..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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 (and I do love a rabbit hole😏), the regiment came into being on the 3rd September 1684 as “Béarn Infanterie”, and was raised in the Pyrenees region.

As we've seen before in the regimental histories of a number of the other French Infantry regiments in the project, Bearn were another one of those 30 regiments Louis XIV raised between the 1st and the 30th of that month in response to the threat of a new coalition of countries opposed to France (when it was needed Louis knew when to splash the cash! 😏). The kernel/core of the new regiment was a battalion of the Picardie Regiment (itself one of the Vieux Corps) so it was a very solid base to form the new regiment round!

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

• 

  Marie Anne Colbert de Blainville
  painted by Pierre Gobert
  (1662 - 1744)  

  from 16 November 1689: François Bouton, Chevalier de Chamilly (killed in action on 14 October 1702 at the Battle of Friedlingen) - very little to be found on this fellow - he was the fourth son of Erard Bouton (who was one of Louis's Field Marshalls) and at the time of his death a brigadier - some sources say he died of wounds received at the battle so it may have been in the immediate aftermath..
• from 15 October 1702: Jean-Baptiste de Rochechouart, Comte de Maure 
• the 15th was the day after Friedlingen so they didn't hang around finding a successor to Francois.. 
• Jean Baptiste de Rochechouart de Mortemart to give him his full title (he was the 5th Duke of  Mortemart), would have been 20 when he was given command (born 1682) but as the son of a General, and the Finance Ministers daughter, he would not have been without influence! That's his mum over there on the left by the way.. 
• Another interesting snippet - his father in law was Jean-Jules-Armand Colbert, the Marquis de Blainville, the very same who commanded all those French regiments crammed into the village of Oberglauheim at Blenheim, and who was to die there on the battlefield...
• Anyway, after commanding Bearn (for less than 18 months) he went on to command the Dauphin Infanterie Regiment  in January 1704 (probably a more fashionable regiment than one of the "30 day wonders" that Bearn was 😀) and survived the war(s) to live to a good age (74)
• from 27 January 1704 to 22 December 1714: Paul-Auguste Gaston de La Rochefoucauld, Comte de Montendre and Jarnac. 
• he commanded a regiment in the Army of Italy (named after him as was fairly common), from it's formation in 1701 for about 18 months
• Paul Auguste died young - at just 38 or 39 - in Paris - his missus (who had bought the title Jarnac to the marriage table) was married again within 6 months (they were different times 😏). 
• Some sources intimate he may have come from a naval background having served aboard the galleys from 1694 to 1703 (though that may have been a brother)
• I have not managed to find anything out about the cause of his death as my interest was piqued - there were no major military engagements in that year so I don't think it was as a result of wounds - the parties would have been deep in negotiations for the various treaties that brought the war to an end. Who knows? Illness - smallpox was the killer in those days?

During the War

• 1701, the regiment was with the Army of Germany.
• 1702 regiment fought at the Battle of Friedlingen
• 1703 the regiment was with the Army of Bavaria.
• 1704 the regiment fought at the Battle of Schellenberg where its lieutenant-colonel (2-i-C) was killed, then at the Battle of Blenheim.
• 1705 the regiment was with the Army of the Moselle.
• 1706 the regiment was with the Army of the Rhine.
• 1707 the regiment was with the Army of Flanders.
• 1708 the regiment took part in the failed expedition in Scotland (now that's an interesting rabbit hole!) and then at the Battle of Oudenarde.
• 1709 the regiment fought at the Battle of Malplaquet.
• 1712 the regiment fought at the Battle of Denain, the Siege of Douai and later in the recapture of Le Quesnoy.

Sources:

• Béarn Infanterie - Project WSS

These are Minifig's and painted and based by me some time pre-2006 - the flag is from the old Warflag.com site which is still - regrettably - down (but accessible via the Wayback Machine website)... these guys are definitely going to get a new standard [clicky - thanks for your work David!] as that one is decidedly battle damaged - I may even rebase at the same time as the old plastic bases I used were thin and a bit warped now

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

As promised a few posts ago - I was down in Old Portsmouth the other day* and paused to get some photo's of what must be some of the last remaining fortifications from the de Gomme period.. the Curtain Wall and the remains of King's Bastion

Scene of the crime - note also the Spur Redoubt

First the curtain wall (and moat)

Sea is to the left - end of the wall looking west'ish

Sea is off to the right - end of the wall looking east'ish - up their at the end (top right) is the old saluting platform which is bang on top of the Bastion

View from the top of King's Bastion of the Curtain Wall - off to the left is the remains of the 1680 built Spur Redoubt - piccie taken from the saluting platform and looking west towards Gosport

Remains of the 1680 Spur Redoubt - and in the background the glorious Solent - all this stuff was built to protect us from anyone wanting to approach the City and Dockyard from that direction 😏

Internal detail - Spur Redoubt

More internal detail - Spur Redoubt

Curtain wall and moat - the bridge is modern of course, but adopts the same route as the one in the 1860 map - there is a Sally Port in the Curtain Wall providing access (which I used) and which would have provided access for gunners and troops to and from the Redoubt in the original configuration

Reverse of the Bastion - this is the access to the main magazine which would have been huge. Given the design of the fortifications, this would have been the first Bastion to engage any enemy coming from the eastern (favoured) end of the Isle of Wight so there would have been plenty of ammunition required for both the guns on the Bastion and I assume for those on the Curtain Wall as well (an interesting rabbit hole on types and numbers of guns presents itself there)..

...and because I love a map as much as my reader - this is some detail from the 1861 Ordnance Survey map of the bastion - can't find a bigger picture regrettably - note the magazine entrances and embrasures..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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