Wednesday 22 February 2012

RP No 55 NYW - Dutch Garde du Corps



The Gardes du Corps were raised on 30 April 1599 as a Troop of Horse. In 1665 it was redesignated as Gardes du Corps van Zijne Majesteit. The corps was in English pay between 21 December 1688 and 25 March 1699; in the Dutch Republic it was maintained by the province of Zeeland. The colonel of the corps during its service in English pay was Hendrik, Graaf (Count) van Nassau - Ouwerkerk from 11 March 1672, until 18 October 1708.
When the Gardes left Ireland after the campaign, they left their grey horses to Thomas Lord Tiviot's Dragoon,  who later became the Royal Scots Greys, its suggested that's why the Royal Scots rode Grey horses.
The figures are once again from Essex, and the flags are made by me, they're nearly identical to the Gardes te Paard, flags I posted, the only difference is the edging is silver and gold instead of gold. I'll post the flag another day.

Hendrik, graaf van Nassau – Ouwerkerk

Born.1640, Died.1708. Also closely related to William III (Hendrik's father was an illegitimate son of Maurits van Nassau, Prins van Oranje, being a great - uncle of William III), and was colonel of the Gardes du Corps (Life Guards) between 1672 and 1708. Following the invasion of England in 1688, he was naturalized. He was, however, not elevated to a peerage. In English his name is usually spelled as Overkirk. In Dalton (see the blog's bibliography) he is listed under the French version de Nassau d'Auverquerque however.
His second son Hendrik (b.1673, d.1754) was created Earl of Grantham, Viscount Boston and Baron Alford in 1698.
His youngest son Frans (b.1682, d.1710) (in Dalton listed as François de Nassau d'Auverquerque) raised a regiment of foot in 1706, and in 1707 assumed command of a regiment of dragoons in Spain raised by the 3rd Earl of Peterborough. He would be killed in the battle of Almenara on 27 July 1710 as well.










35 comments:

  1. Excellent stuff Ray! I especially like how you have painted the horses. I find greys extremely difficult to do well but you have got them spot on

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice as always, keep them coming

    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  3. They really are a very splendid troop of gentlemen! Great work Ray.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful figures, Ray! {That's a hell of a thing to show me on Ash Wednesday! Oh, the temptation!}

    ReplyDelete
  5. They look like real one's all shrunk up, lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a wonderful unit...and a wonderful background!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wonderful figures. Nice job. Nice to read about the background of the unit.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the history leason! When I first saw the picture I was wondering why you had painted all the horses grey! Now I know!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Excellent painted figures and thanks for the information.

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Super effort, I skimmed through the history lesson though!

    ReplyDelete
  11. The grey hotses look really nice mate. The Flags are good as always to use maginfeyes when painting your 15mm?

    ReplyDelete
  12. They look lovely, the red, the blue and the grey of the horses look so good. Great painting and flag there

    ReplyDelete
  13. More great stuff Ray, your painting output is very impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your brush is still smokin! Great work.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Really nice results and enjoyed the background write up. I'm finding myself drifting further into 15mm as the scale has many advantages.

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  16. I am beginning to feel quite ill...as in the amount of jealousy at the speed at which you get these units painted ease is aggravating to my spleen.

    ReplyDelete
  17. more fine looking miniatures...

    ReplyDelete
  18. You have a very good talent at painting.

    ReplyDelete
  19. All these NYW minis are really looking great. Any plans for more BLTB 2 games/reports in the near future?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Beautiful job on those. The colors used create a very striking effect. I appreciate the unit history you include. Just brings them to life so much.

    ReplyDelete
  21. with 26 comments I've little to add but I'd like to say these are great mini's and I greatly appreciate the background story.

    cheers Sander

    ReplyDelete
  22. Those horses are gorgeous and I love the colors of the uniforms as well. Also I spied a drummer in there too which I love. Very nicely done Ray.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Excellent Ray! A very nice looking unit. Really nice basing and an interesting bit of history too.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Nice horsies, very nice overall, well done Ray.

    ReplyDelete
  25. thanks for the history lesson...i never knew that. and very nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Yet more excellent figures and another really nice unit

    ReplyDelete
  27. Very nice, Ray, a beautifull unit of Guards.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Very good looking unit; another great post. The flags are too cool.

    ReplyDelete