SYW Saxony: IR Kurprincessen

Another Saxon regiment painted as it might have looked in French service. Pre-Pirna this was a single battalion regiment called Grenadierbataillon Kurprinzessin which was brigaded with converged Grenadier battalions. It featured lapels (unusually in this period) and the entire battalion wore Grenadier mitres.

But after the troops had deserted en-masse from Prussian service, they formed a two battalion regiment and dropped the Grenadierbataillon designation. I have still retained red sword knots for the whole battalion on the assumption that elite troops liked to retain their distinctions even after they had been 'reduced in status'. Note that although they lost the designation as a Grenadier regiment, according to Kronoskaf, they retained the right for their regimental band to play the Grenadiermarsch. For the actual Grenadier company I have given them moustaches, which is again conjecture on my part. Besides the lapels this regiment's main difference from Xaver (which you have seen in a previous post) is that Xaver had gold coloured buttons, while this had silver.

There is quite a story to be told about the wholesale absorption of the Saxon army into the Prussian (Frederick II created new regiments against the advice of his generals who wanted the personnel packaged out in small parcels amongst the other regiments) and their subsequent mass-desertion to be reformed in Hungary (equipped by the Austrians but at French expense?) and then for them to march over to Western Germany to join their new paymaster, the French. Kronoskaf calls this
process 'REVERTENTEN' but Christian Rogge told me in an email “Refertenten is a funny outdated German term. Not sure what it means. Possibly English "revertents" "reverters" or in more recent English "returnees".” so I'm not sure. What I do know is that there is a book produced in German by Marcus von Salisch called “Treue Deserteure. Kursächsischen Das Militär und der Siebenjährige Krieg” and I've asked the author if he would do an English precis of his book. If I manage that you will hear of it first here.

Sometime soon I'll be painting up some rather exotic Saxon Grenadier companies – exotic because many of them wore their old cavalry uniforms!