Friday, 1 February 2019

SYW French: IR121 Horion (Liégeois)






The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, situated, for the most part, in present-day Belgium, which was ruled by the Bishop of Liège. As a prince, the Bishop held an Imperial Estate and had seat and voice at the Imperial Diet.

On May 1 1756, Maria Theresa signed a contract with Louis XV by which he promised to send an auxiliary corps of 24,000 men as support in the war against Prussia.
Two new infantry regiments were created on March 25 1757 as new units in the French Army. The first regiment given the number 120 was a two battalion regiment raised in the Bishopric by the French Colonel Charles Albert Baron Vierzet. The second regiment, numbered 121, was raised by the Comte de Horion and also had two battalions. The former regiment had a long history as, in 1762, it went into Austrian service and lasted in some form until 1918. But Horion was disbanded in 1762 and therefore had a short five year lifespan.

There is some dispute about some of the uniform details as you can see from the attached painting plate. Some sources suggested blue cuffs but I have gone with the Kronoskaf interpretation with red cuffs. I have also reworked the flags to make the blue diamonds on the border a bit more visable.

I think this is a very fine looking uniform and I have never seen it painted by gamers before. This concludes Phase 1 of the Franco-Spanish force to face off against the Piedmontese WAS army already done. Phase 2 is going to be more Spanish to compliment those 3 Spanish Guard battalions already finished. The infantry will total 8 French battalions and 10 Spanish plus one wild Macedonian light infantry unit.




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