F1: Grenadier, Leibgarde zu Fuss, 1760
The Leibgarde zu Fuss could trace its unbroken lineage back
to the Regiment von Geyso that fought at Lützen in 1632. After the Thirty
Years' War it first became the Kassel Palace Company, and then, when the
Landgraf Karl formed his standing army in 1684, the Leibgarde zu Fuss.
Notwithstanding this pedigree, in the complex 1760 reforms the regiment was
redesignated as 3. Garde, being superceded in first place of seniority by a
ceremonial Garde-Bataillon. 45. This grenadier provides a good example of the
metal-fronted mitre caps favoured by most such units from northern Germany. In
this case the front plate was of tin, embossed with the Langraf's cypher and
the lion of Hesse. The infill of red paint, seen here as depicted by Knötel, is
tenative, but it may have been applied when the caps were first issued and then
subsequently polished away. The regiment's musketeers had the usual cocked
hats, distinguished by white scalloped lace and red-over-white pompons. Also of
interest here are the distinctive dark blue breeches, depicted by the Swiss
artist David Morier in his series of paintings executed for the Duke of
Cumberland in c. 1748. Originally they were worn by all Hessian infantry,
making it easy to distinguish them from the similarly dressed Brunswick troops,
but there is some uncertainty as to when they were abandoned in favour of the
more conventional straw- or yellow-coloured garments being worn by 1761. It is
possible that this change may have occurred as early as 1750, but it is more
likely that it was part of the effort to make the army more Prussian in
appearance in 1760.
F2: Fusilier,
Fusilier-Regiment von Berthold, 1760
As part of the 1760 reforms two infantry regiments, Von
Gilsa and Von Berthold, were redesignated as Fusiliers. The change in status
was purely cosmetic, and other than the probable adoption of white or
straw-coloured breeches in place of blue the only real alteration in appearance
was the replacement of the cocked hat with the distinctive brass-fronted cap
depicted here. Copied from the Prussian style, this cap as worn by the
Fusilier-Regiment von Berthold had a dark blue 'bag' rather than orange as
previously worn by the regiment's grenadiers; the caps worn by the fusiliers of
Fusilier-Regiment von Gilsa followed their grenadiers by having bags in the
facing colour of crearny yellow. Originally raised in 1683, the then
Infanterie-Regiment von Capellan had seen action at Hastenbeck in July 1757; on
5 August 1758 at Mehr the regiment was part of Imhoff's force which repulsed
the French attempt on the Allied bridgehead at Rees, and it also fought at
Lutterberg on 10 October. The following year it was involved in the debacle at
Bergen, when Ferdinand of Brunswick rushed, and botched, an attempt to retake Kassel;
it had better luck later in the year at Minden, when it was part of Von
Wutginau's brigade, and it went on to fight in 1760 at Emsdorf and Warburg.
F3: Musketeer,
Frei-Regiment von Gerlach By contrast, very little is known of the
Frei-Regiment von Gerlach, reconstructed here from a painting by Richard
Knbtel. Other than the obligatory Jäger corps and squadron of hussars Hesse
raised very few light troops, in part because the 1760 reorganization meant
that nearly all the available recruits had to be pushed into the ranks of the
regular army notwithstanding the detrimental effects on efficiency - rather
than segregated in auxiliary units such as this. Nevertheless, in 1762
Ferdinand required each of the national contingents to supply a Jäger or
Chasseur battalion for a light brigade being formed under Lord Cavendish, and
this was the Hessian contribution, originally known as the Chasseur Battalion
von Rail. Once again, as in the Prussian Army, their second-class status was
indicated by the wearing of coloured waistcoats and breeches, in this case
green, rather than the white or straw-coloured breeches sported by regular
units.
H2: Hesse-Kassel
artilleryman
Both gunners and officers of the Hessian artillery wore dark
blue coats, waistcoats and breeches, with red collar, cuffs, and turnbacks,
black hats with red pompons and white or silver lace according to rank, and
black gaiters. Equipment was largely copied from Prussian models, with a broad
whitened buff belt supporting a large powderhorn and a drag-rope on the right
hip, with loops on the front for prickers.
The Landgraf Karl died in 1730. His eldest son Friedrich,
then King of Sweden, and nominally Landgraf, was a gallant warrior and lover,
but politically insignificant. His brother Wilhelm, Statthalter of Hessen and
de facto ruler, continued his father's policy. His aims were to enrich Hessen's
military chest with British subsidies, maintain the traditional alliance with
Protestant Prussia, already re-affirmed once in a treaty of 1714, and obtain
possession of the County of Hanau, promised to Hessen by a treaty of 1648,
whenever the existing ruling house should expire. In the War of the Austrian
Succession Wilhelm was thrown into a dilemma, for his paymaster Britain was
opposed to Prussia and allied with the Catholic Habsburgs, who had not
recognized Kassel's right to Hanau and supported a Darmstadt claim instead. A
corps of 6,000 Hessians was already serving in British pay when in 1744 Wilhelm
supported Karl VII, Bavarian candidate for the Imperial crown, in return for
the promise of an Electorship and territorial gains. His support included 6,000
men for Karl's army. Similarly Wilhelm reaffirmed the treaty of alliance with
Prussia in 1744.
Thus there occurred the extraordinary spectacle of Hessian
troops at war simultaneously on both sides: in British pay garrisoning
fortresses in the Low Countries and in the Bavarian army in southern Germany. A
secret clause in theory prevented the two contingents facing each other on the
battlefield. Nevertheless, the double agreement caused bad feeling later, not
least because the treaty with Bavaria included a 'blood money' clause: for
every dead man Wilhelm was to receive 36 florins, for a dead horse 112 florins
and 30 krone, and for a dead horse and rider together 150 florins. Three
wounded were to count as one dead. It was just as well that the Bavarians were
defeated, Karl VII died, and the Hessian corps in Bavaria was saved from
captivity by a speedy declaration of neutrality. They were still interned in
Ingolstadt for six weeks before being allowed to return to Hessen. In 1745
Wilhelm renewed the British subsidy treaty, so that henceforth Hessians were
available only to England. This apparent double-dealing shocked later
historians, but it was nothing extraordinary in the age of cabinet diplomacy,
and when Wilhelm died in 1760 Frederick of Prussia wrote to his successor,
'Germany has lost its most valuable prince, his land a father, and I my truest
friend.'
The Hessian soldiers, composed of a larger proportion of
natives than the armies of most German princes, was as good as any other of its
time. Karl VII of Bavaria, visiting Hessians in his service in October, 1744,
noted in his diary, 'The fine appearance and smartness of these troops cannot
be surpassed . . . one could not see better.' On many battlefields the Hessians
'held the sum of things for pay': at Rocoux (11 October 1746) against the
French 'the Hessian Regiment of Mansbach, having stood their ground to the
last...refused quarter, so that few of them escaped'. In both 1745 and 1756
Hessian troops were brought to Britain to repel threatened French and Scottish
invasions. Guibert, seeing Hessians and Hannoverians garrisoned at Hanau in
1773 wrote, 'Le bataillon Hessois, surtout, m'a paru beau et bien tenu.'
In the Seven Years War the British alliance cost Hessen
dearly. In 1756 the French army under Richelieu broke into Germany, and,
defeating the Duke of Cumberland at Hastenbeck, occupied Hessen, making it a
theatre of war for the succeeding five campaigns. The French imposed heavy
contributions. A tribute of 850,000 talers was demanded in 1757 in an attempt
to break the alliance with Britain. Since this failed of its purpose, 500,000
more were demanded each year from 1759 to 1761. A smaller sum was levied in 1762.
In addition the French requisitioned grain for their soldiers and hay for their
animals. Both the main towns, Kassel and Marburg, were besieged, taken, and
retaken many times. Marburg's famous Elisabethkirche, a centre of pilgrimage
before the Reformation, was used as a granary by the occupying French army. The
ancient town changed hands fifteen times, the castle on the heights above,
seven times.
The effect of a prolonged war in Hessen, with French levies
and British subsidies, was to make the Landgraf more independent of the Hessian
Parliament (or, more accurately, Estates), the Landstdnde, which was burdened
with making good the losses to the country out of its own sources of revenue.
The subsidies, however, flowed into the war treasury (Kriegskasse), which the
Landgraf s officials controlled and administered. Thus the Landgraf became rich
while the Landstdnde lost the traditional power of the purse over their
sovereign. A British military historian notes, it was a curious fact that the
British Parliament in its reluctance to create a large British army, for fear
of military power in the hands of the monarch, helped German princes in their
struggle against their own Parliaments by making it possible and profitable for
the princes to maintain large forces on hire to the British.'
The Hessian corps fought throughout the campaigns of the
Seven Years War. Ferdinand of Brunswick, commander of 'His Britannic Majesty's
Army in Germany', regarded them as more able to withstand the hardships of war
than any other contingent. Despite its name this army contained more
Hannoverians and Hessians than British troops, who only appeared in September,
1758. Of total strength in 1760 of 90,000, some 37,800 were Hannoverians,
24,400 Hessians, 22,000 British, 9,500 Brunswickers, and there were some lesser
contingents. Yet it succeeded in tying down double its number of French troops,
a service of inestimable value both to British conquests overseas and to
Frederick of Prussia in his struggle against a European coalition. When
Frederick heard of the conclusion of an Anglo-Hessian subsidy treaty for
additional men in early 1759 he wrote to his minister in London, 'C'est avec
bien de la satisfaction que j'ai appris par votre rapport ordinaire du 16 de ce
mois la conclusion du nouveau traite de subside avec le cour de Hesse.' In both
1759 and 1778 Frederick regarded Hessen-Kassel as having an essential role in
the defence of his western flank.
With the fighting going on in Hessan, Hessian soldiers were
sorely tempted to make off home to see how wives and sweethearts, or livestock
and crops, were faring. In 1762 some 111 cavalry and 2,196 infantrymen deserted
out of a contingent of 24,000. The strain of maintaining this large corps fell
heavily on the small state. By August 1761 the Landgraf informed Colonel
Clavering, British representative at his court, that it would be impracticable
to get more recruits if the war continued for another year. Recruiting officers
sent to Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen picked up only deserters and vagabonds, who
were no sooner enlisted than they deserted again. The corps could hardly be
kept up to strength until the Landgraf was once again master of his own
country. Hessian subalterns and rank and file for the last campaign were sixteen-
and seventeen-year-olds.
This mainly German army, by tying down French strength,
enabled Britain to conquer her first empire overseas. British subsidies were
well spent. By contrast the French who paid for the Duke of Württemberg's corps
to serve with the Imperial Army against Prussia got a rabble. Duke Karl Eugen
had introduced Prussian recruiting methods to enlist his troops, and in spring
and summer of 1757 thousands of young men were forcibly pressed into service.
Badly trained and brutally treated, they deserted in droves and were routed by
Frederick of Prussia at Leuthen. Only about 1,900 of some 6,000 returned to Württemberg
months later.
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