The Colours of The Second or Queen’s Royal Regiment
The Reign of Queen Anne
In 1703 as a result, so Davis says in Volume II of his History of The Second Queen’s (1887), of valour at the defence of Tongres, the Regiment became Royal and should therefore have changed its colour, both of facings and Colours, to blue. That it did not is proof of its pride of belonging to the old Queen, since the “Royal” distinction was extremely rare at that time. The green Colour was retained by the Regiment until 1768.
The Colours themselves were altered at this time since from 1688 infantry regiments began to be reorganised into three divisions: two of musketeers and one of pikemen. Each division held a stand of Colours as it could operate independently. This organisation, which was general on the continent and had been the model used by Gustavus Adolphus in the Swedish Army of the Thirty Years’War, and by Marshal Turenne in the French Army, persisted until the introduction of the bayonet during the reign of Queen Anne. The Colours in all regiments, therefore, were first reduced from ten to three, and then when pikes disappeared, to two - with the exception of The Queen’s.
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