The article in Vol III, No 6 by Gunther Rothenberg on the Army of The Blue King touched on many interest ing facets of this famous little army. Unfortunately it omitted or skipped over a great deal of information vital to the collector and wargamer. I don't consider myself a leading authority on Max Emmanuel's troops. However, I have raised a wargame contingent to relieve Vienna from my Turks. My Bavarian Army may be remembered by a few for its bloody repulse at Hummelberg (THE COURIER, Vol III No 3). My sources are primarily Knoetel's classic Handbuch der Uniforme Kunde, originally in German but more recently in English translation, and a series of articles by Aram Bakshian Jr. and Dr. August Benkert which appeared during the late 1960's and early 1970's in the now extinct Vedette published by the National Capital Military Collectors (NCMC, which is still thriving, only the Vedette being extinct). Max's career as a militant Elector spanned over 30 years, and cannot be considered monolithic. My own interest is primarily in the early Turkenkrieg, basically 1683-84, though the war lasted into 1688 and sputtered along thereafter. Max also has a hand in some parts of the War of the League of Augsberg 1688-97 against France, then went on the French side in the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Some of the significant changes in the army during the Turkenkrieg (my main concern) included: 1682-83: Seige and relief of Vienna. Bavarian units dressed in grey, green, and blue. Some pikes still present. Cavalry mainly cuirassiers, so me dragoons. 1684 (5 March decree): Most infantry regiments con verted to the light/medium blue for which Max Emmanuel became famous. 1687: Last of the pikes phased out. Troops increasingly armed with flintlock and socket bayonet. 1688: Right before the end of Bavaria's involvement, the first true light cavalry unit, Husaren Regiment von Lidl puts in an appearance. 1683 Again, I am mainly concerned with 1683. At that time there were 7 regiments of infantry by Rothenberg's count having an establishment of 2 battalions of 600 men each. Robert Mosca (The Ottoman Army at the Siege of Vienna Part 2, Vol III No 4 of THE COURIER) also mentions a foot guard unit which does not appear in Knoetel's list for the period. Rothenberg gives a 1679 ratio of 7 pikes to 3 muskets, which I am frankly inclined to doubt. Bakshian gives a ratio of 24 pikes to 87 muskets at the time of the blue degree in 1684, and the pikes disappeared entirely in 1686-87 (the Saxon's left them home in 1683). Even as far back as the Thirty Years War (after 1630) Montecucoli (Barker) considered 1 pike to 2 muskets normal, and David Chandler (Warfare in the Age of Marlborough) reports a ratio of 1 to 4 or 5 shortly before the French and British armies abandoned the pike. My own units normally have 3 cadre, 6 pikes, and 12 muskets per battalion, and I'm inclined to think them pike heavy. Knoetel gives the following 1682-83 infantry colors: Regiment Date Disbanded Coat Cuff & Vest Berlo (1918) Pearl Gray White Peuch (1688) Green Yellow Degenfeld (1918) Pearl Gray Dark Lilac Montfort (1688 Dark Gray Blue Perusa (1705) Blue Violet Steinau (1705) Blue Red Preysing (1705) Blue Yellow In this period Bakshian and Benkert report the musketeers wore brown leather belting. The Black cartridge box (sometimes with monogram in brass) on the right hip, the sword on the left, supported by crossing belts. The Sword was later supported only by the waist- belt, losing the crossbelt effect. Pikes, while they lasted, had only the sword strap. Buttons were origi nally of wood covered with blue cloth, but towards the turn of the century increasingly of tin. There were 15 on the right coat front, 3 on each cuff, 3 under each pocket flap, 7 on the coat tail slot, one above each hip about the small of the back. Armor for the rank and file, even the pikemen, was rare to the point of non exis tence -- I'd have complained, what with all of that Turkish archery. Leggings, according to the same sources, were usually white or gray with gray or red stripes, usually vertical but sometimes horizontal. From around 1701 they were usually plain gray or white. Knoetel mentions another phenomenon not supported by other sources in my possession. He refers to officers early in the Turkenkrieg wearing the cuff color of their regiments, usually lined blue (after 1684?). In the absence of further data I have extended the reversed colors to all cadre-musicians and non-coins sometimes being listed with officers in 17th century returns. I don't feel the reversed colors are much of a risk since officer costume tended to be less well regulated than that of the enlisted men during this period. Lower officers wore the traditional Bavarian blue sashes trimmed silver (fringes) originally around the waist, later over the shoulder. Senior officers, up to and including the Elector, wore white striped with light blue. If pikes were losing their armor in this period, officers were slower to do so. As late as the 1780's French infantry officers nominally retained the front plate of the cuirass, although in most cases only the token gorget appeared in the field. During the period of the Blue King officers of unarmored units were not un commonly depicted in breastplates, as in the portraits of Max Emmanuel in the uniform of his "red dragoons" with a black breastplate trimmed brass. In all fairness to the officer class, we should probably not consider the continued wearing of armor as a cowardly example of RHIP. It seems to have been regarded as more honorary than protective. More armor appears much later in court portraits than on the battlefield. For those intersted in the blue army for which Max Emmanuel is famous, Knoetel gives the following colors after the 5 March 1864 decree: Regiment Coat Cuff Mercy Blue White Steinau Blue Red Rummel Blue Violet Preysing Blue Yellow Peuch Gray Blue Montfort Gray Blue Della Rose Blue Bright Lilac And at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession: Regiment Coat Cuff Liebregiment Blue White Kuprinz Blue Blue Grenadiers Blue Blue Lutzelberg Blue Red with red vest Haxhausen Blue Red Maffei Blue Yellow Tattenbach Blue Yellow w/ yellow vest The first three regiments had white button hole lace and trim. Vests, except as noted, were no longer of facing color but generally blue. Trousers usually blue. This blue was darker than that of the coat and officers sash. Hair was originally left to fall freely, later tied in back. The hats were broad brimmed usually black with white trim, increasingly worn tri cornered. After 1702 the grenadiers adopted bearskin caps without plates. Shoes normally black, sword and bayonet scabbard brown leather with brass tips. In 1706 the Chavalier de Bavaire Regiment was raised with aurora (bright orange) cuffs and waistcoats which were changed to sulphur yellow in 1718. The Landfahnen, a militia force, had worn blue trimmed white back in the Thirty Years War. Around 1700 they wore blue coats with whitish gray cuffs, blue waistcoats, white stockings, and yellow pouch belts and waistbelts. The officers wore light gray without gold or silver lace, with blue stockings, white and blue sashes, silver gorgets and blue feather plumage in their hats. Bakshian mentions overcoats of blue cloth of the in fantry, gray for the cuirassiers. In both cases the overcoats were of a darker shade than the normal coat color. As Rothenberg notes, Bavarian cavalry of the Turkenkrieg were principally cuirassiers. Alas, no hussars made an appearance until around 1688, and if the cuirassiers added tone to the brawl, they did little to add color. The coat was basically gray -- probably a bit darker in the early 1680's than it became later on. Belting was buff, as were the trousers, boots black. Headgear should have been a helmet reminiscent of the Cromwellian ironsides. Like the cuirass (back and breast) it was not blackened, nor was it highly polished. The helmet was often not worn in favor of a broad brimmed black hat trimmed gold. The cuirass was also not frequently worn in the field. By the War of the Spanish Succession the helmet had been entirely superseded. Benkert mentions that the cuirass was lined in the facing color for officers, but not at all for enlisted men -- perhaps a contributory reason for its not always being worn. Both Knoetel and Funken show 1682 Bavarian cuirassiers in rather plain shab raques. However, the definitive shabraques of Max's reign were square, facing color trimmed white, with a diagonal white tape setting off the rear corner on the enlisted shabraque and various embelishments in silver tape for those of the officers. While Knoetel claims knowledge of only two facing colors, Benkert is able to fill in from other sources: Regiment Coat Cuff/Shabraque Laertels Gray Light Blue Alt Haraucourt Gray Blue Beauveau Gray Red Schutz Gray Green Officers sashes were as for the infantry. Trumpeters wore white trimmed blue bird nests on the shoulders from which tapes in the facing colors hung down the back and were tucked into the waistbelt. If the cuirassiers were relatively drab, and the hussars late on the scene, the dragoons did what they could to make up for it. On the road to Vienna there were two brigades of horse, each with two cuirassier regiments and half a regiment of dragoons. The latter included a unit of red coated dragoons trimmed medium blue, and a regiment of blue coated dragoons trimmed red. The brigades were as follows: Generalwachtmeister von Munster: Blue dragoons, cuirassier regiments Munster (Baertels) and Schuetz Generalwachtmeister von Marquis de Beauveau: Red dragoons, cuirassier regiments Beauveau and Arco Of the tactics of the Bavarian cuirassiers in the 1680's Dr. Benkert has this to say: "The Bavarian Kurassiers of the 1680's were the only European heavy cavalry to charge infantry units at the gallop. It was still the practice of most nations to utilize the cavalry against infantry (that is, organized infantry) in the classical maneuver of the caracole to trot as close to the enemy as possible, discharge their firearms, wheel away and repeat the maneuver until a breech had been forced in the line. "Max Emmanuel's innovation was to form his cavalry in three lines. The first with carbines at the ready, the second and third with drawn sabres. When the ranks were within striking distance the gallop was ordered, at a few paces distance the carbines were discharged, pistols quickly drawn, and discharged at will, the pistols then clubbed or thrown as the infantry ranks were bowled over if not by the fusillade at point blank, then certainly by the inertia of several hundreds of pounds of armored man and horseflesh. While the Polish Hussars of 1683 certainly did not rely on the caracole -- nor did the Swedish cavalry of the period, whose tactics were almost as described above less the use of carbines -- I have taken Dr. Benkert's word on the Bavarian tactics. I therefore treat them as order rather than close order cavalry when using them in WRG. Of course, WRG seems to equate order horse with a formed charge at the gallop, close order with a formed charge at the fast trot. In fact, the cavalry well trained in galloping charges tended to form in less depth, but to strive for knee to knee alignment. According to David Chanlder (Warfare in the Age of Marlborough) Charles XXI formed his cavalry slightly in echelon -- each man tucking his knee behind that of his neighbor! Charles XII, of course, was regarded as the leading protagonist of galloping charges in his day, so much so that he forbade the use of the pistol and abandoned the breastplate to increase speed. But enough asides. The Bavarian horse, drab as they were, seem to have been dangerous customers for the Turks. Dr. Benkert cites decreased quality of horse flesh as reducing them to little more than dragoons by the time of The War of The Spanish Succession, but even then their fighting spirit helped. Max Emmanuel's artillery in those days wore gray with blue cuffs. That probably did not apply to the regimental gunners, who presumably wore the uniform of their parent regiments of infantry or dragoons. In the absence of firm evidence, I have neglected to raise battalion guns for my 1683 dragoons but I should not be surprised to run across gallopers ascribed to Bavarian dragoon regiments in this period. When it comes to miniatures for Max's little army, there are relatively few lines of Marlborough era figures. For the early days a few alterations of New Model infantry and ECW cavalry and dragoons should come pretty close. The New Model favored a cloth cassock like coat with turned back sleeves that was apparently the wave of the future. Neckel puts out an absolutely magnificent line of Bavarians as does Scholtz in 30mm flats. My own Bavarians of this era are Editions Belaubre 20mm flats. With a small army like Max's representation at 1 to 20 or 1 to 33 is a practical goal. The main thing holding me up is the need to paint up enough Turks to give my Bavarians, Poles, Anhalters, and Austrians a good scrap. Sources Books Barker, A Military Intellectual and Battle; Ramondo Montecucoli and The Thirty Years War; SUNY, Albany, 1975 Chandler, The Art of Warfare In The Age of Marlborough; Hippocrene, NY 1976 Funken & Funken, Arms And Uniforms Ancient Egypt To The 18th Century; Ward Lock Ltd, London. Knoetel, Knoetel & Sig, Uniforms Of The World 1700-1937; Translated by R. Bell, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY. Wise & Rossignoli, Military Flags Of The World In Color 1918- 1900; Arco Color Series, Arco, N.Y. 1977. Magazine Articles VEDETTE, Published by The National Capital Military Collectors, Washington, D.C. Vol. 3 No. 5, October 1967, "The Soldiers Of The Blue King"; Aram Bakshian Jr Vol. 4 No. 1, February 1968, "Riders Of The Blue King"; Dr August Bonkert Vol. 9 No. 3, Fall 1973, "Riders Of The Blue King"; Dr August Bonkert Vol. 10 No. 4, Winter 1974, "Riders Of The Blue King"; Dr August Bonkert Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. IV No. 5 Back to Courier List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1983 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com