Kingdom of France: Breton regiments

Last modified: 2002-10-26 by ivan sache
Keywords: regiment | kergroadec | rennes | nantes | vannes | cross (white) | ermines: 23 (black) | ermines: 21 (black) |
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• Kergroadec's Regiment (1706-1714)
• Provincial regiments
  • Overview
  • Regiment of Rennes
  • Regiment of Nantes
  • Regiment of Vannes

See also:

• France
• France: Military flags
• Kingdom of France until 1792
• Kingdom of France: Regimental flags
• Brittany: Index of all related pages

Kergroadec's Regiment (1706-1714)

by Ivan Sache

The Kergroadec's Regiment was raised on 4 February 1706 by Monsieur de Kergroadec, a gentleman from Lower-Brittany. The Regiment was given up to Monsieur Cabot de Sébeville on 27 March 1708. The Regiment served mostly in Flanders, and was assigned to the Regiment of Touraine in 1714.

The regiment flag is a square divided by a white cross. In each quarter, the central lozenges are light-tan. The triangles placed along the horizontal arm of the cross are black in the first and fourth quarters, and blue in the second and thrid quarters. The triangles placed along the vertical arm of the cross are blue in the first and fourth quarters, and black in the second and third quarters.

Source: A paper by the late Pierre Berry in Ar Banniel [arb], #14 (Spring 2001), quoting a mimeographed, self-edited book by P. Fourré.

Ivan Sache, 26 June 2001

Provincial regiments

Overview

The late P. Berry reports in Ar Banniel [arb], #5 (Spring 1998), pp. 14-15, the results of his personal research in the Library of the Army Museum (Paris) about the flags used by the Breton provincial regiments under the Ancient Regime.

The original source is a 29 x 43 cm volume of 47 plates entitled Livre des Drapeaux des Régiments Provinciaux expédiés en 1772 (without any other precision). Each plate shows a 19-cm square flag, pen-and-ink drawn and painted in watercolours. The hoists are coral-red, the finials yellow, the cravates white, and the cords golden or in the main colours of the flag. The reverse of the flags seems to have been the same as the averse.

Ivan Sache, 28 February 2001

Regiment of Rennes

by Ivan Sache

Cross charged with 23 ermine spots. Outer triangles white. Upper inner triangle at hoist and lower inner triangle at fly golden pink (aurore, litt. 'dawn'). Upper inner triangle at hoist and lower inner triangle at fly black.
Cord black and golden pink.

Ivan Sache, 28 February 2001

Regiment of Nantes

by Ivan Sache

Design similar to regiment of Rennes, but with only 21 ermine spots (on the original plates, the two missing spots have been pencil-marked but not pen-and-ink confirmed), and a diagonal band over each quarter, black over first and fourth quarters, golden pink over second and third quarters.
Cord white, golden pink and black.

Ivan Sache, 28 February 2001

Regiment of Vannes

by Ivan Sache

Design similar to the two flags shown above, also with 21 ermine spots (same remark as for regiment of Nantes), the central one being significantly shifted upwards. Quarters are made of a square charged with another square (1/9th of the main square area), golden pink on black for the first and fourth quarters, and black on golden pink for the second and third quarters.
Cord white and golden pink.

Ivan Sache, 28 February 2001