List of the Standing Armies of the Early Modern Period

Standing armies were set up in the early modern period by the emerging territorial states , primarily as a reaction to the lack of controllability of mercenary armies . If there were still mixed forms in the 16th century, standing troops only became sustainable after the Thirty Years' War. After the colonels were disempowered as mercenary leaders, members of the princely and noble families became heads of regiments and gave the regiments their names and ran them economically. In slow and difficult to date steps, standing troops and standing armies ("war peoples") were formed from several regiments.

It was not until the 18th century that the first master lists with regimental numbers were kept. The following list gives an overview of those territories that had standing regiments since the 15th century. It offers an introduction to the regiments of the early modern period, whose independence within the young territories was an important determinant.

Denmark and Norway with Oldenburg and Holstein

The early modern standing army of Denmark developed at the beginning of the 17th century from German and Danish regiments. The German regiments resulted from the Danish possessions in the Holy Roman Empire ( Grafschaft Oldenburg and Duchy of Holstein ). Denmark was also linked to Norway through a personal union.

Great Britain: England / Scotland / Ireland

→ see main article History of the British Army

The beginnings of the history of the British Standing Army are relatively unknown. Especially with the return of the Stuarts (1603) one finds exact and lasting information about the formation of standing troops. Until the Act of Union 1707 , regiments' budgets in England, Scotland, and Ireland were separate. They were then combined for England and Scotland. Even in the 21st century, British regiments trace their tradition back to the 17th century.

France

The oldest standing French regiments date back to the end of the 16th century. The largest increase in newly established regiments occurred at the time France entered the Thirty Years War in 1635 (over 135 regiments). But regiments were also disbanded again and again in France, which was increasingly being led by absolutism. Most of the regiments taken over by the French Revolution were set up under Louis XIV, initially during the Dutch War and especially during the War of the Spanish Succession (over 100). Louis XIV can be seen as the actual founder of the Standing Army, with a role model function for most of the European territories.

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had no standing army. Troops of the respective emperor and the imperial army were the bearers of the weak central power of the early modern state structure. With the increasing sovereignty of the German princes, they set up their own standing armies , often only for representative reasons, but mostly to expand their own territorial independence. These house troops were often deployed within the Imperial Army. Obligations of the imperial constitution were fulfilled, but initiated the dissolution of the military imperial bond. Because more and more princes of German states turned with their house troops against internal German rivals. The most prominent example is Prussia during the Austrian War of Succession and the Seven Years' War . It was precisely the anti-imperial policy of Prussia that militarily ushered in the end of the Holy Roman Empire. The imperial troops became more and more territorial troops of Austria-Hungary. The Reichsarmee lost its reputation entirely.

Imperial Army

The Imperial Army was the army of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the Reich's direct instrument of power and was called up by the Reichstag. It served both as an instrument of the execution of the Reich internally and to defend the Reich externally. It is not to be equated with the imperial army . The Imperial Army could only be viewed to a limited extent as a standing army . Above all, the Swabian and Frankish imperial circles offered continuous troop structures. The Burgundian and Austrian imperial circles had no military significance.

Imperial Army ("Royal Hungarian", "Austrian")

For centuries the soldiers of the Roman-German emperor in the early modern period were referred to as “imperial ones”. They were not to be equated with the Imperial Army . Mostly imperial were the troops provided by the Habsburg emperors and are also referred to in literature as Austria (-Hungary). During the short time of the Bavarian Emperor Charles VII (1742–45), the Habsburg troops were mostly referred to as "royal Hungarian". After regaining imperial dignity, the term "imperial-royal" was increasingly used. Due to the weakening of the empire, there was more colloquial talk about “Austrian” troops.

Kurbrandenburg / Prussia

Prussia rose to become the fifth major European power in the 18th century and was considered the most important power after the Habsburg monarchy in the Holy Roman Empire . The beginnings of his standing army go back to the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm . The great power owed Prussia especially its disproportionately large standing army that of King I. Friedrich Wilhelm was built.

The following lists contain the regiments of the army that perished in the war with France in 1806/07 . Only a few regiments survived the surrenders and other events .

Middle German principalities

Electoral Saxony : List of the Electoral Saxon regiments of the early modern period

Kurbayern (1742–45 "imperial"): List of the Bavarian regiments of the early modern period

Electoral Palatinate : List of the Electoral Palatinate regiments of the early modern period

Electoral Palatinate Bavaria: List of the Electoral Palatinate Bavarian regiments of the early modern period

Kur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg : List of the Kur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg regiments

Bohemia: List of Bohemian regiments of the early modern period

Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel: List of the Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttelschen regiments of the early modern period

Hessen-Kassel : List of the Hessen-Kassel regiments of the early modern period

Württemberg: List of the Württemberg regiments of the early modern period → Württemberg Army

Baden: Baden Army

Smaller German principalities

List of regiments and units of the small states of the Holy Roman Empire

Contains: Kurmainz, Kurtrier, Kurköln, Anhalt, Ansbach-Bayreuth, Baden, Bamberg, Hanau, Hessen-Darmstadt, Hildesheim, Holstein-Gottorf, Lorraine, Liège, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg, Münster, Nassau, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, East Friesland, Paderborn, Pfalz-Neuburg, Pfalz-Zweibrücken, Pomerania, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Eisenach, Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Hildburghausen, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar, Salzburg, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg and Reuss, Speyer, Waldeck, Würzburg

Imperial cities

List of regiments of the imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire

Contains: Braunschweig, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Cologne, Lübeck, Nuremberg

Short-term alliances with standing regiments

Rhenish Confederation 1651–1668 List of regiments of the Rhenish Confederation
Catholic League 1609–1635 List of regiments of the Catholic League
Protestant Union 1608–1621 List of regiments of the Protestant Union
Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld mercenary leader 1610–1626: List of the Mansfeld mercenary troops
Christian von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel mercenary leader 1621–1625: List of the Halberstadt mercenary troops
Schmalkaldischer Bund 1531–1546: List of regiments of the Schmalkaldischer Bund

Naples

List of Neapolitan regiments of the early modern period

Republic of the Seven United Provinces ("Republican Netherlands")

From 1581 to 1795 there was an independent republic of the Seven United Provinces in the northern Netherlands , which produced one of the earliest standing armies.

List of regiments of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces

Ottoman Empire

→ see also Ottoman Army

List of Ottoman regiments of the early modern period

Poland

List of Polish regiments of the early modern period

Portugal

List of Portuguese regiments of the early modern period

Russia

→ see main article Imperial Russian Army

Savoy & Sardinia / Piedmont

List of Savoyard and Sardinian regiments of the early modern period

Sweden

List of Swedish regiments of the early modern period

Switzerland

Switzerland placed standing regiments primarily in the service of other states, especially France , Venice , Savoy-Sardinia, but also for Spain, for the Emperor and the Netherlands

List of Swiss foreign regiments of the early modern period

Spain

List of Spanish regiments of the early modern period

Venice

List of Venetian regiments of the early modern period

United States of America / Thirteen Colonies

→ see main article Continental Army

The American Revolution marked before the French Revolution, the beginning of the end of the old state and social order of the early modern period. Nevertheless, most of the regiments were built in the old style from 1775 onwards and, with some reservations, can be described as a standing army of European characteristics. The Continental Army was disbanded in 1783. The US Army was not established until 1784 .

List of regiments of the American Continental Army

European small states

Danzig
Genoa

literature

Siegfried Fiedler: Tactics and Strategy of the Cabinet Wars. Weltbild 2005. Reprint of the Bernard & Graefe 1986 edition.
John William Fortescue: A History of the British Army. 4 volumes. London 1899-1915.
Gerhard Papke: From the militia to the standing army: Defense in absolutism . In: Military History Research Office Freiburg (Ed.): German Military History in Six Volumes 1648–1939 . tape 1 . Pawlak, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-88199-112-3 .
Louis Susane: Histoire de l'ancienne Infanterie Française. 8 volumes. Paris 1849–1863.
Georg Tessin : The regiments of the European states in the Ancien Régime des XVI. to XVIII. Century . 3 volumes (1986-1995). Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, ISBN 3-7648-1763-1 .
Otto Vaupell: The Dansk-Norske Härs history. 2 volumes; Copenhagen 1872 and 1878.

Individual evidence

↑ It should be noted that regiments often had little territorial reference and almost never a national reference in the modern sense. Both the common soldiers and the officers and heads of regiments mostly had a foreign background. For the importance of standing regiments for the development of standing armies cf. Papke 1983: 200 ff.

↑ The basis is provided by Georg Tessin's work The Regiments of European States in the Ancien Régime. see. Ticino Volume 1, 1986.

^ Ticino 1986: 337 ff .; Vaupell 1872

↑ Fortescue 1899; Ticino 1986: 360

↑ Tessin 1986: 424; Susane 1849

↑ Papke 1983: 174

↑ An overview of the surrenders offers. Cf. Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army from the 15th Century to 1914 . Ed .: Eberhard Jany. Extended edition. tape 3 . Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, p. 656 ff . (First edition: 1928).

↑ An overview is provided by the private Wiki project Archived Copy ( Memento of the original dated February 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[1] It should be noted that regiments often had little territorial reference and almost never a national reference in the modern sense. Both the common soldiers and the officers and heads of regiments mostly had a foreign background. For the importance of standing regiments for the development of standing armies cf. Papke 1983: 200 ff.

[2] The basis is provided by Georg Tessin's work The Regiments of European States in the Ancien Régime. see. Ticino Volume 1, 1986.

[3] Ticino 1986: 337 ff .; Vaupell 1872

[4] Fortescue 1899; Ticino 1986: 360

[5] Tessin 1986: 424; Susane 1849

[6] Papke 1983: 174

[7] An overview of the surrenders offers. Cf. Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army from the 15th Century to 1914 . Ed .: Eberhard Jany. Extended edition. tape 3 . Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, p. 656 ff . (First edition: 1928).