Historical Record of the Fifth, or Princess Charlotte of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1685; with Its Subsequent Services to 1838Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Fifth, or Princess Charlotte of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1685; with Its Subsequent Services to 1838
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Princess Charlotte of Wales's Dragoon Guards, 5th
In the depth of the winter an incursion into the enemy's
cantonments was resolved upon; and the regiment having joined
the forces selected for that service, advanced, on the 31st of
December, into the county of Kerry. On arriving near Brewsterfield,
the van-guard, consisting of a troop of this regiment and one of
Eppinger's Dragoons, encountered a party of 160 of the enemy's
cavalry. COY'S HORSE and the dragoons instantly drew their swords,
and advanced to charge their opponents, who fled in a panic.
Continuing its route, the detachment took a number of prisoners,
also drove seven troops of Irish horse and twenty-one of dragoons
from Tralee, and afterwards returned to its quarters.
When the army took the field in the summer of 1691, COY'S HORSE
were left in dispersed quarters in the county of Cork to overawe
the disaffected, and to check the depredations of the bands of
Papists, whose proceedings were very injurious to the Protestants;
the regiment was, consequently, not at the battle of Aghrim, but it
afterwards joined the army near _Limerick_, and was employed in the
siege of that place.
On the 16th of September, a squadron of the regiment, with a strong
party of dragoons and infantry, crossed the Shannon by a pontoon
bridge before break of day, surprised and defeated a body of the
enemy, and captured a standard; also surprised the troops in the
camp near the town, and forced them to make a precipitate flight
to the mountains. On the 24th of the same month, a cessation of
hostilities took place, which ended in a treaty, and the authority
of King James was extinguished in Ireland.
[Sidenote: 1692]
[Sidenote: 1693]
The regiment, having thus performed its part in reducing Ireland to
submission to the authority of King William, embarked at Belfast
in the beginning of 1692, and after its arrival in England it
was quartered at Huntingdon, Chester, and St. Ives; from whence
it proceeded to the vicinity of London, and, for a short time,
assisted the Life Guards in performing the escort duty for the
royal family. It was, however, allowed but a short period of home
service before it was called upon to take the field against a
foreign enemy.
King William was engaged in a war to restrain the ambitious designs
of Louis XIV. of France, who sought to become the dictator of
Europe and the destroyer of the reformed religion. After the severe
loss sustained by the confederates at the battle of Landen, in
1693, the British monarch gave orders for Colonel Coy to proceed
with his regiment of horse to the Netherlands, and to join the army
in that country.
[Sidenote: 1694]
On its arrival in Flanders, the regiment was placed in quarters at
Ghent; from whence it marched to Tirlemont, and, joining the army
commanded by King William in person, took part in the operations of
the long and toilsome campaign of 1694, but was not engaged in any
action of importance.
[Sidenote: 1695]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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