Present Colours of the Regiment _to face page_ 1 Wreck of the _Kent_ East India Ship 80 Battle of Ferozeshah 128 Battle of Sobraon 152 Monument erected in Canterbury Cathedral, to the memory of the Officers and Soldiers of the THIRTY-FIRST Regiment, who were killed during the campaign on the banks of the Sutlej from December 1845 to February 1846 214 [Illustration: THIRTY-FIRST REGIMENT. QUEEN’S COLOUR. REGIMENTAL COLOUR. FOR CANNON’S MILITARY RECORDS, _Madeley lith. 3 Wellington S^t Strand._] HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE THIRTY-FIRST, OR THE HUNTINGDONSHIRE, REGIMENT OF FOOT. [Sidenote: 1701] In the commencement of the eighteenth century, the British Monarch, King William III., found that the conditions of the Treaty of Ryswick, concluded in 1697, were violated by the King of France, Louis XIV., who, on the decease of Charles II. of Spain on the 1st of November, 1700, pursued with unremitting assiduity his ambitious project of ultimately uniting the crowns of France and Spain, by procuring the accession of his grandson, Philip, Duke of Anjou, to the vacant throne; thus excluding the claims of the House of Austria, and disregarding the existing treaties between the principal nations of Europe. The seizure of the Spanish Netherlands by the troops of France,--the detention of the Dutch garrisons in the barrier towns,--the declaration of Louis XIV. in favour of the family of James II., and other acts of hostility, justified the British Government in making preparations for war. King William had determined on active measures, by sea and land, against the powers of France and Spain, and had accordingly directed augmentations to be made in the navy and army. A division of the army had been appointed, under the command of Brigadier-General Ingoldsby, (twenty-third regiment,) to embark for Flanders, and another portion of the army was selected to embark for the coast of Spain, under the orders of the Duke of Ormond. [Sidenote: 1702] The death of King William III. took place on the 8th of March, 1702. His policy was adopted by his successor Queen Anne, who entered into treaties of alliance with the Emperor of Germany,--the States-General of the United Provinces,--and other Princes and Potentates, for preserving the liberty and balance of power in Europe, and for defeating the ambitious views of France. The measures for increasing the efficiency of the fleet had occasioned the suggestion of raising _Corps of Marines_, capable of acting on land as well as at sea. Several regiments of the regular army were appointed to serve as Marines, and six additional regiments were especially raised for that service.[6]