In a very real sense, the British monarchy is living history and this year, as Queen Elizabeth II marks an unprecedented seventy years in the throne, I thought I’d take a break from current events to highlight some of that history’s ups and downs…
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations led off with a military ceremony called the Trooping of the Colour. This ceremony occurs every year on the Queen’s official birthday, which is observed on the second Saturday in June. The reason for this is very practical: the vagaries of the English climate. The Trooping of the Colour has been held annually on the Sovereign’s birthday since 1760. It was King Edward VII, whose birthday fell in the inclement month of November, who moved the ceremony to June, thus establishing the custom of an official birthday.
Like various other contemporary military traditions, the Trooping of the Colour once served a practical purpose. In past times regimental colours were not just the focus of unit identity and pride but also regulated the movement and positioning of troops on the battlefield. When a regiment of foot (infantry) deployed from column into line, the companies fell in on the left and right of the colour party, on which the line was dressed. The colours also served as a rally point after a charge or retreat. It was thus essential for every soldier to recognize the colours of his regiment, and for this reason from the seventeenth century onward they were paraded annually before the troops.
In the early eighteenth century each company of a British regiment of foot had a distinctive color. By King George III’s time, however, the number was down to two. The Royal Clothing Warrant of 1751 specified as follows:
The King's, or first Colour of every Regiment, is to be the Great Union throughout.
The second Colour, to be the colour of the Facing of the Regiment with the Union in the upper Canton; except those Regiments which are faced with Red or White, whose Second Colour is to be the Red Cross of St. George in a White Field, and the Union in the Upper Canton.
In the Centre of each Colour is to be painted, or embroidered, in Gold Roman Characters, the Number of the Rank of the Regiment, within the Wreath of Roses and Thistles, on the same Stalk; except those Regiments which are allowed to wear any Royal Devices, or ancient Badges, on whose Colours the Rank of the Regiment is to be painted towards the upper Corner.
The size of the Colours, and the length of the Pike, to be the same as those of the Royal Regiments of Foot Guards. The Cords and Tassels of all Colours to be crimson and gold mixed.
In this description the “Great Union” is the Union Flag in use between 1606 and 1801: the crosses of SS. George and Andrew combined. The “Facing of the Regiment” refers to the color of the collar, cuffs and lapels of the red coat worn by all foot regiments: blue, green, yellow, buff, red, black, white, etc. Roses and thistles were (and are) the heraldic floral badges of England and Scotland respectively. “Royal Devices, or ancient Badges” were typified by the crowned Garter enclosing a Tudor Rose (7th Regiment of Foot: The Royal Fuzileers) and the Welsh Dragon (3rd Regiment of Foot: The Buffs)
The 1751 Warrant cracked down on the tendency of regimental colonels to indulge their personal whims concerning uniforms and colors: a small but significant step toward the professionalization of the British Army. George III, who interested himself in such details, refined the system further with the Royal Clothing Warrant of 1768, which gave the British soldier the uniform he wore during the American Revolution.
The regiments of Foot Guards, three in number in 1768, were exempted from many of the provisions of the 1768 Warrant. They continued to carry company colours displaying distinctive company badges, though only two colours were taken on active service: usually the Colonel’s Colour and one Company Colour. By the late nineteenth century, however, colours were beginning to disappear from the battlefield, and gradually they assumed their current, purely ceremonial role.
Modern British infantry regiments still receive two Colours: a Queen’s Colour and a Regimental Colour, and the Foot Guards maintain the tradition of company colours. Embroidered on the colours are regimental battle honors, some going back to the seventeenth century and the early years of the storied “thin red line.”