"1815 Hanoverian York Light Battalion" Topic

I did finish the York Light Battalion, I went for the dark green coats as the castings from Perry miniatures were suggestive of the rifle unit uniforms. Here is the link, I hope you enjoy them.

link

Nice!

Yes, more Hanoverian goodness. They're for Waterloo I assume?

Although I understood that the green jackets worn in 1813 were replaced by red (faced blue) in 1815 and this battalion was redesignated as a line battalion, not light.

Strictly speaking it is not the York battalion but Herzog von York battalion (ie Duke of York's battalion). It was actually the Osnabruck line battalion but received this honorific title because the younger brother of the Elector of Hanover was the hereditary Bishop of Osnabruck (strange concept) and the younger brother of the King of England was the Duke of York, so for 120 years (through reigns of George I, II, III & IV) the Bishop of Osnabruck was the Duke of York (imagine Prince Andrew today). The Bishop's Palace in Osnabruck still has the Duke of York's armourial shield (ie Royal Coat of Arms with "bar" across top) in stone above its main gates, and this symbol of British monarchy survived two world wars unscathed.

I was stationed there in the 1970s with the British Army. There is also a large gate, similar to Marble Arch in London to commemorate the two Osnabruck battalions at Waterloo, Herzog von York and Landwehr.

Rod

hereditary Bishop of Osnabruck (strange concept)

Strange only to us today, and indeed "hereditary" is not quite correct: Since the territory of Osnabrück had become more or less evenly split between Protestant and Catholic parishes, the Peace of Westphalia set out that its see, with the attendant temporal powers, should be held alternately by a Catholic bishop elected by the chapter, and by a Protestant one from the House of Hanover (or Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel as it was then known).

Apart from this little complication, setting up younger sons as Princes of the Church was fairly standard practice for the ruling houses of the day (cf. the Cardinal de Bourbon, the Bavarian Electors of Cologne or the Hapsburg Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order)