"National and Regimental Colors: Who used both" Topic

Which states countries used both National (royal) and Regimental Standards for their units in the 18th and 19th century.

I know the UK (18th, 19th century) and USA (18th, 19th) did so. France of the Ancien Regime did so as well. But who else?

During the 18th C., most everybody I should think. "Regimental" colours started life as company colours, so many armies actually had more than two per battalion. France moved from three to two per battalion in the 1740s, but their Swiss regiments kept company colours (four per battalion) until after the Seven Years War. Prussia probably "went longest with the mostest": five per battalion, until the 1790s I believe.

With the changes in tactics over the Napoleonic period and beyond, colours become more symbolic during the 19th C., so one per battalion or even per regiment becomes the norm – Napoleonic France setting the example with its prized Eagles. Britain kept "stands" of colours longest – out of tradition, sheer contrariness, or because they also stuck to linear tactics for quite some time?

The British last carried colours into battle at Laing's Nek in 1881 (the First Boer War). I think some German and French units took theirs into action as late as 1914.

In the 17th Century, every company/troop had a flag, which had different names – standard, ensign, cornet, guidon – depending on what type of troops they were (eg foot, horse, dragoons, etc). In battle, the infantry would centralise their flags around the pike block for better defence; the cavalry kept theirs separated, but surrounded them with the best swordsmen in the troop or squadron. Again, foot and horse differed in who carried them – the youngest officers (or a certain grade of NCO who was aspiring to be an officer) in the former, but a veteran NCO (better horsemanshio/swordsmanship) in the latter.

This system survived in all of the European armies until the first quarter of the 18th Century, when you find the number of flags being reduced for various reasons (eg cost, fewer trophies for a victorious enemy, less of a drain in manpower carrying and defending them). By the time of the French Revolutionary Wars at the end of the 18th Century, everyone is standardising at either one or two per battalion, or one per squadron – the two principal tactical units on the battlefield. The evolution of light troops (especially infantry) reduces the instances of colours being carried in the field.

In the English-speaking world, you get two infantry colours – one belonging to the regiment itself (Regimental Colour), and the other presented by the nation/monarch (National/King's Colour). Protestant German armies, taking their lead ffrom Prussia, tend to stick with the older company system until Napoleon re-organises them (voluntarily or otherwise); one flag is usually known as the Leibfahne (Monarch's/Colonel's) and the other four as the Regimentsfahne or Ordinarfahne.