"TAG Swedes as 1660s Troops" Topic

On The League of Augsberg forums I came across an old post with a link to a couple of images held in the NYPL from a 1670 pamphlet or book depicting the Holland Guard (Dutch Blue Guards?) regiment on exercise. Despite the date two different illustrations of a musketeer both showed the subject in cassock and equipped with a musket rest.

It's usually said that Charles II kicked off the justacorps (French long coat) fashion trend in late 1666, so I've often wondered about those pictures that have infantry of the early 1660s in this garment. Could they be premature? After all, it would have taken time for the new fashion to ripple out from court circles into the wider society, and thence to be adopted by the military; at least a few years, I would have thought. So maybe we should be depicting 1660s western European troops in general in the cassock. But where to find them?

TAG has taken a bit of flak for the inaccurate representation of costume on its TYW Swedish infantry, but… if you overlook the absence of hanging sleeves you have a pretty close approximation of troops in cassock – which AFAIK no one makes. Then there's just that funny Swedish hat on a couple of poses to worry about.

These dudes?

I have to admit they are a puzzle. I seem to recall that they might be militia, perhaps the armour is explained by them being pictured in peacetime and close to well stocked arsenals? That wouldn't explain the cassocks though. There's the possibility the date's wrong. But on the face of it I can't really explain them- other than my expectations are faulty.

I was looking at quite a lot of engravings of the Rampjaar over the weekend, and such troops are not to be found, everyone seems to wear the justaucoprs and broad brimmed hat though one image does appear to show some musketeers with forks which surprised me.

I second the use of cassocks for the 1660s troops. Swedish infantry used them during that period. Redoubt have a good range of ECW infantry in cassocks:

link

Clibinarium – I've no doubt that the new fashion was well established by 1672; as per the thread title, my sartorial uncertainty relates only to the 1660s.

The cassock on those Redoubt figures is rather shorter than the garment depicted here and on the TAG Swedes, so they're perhaps not quite right for the 1660s.

Did the cassock become longer over time? If so, maybe the justacorps evolved from the later, longer version.

One other detail that's missing from the TAG figures is the cravat, so on the whole this might be a project best suited to those who are handy with the green stuff.

The picture above, comes from a book by Johan Boxel, published in 1673 and it depicts a Dutch Guard.

More info here: link

Military and civil fashion around the year 1672 is indeed a bit of a puzzle. To give you an example, this is a link to a 1672 painting of the Amsterdam Dam square, from the Rijksmuseum (Dutch National Arts Museum) site:

link

First of all, note the use of cloaks. Second the mixture of people in justaucorps with half lenght sleeves, short coats and long coats. The workman on the right could be from the early 1600's and you will also note people in traditional black clothes.

I couldn't enlarge the painting enough to see the individual figures in detail, but I think in the early 1670s fashion was very much still in transition. Sources I've referred to often give 1680 as the date by which the justacorps finally became firmly established as the dominant male garment among the wealthier classes.

I've also read that the short, ECW-style workman's or sailor's coat was in use amongst the labouring classes from 1640 to 1710, so the impression you were given by the figure in this painting isn't all that surprising. This also means that ECW/TYW figures can be used as late as the early 18th century to represent militia, revolting peasants, buccaneers, and other assorted irregulars if you're prepared to overlook their outdated muskets (which might be entirely realistic anyway: revolting peasants and the more desperate militias would probably have been happy with any firearms they could obtain – even museum pieces).

In the right lower corner of the Rijskmuseum pic, there's a + plus button to enlarge the picture. You can also download the picture in hi-res. Most period prints from 1672 show officers and high class people like William already in justaucorps.