The Danish Horse Guard in Collets – Lund 1676

The Horse Guard in Collets - as Møinichen depicted them

As there were two squadrons of the Royal Danish Horse Guard present at Lund, and the evidence on their actual uniform during the battle points in two directions, I decided to paint one of each.

The former blog post shows a squadron of the Guard in their more flashy attire, with red capes and embroidered royal monogram. The uniform rolls and armoury records support this.

Notice the white cloth band around the arm - the Danish Field Sign at Lund

For the second squadron I decided to follow Møinichen’s version from his paintings of the Scanian War. Here the regiment is shown wearing yellowish collets with red facing.
As collets were very popular among cavalry due to their protective qualities in melees, it is highly likely that at least part of the Guard would have been equipped in this fashion.

Detail from painting by Claus Møinichen

The official records on the Horse Guard of this period is a little unclear on the design of their standards. Again I had to navigate by using Møinichen’s paintings, giving evidence that both a white (as I used in the former regiment) and a blue – as used in the collet wearing squadron, could be plausible.

Fielding a blue standard - painting by Claus Møinichen

Claus Møinichen was born in Copenhagen 1660 as the son of a surgeon.
Evidently inheriting his father's steady hands, he became a much adorned painter appointed by the Royal Danish Court at the time. He is worth a google image search, offering plenty of fine work of the Scanian War.

I’ll post some more on Møinichen's paintings later on.
Thanks for reading!