The regiment formed as the '''Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Foot''' during a
rebellion in 1685 by
the Duke of Monmouth against
King James II. After James was deposed during the "
Glorious Revolution" that installed
William III and
Mary II as co-monarchs, the regiment's commanding officer, the
Duke of Berwick, decided to join his royal father in exile. His replacement as commanding officer was Colonel
John Beaumont, who had earlier been dismissed with six officers for refusing to accept a draft of Catholics. and in the
Battle of the Boyne the following year. Further actions, while under the command of
John Churchill (later 1st Duke of Marlborough) took place that year involving the regiment during the sieges of
Limerick,
Cork and Kinsale. On the accession of
Princess Anne to the throne in 1702, the regiment became the '''Queen's Regiment of Foot''', although it continued to be referred to as
Webb's Regiment per an unofficial army convention that had a unit known by the name of its colonel. The
War of the Spanish Succession, predicated on a dispute between a "
Grand Alliance" and France over who would succeed
Charles II of Spain, reached the
Low Countries in April 1702. While Dutch marshal Prince Walrad took the initiative and besieged
Kaiserswerth, the French Marshal
duc de Boufflers forced Walrad's colleague, the
Earl of Athlone, to withdraw deep into the Dutch Republic. Supporting Athlone's army, the Queen's Regiment fought near
Nijmegen in a rearguard action during the Dutch Army's retreat between the
Maas and
Rhine rivers. Later in the year, the regiment assisted in the capture of
Huy and
Limbourg, To aid the beleaguered
Austrian Habsburgs and preserve the alliance, Marlborough sought to engage the French in a definitive set-piece battle in 1704 by advancing into
Bavaria, an ally of France, and combining his force with that of
Prince Eugene. The army invaded Bavaria on 2 July and promptly captured
the Schellenberg after a devastating assault that included a contingent from the Queen's. On 13 August, the Allies encountered a Franco-Bavarian army under the overall command of the
duc de Tallard, beginning the
Battle of Blenheim. The Queen's Regiment, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Sutton, supported General Lord Cutts' left wing, opposite to French-held
Blenheim. Blenheim had become congested with French soldiers and its streets filled with dead and wounded. The effective collapse of Bavaria as a French ally and the capture of its most significant fortresses followed Blenheim by year's end. In June, French Marshal
Villeroi captured Huy and besieged Liège, forcing Marlborough to abort a campaign that lacked appreciable Allied support. The regiment became detached from Marlborough's army to assist in the retaking of Huy before rejoining for the subsequent attack on the
Lines of Brabant In May 1706, Villeroi, pressured by King
Louis XIV to atone for France's earlier defeats, initiated an offensive in the Low Countries by crossing the
Dyle river. Marlborough engaged Villeroi's army near
Ramillies on 23 May. The threat of a French-supported
Jacobite uprising in Scotland arose in 1708 and the Queen's was among those regiments recalled to Britain. The French later returned to the offensive, attacking
Flanders and capturing territory that had been lost in 1706. On 11 July, Marlborough led an Allied army against
Bourgogne, grandson of King Louis, and Marshal
Vendôme's 100,000–man army at the
Battle of Oudenarde. The Queen's joined an advanced contingent under
Lord Cadogan which crossed the
Scheldt, via
pontoon bridges assembled near Oudenarde, as a prelude to the arrival of the main army. To signify the surrender, the commanding officer of the Queen's received some of their
colours. The regiment soon became engaged in battle near the village of Herlegem, fighting through the hedges until darkness. Cadogan's precarious situation only began to alleviate by the deployment of the
Duke of Argyll's reinforcements. The Queen's became occupied by a succession of sieges: at Ghent, Bruges, and Lillie. In 1709, the regiment assisted in the protracted
Siege of Tournai, which capitulated in September. On the 11th, the regiment fought in the bloodiest battle of the war:
Malplaquet. After being committed from reserve in the battle's closing stages, the regiment advanced under heavy fire and fought through dense wood, having Lieutenant-Colonel Louis de Ramsay killed. In 1710, the regiment was represented at the sieges of
Douai,
Béthune,
Aire and St. Venant.
Jacobites and renewed European conflict (1715–1768) Rebellion against the Hanoverian
King George I began in 1715 by
Jacobite supporters of
James Stuart, "
Old Pretender" to the throne of Great Britain. As unrest escalated in Britain, the Queen's Regiment arrived in
Scotland and became absorbed by a Government army under the
Duke of Argyll. Although numerically superior, the Jacobite army did not begin an advance south until November because of the caution of their leader, the
Earl of Mar. The Duke of Argyll moved north from
Stirling and positioned his forces in the vicinity of
Dunblane on 12 November. While Whetham's men attempted to readjust their dispositions, a mass of Jacobite troops began a rapid charge. The King's remained in Scotland until 1717, by which time the Jacobite uprising had been suppressed. The regiment served in Ireland between May 1717 and May 1721 and between winter 1722 and spring 1727. The regiment embarked to
Flanders in winter 1742 for service in the
War of the Austrian Succession. It fought at the
Battle of Dettingen in June 1743 where, despite the French enjoying superiority in numbers, Britain and its Allies defeated an army under the
duc de Noailles. The regiment also took part in the
Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745: the King's Regiment was positioned in the frontline of the
Duke of Cumberland's army but a retreat was eventually ordered. In 1745, Prince
Charles Edward Stuart (popularly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie) landed in Scotland, seeking to restore the Stuarts to the British throne. The regiment did not become committed to battle until the
Battle of Falkirk in January 1746. The regiment was part of the left wing of the front line of the army, under the command of Lieutenant-General
Henry Hawley. After a failed attack by
dragoons of Hawley's army, Jacobite Army troops charged the government army, compelling the left wing of the army to withdraw while the right wing held. The rebels and Government armies both withdrew from the battlefield by night-time. The regiment also fought in the
Battle of Culloden in April 1746. and the
Battle of Lauffeld in July 1747. In the latter, the King's and three other regiments became embroiled in a protracted struggle through the avenues of
Val. Control of the village fluctuated throughout the battle until the Allies retreated before overwhelming numbers. The British Army implemented a numbering system in 1751 to reflect the seniority of a regiment by its date of creation, with the King's becoming the '''8th (King's) Regiment of Foot''' in the
order of precedence. Both battalions formed part of an expedition in 1757 that captured
Île d'Aix, an island off the western coast of France, The 2nd Battalion became the
63rd Regiment of Foot in 1758. When the regiment augmented the
Hanoverian Army in 1760, the 8th King's had its
grenadier company committed to the battles of
Warburg and
Kloster Kampen. As a complete regiment, the 8th served at
Kirch-Denkern,
Paderborn,
Wilhelmsthal, and the capture of
Cassel. During its posting, the 8th Foot possessed a number of officers adept at working with Indigenous tribes. Notable among them were Major
Arent DePeyster, Captain Richard Lernoult, and Lieutenant John Caldwell. Caldwell, later 5th Baronet of Wellsborough in
County Fermanagh, immersed himself in efforts to foster understanding between the British and
Ojibwe, reputedly marrying a member of the tribe and becoming an honorary chief under the adopted name of "The Runner". Captain Lernoult, who commanded Fort Detroit until 1779, and Major DePeyster, who succeeded Lernoult after commanding at Michilimackinac, were instrumental in maintaining the support of the Ojibwe,
Odawa,
Wyandot,
Mingo, and
Shawnee during the war. Born into a prominent
New York City family of
Dutch origin, DePeyster joined the British Army in 1755, was appointed commander of Fort Michilimackinac in 1774, and in 1777 arranged for roughly 200 hundred Indigenous warriors to travel to Montreal in support of the
Saratoga Campaign. He repeatedly warned Indigenous warriors to avoid cruelty to prisoners and was noted for his efforts to ransom captives. In 1775, American forces commanded by
Richard Montgomery and
Benedict Arnold invaded the Province of Quebec. By the beginning of December, the Americans had captured
Fort Saint-Jean and
Montreal, and were
besieging the fortified city of Quebec. A failed attempt to storm the city during a snowstorm on the last day of December resulted in Montgomery's death. The Americans withdrew back to Montreal in May when reinforcements from Britain began to arrive. From Fort Oswegatchie, Captain George Forster of the 8th Foot and
Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier of the
British Indian Department led a force of 40 regulars, 40
Canadien volunteers, and a few hundred Indigenous warriors down the
St. Lawrence River to attack
Fort Cedars west of Montreal. The fort was held by nearly 400
Continentals under the temporary command of Major Isaac Butterfield. After two brief skirmishes on May 18, Forster demanded the fort's surrender and warned Butterfield of the consequences should the Indigenous warriors be committed to battle. Butterfield countered with a request to withdraw under arms, which Forster refused. Butterfield surrendered the fort on the afternoon of May 19, the same day Forster received news of an American relief force approaching the Cedars. Forster dispatched Lorimier with 30
Canadiens volunteers and 80 warriors to ambush the American column. The relief's commander, Major Henry Sherburne, was forced to surrender after a brief battle. The engagement infuriated many of the warriors as their only fatality was a principal war chief. A detachment of the 8th Foot from Detroit took part in Lieutenant Governor
Henry Hamilton's capture of
Vincennes in October 1778 and garrisoned
Fort Sackville during the winter. Several members of the 8th Foot were held as prisoners of war after Hamilton surrendered the fort to Lieutenant Colonel
George Rogers Clark in February 1779. A company of the regiment's soldiers from Niagara were present at the
Cherry Valley massacre in November 1778. Under the command of Captain
Walter Butler of
Butler's Rangers, the regulars and two companies of rangers attacked Fort Alden while several hundred
Seneca and
Cayuga raided the neighbouring farms and village. Angry over false accusations of atrocities after the
Battle of Wyoming, and the
destruction by American forces of
Unadilla and
Onaquaga in early October, the Seneca and Cayuga killed 30 non-combatants including women and children. In the winter of 1779, Lernoult sent Bird, who had been promoted to captain, and a few volunteers from the 8th Foot with interpreter
Simon Girty to the
Sandusky River. There they assembled a Wyandot and Mingo war party and began a siege of the recently constructed
Fort Laurens. Due to the harsh winter conditions, Bird and Girty lifted the siege after a month and withdrew back to Detroit, shortly before American reinforcements arrived. A small detachment of the 8th Foot was present at the
Battle of Newtown in 1779. In what was the only major battle of the
Sullivan Campaign, Major
John Butler led a mixed force of Butler's Rangers,
Brant's Volunteers, Seneca, and Cayuga in an unsuccessful attempt to hold back Major General
John Sullivan's army. In May 1780, Major DePeyster ordered an
expedition against American forces at the Falls of the Ohio (
Louisville). He choose Captain Bird to lead the force of 150 soldiers from the 8th Foot, 47th Foot, Royal Artillery, and Detroit militia, accompanied by 100 Indigenous warriors from the Detroit area. At the confluence of the Ohio and
Great Miami rivers, Bird rendezvoused with
Alexander McKee of the British Indian Department who had recruited several hundred warriors from the
Ohio Country. Although Bird's orders were to proceed to the Falls of the Ohio, he was overruled by his Indigenous allies who preferred to attack the isolated settlements on the
Licking River in
Kentucky In late June, Bird's expedition destroyed the fortified settlements of Ruddle's Fort and Martin's Station. A number of non-combatants were killed or wounded at Ruddle's Fort when the Indigenous warriors ignored the terms of surrender and took most of the inhabitants captive. Bird was able to prevent a repeat when Martin's Station surrendered, however, both forts were plundered and burned. Afterwards, Bird's regulars and militia escorted about 150 men, women and children to Detroit, arriving there in early August. Of the 200–250 prisoners taken by the Indigenous auxiliaries, most were brought to Detroit, but a number were killed en route, and few others, mostly young women and children, were held captive until the end of the war. In August 1780, Major General
Frederick Haldimand, Governor of the Province of Quebec, authorized a large-scale raid against the
Schoharie and Mohawk River valleys of New York. The expedition, under the command of
Sir John Johnson consisted of soldiers from the 8th Foot, the
34th Regiment of Foot, Butler's Rangers, and the
King's Royal Regiment of New York, also known as the Royal Yorkers. With them were Brant's Volunteers, and a contingent of Seneca. A
coehorn mortar, a 3-pound "
grasshopper" and ten
Royal Artillery soldiers also accompanied the 940 man strong force. The 8th Foot saw action at the Battle of Stone Arabia, where the regiment suffered its only battle fatality during the war, and at the inconclusive
Battle of Klock's Field. Governor
George Clinton later reported to the
Continental Congress that the raid had destroyed 150,000 tons of grain and 200 dwellings, and that "Schenectady may now be said to become the limits of our western Frontier." A similar expedition the following year was commanded by Major
John Ross of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, and again involved soldiers of the 8th Foot as well as from the 34th Foot and Butler's Rangers. On October 25, 1781, Ross engaged several hundred patriot militia commanded by Colonel
Marinus Willett at the
Battle of Johnstown. Five days later, as Ross withdrew towards
Oswego, a rear-guard action at
West Canada Creek resulted in the death of Walter Butler. In 1782, Haldimand received orders from England to cease offensive operations. The 1783 Treaty of Paris officially ended the war and placed Fort Niagara, Fort Detroit, Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Oswegatchie and Fort Haldimand in American territory. Due to the failure of the Americans to adher to some of the terms of the treaty, the British retained control of the forts until the Jay Treaty of 1796. The 8th Regiment of Foot, however, was relieved in 1785. The regiment gathered at Quebec and after 17 years in North America, sailed for England in September 1785. Many members of the regiment including Bird, however, elected to remain and settle in what is now
Ontario.
French Revolutionary War In 1793, revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain. The King's became assigned to an expeditionary force sent to the
Netherlands under the command of
Prince Frederick, Duke of York. In 1794, the regiment attempted to lift the French Siege of
Nijmegen. The allies planned a nocturnal attack, with the march conducted without audible commotion. The force leapt into the French earthworks, with hand-to-hand fighting ensuing. Despite the success, the town of Nijmegen was soon evacuated and the British withdrew from the Netherlands in 1795. In 1799, the King's became resident on
Menorca, which had been
captured from Spain the previous year. In 1801, the regiment landed at
Abukir Bay,
Egypt, with an expedition sent under the command of General
Ralph Abercromby to counter a French invasion. The King's participated in the capture of
Rosetta, 65 miles west of
Alexandria, and a fort located in
Romani. The British completed the occupation of Egypt by September. It landed at
Cuxhaven in
Germany in October 1805 as part of the
Hanover Expedition, but was withdrawn in February 1806 before taking part in the
Battle of Copenhagen in August 1807. The 1st Battalion moved to Canada in 1808 as the
Napoleonic Wars extended to the
Americas. The 8th Foot returned to Nova Scotia in April, having had its commanding officer, Major Bryce Maxwell, and four others killed in a skirmish with French soldiers on the Surirey Heights during the advance on
Fort Desaix in February. When sustained tension between the United States and Britain culminated in the
War of 1812, the 1st and 2nd battalions were based in
Quebec and
Nova Scotia respectively. Sporadic raids into Canada on the eastern frontier provided impetus for a former regimental officer, Lieutenant-Colonel
"Red" George MacDonnell, to encroach into
New York State and attack
Ogdensburg in February 1813. To reach their destination, the 8th Foot and Canadian militia had to traverse across the frozen St. Lawrence River and through dense snow. After gaining control of the fort following close-quarters battle, the British destroyed the main barracks and three anchored vessels, depicted in 1804. In April 1813, two companies of the 8th, elements of the Canadian militia, and Native American allies attempted to repulse an
American attack on York (present-day Toronto). As the Americans landed on the shoreline, the grenadier company engaged them in a bayonet charge with 46 killed, including its commanding officer, Captain Neal McNeale. The Americans nevertheless overwhelmed the area but subsequently incurred 250 casualties, notably General
Zebulon Pike, when retreating British regulars detonated Fort York's Grand Magazine. While garrisoning
Fort George, at Newark (present day
Niagara-on-the-Lake), in May 1813 with companies of the Glengarries and
Runchey's Company of Coloured Men, the 8th Foot attempted to disrupt an amphibious landing by the Americans. Although numerically inferior, the British delayed the invasion and retreated without disorder. In June 1813, the 8th and 49th regiments assaulted an American encampment at
Stoney Creek. Five companies from the two British regiments engaged more than 4,000 Americans in a nocturnal battle. Although the Americans had two brigadiers captured and suffered losses, the British commander, Colonel
John Harvey, considered the possibility of his opponents realising their numerical advantage too compelling to ignore and withdrew. In July 1814 the regiment fought in the
Battle of Chippawa in which the British commander General
Phineas Riall retreated after he misidentified American regulars for militia. Later in the month, the regiment fought in the
Battle of Lundy's Lane. The British, Canadian and Native soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant-General
Gordon Drummond, engaged the American force. It was one of the bloodiest battles recorded on Canadian territory. The following month, the King's took part in the action at
Snake Hill during the siege of
Fort Erie. In September 1814 the Americans attacked the British posts with overwhelming force and the regiment suffered heavy losses. The regiment landed back in England in summer 1815. The complex array of motives and causes that culminated in the mutiny of much of the Bengal Army would be catalysed in 1857 by rumours that beef and pork fat was being used to grease paper rifle cartridges. Confined first to a number of Bengal regiments, the mutiny eventually manifested in some areas as a more diverse, albeit disparate, rebellion against British rule. Soon after reports were received of the first mutiny at
Meerut on 10 May, the 8th's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hartley, had two companies secure the fort of
Phillaur, near Jullundur, due to the significance of its magazine stores and reports that the 3rd Bengal Native Infantry intended to seize it. Once the city had been secured by the British, the 8th's Lieutenant-Colonel
Edward Greathed vacated his position and became commander of a column dispatched to
Cawnpore. The regiment, commanded by Major Hinde, had been seriously depleted and the combined total of it and the
75th Foot numbered just 450. The regiment also took part in the second
Relief of Lucknow in November, seeing much action until withdrawing, after the evacuation of civilians, on the 22nd. In an environment of systematic reprisal by the British, Captain Octavius Anson, of the
9th Lancers, recalled observing acts of punitive violence against Indian civilians, including the alleged killing of incapacitated villagers by soldiers of the 8th Foot. The 1st Battalion was brought back to Britain in 1860. It spent the year 1865 in
Dublin, Ireland, where the battalion supported garrison operations against Irish Republican activity in the city. Then, after two years in
Malta, the 1st King's returned to India in 1868. The regiment's 2nd Battalion, which had been reconstituted in 1857, was itself posted to Malta (in 1863) and India (in 1877), and met up with the 1st King's on the island and at
Mundra, in the Bombay Presidency. Lytton's demands had followed the reluctant hosting of a Russian mission to
Kabul by
Sher Ali and the prevention of a similar British mission from entering Afghanistan at
Ali Masjid. Though still acclimatising and consequently susceptible to fever, the 2nd King's was allocated to the
Kurram Valley Field Force, under Major-General
Frederick Roberts. The 2nd King's fought at the
Battle of Peiwar Kotal in November 1878. The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at
Peninsula Barracks, Warrington from 1873, or by the
Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms the regiment was renamed the
King's Regiment (Liverpool) on 1 July 1881. ==Colonels==