Painting Guide for the War of Spanish Succession in the Peninsular

Painting Guide for the War of Spanish Succession. Just the Portuguese so far.
All details from Condray (1992), which, apparently is hard to get now. .

Portuguese

Foot

General painting guide:

Painting Portuguese

Item	Description
Coat and trousers	In 1664, the infantry were dressed in blue. By the early 18th century Alvadia (white grey; described as a dirty white, but often given as simply as “white” in contemporary descriptions) was the most common coat colour. White grey was not universal, and some units retained the blue. Coat linings and cuffs were in the livery of the colonels (red, blue, green, etc); vermilion (bright scarlet red) was the most common Portuguese livery colour.
Vest	As coat, or with a border.
Hat	Black tri-corn, with optional white ribbon/lace. White green cockade.
Cravat	Red
Shirt	White
Stockings	White, although at least one unit had Red.
Bandolier, waist belt, cartridge bags, stocking strap	Bright leather
Sword and bayonet scabbard	Dark brown
Shoes	Black or chestnut brown. Iron buckles
Other metal fittings	Iron

As was typical of the period each Portuguese regiment had distinctive features:

Portuguese Regimental Distinctions

Regiment	Primary Livery	Secondary Livery
Campo Maoir	(formerly blue faced red)
Serpa	Green	Gold
Almeida	Vermilion (bright scarlet red)	Silver
Moura	Vermilion	Gold
Olivencia	Vermilion	Silver
Elvas	None listed
Castelo de Vide	Vermilion	Silver
(Castro) Conde de Cascais	Silver	Blue
Lagos	Vermilion	Silver
Faro (Conde de Vimiero)	Silver	Vermilion
Porto	Silver	Vermilion
Junta da Commercio	unknown (probably blue coat)
Peniche	None listed
Setubal	None listed
Corte Real	Vermilion	Silver
Evora	None listed
Esremoz	None listed
(Silva da) Portalegre	Silver	Purple
Braganza	Silver	Vermilion
Pinhel (Pinheiro?)	Silver	Green
Jeremenha	None listed
Caminha	Vermilion	Silver
Nova de Moura	Vermilion	Gold
Lisboa	(Light blue coat trimmed white/silver)
Vasconca (Vasconcellas?)	Black	Silver
Bras da Silveira	Silver	Vermilion
Conde de Ilha	None listed
Silva da Vagos
Conde de Areiras	Silver	Purple

Officers: By 1721 regimental officers were meant to wear the uniform of men but presumably more elaborate. Based on the Tercio de Chaves (see below), the colonel might wear his livery as the main coat colour. In the 17th century sashes were green (most common), blue or red, but in the 18th century red or carmine (dark red) predominated . Senior officers wore any colour they pleased.

Drummers: It seems they wore reversed colours, so the coat and trousers were the livery of the colonel.

Portuguese Royal Guard of Archers (“Green Halberdiers”)

Green trimmed with white from about 1640 to 1728.

Tercio (Regiment) de Chaves

This is one of the old infantry units and its uniform at the Battle of Almanza (April 1707) was described by the Mestre de Campo of the time:

Coat. White (presumably the new white grey as opposed to the old blue) with red distinctions (possibly “vermelho”, a bright scarlet red).

Decorations. Gold/yellow .

Officer (i.e. himself). Red coat, white cape, gold trimmed hat.

Lisbon (Lisboa) Regiment

Another infantry unit we have specific information about. In 1717 their uniform was:

Coat. Light blue with silver lace.

Braid, feathers, stockings. White.

Campo-Maoir Regiment

Coat: blue with red distinctions

Porto Regiment

An illustration from 1720 has the man in standard infantry uniform with red cuffs and black shoes.

Tercio Da Armada (Marine Infantry)

The marine tercio was as the infantry but

Coat. Green with yellow distinctions. The yellow is described as “dark orange yellow” in original sources but based on a colour illustration Condray (1992) says he wouldn’t describe it like that. Another illustration cited by Condray has the lining of a private a lighter shade of yellow to the cuffs. Yellow lace. Buttons yellow metal.

Stockings. White (although had been yellow in an earlier period),

Neck cloth. Black.

Hat: Black. Text says dark feathers in their hat, but rather poor illustration doesn’t seem to show any. In the b+w illustration the tri-corn has a ribbon, which is probably white.

Bunting in barrel of the musket (whatever that is). Red and blue.

Officers: Plumes in their hat. Sash in crimson (darkish red) trimmed gold. Buttons, lace and hat lace = Gold. Neck cloth white with black bow.

Horse

Prior to the new regulations of 14 Feb 1707, the Portuguese horse basically didn’t have a uniform. “some had hats, others caps, and in all colours clad, so one would take them for a band of vagabonds rather than for trained horse” (Francis, 1975, p. 52, cited in Condray, 1992, p. 14).

After the new regulations the white grey uniforms started appearing, along with tri-corns and jack boots. Some units had breastplates.

Dragoon cap: Red turned up with light blue, edged with white fur. (Note, it is likely each man had both the Dragoon cap and a tricorn, as this was the practice in other armies.)

Regiment	Primary Livery	Secondary Livery
Conde de Prado	Silver	Blue
(Brito) Conde de Arcos	Vermilion (bright scarlet red)	Silver
Dragoons de Mello da Silva	Vermilion	Silver
Dragoons de Sousa Carvalho	Blue	Gold
Dragoons de Pedro Machado Brito	Vermilion	Silver
Joao Dantas da Cunha	Gold	Blue
Campo Maoir	Unknown
Praca de Moura	Vermilion	Gold
Praca de Elvas	Unknown
Praca de Braganza	Silver	Vermilion
Dragoons de Evora	Unknown
Guardias das Minas (Sousa, Marguis das Minas)	Silver	Blue
Olivenca (Mello Conde de)	Vermilion	Silver
De Moura	Vermilion	Gold

Standards

The regulations of 1707 mandated two colours for each regiment, both horse and foot.

The pattern on Portuguese standards is controversial, but the most likely option for foot regiments at the Battle of Almanza (1707) is a windmill pattern. The windmill pattern in green and white dates from the Napoleonic wars, and in our period colours probably varied between regiments. Examples:

• Standard of Tercio da Armada. Green and yellow windmill. Border in a triangular pattern, but both in/out are white (I think). Crowned Braganza arms with crossed grey anchors, on a light brown field, superimposed. Sleeve is blue and white. Cord and tassel on staff point also blue and white.
• Possibly standard of Lisbon Regiment, as the colours match. Rectangular. Light blue and white windmill. Border is the reverse.
• Old flag of the City of Lisbon. Green and white windmill.
• Rectangular. Blue and white windmill. Border is the reverse. Arms of Braganza superimposed. Staff in blue and white bands.
• Rectangular. Red and white windmill. Border is reverse.
• Rectangular. Red and blue windmill. Border in a triangular pattern of alternating blue (in) and red (out). Arms of Braganza superimposed.
• Square. Green and white windmill. Border in a triangular pattern, but both in/out are white. Arms of Braganza on crossed sword and scepter superimposed. Silver scroll with blue letter under the arms “IUS DEDIT ET DABIT UIT”. Cords silver and blue. Tassels red and silver.

If the windmill pattern was not in fact in wide spread use during our period, then the next most likely standard pattern is four green bands on a white field. Variations on this are known, for example, four white bands on a blue field.

Horse probably didn’t use the windmill pattern. Cavalry standards were likely to be a field in the colonel’s livery, with his coat of arms super-imposed. The arms of the house of Braganza may have been on one side of the colonel’s colour.

References

Condray, P. (1992). The Portuguese Army During the War of Spanish Succession (1704-1715). Editions Brokaw.

Francis, David. (1975). First Peninsular War, 1702-1713. St. Martin’s.