Marquis of Ormond’s Regiment of Foot

Also Colonel Richard Grace’s Regiment of Foot

Regiment raised for Charles II in exile from Irishmen in Flanders, they fought at the Battle of the Dunes

• Raised in Flanders from Irish Royalists

• June: Battle of the Dunes

• November: Muster only 80 men

The regiment's history is discussed in Firth, C. H. (1898), Royalist and Cromwellian Armies in Flanders, 1657-1662, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, pp. 67–119

Charles II began to raise an army at Bruges in Flanders in 1656, having signed a treaty to ally with Spain against France and Cromwellian England. Ormond led a regiment of exiled Irish Royalists, commanded in the field by Col. Richard Grace. These had previously been in Spanish employ, then French, and now re-joined the Spanish under Grace. In July 1658 the regiment fought at the Battle of the Dunes in Muskerry’s brigade, but the French and English Protectorate forces were victorious. Despite the defeat Ormond's regiment retired off the field in good order. |They remained in Flanders until the end of 1661 when, reduced to only 80 men, they were probably incorporated into the other Irish regiments in Flanders.

James Butler, Marquis of Ormond

Richard Grace

• April 1657: Estimated at 700 men by English news-sheets