Osprey Men-at-Arms 338 : The King's German Legion (1) 1803-1812

In the year 1803 the fourteen-month European interlude that was the Peace of Amiens came to an end, and Britain once again went to war against France. Seeking to strike at the British, but thwarted by the barrier of the English Channel, Napoleon sent an army corps to occupy the King of England's Hanoverian electorate - the homeland from which Britain's Hanoverian dynasty had been invited to the throne in 1714, and over which they still reigned - situated in that part of Germany that is today Lower Saxony and parts of North-Rhine Westphalia. One of the consequences of this particular piece of Napoleonic aggression was a steady but growing movement of men of the former Hanoverian Army to England, where they rallied as the King's German Legion. Napoleon's ruthless expansion and enforced revisions of the political map of Europe created many tens of thousands of refugees, many of whom ended up in the motley ranks of various corps in British pay. The KGL was something different: a large force of all arms, which would come to represent a significant minority of Britain's troops in the field, whose professional quality would keep it in the forefront of the British effort to bring down the French dictator and to free the Hanoverian's country from occupation by his troops. This is the first part of their story. Text and illustrations by Mike Chappell.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• The Light Infantry Brigade
• The Line Infantry Brigades
• The Cavalry Brigade
• Artillery and Engineers
• Bibliography
• Eight Full Colour Plates