Grand Duchy of Würzburg - 3rd Regiment, Rheinbund

    The Grand Duchy of Würzburg was formed in December, 1805. Archduke Ferdinand III, born in 1769 and brother of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (who was later Emperor Francis I of Austria) was also Grand Duke of Tuscany. When this territory was ceded to France by the Treaty of Luneville in 1801, Ferdinand was compensated by being given the Electorate of Salzburg, By the same treaty, the Bishopric of Würzburg was secularized, and granted to Bavaria in 1803. When Salzburg, along with the rest of the Tyrol, was ceded to Bavaria in the aftermath of the battle of Austerlitz, Ferdinand received the newly created Electorate of Würzburg from Bavaria in compensation. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in August 1806, Würzburg was elevated to a Grand Duchy, and joined the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) in September, 1806. This placed Ferdinand in the odd position of being allied to Napoleon, and in potential conflict with his own brother, the Austrian Emperor!

    The Grand Duchy was located in Northern Franconia, along the river Main, and included the Duchy of Coburg, the Abbey of Fulda, the Archdiocese of Mainz, the Marquisate of Ansbach, the Bisopric of Bamberg, and the County of Vertheim; its capital was in Wurtzburg (an alternate spelling of the city's name). The town of Schweinfurt was acquired from Bavaria in 1810. The estimated population of the Grand Duchy during the Napoleonic Wars was 260,000 people. Würzburg left the Confederation after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814, the Grand Duchy of Würzburg was returned to Bavaria, and Tuscany was returned to Ferdinand!

    Würzburg was obligated to provide a contingent of 2,000 men to the Reinbund. This consisted of an Infantry regiment of 2 battalions (later increased to three, and then 4 by 1812), 2 squadrons of Dragoons (later three, and changed to Chevaulegers), and a battery of 4 guns. The numbering of the regiments of the small states of the Rheinbund is confusing; I have chosen to use the listing in John Gill's excellent "With Eagles to Glory" as of 1809. Gill places the Würzburgers as the 3rd regiment of the Confederation of the Rhine. The regiment had already been sent to Spain prior to the commencement of the 1809 campaign against Austria, and remained there until the survivors were recalled to Germany in 1812.

  

The Würzburg Infantry Regiment - these are wonderful Perry figures!  The Grenadier and Light companies are distinguished only by sword knots and the plumes on the helmets.

Now that we know who the Grand Duke was, the fact that everything about the unit scream "Austria" makes sense, eh?  Probably why it was sent to Spain instead of being stationed in Europe! I have given the unit dark brown "Spanish" pants, which I think looks very sharp. Nothing original, but rather inspired by the pictures of the same unit on the Perry website. The officer, of course, has stubbornly clung to the regulation white trousers!

I used a darker version of my Magic Wash on these figures - aside from having to go back to touch up all the white, I like the results better. 

The Perry Command set comes with 2 standard bearers, even though there was only one flag per battalion. Who am I to argue? :-) The cravats were included cast on to the figures. I couldn't find a description for them, so I went with red and white striped; the flagpoles have a red and white spiral design - more Austrian influence!  Subtle, eh?

I wasn't sure about touching up the edges of the flag (printed from Warflag/Napflag), but it looks like I will have to do so -  with the red-blue-white border, it will be a pain in the neck!  :-)

OK , so I took some more pictures after doing the flames and edges with red and dark blue paint. 

I do think the improvement is noticeable, if not dramatic. The lighting and background are a bit different as well. 

This shot also gives a better look at the elite companies as well. 

The modern day city of Wurzburg;  "Dom R1" by Guliyev at the German language Wikipedia.