Adolfo Ramos Flags - Spanish Napoleonic Standards

As my Spanish Napoleonic Army includes figures actually manufactured in Spain (Miniaturas Dos de Mayo), I figured that actual Spanish Flags would be a good match as well. Adolfo Ramos also, perhaps not surprisingly, has the most extensive range of Spanish Napoleonic flags that I have found, reasonable postage charges, and excellent prices (1.5 euros for the basic version of the flags in 25mm, as seen below), all of which clinched the decision. So I ordered about 2 dozen!  The flags arrived in less than 2 weeks.

Each battalion carried 2 flags, one Coronela, equivalent to the King's Color, and one Ordenanza, equivalent to the Regimental Color.  Both had white fields. The Coronela flags had the Royal arms in the center, depicted quite quite large, and the provincial or other regimental emblems in the corners. The above flags are all Coronelas. 

The second flag, or Ordenanza, bore a large red "cross raguly" of Burgundy upon it, with once again provincial or other regimental badges in the corners, as seen above. The "branches" are noted to sometimes be shown as opposite and others alternating. Other minor variations were common as seen above. 

The Royal artillery followed a similar pattern, but on a blue field as seen above, whilst the Swiss regiments had very different patterns, reminiscent of the patterns used by the Swiss regiments in Royal service under the Ancien Regime in France. Don't ask me how the Hungarian flag crept in there, though!  :-)

Cavalry flags, one per squadron, mostly had a red field (the Osprey by Wise/Rossignoli says white), with the royal arms on one side and the provincial arms on the others, without the corner shields. 

The flags of the Royal Guards had (mostly) Purple fields for the Coronelas, and (mostly) white fields for the Ordenanzas. Details of the variants are found in the same Osprey (Flags of the Napoleonic Wars, volume 3). The line cavalry regiment "del Principe" also had a purple field for its flags, in commemoration of their saving the Walloon Guards at the battle of Zaragosa in 1710. 

It appears likely that the Light Infantry Battalions were issued flags as well, as their cadre included flag bearers. I used generic Warflag Ordenanzas for their standards (see preceding post), as little or nothing is know as to their designs, assuming they did in fact exist. 

My first four Spanish units, now handsomely equipped with Coronelas by Adolfo Ramos. 

Much better than the bare flagstaffs!