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Dancing into History
Ann Cockerton and David Paget
The UK has a thriving combination of dance societies and events bringing to life the look, feel and sounds of the early 19th Century. Cinema and television adaptations of the books of Jane Austen (such as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma) have fuelled the drive for more Regency Balls across the country. With the bi-centennial of the 100 Days Campaign in 2015, and with it the possibility of the famous Duchess of Richmond’s Ball being revisited (at which Wellington’s officers and their ladies enjoyed on the eve of the battle of Quatre Bras), these organised balls have been attracting more and more military re-enactors.
195th anniversary is over. It was a major re-eencatment this year and perhaps the most important. While we are still working on a summary, we are only too glad to present the event in photos. Please feel free to visit our Digital gallery. You may watch selected videos at our forum. Further photos and videos will follow. Enjoy and visit us frequently.
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There was historical seminar, annual re-enactment and a muzzle loading competition at Jonkowo (Jonkendorf) Friday-Sunday 19-21st March. Re-enactment groups from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus attended the event which commemorated a struggle between the Napoleonic and Russian forces in 1807. Members of the Arsenal (Polish Guard lancers together with the Vistula lancers ) formed the cavalry of the period: Gwardia Honorowa Warszawska - Garde d'honneur du Varsovie, which was transformed into the I Régiment de cheveau-légers (Polonais) de la Garde Impériale.
Siege of Malaga 1810, Spain opened the re-enactment seazon for 2010. The anniversary, which combined exhibitions, cultural events and conferences was completed with the re-enactment. Enjoy the video footage of the event.
Spanish Campaign
14th July 1808 – Medina del Rio Seco
10th October 1808 – Burgos
30th November 1808 – Somosierra
Austrian Campaign
22nd May 1809 – Essling
6th July 1809 – Wagram
Russian Campaign
28th June 1812 – Wilno
22nd July 1812 – Mohylów
16th August 1812 – Smolensk
7th September 1812 – Borodino (Mozajsk)
25th October 1812 – Malo – Jaroslawiec
17th November 1812 – Krasnoje
28th November 1812 – Berezina
Saxon Campaign
2nd May 1813 – Weissenfelds/Lützen
19th – 21st May 1813 – ßautzen
22nd May 1813 – Reichenbach
21st August 1813 – Görlitz
27th August 1813 – Drezno
16th September 1813 – Peterswalde
24th September 1813 – Hochkirchen, Altenburg
18th – 19th October 1813 – Leipzig
30th – 31st October 1813 – Hanau
30th October 1813 – Nieder – Isingheim
French Campaign
27th January 1814 – St. Dizier
29th January 1814 – Brienne-le-Aube
1st – 2nd February 1814 – La Rothiére
10th and 14th February 1814 – Chaumpaubert
11th February 1814 – Montmirail
12th February 1814 – Château – Thierry
14th February 1814 – Vauchamps
14th February 1814 – Villeneuve
18th February 1814 – Montereau
24th February 1814 – Troyes
3rd March 1814 – Rocourt
4th March 1814 – Braisne
5th March 1814 – Berry-sur-Aube
7th March 1814 – Craonne
8th March 1814 – Laon
13th March 1814 – Reims
18th March 1814 – Fere-Champenoise
20th – 21st March 1814 – Arcis-sur-Aube
23rd March 1814 – Vitry
26th March 1814 – St. Dizier
29th March 1814 – Bourget
30th March 1814 – Paris
Belgian Campaign
16th June 1815 – Quatre Bras
18th June 1815 – Waterloo
The Chevau Legers Polonais de la Garde Imperiale were created by Napoleon on his entry into Warsaw in 1807. He was escorted by a honour guard composed of Polish noblemen whose bearing and loyalty so impressed him that he ordered the formation of a regiment of Polish light horse and attached them to his Imperial Guard. Upon its creation the regiment comprised of four squadrons and a headquarters staff which totalled 968 men. Candidates for the regiment were required to be landowners or the sons of landowners between the ages of 18 and 40 and were to furnish their own horse, uniform, equipment and harness to a set pattern.
The regiment was quartered at the Chateau of Chantilly near Paris, but for most of its existence it was on active service in Spain and Europe. It was during its service in Spain in 1808 that the regiment was officially taken into the Old Guard after it’s heroic charge at Somosierra on the eve of the battle of Austerlitz. Here the 3rd squadron attached to the Emperors duty squadron was ordered to charge up the Somosierra pass where four Spanish batteries had been entrenched and supported by Spanish Infantry in the hills above. The Poles, without a second thought, charged up the pass taking fifteen cannons and captured the batteries, at the cost of more than half the squadron killed and wounded.
Following the battle of Wagram in 1809 and shortly before the sections of the regiment entered Spain for the second time, the Poles were issued with the lance; their national weapon, which they used with such devastating effect against their enemies. Consequently, the regiment was renamed the Regiment de Chaveau – Leger Lanciers Polonais de la Garde Imperiale. Following the incorporation of the Dutch lancers into the Guard as the 2nd Regiment in 1811, the Poles were given the honour of being the 1st Regiment.
In 1812 a fifth squadron was formed and the regiment now totalled 1,500 men upon its entry into Russia. The regiment served with distinction during this campaign being engaged at Smolensk and at the battle of the Moscova (Borodino). With the retreat the Poles once again distinguished themselves when in the early hours of the 25th of October, near the small village of Horodina, the Emperor and his headquarters staff were attacked by cossacks. Part of the Honour Guard that day was formed from the 1st squadron of the regiment, under the command of Chef. Esq. Kozietulski. The cossacks were counter charged in the near darkness by Lieutenant Joachim Hempel together with the Chausseurs a Cheval of the Guard. During the struggle Kozietulski, in personal defence of the Emperor, was pierced in the upper left arm by a cossack pike. For his service to the Emperor, Kozielulski was soon promoted to Major.
During the retreat the 1st Polish Guard Lancers wisely had their horses rough shod and managed to save two hundred horses out of a thousand; the Dutch 2nd Regiment only a few officers mounts.
Following the Russian Campaign, remnants from the 3rd Guard Lancers were incorporated into the 1st regiment, and together with other replacements, allowed the unit’s strength to increase to seven squadrons by July 1813. In December of that year and following the disaster of Leipzig, the regiment was reduced once more to four squadrons.
With the abdication of the Emperor in the Spring of 1814, a single squadron of 150 men under Lt. Col. Jerzmanowski accompanied the Emperor to Elba with only 22 men being mounted. When Napoleon returned to France for the 100 Days campaign, the lancers marched with him carrying their saddles on their backs. The regiment could not be reformed, as what existed of it in 1814 had been disbanded and returned to Poland. However, the Poles were able to form a squadron which was incorporated into the 2nd Dutch Lancers as senior squadron in its own right. This squadron fought bravely during Ney’s great cavalry attacks on the British centre at Waterloo. The Poles were recorded to have been one of the only French cavalry units to have charged in full dress uniform.
The personal loyalty of the Poles to the Emperor is beyond question. They fought for the liberation of their homeland from foreign opressors and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Poland. They fought for the man who offered them this dream, together with glory and national recognition. Their battle honours speak for themselves. The regiment faught in 45 battles and major engagements in Spain and Europe throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
10th DZIALYNSKI REGIMENT
earlier: 11. THE RYDZYNSKI ESTATE INFANTRY REGIMENT Created in 1775, in 1789 receives the number 11, and in 1794 No 10. Stations: Rydzyna, Warszawa 1789, Gniezno 1790, Warszawa 1792. Commanders: Prince August Sułkowski, Kalisz voivode, 1st August 1775, gen. major Aleksander Mycielski, 28th January 1786, Ignacy Działyński, 23rd December 1788. Colonels: R. de Hosson, Karol de Falckenhayn, 1789, Belcour 1789, Filip Hauman, gen. major Józef Seydlitz after 8th June 1794. Battles and combats; Swisłocz 1792, Zelwa 4th July, Izabelin 5th July, Piaski, Granne 24th July, Krzemień 24th July, Warsaw Uprising, 17th, 18th June 1794, Biała, Nowe – Miasto, 3rd May Chełm 8th June, Kurów, Gołków 9th July, Battle for Warsaw, Wola 27th July and 28th August, Maciejowice 10th October.
The Constitution of May 3, 1791 is generally regarded as Europe's first and the world's second modern codified national constitution, following the 1788 ratification of the United States Constitution. The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (szlachta) and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The adoption of the May 3rd Constitution provoked the active hostility of the Commonwealth's neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, the Commonwealth was betrayed by its Prussian ally, Frederick William II, and defeated by Catherine the Great's Imperial Russia allied with the Targowica Confederation, a cabal of Polish magnates and landless nobility who opposed reforms that might weaken their influence. Despite the Commonwealth's defeat and the consequent Second Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the May 3rd Constitution influenced later democratic movements. It remained, after the demise of the Polish Republic in 1795, over the next 123 years of Polish partitions, a beacon in the struggle to restore Polish sovereignty. In the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, it was "the last will and testament of the expiring Fatherland."
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