The Army, new modell'd

The British Army 'evolved' during the seventeenth century - that is to say each of the countries forming 'Britain' had their own fighting forces, which over time (and change of Monarch or Parliament) coalesced into a relatively homogeneous fighting force, shaped and moulded by its time in history

This series of figures attempts to chart the uniform changes over the period 1590 to 1714 - an arbitrary start date until the beginning of what is generally recognised as a British army in its true form, that is a homogeneous fighting force which matched those of the best at the time

Much information about the uniform changes is not definite, either in terms of when or what changed, and the dates of change in uniform reflected change in military fashion, so nothing is precise over this period, but we have tried to reflect 'style' rather than date, but even then, uniform style is as represented by artist's interpretation rather than sealed pattern

We have chosen four 'periods' over this date span to reflect how military style changed, and also offer the generally available references which we have used, or suggest, as additional information

The coloured drawings in this part of the site are based on those produced by AH Bowling in the long out-of-print publication

British Infantry Regiments 1660 - 1914

Almark Publication ISBN 0 85624 0016