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The 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 by King James II. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards in 1959. ==The Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse (1685–1715)== The regiment was first raised from the neighbourhood of London as the Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse in 1682, by the regimenting of various independent troops, and ranked as the 3rd Regiment of Horse. When James II's throne was tottering, and William of Orange daily expected, the regiment was ordered to Torbay, when their helmets and cuirasses were deposited in the Tower, the officers having leave to wear the latter if they chose. On the accession of William and Mary, the Bays, then designated Villiers' Horse, embarked for Ireland under Marshal Schomberg. The regiment fought at the battles of the Boyne (1690) and Aughrim (1691). At Aughrim, in company with the Royal Horse Guards and another regiment, they crossed a seemingly impassable bog under a heavy fire, formed on the other side, and by a brilliant charge won the battle for King William. "It is madness," exclaimed the French general, St. Ruth, as he watched the apparently reckless manoeuvre; "but no matter, the more that cross the more we shall kill." It was but a few minutes after that his head was carried off by a cannonball, and the decapitated corpse was buried secretly and hastily, that the heavy loss to King James might be known neither by friend nor foe. After the fall of Limerick they returned, and for the next three years or so were employed as an unofficial mounted police against the numerous highwaymen who made the commons of Hounslow and Blackheath unsafe for travellers. In 1694 they embarked for Holland, where they served with credit until 1698, when they returned to England. Six years after they embarked for Lisbon, and distinguished themselves, as Harvey's Horse, in the various stirring though comparatively unimportant actions that followed. On arriving it was found that the Portuguese idea of what constituted a proper horse for British cavalry differed very considerably from that entertained by the latter themselves, and as a consequence many weary weeks were wasted. At last General Harvey was instructed or determined to requisition chargers, and the 3rd Horse were once more included in the effective cavalry. At Almanza, under Colonel Eoper, they charged and routed two French infantry regiments, though in the struggle against the overwhelming reinforcements that came up the 3rd lost Colonel Eoper and two other officers killed, and three officers wounded, and prisoners. Contemporary histories report, " The regiment of horse of General Harvey is certainly one of the finest regiments that ever was seen, and the worst horse they have is worth fifty pistoles." The 3rd Horse had a share in the brilliant cavalry action at Almaneza, in July 1710, when sixteen squadrons of British and Portuguese horse charged the French and Spaniards, whose force consisted of a first line of twenty-two squadrons flanked by infantry, and a second line of twenty squadrons and nine battalions. " Such was the astonishing resolution of the British horsemen that .... the whole of the enemy's cavalry was soon overthrown, and with their infantry fled in disorder." At the close of the campaign the 3rd Horse, with some other regiments, under Stanhope, were surprised at Brihuega, by a force more than ten times their number. They had no artillery, little ammunition; the village was defenceless and prohibitive of the employment of cavalry, yet the British defended themselves with stones and hand missiles against the cannon of the besiegers, and repulsed with loss a general assault that was ordered. But the strife was too unequal, and at last they had to yield themselves prisoners of war. There were plenty, however, to exchange for them, and in October 1711, the 3rd Horse arrived in England and were quartered in Surrey. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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