Tuesday, October 15, 2013

18th C. Female soldiers

Historical: Catherine II's Amazon Guard:
Good information about this 100-strong ceremonial unit raised by Potemkin in march 1787 from wives and daughters of soldiers of the Balaklava Greek Settled Battalion to escort the Empress during her tour of Crimea with Joseph II on the *excellent* Oderint Dum Probent blog dedicated to Russian military history in the 17th & 18th C., and full of rare information.

Imaginary: Les Carabinières de la Reine
(Btw I also posted on the Alternate History Forum some musings about the possible uniforms of an imaginary Teutonic Order surviving in the 18th C. as a nominally independent military border district Banat).

3 comments:

DeanM said...

The perfect woman!

abdul666 said...

If the girls are intended to be cavalry (as 'Amazons' suggests) or dragoons in the same way as French Mousquetaires du Roi they would be greatly disadvantaged if having to fight riding side-saddle. They would be able and comfortable to ride astride 'man fashion' -but still feminine and 'decent'- wearing a fustanella over breeches like Albanian and Greek males of the time (images also suggesting appropriate secondary weapons).

abdul666 said...

LACEPULP LADIES?


Californian artist Deborah Oropallo's re-interpretation of 18th C. paintings of military and civilian nature.

Possibly inspirational for miniature sculptors wishing e.g. to represent in 1/60 Geneviève Sylvie de l'Isle Dieudonné in the mid-18th C., when the predecessor of the Diogenes Club was collaborating with the Lemuel Gulliver Fellowship?