28mm Spanish Cavalry: Trozo de Milan

Hi all again

This time, a showcase post, with some history in it. A unit of 28mm late XVII century spanish Cavalry, "Trozo de Milán"  In Spain, the cavalry were organized in "trozos" (a kind of regiment) instead of "tercios" like the infantry or the cavalry outside peninsular Spain.

I used excellent Front Rank miniatures for this purpose, and the flag scanned from the book "The Spanish Armies of the League of Augsburg War".

The unit was created in 1661, under the command of Juan de Novales y Rojas. the horse companies went from Milan to Spain, disembarking in Barcelona, and then sent to Extremadura, in order to take part in the ill fated invasion of Portugal by Don. Juan Jose de Austria ( who had won important victories in Catalonia and Flanders against the French ).

Once the campaign ended, the unit was not disbanded, and several years later, was sent to Catalonia, in 1674 , were it fought bravely against the French in both wars, Franco Dutch War and League of Augsburg War. ( the uniform was the same in both, so I can use the miniatures in the 2 conflicts). After 1700 and the change from Habsburg to Bourbon, Spain kept the regiment of Milan which (through some name changes) has survived until today renamed "Grupo  Milan", a cavalry squadron.