The French Revolution

While the American Revolution caused surprise and indignation it was the French Revolution which sent shock waves throughout Europe. It was inconceivable to the monarchies of Europe that one of their number should fall to a revolutionary republican organisation.

Thus the European powers were determined to crush revolutionary France, giving rise to a dispute between Britain and France which was to last 22 years.

It was to this end that the 16th Light Dragoons were dispatched to Ostend in the spring of 1793 to join the Austrian army. Initially the campaign met with great success with the Regiment gaining the Battle Honours of Beaumont and Willems, where it successfully carried off an entire battery of guns. The campaign however then faltered against the power of the mass mobilised French citizen's army; as a result the British were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe in February 1796.