Royal Dragoons

Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons)
Royal Dragoons Cap Badge
Active	1661–1969
Country	Kingdom of England (1661–1707)  Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800)  United Kingdom (1801–1969)
Branch	Army
Type	Cavalry
Motto(s)	Spectemur agendo (Let us be judged by our deeds)
Colors	Scarlet uniform with blue facings, black plume.
March	"The Royals"
Engagements	Dettingen, Waterloo, Second Boer War, El Alamein

The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) was a mounted infantry and later a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse. It served for three centuries and was in action during the First World War and the Second World War. It was amalgamated with the Royal Horse Guards to form The Blues and Royals in 1969.

The regiment was first raised as a single troop of veterans of the Parliamentary Army in 1661, shortly thereafter expanded to four troops as the Tangier Horse, taking the name from their service in Tangier. For the next few years the regiment defended Tangier, which had been acquired by the English Crown through the marriage of King Charles II to Catherine of Braganza in April 1662, from Moorish cavalry.

The regiment consisted of four troops, three of which were originally troops in the English Regiment of Light Horse in France attached to the French army of Louis XIV and under the command of Sir Henry Jones. They were constituted in 1672 and after Jones was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, while serving with the Duke of Monmouth, command passed to the Duke. The regiment was ranked as the 1st Dragoons, the oldest cavalry regiment of the line, in 1674. The regiment was recalled to England in 1678 (it was disbanded in France and reformed in England with most of the same officers) with the expectation of fighting in a war against France. In early 1679 it was disbanded and then reformed in June of that year as Gerard's Regiment of Horse (its colonel being Charles Gerard), with most of the same officers and men, to police the Covenanters in Scotland. The regiment was disbanded in late 1679 and three of its captains, John Coy, Thomas Langston and Charles Nedby along with their troopers went out to Tangier in 1680 as reinforcements. When they returned in 1683, they joined the what became a new permanent regiment of the Royal Dragoons.