The King's German Legion (KGL) was a British Army unit of expatriate German personnel, 1803–16. The Legion achieved the distinction of being the only German force to fight without interruption against the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Legion was formed within months of the dissolution of the Electorate of Hanover in 1803, and constituted as a mixed corps by the end of 1803. Although The Legion never fought autonomously and remained a part of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars (1804–15), it played a vital role in several campaigns, most notably the Walcheren Campaign, the Peninsular War, and the Hundred Days (1815).
The Legion was disbanded in 1816. Several of the units were incorporated into the army of the Kingdom of Hanover, and became later a part of the Imperial German Army after unification in 1871.
The British German Legion, recruited for the Crimean War, is sometimes erroneously referred to as the "King's German Legion".
Read more about King's German Legion: History, Organisation, Campaigns, Legacy, Battle Honours, Memorials, German Army
Famous quotes containing the words king, german and/or legion:
“What says the Clock in the Great Clock Tower?
And all alone comes riding there
The King that could make his people stare,
Because he had feathers instead of hair.
A slow low note and an iron bell.”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)
“The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“I am sometimes told that Women aint fit to vote. Why, dont you know that a woman had seven devils in her: and do you suppose a woman is fit to rule the nation? Seven devils aint no account; a man had a legion in him.”
—Sojourner Truth (c. 17971883)