The regiment remained in front of Pampeluna until the 17th of September, when it moved to Milagro, on the Ebro, where a remount, consisting of three officers, two serjeants, twenty-four private men, and fifty-five horses, joined from England, under the command of Major Watts. On the 20th of November the regiment occupied Valtierra and Arquedas, on the Ebro, where it remained in reserve during the winter.
1814
The movements of the allies were now attended with success in every quarter, and part of the army had already entered France. Early in the spring of 1814 the Third Dragoon Guards advanced, by Pampeluna and Toloso, through the Pyrenean mountains, to St. Jean de Luz, in France, where they arrived on the 11th of March, and were there joined by a further remount of three officers, two serjeants, eleven private men, and fifty-four horses.
The regiment was now actively engaged in operations against the enemy, and on the 22nd of March had an affair with a body of French troops at St. Guadens, in which it captured many prisoners. Advancing up the country it was almost constantly confronting the enemy. The battle of Toulouse was fought on the 10th of April; but the brigade, of which this regiment formed a part, being attached to Sir Rowland Hill's division, was not engaged. The enemy having retired from Toulouse, the Third Dragoon Guards marched through that city, and on the 13th of April, being the regiment in advance, received the last shot of the enemy. The armies of the Continental Powers having penetrated France by the opposite frontier, had advanced to the capital, Napoleon Bonaparte was compelled to abdicate the throne of France, and the brilliant achievements of the British troops were crowned with the restoration of peace.
The Third Dragoon Guards were quartered at Viellevigne; on the 25th of April they were at Nalloux and the neighbouring villages; and on the 25th of May occupied Venargne and adjacents. On the 2nd of June they commenced their march from the southern to the northern extremity of France, passing through many of the principal cities and towns, and finally arrived at Calais, where they embarked for England on the 20th of July, and landed at Dover and Ramsgate on the following day, after an absence of five years and three months. The loss which the regiment sustained from fatigue, privation, disease, and the various incidents of war, may be estimated by reference to the number of men and horses sent out from time to time to replace those which had fallen, or were become unfit for service.
On the 22nd of July the regiment assembled at Canterbury, and marched from thence to Huntingdon; where two troops were reduced, and the numbers of the remaining eight troops considerably decreased. On the 12th of August it marched for York, where it arrived on the 23rd, and occupied Leeds and Sheffield as out-stations.
1815
His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, appreciating the gallant and important services of the regiment, which, in connexion with the other corps of the army, and of the forces of the Allied Sovereigns, had been so conducive to the restoration of peace, was graciously pleased to direct that the word 'Peninsula' should be borne as an honorary distinction on the standards of the Third, or Prince of Wales' Regiment of Dragoon Guards, in commemoration of its services in Portugal, Spain, and France, under the command of Field-Marshal his Grace the Duke of Wellington. The Prince Regent's pleasure on this subject was communicated to the regiment by the Adjutant-General in a letter dated the 6th of April, 1815.
The return of Bonaparte to France, and the sudden breaking out of the war in 1815, occasioned an augmentation of two troops to be made to the establishment; and immediately after the battle of Waterloo the regiment received orders to proceed on foreign service.