The Regiment was raised in Holland by King Charles II., and was at first composed of eighty gentlemen who had held commissions in the army of King Charles I.
It wore cuirasses from its formation to 1698, and resumed them in 1821.
It bears the Royal Arms as its crest.
It is said= the Regiments of Life Guards were at one time known as “the Cheeses,” from the old gentlemen of the Life Guards declining to serve in them as remodelled in 1788, saying they were no longer composed of gentlemen, but of cheesemongers.
The 3rd and 4th (Scots) Troops of Life Guards, disbanded in 1746, saw much service in the campaign of 1742–47, in Flanders.
SECOND LIFE GUARDS.
| Titles. | Colour of | Campaigns, Battles, &c. | |
| Uniform. | Facings. | ||
| The 3rd, or the Duke of Albemarle’s Troop of Guards. 1660–1670 The 2nd, or The Queen’s Troop of Guards. 1670–1685 The 2nd Troop of Life Guards of Horse. 1685–1788 The 2nd Life Guards. 1788—— | Scarlet, 1660—. | Sea-green, 1660. Blue, since 1742. | Maestricht, 1673. Walcourt, 1689. Flanders, 1689–1690. Namur, 1695. Flanders, 1694–1697. Peninsula, 1812–1814. Waterloo, 1815. Netherlands, 1815. |
The first Second Troop of Life Guards consisted originally of a number of loyal gentlemen who had fought for King Charles I. After his murder they fled to the continent, and entered the Spanish service with the title of “His Royal Highness The Duke of York’s Troop of Guards.” After the peace of 1659 they retired to the Netherlands till 1660, when King Charles II. made them the Second Troop of Life Guards. It became the Third Troop in 1670, and was disbanded in 1746.
The Regiment has the same origin as the First Life Guards.
It wore cuirasses from its formation to 1698, and resumed them in 1821.