The siege dragged on over 1602 and 1603 during which time Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 69 on 24th March 1603. She was succeeded by King James who although a Protestant was tolerant of Catholics and he concluded a peace treaty with Spain. The English troops remained in the Netherlands as they were not recalled. The siege of Ostend continued and on 13th April there was another storming of the walls which was repelled with the loss of 1,000 lives. An angler named Samuel Harwood used it in his “Thames Reminiscences,” which appeared in an April 1886 issue of Fishing, a journal published in London: The strong fortress of Bois-le-Duc, occupied by the Catholic forces, was situated at the confluence of the rivers Dommel and Aa. The English regiments of Vere, Wimbleton, Morgan and Harewood were part of the Prince of Orange's army. There were also Scots troops, and English cuirassiers and harquebusiers. The siege lasted 5 months and surrendered on 15th Sep 1629. Sir Edward Vere and 4 captains lost their lives in the fighting. Several more forts were recaptured from the Spanish that autumn and the duchies of Cleves, Berg and the country of Mark were reclaimed. But the States had run out of money and failed to pay their soldiers. The Prince of Orange remonstrated with his government and claimed that some units had not been paid since 1614. Subsequently the army pay was regularised. Hart, Lieut.-Col. H.T. (1858) The New Army List and Militia List, No. LXXIX, 1st July 1858. London: John Murray. p. 76

The Irish were encouraged by the Catholic Spanish king in their rebellion against England, and the Earl of Tyrone and other chiefs became enough of a threat to alarm Elizabeth. She sent the Earl of Essex, with hardy veterans from the war in the Netherlands, to 'reduce the insurgents to obedience'. Their place in the Low Countries was taken by new recruits from London and the Home Counties. The Buffs arrived in Portugal on 1st Sep 1808 and sailed up the Tagus. Sir Arthur Wellesley had returned to England leaving Sir John Moore to advance into Spain with two thirds of the British army. The Buffs brought up the rear, escorting supply wagons, so that when Moore beat a hasty retreat towards Corunna the Buffs were left behind. The grenadier company, however, were with Moore and suffered the horror of the winter schlep over the mountains to Corunna. They fought with the rearguard, attached to the 20th Foot, and were evacuated to England where they arrived 'some 70 barefoot scarecrows' to join the 2nd Battalion. The remaining 9 companies of the Buffs stayed behind, guarding a large amount of money destined for Moore's troops. Lt-Col Richard Blunt managed to keep his regiment, and the money, safe from Napoleon and his marauding soldiers. Boxer, CR (1969). "Some Second Thoughts on the Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672–1674". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 19: 88–90. doi: 10.2307/3678740. JSTOR 3678740. S2CID 159934682.These were the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve), with the 4th Battalion at Northampton Street in Dover (since demolished) and the 5th Battalion at Newtown Road in Ashford (since demolished) (both Territorial Force) The 1st Buffs were mobilised to join Wolseley's Egyptian expedition but it was all over by the time they reached Malta and they went to Ireland instead. In 1885 they were sent to Singapore while the 2nd Buffs were returning from Hong Kong. The 2nd were sent to Egypt for the Nile Expedition. They went up river to Aswan but the Dervishes had been defeated at Ginnis so after two debilitating months in the desert they returned to England, in April 1886. For the remainder of its existence as a separate entity, both dragon badge and buff facings remained as primary distinctions of the regiment. This was the case even on the simplified dark blue "No. 1 Dress" worn by most of the British Army as full dress after World War II, although the buff colour was here reduced to piping edging the shoulder straps. [91] Alliances [ edit ] The King finally decided to form the officers and men into a regiment and issued a commission to Colonel Robert Sidney to be 'Colonell of Our Holland Regiment of Foot, raised or to be raised, for Our service.' Robert Sidney, who had commanded one of the English regiments in the Dutch service, was the 3rd son of Robert 2nd Earl of Leicester. He was born in 1626 and died suddenly in 1668, buried in Penshurst. He was a handsome man and many thought he was the real father of the Duke of Monmouth. The reasons for this assumption were that Robert's mistress at one time was one of the King's mistresses, Lucy Waters (Mrs Barlow), also that the resemblance was so strong that many remarked on it.

The Buffs also raised many more battalions during the war, mainly for home defence or as training units. None, save the 7th and 11th Battalions, saw active service overseas. The 7th and 11th Battalions were raised in 1940 and were converted to the 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps and the 89th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery in 1941 due to the shortage of armoured troops and artillery in the British Army. [58] [59] Post-War [ edit ] Badge of the Buffs as shown on the grave of Private P.M. Godden, who died in 1947, at Stanley Military Cemetery, Hong Kong The narrative up to this point has been a distillation of the 'Historical Records of the Buffs East Kent Regiment , Formerly Designated The Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment. Vol I 1572-1704 by Captain H R Knight psc, Late the Buffs. (Gale & Polden Ltd 1905). From this point on the history will be taken from Gregory Blaxland's The Buffs (Leo Cooper 1972) Churchill, Winston L. Spencer (1898). The Story of the Malakand Field Force: an episode of frontier war, CHAPTER XII: AT INAYAT KILA. London, UK: Longmans, Green.

Knight, Captain H. R. (1935). Historical records of The Buffs, East Kent Regiment, 3rd Foot, formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment 1572-1704. Vol.1. Gale & Pollen. The battle of Albuhera was catastrophic for the Buffs and for other regiments, including the 57th (Middlesex) which earned the name 'Die-Hards'. Both regiments subsequently celebrated 16th May as Albuhera Day. The Duke of Cumberland arrived in Scotland at the end of January to command the English troops at the Battle of Culloden Moor, just east of Inverness. He had 14 battalions of infantry and three regiments of dragoons. The Buffs were on the right of the second line of infantry which meant that they were less involved in the hand-to-hand fighting. The initial exchange of artillery fire killed one and injured 2 of the Buffs, one of whom died later. The highlanders' subsequent charge 'like hungry wolves' was directed towards the left of the British line so that the 4th and 37th Foot sustained the most casualties. The battle is best (or worst) remembered for the aftermath when it is generally accepted that the English soldiers took no prisoners, and simply slaughtered any rebels they caught. But there is evidence to prove that prisoners were taken. However there was certainly bad feeling between the redcoats and Jacobites, especially as the highlanders' preferred weapon was the broadsword rather than the musket, so that the wounds received by soldiers were more gory than usual.