La Grande Arméee

We are the veterans of the 5th King's German Legion, and have 'reformed' into a unit within the service of France. You can find us in groupfighting most of the time.


The Legion was formed in Breslau, Silesia in February 1807 from an infantry regiment and cavalry regiment in the service of the Kingdom of Naples that were descended from Jan Henryk Dąbrowski's Dąbrowski's Legions and Karol Kniaziewicz's Danube Legion originally raised in the 1790s. The new formation was expanded from the Neapolitan cadre into a formation of three infantry regiment and one cavalry regiment, initially named the Polish-Italian Legion as it had been organized around the Poles formerly in Italian service. Most of the recruits came from ex-Prussian and ex-Austrian territories, particularly Poznań and Pomerania.

The Polish-Italian Legion fought its first engagement at the siege of Klodzko and then was transferred to Kingdom of Westphalia in October 1807 and was placed in garrison in the capital, Kassel where it was recruited to full authorized strength from Poles in French occupied territory. The newly expanded cavalry regiment arrived in Kassel on November 11, 1807.