The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry which was again amalgamated, in 1968, with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and the Durham Light Infantry to form The Light Infantry. In 2007, however, The Light Infantry was amalgamated further with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Royal Green Jackets to form The Rifles. History Early history Formation The regiment was one of nine regiments of foot raised by James II when he expanded the size of the army in response to the Monmouth Rebellion. On 20 June 1685, Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon was issued with a warrant authorising him to raise a regiment, and accordingly the Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot was formed, mainly recruiting in the county of Buckinghamshire. Jacobite wars The regiment remained in existence when William III came to the throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Ferdinando Hastings took over the colonelcy of the regiment, which accordingly became Hastings's Regiment of Foot. Hastings's Regiment first saw action at the Battle of Killiecrankie, where they failed to halt the advance of Jacobite rebels, although they were later defeated at the Battle of Dunkeld. The regiment accompanied William to Ireland in the following year, fighting in the decisive Williamite victories at the Boyne and Cork. Nine Years' War The Jacobite struggles in Scotland and Ireland were part of a wider European conflict that became known as the Nine Years' War. In 1692, Hastings' Regiment sailed to Flanders and, in 1694, took part in the disastrous amphibious assault at Camaret on the French coast. In 1695, Colonel Fernando Hastings was found guilty of extortion, and dismissed. Sir John Jacob became the colonel, and it was as Jacob's Regiment of Foot that they returned to England at the end of the war in 1697. War of the Spanish Succession After a period of garrison duty in Ireland, Jacob's Regiment returned to Flanders in 1701. In the following year, the colonelcy again changed, with Sir John Jacob choosing to retire. He sold the colonelcy to his brother-in-law, Lieutenant-General James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore, for 1,400 guineas.