Ireland. Sent to Flanders in 1692, it was one of five British regiments almost wiped out at the Battle of Steenkerque in July and was out of action for over a year. In 1694, Prince George was replaced as Colonel by the French Huguenot exile Henri Nompar de Caumont, Marquis de Rade, who died of wounds received in a duel with Bevil Granville in June 1695. Under its new Colonel Ventris Columbine, the regiment won its first battle honour for the 1695 Siege of Namur. The Treaty of Ryswick ended the Nine Years War in 1697; Parliament was determined to reduce costs and by 1699, the English military was less than 7,000 men. Since England, Ireland and Scotland each had their own Parliaments and funding, one way around this was to transfer regiments and the regiment appears on the Irish military establishment for December 1698. 18th century When the War of the Spanish Succession began, the regiment took part in the 1702 Cádiz Landing; in 1703, it was sent to the West Indies, a notoriously unhealthy posting in an expedition that achieved very little. Colonel Columbine died in June 1703, shortly before reaching Jamaica and was replaced by James Rivers. The rest of the war was spent campaigning in Spain and Portugal, including Almansa in 1707 and the 1708 capture of Minorca. In 1710, it fought at Almenar and Saragossa before being surrounded and captured at Brihuega. After the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, it was posted to Ireland and with the exception of the 1719 Vigo expedition, remained there until 1740. In 1739, commercial tensions with Spain led to the War of Jenkins' Ear; in January 1741, the unit returned to the West Indies and took part in the expedition to Cartagena de Indias, modern Colombia. The expeditionary force suffered losses of between 80-90% from dysentery and yellow fever. The survivors returned to England in December 1742; the unit was brought up to strength as a result of the 1740–1748 War of the Austrian Succession, then sent to Scotland. At the beginning of the Jacobite Rising in July 1745, detachments from the regiment garrisoned the line of forts between Inverness and Fort William. Two companies were captured at the Battle of Prestonpans; some changed sides and were executed as deserters in 1746. Several companies defended Fort William in March 1746 and after Culloden, took part in the suppression of the