During the 1688 Glorious Revolution the Foot Guards under their commanding officer William Dorrington stayed loyal to James II, and fought on the Jacobite side in the Williamite War in Ireland.

After the 1697 Peace of Ryswick and the formal disestablishment of James’s army in exile, the Foot Guards were immediately reconstituted in French service as Dorrington’s Regiment, retaining their red coats and Saint George's Cross standard.

At the time of the Restoration, most of the 7,500-strong army under Charles II's command in Ireland was not formally regimented, remaining so until the 1670s, and contained many Cromwellian veterans of doubtful loyalty.

[2] Intending to create an effective and reliable unit for Irish service, Charles II issued the order for the Foot Guards' creation in April 1662.

[6] Under Arran, the Guards were employed largely on peacetime duties in Ireland: they were used to suppress a mutiny by other regiments in Carrickfergus in 1666, while in 1673 two companies were ordered to Chester and saw service on board ship during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

He was replaced as colonel by Dorrington and the majority of the regiment stayed loyal to James, although one of its two battalions, sent to England immediately prior to William's landing, was taken prisoner.

The Guards subsequently fought on the Jacobite side in the War in Ireland, including at the Siege of Derry, the Battle of the Boyne and at Aughrim, where their lieutenant-colonel William Mansfield Barker and chaplain Alexius Stafford were killed.

In France the regiment continued to recruit from among Irish Jacobite exiles, the so-called “Wild Geese”, and saw further service in the Nine Years' War.