On the death of Monck in 1670, the Lord General's, which had been the Third troop of the Life-Guards," became the Second troop, and the Duke of York's became the Third; for Monck's troop" being then made the Queen's took precedence of the Duke's by right of her precedence of him. In 1686 a fourth Troop 17 was added, and was evidently the troop up to that time borne on the Irish Establishment: Lord Dover commanded it, and Patrick Sarsfield was his Lieutenant. This troop appears to have followed its Officers in their adherence to James the Second, and it thus dropped out of the Armylist. Its place on the English Establishment was taken by the Scotch troop of Guards a few years later.17b Venner's fanatical outbreak, which had served as the excuse for the revival of the First Troop of Guards, as well as the re-formation of Russell's Foot-Guards, was also utilised for the retention of another cavalry regiment of the Puritan army." We learn from the newspapers of the period immediately after the Restoration, 18 "That the soldiers may see the affection that "His sacred Majesty hath for the Army, he hath been pleased "to do them so much honour as to take that regiment that was "lately Colonel Unton Crook's for his own, which is now styled "the Royal Regiment." But in December, 1660,19 this Royal regiment was disbanded at Bath. When the Earl of Oxford's Regiment of Horse was raised two months later, only twenty days 20 elapsed between the signature of the Warrant for its establishment and its first muster on the 16th of February, 1661. This expedition was doubtless owing to the ready enlistment of the scarcely broken Royal Regiment, whose late Colonel accepted the command of the King's Own Troop in the new corps. The 17 James II, Autobiog. See Note 10. 17 R. Warrt., 22 May, 1686, constituting a fourth Troop of Horse Guards, Capt. Lord Dover, Lt. Patrick Sarsfield; and with a troop of Granadeers attached ; Home Office records. 176 List of Colonels of Regts., 1743. See also Egerton MSS. 2,616, List of Forces. The Colonels were as follows:-31 Decr., 1660, E. of Newburgh; 28 Janry., 1670, Marquis of Athol; 26 Oct., 1678, M. of Montrose; I May, 1684, Lord Livingstone; 31 Dec., 1688, D. of Queensberry; 25 May, 1696, D. of Argyll. Complete List of Land Forces in H.M.'s pay, 1696. Home Office records; the "Troop of Scots Guards." The "Troop of Scots Guards" appears also in a List of the English Army, 1 Apl., 1689, Home Office records. 18 Mercurius Publicus, 5 July, 1660. 19 The Intelligencer, 17 Decr., 1660. 20 Estabt. of the newly-raised forces, 26 Janry., 1660/1. Mercurius Publicus, 21 Febry., 1660/1. Kingdom's Intelligencer, 18 Febry., 1660/1. title of the disbanded regiment was also revived in the new "Royal Regiment of Horse," sometimes styled Horse-Guards. It was clothed in blue, a colour worn by no other cavalry corps some years later when a Dutch regiment in blue was brought to this country by William the Third,22 Oxford's English regiment came to be distinguished from the Dutch Blues by the name of Oxford's Blues. I have myself often heard old people speak of the Horse-Guards as the "Oxford Blues," and until lately they were officially styled "The Blues." The Regiment still takes precedence next to the Life-Guards as the "ROYAL HORSE-GUARDS, Blue." There existed in the YEOMEN OF THE GUARD a corps far older than any of those yet mentioned, for it had been formed by King Henry the Seventh in 1485.23 They "were wont to "be two hundred and fifty men of the best quality under the gentry, and of larger stature than ordinary (for every one of "them was to be six feet high)." The Grand Duke of Tuscany who travelled through England in 1669 gives the following account of this Corps 24:"In the Hall (of Whitehall) called the Guardroom is the Guard " of the Manica or sleeve yeomen consisting of two hundred and fifty very handsome men, the tallest and strongest that can "be found in England. They are called in jest Beef-eaters, "that is Eaters of beef, of which a considerable portion is "allowed them by the Court every day. These carry an "halberd when they are in London, and in the country an half 21 See occasionally the Chronological List of Colonels of Regiments at the beginning of this volume. See Capt. Packe's carefully-written historical record of the Horse Guards for further details. Lond. Gaz., 13 May, 1669, styles the regt." Oxford's regt. of Guards." Estt. List, 1680 Brooks, 1684; "Royal Regt. of Horse-Guards." Est. Lists, 1685-92, Harl. MSS. 4,847, 7,018; Add. MSS.15, 897, “The Royal Regt. of Horse." R. Warrt., 24 June, 1675, App. XLIII; "Our Regt. of Horse-Guards." R. Warrt., 1 Sept., 1684, App. LXXVIII; "Our Royal Regt. of HorseGuards," &c. The W.O. records (Court-martial Bks. and Order books) style this regt. usually "Our regt. of Horse" or the "Royal regt. of Horse"; but in some instances it is called the "Regt. of Horse-Guards," commanded by the E. of Oxford, e.g., Order, 17 Octr., 1665, and others: in Order, 17 April, 1665, the expression is "Our Regt. of Guards commanded by" Aubrey E. of Oxford. In R. Warrt., 27 Feby., 1673-74, "Our Regt. of Horse-Guards," commanded by the E. of Oxford. 23 Chamberlayne. 24 Cosmo's travels. "pike, with a broad sword by their sides, and before the King "had his body-guard, they escorted his carriage. They are "dressed in a livery of red cloth made according to the ancient "fashion and faced with black velvet; they wear on their back "the King's cypher in embroidery that is Charles Rex, and on "their breast the white and red rose, the emblem of the royal "family ever since the union of the two houses of York and “Lancaster. . . . . The duty of these Guards is, amongst other things, when the King eats in public (which he does three days "a week) to fetch the meat from the kitchen and carry it to the "table, where it is taken from them and placed before H.M. by "the gentlemen in attendance. The captain of this Guard is my "Lord Grandison, and the Lieutenant Thomas Howard." The Grand Duke's derivation of the sobriquet of Beef-eaters is not the correct one; and it is in his account of the Yeomen's duties that we find the real origin of the name, which is merely an Anglicised corruption of the word "Buffetiers," that is, cupbearers or side-board-waiters 23 (Ill. VII). But the Yeomen of the Guard were employed, in Charles's reign as now, for court ceremonials only and no longer for warfare.25 Another corps had been instituted by Henry the Eighth,26 styled the band of GENTLEMEN-PENSIONERS, but this also was merely a ceremonial corps. During Charles the Second's reign the number of Gentlemen-Pensioners was reduced from fifty to forty," their pay being fixed at £100 a year; they are described at this period as "usually Knights or gentlemen of good quality," and the Duke of Tuscany 28 speaks thus of them, "The King has "another Guard, formed of fifty gentlemen, called Pensioners, 24 "the greater part persons of birth and quality, who carry a sort "of pole-axe (see Ill. VII), in the form of a halberd, ornamented "with gold, and are under the orders of a captain, who is my "Lord Bellasyse, and a Lieutenant Sir John Bennet. They "are obliged to attend the person of the King on all solemn "occasions, such as receiving ambassadors and other public 25 This nickname of Beef-eaters in 1685 was ironically applied to the Yeomen by a member in the House of Commons.-House of Commons Debates, 9 Novr., 1685. See Grose for ancient details respecting this Corps. MSS. Original Warrant, not dated, but signed by Henry VIII, cir. 1509; Cotton Royal Warrant, 17 March, 1670. 28 Chamberlayne, 1669. For ancient details respecting this corps, see Grose. "ceremonies; to accompany him from the ante-chamber to the "chapel and on his return from the chapel to the ante-chamber: "it is also their duty to serve H.M. as a body-guard whenever "he goes out into the city or into the country: on these "occasions a party of them, well-armed. follows H.M.; and "the Captain of the body-guard is obliged by his office to keep "close to the King's person particularly at the moment when "he is mounting." The members of this corps must now be half-pay or retired officers, but a Warrant issued in 1685 29 conferred upon the members a right to commissions in the army "preferably to all other persons whatsoever," whence it would appear that at that time the band was composed of cadets. Neither the Yeomen of the Guard nor the GentlemenPensioners appear to have been, at any period, subject to martial law. At the time of the Restoration there was in the French service a regiment of Scottish mercenaries renowned throughout Christendom, during four centuries past, for soldierly conduct, conspicuous bravery, and staunch fidelity. A year after his return to the throne, Charles the Second, using as a pretext the insurrection of some religious fanatics already mentioned, demanded of the French King that this Scotch regiment should return to the service of its own sovereign. Accordingly, the regiment, three thousand strong, was brought over to England. In 1662 it returned to France, and continued to serve the French King for the next sixteen years (with the exception of two years, from 1666 to 1668). Notwithstanding this, it takes rank in the British army from the year 1661 as the FIRST, OR ROYAL, OR SCOTS REGIMENT OF FOOT.31 29 Royal Warrant, 10 Febry., 1684-5; see Grose. 30 Regimental records. Also in the Est. for 1672 (Add. MSS. 28,082, Brit. Mus., under date 27 July) appears a fresh establishment for "the Scotch regt. "; and in the Est. for 1673 we find the Scotch regt. going abroad again." Privy Council records, Edinburgh, July, 1673, Royal Order to recruit "Lord George Douglas's Scotts Regiment in the service of the Most Christian King." R. Warrts., 20 June and Aug., 1678, W.O. records; respecting the return to England from the service of France. 31 Landed in England. at Rye, 11 June, 1666. The regt. was said by tradition to have been the body-guard of the Scottish Kings prior to its transfer to the French service, and it was said that it was for this reason that it obtained the prefix of "Royal." In the publications and official documents of this period I find the regt. variously termed "H.M.'s Scotch Regt.," the "Scots Regt.," and the "Royal Regiment of Foot." See Lond. Gaz., June, 1666, Aug., Even at this early stage there ran high in the new army an esprit-de-corps, a mutual jealousy, and a struggle for precedence. The Royals asserted that their corps was far senior to the Guards or the Coldstreamers, and shewed that they were nettled at not having precedence of these; and the others retorted by bestowing upon the sticklers for antiquity, whose origin was indeed placed so far back as to become somewhat mythical, the nickname of "Pontius Pilate's Guards." Charles the Second, from the moment of his Restoration, sought to secure his throne by the acquisition of a strong permanent force. He wrongly attributed his father's downfall to the absence of a standing army,-wrongly, as was afterwards evidenced, for when James the Second violated the Constitution, his army did not uphold him, but on the contrary openly though reluctantly forsook him. Charles had proposed to retain the republican army in the mass; 2 but Chancellor Hyde foreseeing that such a measure, at so delicate a juncture, would be calculated to irritate the nation, dissuaded the King from it: he argued that these were the troops that had executed Charles the First and overturned at their pleasure more than one government; that they too well knew their own power; and that, even if it were desirable to retain them, Parliament would never grant supplies for their maintenance. The King and the Parliament were indeed more than once,33 during the next twenty years, on the verge of an open rupture on the subject of standing forces. Charles had thus been fain to content himself at first with the five regiments already mentioned, but he was not the less constantly on the watch for plausible pretexts for adding fresh ones. Such pretexts were not long lacking. Towards the end of 1661 Tangier became the property of the Crown by cession from Portugal, and King Charles asserted the need of additional troops to garrison the newly-acquired fortress. Accordingly a 1672; Nathan Brooks; Chamberlayne; and Est. Lists 1672 to 1700. It used to beat "The Scotch March" (Dineley's Memoirs, 1679); it had a Piper as the peculiarity of the regiment (Est. Lists, Harl. MSS.); and it had the Scotch emblems for its colours (see Ill. CLXXXI). R. Letter, 12 Feby., 1683-4, Home Office Records; "Our Scotch Regt. of Foot" coming from Tangier. May, 1684, "The Royal Regt. of Foot." The Regiment appears to have experienced a narrow escape from disbandment in 1678. In the Proceedings of the House of Lords, 16 Decr., 1678, upon a Bill for disbanding some of the Forces, there appears in the list the Regt. of Foot of George, E. of Dumbarton. *Treatise on the Standing Army of England; Lond. 1697. See Chapter XXIV, on Recruiting and Strength. |