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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The militia of London, 1641-1649 Nagel, Lawson Chase The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 THE MILITIA OF LONDON, 16Lf].16Lt9 by LAWSON CHASE NAGEL A thesis submitted in the Department of History, King' a Co].].ege, University of Lox4on for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 1982 2 ABSTBAC The Trained Bands and. Auxiliaries of London and its suburbs were not only required to defend the nation's eat armoury, treasury, port and. political headquarters during the First Civil War; they also served as the Parlianentary armies' strategic reserve and were called upon to fight in places as far afield as Gloucestershire, Sussex and Cornwall. Their readiness for battle at Turnham Green in November l64.2 in support of the Ear]. of Essex' s army helped deny the king his only opportunity of ending the war at a stroke. They made important contributions in the Gloucester campaign of August l6k3 - a campaign which rescued Par11.ment from near-despair - and at the battle of Cheriton in March l6424, which finally put the king on the defensive. The struggle for political control over the Trained Bands and Awciliaries between l646 and. 16118 illustrates the seriousness with which they were regarded by both Presbyterians and Independents, emphasised by the abortive attempt to raise a new City-based army to oppose the New Model in 16117 and the series of purges which followed. There is a wealth of information on the role of the London militia between 16k]. and. 16119, but it has never been assembled and. analysed at length in a serious way. This thesis shows who the men of the Trained. Bands and Auxiliaries were, where they lived, how they were organised, armed and. supplied, and how and where they fought - and why they sometimes refused to fight. It includes information on the fortifications of the City and suburbs, how these defences were constructed and manned, and. how useful they were. The role of the 3 militia forces in civil disturbances is also discussed. But the main emphasis of the thesis is on the officers of the Trained. Bands and Auxiliaries their m(1(tary train4iig, conduct during campaigns, and. promotions; their wea1th,backc(b and. faiully relationships; their political and. religious persuasions; their participation in the committees and. councils of the City and in their wards and. parishes; their fates during the purges of l67 and. 16L 8; and. the assessments of their characters made by supporters and opponents. , 4 TABI OF N'IENTS Introduction The Development of the London framed Bands to 1641 6 Chapter I The Radical Coup and the Birth of the Militia Committee 26 Chat,ter II The Six New Regiments and their Officers 49 Chapter III Preparing for War 62 Chapter ri The Raising of the Auxiliaries 75 Chapter V The Control of the Suburbs 90 Chapter VI Gloucester and. Newbury 115 Chapter VII o/ sing, Alton and Newport 135 Chapter VIiI Winter 1643-4: New Auxiliaries and the Cheriton Campaign 160 chapter IX Summer 16144: Marching Out 'As One Man' 179 Chapter X The Newbury II Campaign 208 ChalDter XI Reorganisation and Retirement 227 Chapter XII New Conflicts in the City 2Li.l Chapter XIII 1647: Presbyterian friumph arid Failure 265 Chapter XIV Reversal, Reprise and Finale 288 endices 313 Bibliography 34 Maps The Regimental Areas of the Six City framed Bands 50 London and nvirons, Showing the 1643 Fortifications 78 Central Southern England 117 5 TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS BL - British Library. Boynton - L. Boynton, The Elizabethan Militia, 1967. CJ - Journals of the House of Comrrions. Clarend.on - Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, History of the Rebellion, 3 vols., 1702-k. CL1O - Corporation of London Record Office. Crawford - p . Crawford, Denzil Holles 15981680, 1979. CSPD - Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series. CSPVen - Calendar of State Papers, Venetian. E - British Library E Tracts (Thomason Tracts). Goold Walker - G. Goold Walker, 'The Trained. Bands of London', in Journal of the Honourable Artillery Company, 1938-9. Han. Soc. Regs. - Harleian Society Register Series. Juxon - Diary of Thomas Juxon, Dr Williams' s Library MS. 2Lf. 50. ICishlansky - N. Kishlansky, The Rise of the New Model Army, 1979. Liu - T. Liu, 'The Founding of the London Provincial Assembly, l6k5-47', in Guildhall Studies in London History, III (April 1978), pp. 1O93Li U - Journals of the House of Lords. Mercurius Aulicus - facsimile reprint of Nercurius Aulicus in The English Revolution, III, Newsbooks 1, Oxford Royalist, Vols. 1-k, 1971. Pearl - V. Pearl, London and the Outbreak of the Puritan Revolution, Oxford, 1961. P - Public Record Office. Rushworth - J. Rushworth, Historical Collections, 1659-1701. Sharpe - R.R. Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, Vol. 2, 189k. Symond.s - British Museum Har].eian MS. 986, 'Ensignes of the.. Citty of London', l6Lf3, attributed to Richard Symond.s; partly transcribed in H.A. Dillon, 'On a MS. List of Officers of the London Trained Bands in 16143', in Archaeologia, LII, 1889, pp. 129-4k. Tolmie - M. Tolmie, The Triumph of the Saints, Cambridge, 1977. Whitelock - B. Whitelock, Memorials of the English Affairs, 1682. 6 INTRODUCPION TIlE DEVELOPMT OF THE LONDON TBAflIED BANDS TO 161f]. Ever since Anglo-Saxon days, every English freeman between the ages of 16 and. 60 had been required by law to serve in the militia. It is true that the feudal array and the mercenary army predom1Lnted in the later middle ages, but the obligation of militia duty remained and was confirmed by the Assize of Arms in 1181, the Statute of Westminster in 1285, and. subsequent re-enactments under Edward III, Henry IV and Henry VIII. Every man (with certain exceptions such as nobles and. clerics) was obliged to furnish himself with weapons suitable for a person of his economic standing, attend. the general muster of the county every three years or when otherwise called upon, and. be prepared to fight against invaders or rebels anywhere within the county boundaries (but not elsewhere). 1 These requirements were reinforced and brought up to date by two statutes introduced in 1558 in the last few months of Mary's reign: one procisimed new penalties for failure to attend. musters, and. the other laid. down a revised scale of arms to be provided. A man possessing £10 worth of goods had to equip himself with a longbow, a sheaf of arrows, a steel cap, and a halberd. or bill, while wealthier individuals had to provide pikes, corslets and horses in addition. Towns also had their own assesasents for arms, which were stored in churches or gatehouses and. could be distributed, to the citizens at an hour' s notice 2 1Boynton, pp. 7-8. 2Boynton, pp. 9-10, 22; C.G. Cruikshank, Elizabeth's Ary (1966), pp Lf, 17. 7 Although the men were not paid. for their attendance at musters (an1 thereby lost at least one day's wages from their ordinary employment, not counting any time spent in traveling to the assembly), these military gatherings were occasions of some festivity. The London musters took place at Mile End, where the Lord Mayor and. other officials would take charge of the proceedings. After the men, each with his appointed arms and. equipment, had gathered at 8 or 9 a.m., a prayer would be offered by a specially appointed m(ni ster; then would follow the division of the men into three categories ('choyce men', 'the second sort', and 'unable but to keep the country') and the actual inspection, accompanied by the music of fife and. drum and. the flourishing of standards. Beer was supplied. for the refreshment of the citizens, with more sumptuous fare for the officers and. the City authorities. Not only the officers, but some of the men as well, took pride in their martial appearance and bedecked themselves with ribbons and. plumes for the musters, and. when they marched home at the end of the day' s proceedings they apparently felt that they had iimirably demonstrated their patriotism and the City' s military preparedness.1 The main purpose of the muster was to ensure that the required equipment was provided and properly maintained, and although the men were divided into grades based on fitness, there was apparently no trainii'g given on these occasions. In theory, the men should have been proficient in the use of the bow anyway, since there were a number of laws on the books callin for regular archery practice and laying down penalties for disobedience.