Foure Paradoxes or politique Discourses 2 Concerning Militarie Discipline written long since by Thomas Digges Esquire 2 Of the worthinesse of warre and warriors by Dudly Digges his sonne All newly published to keepe those that will read them as they did them that wrote them from idlenesse Horace Me castra iuuant lituo tubae Permistus sonitus bellaque matribus Detestata Imprinted at London by H. Lownes for Clement Knight and are to be solde at his shop at the Signe of the holy Lambe in Saint Paules Churchyard 1604. To the Honourable THEOPHILVS HOVVARD Lord HOVVARD of Walden sonne and heire apparent to the Right Honorable Earle of Suffolke Lord Chamberlaine to his Maiestie A Generall report worthy Lord of your honourable disposition bred in mee euen at my first cōming into France an earnest desire to see you which through your courtesy my good fortune was happily effected But when I perceiued with what vertuous industrie you indeauored to make the best vse of your wel spent time in those parts I cōceiued great hope to receiue much greater contentment in so truly honourable acquaintance and the tast I had of your fauours assureth me I had beene happy in my hopes had not my vntimely returne such were my vnfortunate crosses depriued mee of the comfort I tooke in the company of your admired vertue Notwithstanding I haue hitherto fed my selfe with the hope of your returne c. Hoc equidem occasum Troiae tristesque ruinas solabor this shall bee my refuge In the meane time as Lewes of France did his country friends rape roote or as the Percian King did the poore mans Apple I intreat your Lordship to accept these sleight discourses as a token of the dutifull respect I owe you They are I know most vnworthy your Maiden patronage yet my first fruites they bee and I earnestly desire that my first borne should beare your honours Name Your Honors deuoted Dudly Digges To the Reader THat there are many faultes in these fewe leaues I doubt not neither would I but you should finde fault yet not maliciously with wrested and vnnaturall applications yet not too peremptorily till you haue children of your owne onely this if you bee such a Merchant as hateth a Souldier thinke it no victorie to picke matter of aduantage out of my weake handling of their good cause If on the contrarie you loue the profession take in good part these slight endeauors till some one of better abilitie speak more effectually and let this publike protestation assure you I am no dissembler but one that heartily desireth to shew himselfe a louing countreyman to men that so well deserue the loue of their Countrey Farewell The First Paradox That no Prince or State doth gaine or saue by giuing too small entertainement vnto Souldiers Officers or Commaunders Martiall but doe thereby extreamely loose and vnprofitably waste their Treasure besides the dishonour and foiles that necessarily thereof ensue I Confesse sparing of Treasure and all due prouidence for the preseruation thereof to bee a thing verie necessarie especially in the warres of this our age where treasure is indeed becom Neruus Belli and therefore by all reasonable prouisions to be regarded But there are in all actions some sparings or pretence of profit that are vtterly vnprofitable fond and foolish and woorking effects cleane contrary to that end for the which such pinching is pretended As who seeth not that if a husbandman that hath first allotted a reasonable proportion of graine for euerie Acre of his arable ground shall of a couetous minde abate a quarter or one third part of his due proportion of seede thinking thereby to saue somuch who I say seeth not that by this foolish sauing in the seede in the crop hee shall loose thrice as much besides the hurtfull Weeds that for want of seede sufficient grow-vp and spoile the rest Or if a Merchant setting forth his Ship to the seas fraught with Marchandize shall know that to rigge her well and furnish her with all needfull Tackle furniture and prouision it will cost him full 500. pounds Yet of a coueteous and greedie minde to saue thereof some 100. pounds or two hee shall scant his prouision wanting perhaps some Cables Ankers or other-like necessaries and after by a Storme arising for fault thereof shall loose both Ship and goods Who will not condemne this miserable foolish Merchant that peeuishly to saue one hundred pounds or two hath lost both ship and goods perhaps of 10. times greater value Much more is the folly of this error in Martial causes where the Tempests are as sodaine and no lesse perrilous And therefore such fond sparing is farre more absurd in these Actions than in eyther of those of the Husbandman or Merchant For proofe whereof if I should produce Antique Examples out of the Romane and Graecian Chronicles of such Kings and Princes as by such fond sparing of their Treasure had lost both their Treasure and their Kingdomes also I could easily make of this subiect a great volume but for breuitie sake leauing many Antiquies I come to our present age and time and to matters of our owne Remembrance and Experience For who knoweth not What course the States of the Vnited Prouinces tooke for payment of their souldiers before the arriuall of her Maiesties Lord Generall the Earle of Leicester Who for sparing or to make as they pretended their treasour stretch did pay their Bands after 48. daies to the Moneth their pay being so scant and bare at 30. onely to the Moneth as it was verie hard for souldiers or Captaines to liue honestly vpon it And the same being now stretched to 48. daies vtterly impossible for them to liue without Frauds in Musters and pickories besides on their Countrey and friends Hereof it came to passe that the honest and valiantest men retired themselues from the warres and the worst disposed Free-booters were readiest to enter with these base conditions For such a Captaine as intendeth onely dishonestly by Fraud and Robberie to enrich himselfe to the ruine of his Countrey will especially desire to serue on such base conditions as honestly it is impossible for euerie man to liue vpon And so hauing iust colour thereby to shift hath all these meanes ensuing infinitely to enrich himselfe First in the choise of his officers to get or accept such Free-booters and Theeues as onely to haue the name and priuiledge of a souldier to escape the paine due by Martiall lawe to such vnsouldierlike persons will serue without pay or with halfe pay Then euerie of these his officers Lieutenaunt Ensigne Serieants c. being men of that Crewe will draw in as many also as they can of the same Moulde to liue on pickorie without pay and therefore very readie to serue in their loose manner with halfe pay Of such Rakehels then the Captaine hauing rayzed an Ensigne passeth his Muster and is sent to his Garrison or place of Seruice Now the Prince or State
most famous Generals of our time I meane the Prince of Condee and the Prince of Orange at the first to tollerate these cankers which after wrought the very Ruine of those States It is a singuler warning to King and Princes that haue Realmes to commaund that not yet so farre corrupted and able to yeelde maintenance for honest and right Martiall souldiers by no meanes for want of conuenient wages stipend and pay to giue any colour or excuse to this degenerate bastardly kinde of Seruitors or rather Pickers to excuse their corrupt Artes or Diuellish craftes and abuses And for their Subiects of all degrees rather to giue double and treble Subsidies yearely to continue an honourable pay for maintenance of sober valiant painefull honest obedient souldiers in true Martiall discipline than to become a praye to these mercilesse carrowsing degenerate insatiable monsters And it is to bee hoped the present King of Fraunce if God blesse him with any obedience of his Subiects as were to bee wished and his constancie in Religion and other Heroicall vertues meriteth will no doubt by all due meanes in his Territories endeuour to procure a Reformation of these horrible disorders which is yet vtterly impossible for him to redresse being in that state by long continuance growne to a most difficile and hard cure But as the Estates of the vnited Prouinces by meanes of such bad pay and collections of corruptions in their Martiall or rather mercenarie Commaunders did also for many yeares together continually lose by peacemeale a number of strong Fortes Towers and Prouinces in their possessions being driuen almost on euery side downe into their Marches where they were enforced to implore her Maiesties present ayde to escape their impendent ruine So hauing of late by honourable Example of her Maiesties Bands well reformed that their base kinde of pay and in part thereby also their other abuses which of late yeares hath crept in among their Enemies haue beene able to make head and recouer againe many of those important places that before they lost Repayring thereby somewhat the fault of their former Errors Yet when I perswade to giue vnto all Colonels and such like chiefe Commaunders such Entertainment as may suffice them contentedly to liue without seeking so much as by tolleration or suffering of Frauds to enrich themselues or to supply their wants It is no part of my meaning to haue Collonels so commune or such multitude of needlesse Officers as in disorderly warres hath beene accustomed For one Collonell or Maestro del Campo may very well suffice for three or foure thousand men and the contrarie is but an abuse and embasing of that name which should not bee bestowed but on olde souldiers of iudgement and experience able to discharge a place of that importance And this Officer hauing for himselfe his Martiall his Serieant Maior and other necessary chiefe Officers of his Regiment conuenient allowance to maintaine on honourable Table the inferiour priuate Captaines may and ought to content themselues with meaner port till by vertue and desert they bee aduaunced to higher place And abhorring all vanitie in apparrell and wastefull expences in baser appetites endeuour themselues by trauell care good Armes and trayning of their companies in right Martiall exercises and exploits in the Field vpon their Enemies to make their value knowne and by such Aemulation one to excell another whereby they may bee chosen and aduanced to higher offices The priuate Captaines place being indeede but the first steppe toward Martiall honour And therefore not to bee accompanied with such pompe as now is too too vsuall It may perhaps be replied So long as men are content to accept these glorious names only without any charge to their Princes purses or crauing any encrease of pay it is a small matter to content phantasies with Feathers I answere it it a matter of farre greater consequence than is conceiued For first it embaseth those degrees of honor which chiefly should allure right Martiall mindes and makes them seeme vile when they are so common as they fall to the the lot of persons vnworthy such degree and so grow in contempt and not affected after by the true honourable mindes Besides wanting maintenance for the due port of that place they are enforced to bee patrons to all or many of those disorders and abuses before mentioned vnlesse they would choose to vndoo themselues and friends to maintaine it otherwise which fewe I thinke now a daies vse to doo Farther hauing once taken a greater name they disdain euer after to serue in any inferiour calling fitter indeede for their Experience And so become persons altogether vnprofitable and to maintaine those glorious names enforced by shift of braine to trie conclusions And so by all these meanes the cause of greater inconueniences I conclude therefore by all these reasons before alleaged and the successe of plaine experience also both of old time and in our owne age that as it is more honourable for the Prince and most necessary for the aduancement of the Seruice to haue all chiefe needefull Commaunders to haue such compleat Entertainment as they may without extortion or corruption in themselues or alteration of abuses in others maintaine their place with Reputation and execute Martiall discipline with seuerity So discharging their duties honorably and honestly they shal saue at least one third part of the royal or publike Treasure and yet the forces though not in shew of Ensignes to scare Dawes yet in armed hands to conquer Enemies farre more strong and puissant than those multitudes of colors farced with Freebooters or other seely vnarmed Ghosts or disordered Mutinous persons that by licentious education will scarcely endure the paines of Watch and Ward or abide the due execution of any true Martiall discipline And as these superiour Gouernours and Commaunders doing their duties are worthie of all reputation credite aduauncement and honour So contrariwise after they haue conuenient entertainment if they shall be found the Patrones or Pandars to such corruptions and abuses as tend to the ruine of all true discipline Militare I would wish them disgraded and with all shame disarmed as vncapable euer after to their graue of any true Martiall honour And for proofe of this Proposition in all the chiefe officers also of an Armie for a taste of the rest hauing chosen to treate of the Martiall Censor or generall Comptroler of Musters I say there are of this kinde of Officers as likewise of all others two sorts The one honest iust fearing God respecting the honour commoditie and aduauncement of their Princes Seruice The other neither iust nor honest nor possessed with any Feare or Reuerence of God but ayming onely at fauour wealth and aduauncement in this corrupt world care not what becomes of the Seruice so they may by any meanes enrich themselues and purchase friends to backe them in all their vnhonest proceedings But more briefely or plainly to set forth the different or repugnant
that is serued with such as will accept these vnhonest base conditions is much deceiued if hee thinke to bee souldierly serued Viz. To haue their Watches and Wardes strong vigilant and carefull For in steede of one thousand fiue hundreth souldiers past in Muster they shall neuer finde fiftie on Guard or Sentinels vpon any Round As all honest Serieant-Maiors and other officers that haue past their Rounds can testifie The rest if he keepe any more being eyther abroad in the country at the Picoree or in the garrison more vnhonestly occupied in abusing some honest Burghâ—r his wife or seruants for to drudge in watch or ward the gallantest of this crew disdaine If any faults bee complained off the excuse is readie Alas their pay is so small as wee must winke at faults But if at any time the Commissarie of Musters come with treasure to passe a Muster ye shall euer finde them strong 150. present and absent orderly set downe in Muster Rolles And for their Absents such formall Testimonials Protestations and oathes as among Christians were horrible to discredit and their fraudes so artificially conueyed as will bee hard to trie But the treuth is Forgery Periury are the first lessons such Freeboters learne and then Pallardize Murder Treachery and Treason are their Attendants Heereof it came to passe for many yeares together that after the death of Don Iohn de Austria the States lost such a number of Cities Townes Forts Castles and Sconces yea whole and entier Prouinces reuolted from theÌ„ by reason of the exextorsions oppressions robberies insolently committed on the Country people and best Subiects by these insatiable Cormorants Lyons to their friends and Hares in presence of their enemies hauing not only Linguas sed animas venales manus rapaces pedes fugaces quae honestè nominari non possunt inhonestissima verè Galeati Lepores et Hyrudines Aerarij And this base beggerly pay the onely ground-plot of all these horrible villanies odious to God and man and not tollerable in any Christian Gouernment For if Princes or States will giue such conuenient pay as men of value and honesty may sparingly liue-on without fraud and robbery they may boldly execute Martial discipline purge their Army of these idle Drones and carowsing picking Caterpillers And in stead of these they shall in short time haue their Ensignes compleat with valiant honest sober loyall souldiers that shall carefully and painefully in watch and ward execute their Martiall duties The Earle of Leicester with his owne eyes beheld before Zutphen campe nigh Arnhem two or three Regiments of Scotts and Dutch in the States pay sent for by Count Hollock as the most choise bands that followed him hauing sixteene or eighteene Ensignes in their Regiments and paid for nigh three thousand souldiers That marching in ranke and after embattailed were found not full one thousand besides their officers Now if the States had paid truely but 10 Ensignes after 30. daies to the moneth as her Maiestie did and by Martiall discipline haue kept them strong they should haue had 500. more heads and hands to fight at least in such 10. than in these 18 Ensignes paid after 48. daies And at the very same time the same place his Excellency saw eight English Ensignes embattailed in the same Field that for heads of men were more than 16. of the other Ensignes and for Armes weapon ful double so strong And yet these eight Ensignes stood not her Maiesty paying honourably in somuch as the other 18. so dishonourably paid by the States by many thousand Gilders a moneth Most foolish therefore and peeuish is such sauing in these Martiall causes being more absurd farre and fond than other of those my first Examples of the paltering Husbandman or miserable Merchant that stumbleth at a straw and swalloweth a blocke and by greedie pinching for a penny fondly looseth or wasteth pounds But that dishonour that falleth out in these actions is much more to bee respected For if eight Ensignes well and truely paid shall euer bee stronger in all Martiall encounters than 18. of the other how much more honour shall it bee with eight Ensignes to haue performed any honourable action than to haue done the same with eighteene As contrariwise the foile to loose eight Ensignes is farre lesse than to loose eighteene Againe if the States had rayzed a meane Army not of such Mercenarie vagabondes as would serue on any conditions resoluing by pickorie and extortion to enrich themselues but of temperate honest painefull valiant souldiers which full easily with sufficient and compleat pay they might haue done and then haue kept a steddy hand on Martiall discipline seuerely to haue punished such cormorants as should any way haue spoyled or extorted on the countrey Booer or honest Burgher They had neuer tasted those horrible Ruines of their townes and desolation of their countries that afterwards for many yeares they did For it was not the great Subsidies or Leuies made on Brabant and Flaunders and other vpland Prouinces by the States vnited that made them all reuolt afterward to the Prince of Parma but onely these abuses spoiles and pickories For in Holland and Zealand they haue euer since and doe still leuie as great and farre greater contributions than euer they did on those malconteÌ„ted Prouinces But it was the wrongs iniuries Insolencies and Extorsions committed by this crew of degenerate bastardly souldiers or rather pickeâ—s the seruants or rather idolatrous slaues of their misbegotten Mistresse Madam Picorea that alienated the harts vtterly of these Prouinces The people hauing reason to reuolt to the gouernment of Papists or Turks rather than to endure the outrages committed on them their wiues and daughters by those their owne hirelings so deepely wounding them in wealth and honor For what Tribute Subsidie or Taske had not beene farre more tollerable to any honest or ChristiaÌ„ people than to haue such a crew of hell-hounds laid vpon them As not content to haue the best chambers beds and fare that their host could yeeld them yea wine also bought and farre fet for them but would enforce them to pay money also and yet at their parting in recompence or their good Entertainment rifle them of all that was portable of any value besides other indignities not to bee spoken of by honest tongues or heard by modest eares The horror of these villaines hath made Holland wisely and prouidently these douzen yeares and more yearely to giue ten folde greater contributions yearly I say respectiuely weighed than the greatest Subsidie or beneuolence that euer our Nation gaue during all these 34. yeares of her Maiesties most gracious and happie Reigne The which they doe most frankly and willingly stil continue to maintaine the warres out of the bowels of their owne country and to free themselues of those horrible oppressions which they sawe executed among their Neighbours which wise Resolution of theirs God hath also so fauoured and blessed with extraordinarie
aydes and fauors many waies as these of Holland are not the poorer but rather much richer than they were before the warres began Notwithstanding their huge contributions are such as in commoÌ„ reason a man would thinke were able to begger any mightie Kingdome That little countrey of Holland onely being for scope of ground and firme land not comparable with the least of any one of many Shieres in England yealdeth to the warres yearely a greater contribution than halfe the fiftie Shires of England euer yet did in any one yeare by any Subsidie It is not therefore the great charges or contributions that beggereth or spoyleth any countrey but the ill disposing of the Treasure leuied and the ill gouernement of the Souldierie therewith maintained which becommeth indeed more odious and intollerable to any Christian Nation or people farre than any Tax or Subsidie that is possible to bee cessed or imposed on them Neither is it the multitude of Ensignes that terrifieth the Enemy but choise election of the Souldiery and the true execution of Martiall discipline Herof it hath come to passe that so smal handfuls of Spaniards while they were wel paid discipline did at sondry times foile so many Ensignes of these Mercenary Freeboters And contrariwise after those Spaniards fell to mutenies for want of pay and to committing of like extorsisions and insolencies on the Country people they caused a sodaine reuolt of all the Prouinces But for our owne Nation I holde it a Maxime most assured and hardly by any one Example to be disprooued That euer wee receiued any foile where our Ensignes were compleat but only in such places and at such times as our Ensignes were maintained not like the eight Ensignes before mentioned in the Earle of Leicesters time in her Maiesties pay but rather as the other eight in the States pay as will bee found too too true if it bee deeply examined The like I say in pay of Officers and superiour Commaunders that to giue them honourable and conuenient entertainment is not onely not vnprofitable but most profitable and gainefull to any King Prince or State And the contrary I meane by accepting or admitting such Commaunders or Officers as will offer themselues to serue for small or base entertainment is a thing vnto the King or State not onely dishonourable and most hurtfull in respect of the seuice but also euen in regard of their Treasure onely most vnprofitable damageable and discommodious as I will prooue by manifest and true reasons But because the Discourse would be ouer-long tedious if I should particularly enter into the office or charge of euerie seuerall kinde of Officer or Commaunder I will only choose two of either sort one which to coniecture and discerne of all the rest may aboundantly suffice to prooue my present Proposition Among Commaunders therefore I will onely entreate of the Collonell or Maestro del Campo And among chiefe Officers of the Comptroller Censor or Muster Master Generall And first of Collonels I say if they take vpon them that charge to command any conuenient number of Ensignes appropriat to their Regiment it is fit their entertainment bee proportionall to their reputation and charge The which as it farre surmounteth a priuate Captain so ought his allowance to bee accordingly as wel for maintenance of a conuenient Table to entertaine the chiefe officers of his regiment As chiefely such gentlemen of value as many times without charge or office to see the warres vpon their owne priuate expences will follow him For if this Collonell haue not such entertainment from his Prince or State hee must of necessitie eyther spoyle or vndoe himselfe to maintaine that port is fit which fewe in these daies will or sor remedie helpe himselfe by tollerating frauds in Musters and suffering the Captaines of his Regiment to keepe their bands halfe emptie Out of the which both Captaines and Coronell may pay themselues double and treble the greatest entertainment that euer any King yet gaue but not without the very ruine and vtter dishonour of their Nation For what Captaine is there so foolish miserable if hee make no conscience to gaine by robbing of his Prince or State that will not bee content to giue one halfe of these his foule and corrupt gaines to enioy the other Knowing otherwise hee shall not onely quite loose that base gaine if hee bee called to account for it but his reputation and life also if Iustice bee duely executed But if by his chiefe Collonels fauour hee may bee paid for 150. and keepe scarce 60. to defend his Ensigne and so gaine a thousand pounds a yeare cleare to giue the moytie yearely thereof to go scot-free with the rest and escape the shame thereunto due hee maketh a verie profitable bargaine if such dishonest lucre deserue the name of profit which course of gaine is so much the more damnable and perrilous to bee suffered because it vtterly discourageth the honest valiant Captaines and enricheth the contrary And so tendeth to the verie Ruine and ouertherthrow of all true vertue and value For if the chiefe Commaunder bee so affected as hee will bee by any such deuice to supply his wants In very gratitude and pollicy hee must most countenance those that yeeld him most benefit And those Captaines may be most beneficiall to him that by keeping their Bands most feeble doe most rob their Prince or State And so the worst persons of such Commaunders must of force bee most fauoured and countenanced Farther these Fauorites if they commit any other Extorsions on their Countrimen Friends or Allies being entered into such a League with their Commaunders it is likely they may finde the more Fauour also and thereby more boldly by all deuices and extortions rake-in Wealth to maintaine themselues their Patrones and Followers in excessiue brauerie Whereas the right valiant Captaine indeed that keeping his Band strong and compleat with armed souldiers gaining nothing aboue his bare Wages nor will extort vnhonestly vpon any Friend or Allie and his wages besides his meat and Atmes scarcely sufficient twice in a yeare to buy him a Sute of Buffe Remayneth as a Man contemned and disgraced Where the other by his Robberies and pickories can florish in Monethly change of sutes of silke dawbed with Embroderies of golde and siluer lace and Iewels also And so countenanced by such Commaunders Fauour and by such other mightie Friends as his spoiles may procure That 〈…〉 road and at home also generally this picking 〈…〉 rousing Freebooter shall bee called a braue 〈…〉 â—â—llant souldier yea Fit to bee a Collonell or great â—â—â—â—ander that can drinke and dice c with the proudest When the true valiant honest and right Martiall Captaine indeed is not able in such riotous Expences to keep port with the others waiting Seruants But whether these silken golden embroydered delicate Captaines with their demy feeble Ensignes Or the other plaine leather well armed sober painefull valiant Captaines with their compleat Ensignes of
would wonderfully repaire the honour of any Nation So the tolleration of them and much more the imploying of them again in new charges by their Example may breed effects most dangerous and fearefull if in time by due execution of right Martiall discipline such weeds bee not eradicate The Lacedemonians by due obedience to their Martiall lawes were become the most mighty and puissant State of all the Graecians which then for Heroical prowesse surmouÌ„ted all the world besides as by the multitude of their victories on the Orientall Nations and Asiaticall mightie Empires is apparant Whose huge Armies and innumerable Forces they vanquished in a number of Battailes with a very few but choise painefull sober well trained and disciplined Bands being accustomed from their infancy to trauaile paines sobriety and hardnes And by the same custome and education learned also with all dutie to obey their Superiors Reuerence the Elders and to feare nothing but shame and infamie And of all infamies none so great to a man there as cowardize being by their verie lawes noted with disgrace perpetuall to his death that ran away from his Enemies in the field or saued his life by flight Which fault was held so soule and base as the very Mothers abhorred and renounced them yea and some with their owne hands haue killed such of their sons as by flight in the field haue saued their liues as Traitors to their countrey and dishonorable to their parentes Yea they were disgraded from all honour and imployment marked by shauing of halfe their heades and beards derided and disdained of all their countrimen and lawfull for all men to abuse and beat them as seruiceable Slaues These were the shames ordained for Fugitiues in those warlike Nations Whereupon a King of theirs being demanded how it came to passe that the Lacedemonians so farre excelled all others in prowesse and armes Because quoth he they are taught from their infancy not to feare death but shame As Marius also that famous Romane Generall said of himselfe hee had learned to feare nothing but Infamy They therefore that by education in lawlesse warres grow so impudent as to vant of their foiles and flights which by true Martiall lawes especially in leaders and Commanders should bee noted and punished with perpetuall shame are so farre of froÌ„ true Souldiery and Martial honor as they are fitter like most dangerous contagious sheep to be expelled seuered in time lest they infect with their leprosy the whole troup Military flock howsoeuer the corruptioÌ„s of this age ignoraÌ„ce of the daÌ„gers that ensue by conteÌ„pt of true Martial honor may excuse or delay their due punishmeÌ„t or shame for a time For if a chief Commander shal neither blush to saue himself by flight nor corruptly to make his gain by the death of his poore Souldiers through Frauds periury and deceipt in Musters his readiest plot to grow rich and puissant is presently so soone as hee can finger his souldiers pay or Princes Treasure To deuise some desperate vnfeasible Seruice where he may bring his Fantery to haue their throats cut and then hauing choise horses to saue himselfe by flight and his confederate Fauorites with the pay of the dead they may banquet and riot their fill and haue so great Masses of Treasure to make friends as none of these Tragedies can come to vnripping if once it bee perswaded lawfull or intollerable for a Generall or chiefe Commaunders to saue themselues by flight But the tollaration thereof and of these Fraudes and abuses in Musters and the immeasurable sweete gaines that bad consciences see they may make thereby if they can also shake of shame and extinguish true Martiall discipline is the chiefest â—â— use of all base and dishonorable corruptions and will still encrease such impudency and insolency as corrupt persons by sufferance will grow vnto Which ought so much the more seuerely and speedily with the sword of Iustice and true Militarie Lawes in time to bee corrected as the continuance doth make the disease more desperate and perrilous to their State and more hard to bee recured when wealthie wickednes thereby getteth such authoritie and purchaseth such parties as after by Iustice shall hardly bee suppressed vnlesse the Souereigne Maiestie or Ephores of the State in time I say minister the bitter Medicine that onely must cure this pestilent and contagious sicknesse For if Demetria of Sparta with her owne hands killed for cowardize her sonne Demetrien as a degenerate Monster not worthy to bee called a Lacedemonian or to walk on the earth being as she said a monument dishonourable to his countrey and parents and the like done by diuers other Ladies and worthy Women of that State to their owne children for abandoning onely of their Ranke to saue their liues when they were forced with violence and Multitudes of their Enemies What could these woorthy women haue done to such sonnes as premeditately before hand prouided them horses of swift carrier to saue themselues so soone as they shall finde any danger growing Or if this fault of Flying or abandoning their Rank only hath beene in a priuate souldier so abhorred as his owne Mother hath executed Martiall Iustice vpon him with detestation of his cowardize as vnworthie to drinke of the Riuer Eurotas or to beare the name of a Lacedemonian How much more is the same to bee detested in a Commaunder On whose error or cowardize the liues of so many as are vnder his charge dependeth besides the dishonour of his Nation Or if that fault could receiue in that Martiall Nation no excuse though they were enforced therto by the violence and Multitude of their enemies How much more abhominable is it in them that of purpose before hand are prouided of their meanes to runne away and abandon those for whose safetie it were their duty to sacrifice their liues And by leauing their souldiers to the butchery to make their excessiue gaines by the payes of the dead and Robberie of their Prince and Countrey If so many woorthie Generals both Greekes and Romanes that full easily at sundry battailes might haue escaped and saued their owne liues haue refused vtterly both horses and all other meanes offered them to saue themselues and chosen rather when all hope was past to sacrifice their liues among their troupes than to returne to yeeld a dishonorable account of the blood of their souldiers How much more should wee abhorre such as not onely commit these base errors but impudently also are not ashamed to make their vauntes thereof If Manlius Torquatus when his sonne was challenged by a chiefe Commaunder on the contrary side onely because without leaue he did accept the particular Combate although hee had the Victorie and strake of his Enemies head in sight of both Armies would neuerthelesse haue executed the Martiall law vpon his valiant Son Onely because he brake one point of Martial discipline What reward doo wee thinke this Generall would haue bestowed on one of our
shamelesse Fugitiues If this famous Generall so highly respected the honor and safety of his countrey as hee resolued to execute the lawes Martiall of this his onely and most valiant sonne Not for any cowardize or corruption but onely for want of due obedience in accepting without leaue the Combate choosing rather to depriue himselfe of his onely sonne and incomparable Iewell than the Martiall discipline of his countrey should in the least point bee corrupted How much more hath the sacred Maiestie of a Prince and honourable Ephores of any State cause with seueritie in time to see due execution of Martiall Iustice on such as not mooued by Magnanimitie or hautie courage but contrariwise of a corrupt custome and base minde for lucre pleasure or ryot onely commit premeditately not one but many of those grosse and shamfull abuses and breaches of true Martiall discipline That in those daies and States the most inferiour souldier of an Armie for feare of perpetuall shame would not Faults I say so farre surmounting this error of the worthy Manlius sonne as the foulest leprosie or pestilent Feuer doth the Ephimeris Ague Tending indeed not onely to the robbing of their Prince and publique Treasure and to the spoyle and betraying of their fellow souldiers Men many times of better valour and woorth farre than such Leaders or superiour Commaunders but also to the vtter ouerthrowe of all true Martiall valour and dishonour perpetuall of their Nation and smally tending to the vtter ruine of their Prince and Countrey But to passe ouer infinite honorable Praecedents of Antiquitie to returne againe to our owne Age I say That euen by experience of the warres and Nations of our owne time it is manifest that these abuses and corruptions haue beene the verie ruine of the Realmes and States where they haue beene practized as in time they will be also of all other that shall admit the continuance of them And first for France that woorthy souldier Mounsier de la Nôe in the Military Discourses plainely sheweth how with these ciuill warres these corruptions there began and by what vnlawful Generation Mistresse Picorea was at Boygenye first begotten which bastard in short time had such a Multitude of Seruants both in France and after in the Low-Countries as they created their mistresse a Ladie And that mightie Ladie Madam Picorea hath now so many braue seruants not onely among the French and Dutch but of other Nations also as it is to bee feared they will make her a Queene to the Ruine of all Kings Queenes and Realmes that shall endure her and not suppresse in time both her and her shamelesse presumptuous lewde licentious seruants What extreeme misery they haue within these thirtie yeares reduced all France vnto wee see What desolation in Flaunders Brabant and other base countrey Prouinces by the Ruines remaining is manifest Shal wee suffer her and her followers also in our Nation to see what they can likewise doo of England Absit omen But the French Prouerbe saith most truly Qui par son peril est Sage celuy est Sage malhereux And Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum He telleth of an honorable Executiō done by that worthy souldier the Armirall of France in hanging vp a Captaine 5 or 6 other chief seruāts of this basterdly lady Picorea adoring their gallows with their booties which honorable souldier Shattillion I meane he commendeth highly to haue beene a most fit and meete Phisition to cure this Maladie For hee was saith La Nòe seuere and violent neither could any Fauour or vaine friuolous excuses take place with him if the partie were faultie Which is indeed the onely way to cure it For it is most fond and vaine to imagine that eyther by verball perswasions or printed Lawes or proclamations it is possible to cure this fore but with armed Iustice some of the Ring-leaders must be seized and roughly chastized to bring a terror vpon the rest For if these mischiefes saith that woorthy Souldier were like to other crimes where men condemned by publique Sentence are quietly content to bee led by the Executioner to receiue their due they might full soone bee banished But they fare more like a rough and restife horse that being touched with his Riders spurre lasheth yerketh and biteth and therefore such a Iade must roughly and rigorously bee corrected and made to know his fault For if ye spare him or seeme to feare him hee will sure vnhorse you for generally these Militarie vices are presumptuous And if they smel you feare them they will braue you But giue them the terror of Lawes and their due punishments seuerely and so shall you cure their maladie For most mercifull is that rigour that by dispatch of foure or fiue many saue the liues of so many hundreds or rather thousands and recure such a pestilent contagion as is able in time to subuert the most mightie Realmes and Monarchies When yron is fouly kankored it is not inough to annoint it with oyle but it must bee roughly and forcibly scoured and polished to make it returne to his perfect brightnes And if in Pleuresies and other like corrupt exulcerations wee haue no remedie but to open a veine and content our selues to part with many drops of our blood to saue the whole bodie from destruction So must we be content though it were with the losse of many such corrupt persons to recure our Militarie bodie from vtter confusion Seeing thereupon dependeth the health or ruine also of the whole politique body of the Realme For the French haue a true Prouerbe Le Medicin piteux fait vne mortelle plaie And most wisely the Poet. Obsta principijs serò Medicinaparatur Cum mala per longas inualuêre moras As France and Flanders both our next Neighbours by their calamities may teach vs where no kinde of abuse or corruptions haue beene practized Their Bands not 40. for 100. strong Which kinde of Picoree Mounsier de la Nôe termeth Desrober enfalquin non pas engentilz homes But of gentlemen all piciories ought indeed to be detested as fitter for base minded slaues than honouable free minded souldiers But for other extortions and Robberies vpon the poore Payzants Booers or husbandmen it were as hard to name any one kinde that hath beene omitted as to recite particularly euery sort that hath bene executed by these insatiable cormorants whose maw is neuer full though their gourmandize be infinite besides the defacing of so many goodly Churches and stately Pallaces in the countrey as by the Remnants of their Ruines is to bee seene and the Ransacking of Villages Castles Townes and Cities and infinite outrages otherwise committed in all places where this misbegotten Ladies seruants or filching followers could lay their gracelesse hands But seeing the first pretext and colour they had in France to engender this monster and since in the base countries to foster her was by reason of want onely of conuenient pay Which enforced euen the
a braue man An honorable Officer an honorable minde yea his Prince also whom he deceiues horribly shal be perswaded the Daw is an Eagle the Cucko a Nightingale Such an Officer hath no melancholy conceipt but as hee will take lastly so will hee giue frankly to thē that cā beare him out and such a one as Captains Collonels great Officers and all shall extoll how shall his Prince but like of too considering the more he robs the more friends he maks the more he shal be praised So as if there were no God the honest were indeed to be begged for a right natural foole But this Conference of either kinde I hope it appeareth plainly both how many Enemies the honest must of necessitie in this age of Militarie corruptions drawe vpon him And likewise how great a multitude of friends the vnhonest may make by their confederacy with others of that humor in robbing of the Prince or publique Treasure And therefore how necessarie it is that aswell the honest bee honoured with Entertainment and maintenance answerable to their reputation and credit of their place as the contrarie well sifted and extraordinarily punished in terror of abuse But as it is apparantly best for the honor of any Prince or State to haue this honest office so backed with honourable Entertainment authority as he may boldly without feare or regard of any offence controll fraud thereby to enforce all Captains to keep their Bands compleat or dul to checke their defaults aswell for Armes as men So is it also asmmuch for the profit benefit of the king Prince or State in respect of the sauing of their Teasure which no way in the world shall bee so extremely and vnprofitably wasted as by the ignorance confederacie or abuses of these Officers if they be vnskilful base-minded or dishonest As none can better testifie if they wil truly confesse their errors than the States of the Low-Countries who I think haue had ful exeperiēce of the extreme mischief ensuing by imploymēt of base cōmissaries with poore wages in place of so great trust importāce But somwhat to say of our own Nation omitting theirs I thinks there is no indifferent person but will confesse That in the Earle of Leycesters time of Gouernment the English Bands generally in the Queens pay a very few excepted were maintained euer farre stranger than eyther before or since and great reason it should be so For as neither her Maiestie nor any Prince of Europe euer paid more iustly and honorably than in his time hauing euery foure or six moneths at farthest till the last a full pay So was there also so facile easie meanes for all Captains in her M. pay frō time to time thē stil to supply Reinforce their Bands without the Captains charges as neuer was neither before nor since For besids the 40 Footbdās 10 Cornets of horse by contract in her Ma. pay there was euer at the charge of the countrey also many other English Ensignes all the Earle of Leicesters time somewhile 20 somtime fortie and sometime 70 Ensignes at a time which being by the States as extreme badly paid then as the Queenes Maiesties were honorably well Any English souldier that could get out of their Bands into the Ensignes of her Maiestie thought themselues aduanced from Hel to Heauen Hereof it came to passe that all the Earle of Leicesters time the Captains in her Maiesties pay needed not to send into England for souldiers at great charge for their leuying arming transporting to supply their Bands as since they haue but continually Suite was made vnto thē by souldiers of this ill paid voluntary Bands to be receiued into the Queens Maiesties pay For those soldiers would rather frely forgiue their own pay to their Captains thā tary in the States pay if they could obtain a place in any of her Ma Bands And so the Captains of her Maiesties Bands without any charge at all had meanes then still to maintaine and keepe their Ensignes compleat which neither before nor since they euer could without their charges in sending for and transporting of new souldiers out of England for the which they can haue no allowance but vpon speciall petition to her Maiestie Farther the Earle in his time of Gouernment tooke such courses to make the Captaines keepe their Bandes strong as neuer were before nor since For at the first finding many Bands of fooftemen left vnto him extream weake not 60. souldiers in a Band of 150. and halfe a doozen such Bands at one Muster and one place his Excellency gaue a generall day to all Captaines in her Maiesties List to haue their Bands reinforced strong or else to be checked according to to their weaknes at the next future Muster As they should likewlse for his time receiue the benefit for the time past not to bee checked if they were found compleat and strong for Seruice at that their appointed day This generally made them all or the greatest part contend who might Reinforce their Bands strongest Againe his Excellency being both Gouernour for the States and Generall for her Maiestie had the commaundement of both forces and thereby caused Musters Generall in his time to bee alwaies made of all souldiers in euery Garrison at one instant Whereby the souldiers in the States pay could not fraudulently bee lent or borrowed to fill the Queenes Bands at Musters as otherwise they might haue doone There was also such Ordinances for Musters established by his Excellency as neuer the like in those Prouinces or better in any other can be shewed to enforce the Captaines that for feare of due checke if for their owne credit any Reputation otherwise they would not to keep their Bands compleat By which Precedents the States haue since much reformed their Militia And with all so honourable Entertainment allowed the Muster-Master General at that time as if he would haue but winked willingly at corruptions he had beene worthie of all shame and blame Who thereby hauing conuenient meanes carrying a seuere hand according to his dutie to execute his office iustly was so maligned of the licentious sort of Captaines as they would vow to keepe their Bands more than compleat rather than he should haue a penny checke out of their Bands toward his Entertainment The honest therefore and honourable for their owne commendation and the licentious and malignant for feare of checke and enuie against the Muster-Master contend all who might keepe their Bands fairest And yet I thinke there will bee found more checks certaine notwithstanding in the Earles gouernment fiuefolde for respectiue time than other before or after When the Bands were farre weaker besides the checkes respited to farther Examination which would haue amounted vnto much more if by conning practises they had not procured his disgrace But as the bestowing some time of a thousand or two thousand pounds a yeare on the maintaining of Sluces and Milles for the drayning
tollerable but also laudable yea farre excelling the auncint discipline of the Romane and Greeke Armies This error because it tendeth to the aduancing of vice and defacing of vertue to the extolling of many corrupt new practised abuses and licentious delicacies and the reiecting or contemning of the sober painefull strict seuere and sacred Militarie discipline of the Antiquitie I thinke it fit to touch some principall points wherein the Moderne Militia which I reprooue doth dissent from the Antiquitie which I commend and propone as a Praecedent for vs to imitate That any Souldier of iudgement not caried wilfully with corrupt affection may see how farre awrie they are that somuch extoll the one or disdainefully contemne the other But first lest I bee misconceiued I must explaine a little farther My meaning not to bee precisely to binde our Nation or any other to the same very Rules or Lawes which the Romanes or any Graecian State was ruled by which most florished in Martiall prowesse I thinke the same as great an error as that of some Diuines who would haue all Nations ruled by the verie same politique Lawes and paynes that Moyses praescribed to the Iewes or people of Israell For albeit those diuine Lawes were prescribed by the infinite wisedome of GOD himselfe and for those people no doubt the most conuenient yet as times and States and dispositions of Nations are variable and different So may the paines or punishments bee made more seuere or remisse as the Magistrates and choise members of each State assembling as Physitions to cure the maladies growing in the bodie of their Realmes shall finde conuenient So as they make nothing Lawfull that is by Lawes Diuine prohibited for that were flat impietie So say I also there is in the discipline Militarie of those Martiall States-antique many things which according to the nature and disposition of our people wee may mitigate or encrease alter or accommodate But the dissent in the verie chiefe grounds and principall Axiomes of the Art Martiall as such men of warre of the new Discipline doo I holde it a daungerous error and fit to bee effectually regarded and speedily reformed Neyther is it any part of my meaning and to taxe or reprooue all Generals Commaunders Collonels or Captaines that serue in these our Moderne warres as men corrupted or depraued with these erronious opinions For my selfe in mine owne experience haue knowne many that highly esteeme the auncient and true Martiall Discipline and condemne as much the intollerable abuses that haue growne in by the late intestine ciuill discentions As in France how much that worthie Prince of Condie and Admirall Shattilion abhorred those disorders which in their time began and are since growne to their ripenesse or rather full Rottennesse may partly appeare by their Campe-Lawes sauouring altogether of the Antique true Martiall Discipline as farre forth as the corruptions of this age and their wantes to pay their Troopes would permit As by that I haue at-large set-downe in my Stratioticos touching their Militarie lawes more manifestly will appeare Likewise in the Militarie Treatize of that famous Generall Guillame de Bellay Seignior le Langey of Discipline Military more euidentlye dooth appeare Howe much hee disliked also of the corrupt customes in his time growne into the warres of France and how hee laboured to reduce it to the perfection of those auncient Martiall States that for many hundred yeares together hauing made that Art and profession and thereby mightily aduanced their Realmes in Fame honour and wealth and also encreased their Territories had indeed attained to the high perfection thereof How much also that famous Prince of Orange disliked with these moderne abuses albeit for want of meanes to pay and also authoritie sufficient to gouerne as hee would hee were enforced to tollerate in his Mercenary Commaunders many of those corruptions my selfe know by that I haue diuerse time heard euen from his owne mouth besides that appeareth otherwise by his Remonstrances and Military Ordinances The like I could say of many of our owne Nation Men of honour experience and value that both know and acknowledge how necessarie it were to haue a Reformation of Moderne abuses and Restitution of true Martiall discipline but are loath to make themselues odious to such multitudes as hauing beene bred-vp in those base easie corrupt lucrous customes would extremely hate such a Gouernour or Commaunder as should crosse their profit and in his owne Regiment first with seueritie begin such Reformation Which is indeed not to bee performed but by the authoritie and Maiestie of a Prince and Royall State that is able both to pay and punish So farre am I therefore from condemning all Commaunders of this age eyther of our owne Nation or theirs for Patrones of these Moderne corruptions and basterdly degenerate Souldierie as cleane contrariwise in mine owne experience and knowledge I can cleare many Hauing my selfe knowne and conferred with diuers of our owne Nation that asmuch abhorre them as that famous souldier of France Mounsier de la Nôe whom I haue my selfe also heard aswel in his priuate speeches as since in his Military discourses discouer his extreme dislike of such our modern vnsouldierly corruptions which neuerthelesse my selfe saw hee was in part inforced to tollerate euen then when hee was Martiall of that mighty Armie by the States leuied against Don Iohn de Austria and the Prince of Parma in Brabant vtterly against his will and liking I can therefore the lesse blame any such of our Nation as beare for a time with these errors when they see by contending for redresse without sufficient authoritie they shall little preuaile and yet make themselues extreme odious But for such as will not onely tollerate but of purpose to make profit by them will impudently maintain their moderne costomes good and better for this age than the Auncient As I know them most hurtfull members So I cannot but wish such bad Patriotts reformed by better reason or in time reiected as infected sheepe that are able with their leprosie and infection to corrupt great multitudes to the excessiue danger of their Prince and State First therefore to shew some principall points wherein the Moderne Militia I speake of dissenteth from the Ancient by mee commended I say 1 It was a very laudable custom of Antiquity to haue in their States or Realmes Cōscriptos milites their chosen enrolled souldiers not of the base loose abiect vnhonest sort by Cornelius Tacitus wel termed Purgamenta vrbiū suarū but of the honest well-bred and renowned Burghers and other country Inhabitants that had some liuing Art or trade to liue vpon when the warres were finished aswell to haue them practized and trained in all Martial exercises before they came to deale with their Enemies As also that hauing somewhat to loose they more dutifully and obedienly behaue themselues during the Seruice And hauing whereupon to liue when the warres were done neede not commit such Pickories extorsions