is that of the Garter instituted by Edward the Third of England under the Patrociny of Saint George as that of the Thistle of Scotland was under Saint Andrew John of Valois King of France instituted the order of the Star under the protection of Saint Owen say the French as one of his Successors Louis the Eleventh instituted that of Saint Michael In the minority of Henry the Sixth of England when the War was hot between that Kingdom and France Philip le Bou Duke of Burgundy instituted the Noble Order of the Golden Fleece under the protection of Saint Andrew The King of Denmark makes Knights of the Elephant and the Duke of Savoy those of the Annunciation Christina Queen of Sueden instituted a new Order of Knighthood which she would have called the Order of the Amaranth which they say never withers and accordingly she appointed the Device to be semper idem The Knights of the Teutonick or Dutch Order those of St. John of Jerusalem called afterwards Hospitallers Knights of the Rhodes and now of Malta as also those of the Sepulchre or Knights Templars were and some yet are very Martial Knights whose renowned Actions are and ever Religious Orders of Knighthood will be on the Records of Fame But there were likewise Religious Orders for they vowed Chastity Poverty and Obedience And from Religion have come most of the Spanish Orders of Knighthood Sanctius the third of that name King of Castile for the more vigorous prosecution of the War against the Infidels instituted the Order of Calatrava in the Kingdom of Toledo The Master of which Order is a person of great Riches and Power His Son Alphonse the Ninth in the time of his dangerons War with the Moors instituted the Order of Saint James which hath since come to that heighth of power that the Master of it is one of the greatest Subjects of Spain But Ferdinand the first Catholick King made himself and his Successors with the help of the Pope Masters of these Orders One of the Kings of Portugal when he had Wars with both the Saracens of Africk and Spain instituted the Order of the Knights of Jesus Christ About the year 1570. the Queen of Navarre caused 12 Jane d'Albret great Medals of Gold to be coined which she distributed among 12 of the most eminent Chieftains of the Reformed Religion as tokens of their fraternity to incite them to Constancy Valour and Perseverance in the Cause against the Roman Catholicks Upon one side of the Medal were these words Assured Peace Entire Victory or Honest Death On the Reverse was the Queens own name with that of her Son the Prince of Bearne who was afterwards Henry the Fourth the Great King of France and Navarre War drains the Treasures of Princes and States so dry that for most part they are not able to pay the Wages and Arrears of those who serve them much less reward them The Roman Oak Olive and Laurel Crowns are out of fashion long ago nor would they signifie any thing but rather be ridiculous unless they were given with all the Wages due to the party who is to be honour'd with one of those Crowns as the Romans were accustomed to do I have observ'd in another place how in many parts of Christendome Officers above the quality of private Captains many times are reduced to beggary to obviate which since Princes and States cannot forbear War or will not live in Peace it would be a great work of Charity in them and would much redound to their Honour Works of Charity and Fame to build some Hospitals and endue them with some small Revenue in which those Commanders who are lame old and poor might get a morsel of Bread which would be an exceeding great relief to those distressed Gentlemen and much encourage younger people to engage in a fresh War for alass though written Testimonies sign'd and seal'd by the Prince or his General may be of good use to young and lusty Gallants who have their Health and some Money in their Purses to look for new Fortunes yet Passes though never so favourable to poor old men are upon the matter nothing else Passes but fair Commissions to beg CHAP. XXVIII The Comparison made by Justus Lipsius of the Ancient and Modern Militia examined IT is one of the Curses that follow'd Adam's fall and I think was inherent in Discontent follows humane nature him before his fall that as he was not so none of his Posterity can be content with his present condition The longing desire we have to enjoy that we want robs us of the content we may have of what we possess Hence it is that old men cry up those customes that were used when they were Boys vilifying the present and magnifying the by-past times Neither is this fastidium or loathing of present things the concomitant of age only for young men who are in their strength are tainted with it Some are displeased with the Government of the State others hugely dissatisfied with that of the Church because none of them are cast in those moulds which they fancy to be better than the present ones and though perhaps they cannot pretend to have seen better in their own times yet they have heard or read of those which they conceive were so absolutely good that nothing can be added to their perfection Others like only of those Governments which have their birth rise growth and perfection in their own giddy brains But to come nearer our purpose few Souldiers are satisfied with their own Countrey Militia for if they have been abroad in the World at their return home they cry up the Arms the Art and the Discipline of Foreigners nor can they find any thing at home can please them And though their occasions have never invited them to take a view of strange places yet their Books afford them matter enough to prefer those Arms those Exercises those Guards those Figures of Battels that Discipline of War they never saw to all those they may daily see Of this disease of Discontent I think Justus Lipsius hath been Justus Lipsius an admirer of the Roman Militia irrecoverably sick and though he did not compile a Military Systeme of his own as Machiavelli did yet I may compare these two in this that both of them were Speculative Souldiers Lipsius is so far disgusted with the Milice of his own time which truly being about eighty or ninety years ago was an excellent one which he might have seen and observ'd better than his Writings shows he did and is so much in love with the old Roman Militia which he never saw but by contemplation that in the comparison he makes of the two in the last Chapter of his Commentary on Polybius he is not asham'd to prefer the Ancient Art of War to the Modern one in all its dimensions As I conceive he was so Rational as to think no man would deny the Modern He compares
do our Cuirassiers and Light Horse represent their Cataphracts and light armed Horse I wonder why the Turks pretend that their Janizaries represent the Macedonian Foot Phalange of heavy armed for carrying Guns Half-Pikes and Javelines they come far short of the Phalange in the strength whereof the Macedonians as they had reason put their greatest trust But if these Infidels be not guilty of greater crimes than of vain ostentation I think as good Christians we are bound to forgive them But since the time that Gun-powder made a loud noise in the world I do not read of any Europâ—an Army that so nearly resembled the great Macedonian Phalange consisting both of Horse and Foot as that of Henry the Second King of France when he march'd into Germany to assist the two Protestant Electors Army of Henry the second King of France of Saxony and Brandenburg against the Emperour Charles the Fifth and by the way took in Mâ—tz Thoul and Verdun with which Towns his Successors the French Kings have not yet parted This Army of his is very particularly describ'd by a Noble Author who though he conceal his name yet as his writings speak him to be an excellent Historian so they bewray him to have been a Commander in the Wars both in that Kings time and in the Reigns of all his three Sons By the relation of it we will see how both the French Infantry and Cavalry were mounted and armed and how their Batallions were marshall'd about one hundred and twenty years ago His Foot was marshall'd by his Great Constable Monmorancy in three Batallions One consisted of Germans whose number was seven thousand and His Germans therefore I conclude them to have been two Regiments each consisting of twelve Companies and each Company of three hundred men or thereabout according to the custome observed then and long after by that Nation They were arm'd Defensively as the French were but for Offence two parts How arm'd of them had Pikes and the third part Harquebusses They were commanded by the Rhinegrave whom most of the French Historians call very vitiously and almost ridiculously Count of Rhingrave which is as much as Earl of Rhineâ—arl Under the Rhingrave These Germans were Mercenaries or Auxiliaries at best and therefore I shall not say they were properly of the French Army which I am now to compare with the Macedonian great Phalanx as Aelian describes it His French Infantry was divided into two great Batallions The first consisted His French Foot of fifteen thousand fighting men of these nine thousand were heavy armed and six thousand were light armed The nine thousand had for their Defensive Arms Head pieces Backs and Breasts Gantlets Sleeves and Taslets for the Offensive they had Swords and long Bois under which name you are to comprehend Pikes Halberds Partisans and long Staves How arm'd banded and pointed with Iron and most of them all had Pistols at their Girdles The other six thousand of the first Batallion who were light armed had for Armour rich Morrions and Jacks and Sleeves of Mail and for Weapons they had Swords and Harquebusses for the most part and some Musquets all bright clear and fixed The second French Batallion of Foot was composed of those who were brought out of the Southern Provinces of France and it was ten thousand strong whereof seven were heavy armed and the other three thousand light armed they were armed much as the first Batallion was His Cavalry was sub-divided into Gens d'Arms Archers Light Horse-men His Cavalry and Harquebusiers His Cuirassiers or Gens d'Arms consisting all of persons of noble Families were about one thousand admirably well mounted on French Coursers Turkey Horses or Spanish Gennets They were strongly and heavily arm'd for the Defensive for Offence they had each a Lance a Mace Gens d'Arms and a Sword no word here of a Pistol Their Horses were arm'd with Bards and Plates of Brass richly caparison'd and many other Horses they had on which beside their led Horses their Servants Pages and Grooms rede The Captains and other Officers of these Gens d'Arms were in rich Armour gilded and curiously wrought mounted they were on couragious How mounted and armed Horses who were arm'd and richly caparison'd and their Harness cover'd with either Velvet or Cloath of Tissue with Gold-smith work or Embroydery Every one of these Gens d'Arms had an Archer who followed him Archers by the French constitutions of War who though then they used neither Bow nor Arrow as formerly they did yet did still retain the name of Archers They rode on small but very nimble Horses who vaulted pleasantly each of them carried a Lance a Pistol and a Sword all of them well accoutred striving who should appear finest The Light Horse-men were mounted on Light Horsemen good Nags little but very swift for Armour they had light Helmets Corslets and Sleeves for Offensive Arms each of them had a Cutlace and either a half Lance or a Pistol which of them he pleas'd but not both Of these Light Horse there were about eighteen hundred The Harquebusiers were mounted on as good Geldings as they could make themselves masters of Harquebusiers they had Jacks Morrions and Sleeves of Mail for Defence their Weapons were Swords and Harquebusses of three foot long hanging at the courches of their Saddles He had about fifteen hundred of them Besides all these there were about four hundred English Gentlemen all Volunteers under the command of an English Lord they were mounted on English Volunteers handsome and swift Geldings they were provided with little Armour for Defence their Weapons were Swords and Lances like Half-Pikes saith our Author These were King Henry's Forces Setting the English aside we have of French Cavalry one thousand Gens d'Arms one thousand Archers eighteen hundred Light Horse and fifteen hundred Harquebusiers Add these together the aggregate is five thousand three hundred This exceeds the number of the Macedonian Horse by one thousand one hundred and eight In the next place set the Rhingrave and his German Foot aside the heavy arm'd French Foot were sixteen thousand which wanted but three hundred eighty four of the Macedonian heavy armed Phalange The French light armed Foot were about nine thousand which was eight hundred and eight more than Aelian allows to the Macedonian Velites The French Foot and Horse amounted to thirty thousand three hundred Combatants those of Aelians great Phalange to twenty eight thousand six hundred seventy two the difference is sixteen hundred twenty eight But if we reckon the English and French Volunteers the Kings own Guards of Scots French Number of the whole French Army and Switzers with the Rhingraves seven thousand Germans this Army exceeded the number of forty five thousand men with which marched the Great Master or General of the Artillery of France who had the conduct of forty four pieces of Ordnance great and small with Powder and Bullets
have observ'd in most Tacticks Lieutenant Colonel Elton is very clear in his definition of a distance which though I told you of it before I shall again give you Distance says he is a place or interval of ground between every rank and rank and every file and file as they stand By this description then three foot of distance being allowed between every file and file there are in seventeen files sixteen distances or intervals which make but forty and eight foot then you are to allow seventeen foot to the Combatants that is one foot for every man to stand on seventeen being added to forty eight make sixty five and so many foot of ground doth a Company possess in front if it consist of seventeen files for the ground of the ranks you are to compute it thus Six ranks take six foot to stand on and thirty foot for five intervals six foot being allow'd for open order in all six and thirty foot which a Distance of Ranks Company Regiment Brigade or Army of Foot constantly possesseth from the toes of the Leaders to the heels of the Bringers up unless you bring the ranks to stand at order which you may frequently do with very good reason and then the five Intervals take up but fifteen foot which being added to the six foot on which the ranks stand make but twenty one foot And when Pikes are to give or receive a Charge you may bring them to close order that is one foot and a half and then the five Intervals take up but 7½ foot these being added to six make 13½ foot Observe that in Exercising this Company of seventeen Files you are to set aside one of the Files because it is odd and so The Colours will hinder the doubling the Files The Colours of the Company are to be on the head of the Pikes neither can they conveniently be between the second and third rank in time of Battel as some would have them to be for you may easily consider what room an Ensign can have with his Colours between ranks when they are at order much less at close order as they should be in the time of Battel It will be fitting before I go further to meet with an objection concerning Objection against my Distances of Files Distances it is this The three foot of distance allowed between Files say they must be reckoned from the Centers that is from the two middle parts of the two File-leaders as from the middle part of the right hand File-leader to the middle part of the File-leader who stands on his left hand I wonder at this notion for hereby two File-leaders take up one foot of ground and so doth the rest of the File and there are but two foot of Interval between the two files and this cannot at all quadrate with the definition of distance for that is an Interval between Files and not betwixt the two middle parts of two mens Bodies And the Authors of Tacticks should have been clearer in their expressions and have said two foot between Files which they knew was too Answered little and have added that every File should have one foot of ground to stand on for what language is this a man shall have half a foot for his right middle part and another half foot for his left middle part for this way of their reckoning of the three foot of distance amounts to just so much and no better language which I conceive is very improper besides by this account the right and left hand Files would have each of them one half foot of ground more than any of the rest of the Files the right hand Filemen hath it by the right middle parts of their bodies and the left hand Filemen by the left middle parts of their Bodies because these two Files on these two hands have no Sidemen which you may easily conceive if you please a little to consider it Let us in the next place see what Officers are appointed to have the command Of Officers of a Company and inspection of this Company and here we may find some difference in the several establishments of Princes and States yet in this we find all agree to have a Captain a Lieutenant an Ensign Serjeants Corporals and Drummers except the Spaniard who rejects the Lieutenant as useless some allow no more Officers than those I have spoken of some allow more to wit a Captain of Armies a Furer a Fourier and a Clerk or Scrivener And besides some allow Lancepesats or Lancpresads as they are commonly called as also Reformado's and Gentlemen of a Company But neither Lancepesats Gentlemen of the Company nor Reformado's are Officers and though Corporals be yet they carry Arms and march in rank and file I shall describe all these and all the Officers of a Foot Company beginning with the Reformado and ending with the Captain Those are called Reformado's or Reformed who have been Officers suppose Reformed Officers Commissionated and those only and are out of charge and bear Arms till they can be prefer'd In some places they are permitted to be without Arms. A Gentleman of the Company is he who is something more than an ordinary Gentleman of a Company Souldier hath a little more pay and doth not stand Centinel In French he is called Appointe and with the Germans he is called Gefreuter They march and watch with Arms they go common Rounds and Patrouills and near an Enemy they are to be the forlorn Centinels whom the French call Perdus Lancespesate is a word deriv'd from the Italian Lance spesata which signifies a broken or spent Lance. He is a Gentleman of no ancient standing in the Militia for he draws his Pedigree from the time of the Wars between Francis the First and his Son Henry the Second Kings of France on the one part and the Emperour Charles the Fifth and his Brother-in-law the Duke of Savoy on the other part in those Wars when a Gentleman of a Troop of Horse in any Skirmish Battel or Rencounter had broke his Lance on his enemy and lost his Horse in the Scuffle he was entertain'd under the name of a Broken-Lance by a Captain of a Foot Company as his Comerade till he was again mounted But as all good orders fall soon from their Primitive Institution so in a short time our Monsieur Lancespesata for so he was called was forc'd to descend from being Lancespesata the Captains Comerade and became the Corporals Companion and assisted him in the Exercise of his Charge and therefore was sometimes called by the French Aide Caporal But when the Caporal grew weary of the Comradeship of his Lancespesata he made him officiate under him and for that had some allowance of pay more than the common Soldier which he enjoys in those places where he is made use of and still keeps the noble Title of Lancespesata though perhaps he was never on Horseback in his life corruptly
our first Parents had not rebell'd against their Creator their posterity had enjoy'd an everlasting peace and so such a person as we now speak of had been very unnecessary But I assure my self never man except Adam when he was in the state of perfection was endued with these gifts wherewith some Notional Authors wil have a Captain General to be qualified He must say A Notional description of a Captain General they be pious towards God just towards man and loyal to his Master He must be very affable very wise of a sudden and quick apprehension of a solid judgment and happy memory He must be very severe in his command and yet very merciful He must be liberal and free from all manner of Avarice painful magnanimous and couragious and in one word endued with all the Moral Vertues He ought to be an old Practitioner in the Military Art and well experimented in all its parts and duties Perhaps you may think this enough but Polybius in his Ninth Book requires more for he will have his General to be both an Astrologer and a Geometer If you will tell me where or in what region of the habitable world all these qualifications shall be found in one person Eris mihi magnus Apollo That he who is intrusted with the supreme Command of Royal Armies one or more and with the whole Militia of a State should be an accomplisht person The charge of a Generalissimo is of the highest nature and if it be possible such a one as we have describ'd will not be readily denied since it is a Command of the highest nature the greatest honour and deepest consequence that can be confer'd on any single person of what quality â—r degree soever for he is intrusted not only with the lives of those that are in Arms under his Command but with the defence of the whole Country Towns Forts and Castles with the honour welfare and standing of the Prince and State and with the lives and properties of all their Subjects The loss of his Army or Armies by his negligence inadvertency rashness or cowardice may occasion the loss of all these or make them run a very great hazard by his indiscretion much more by his treachery he may in one moment of time lose the lives and liberties of many thousands make numbers of women widows children fatherless and fathers childless he may lose the honour and beauty of a whole Province yea of a whole Kingdom all which he was bound by his office and charge to preserve The consideration of these things mov'd most of the ancient Kings and Emperours A Prince to manage his Wars in person and those of latter times likewise to manage their Wars and lead their Armies in person Those who laid the foundation of the first four Monarchies did so as in the Assâ—rian Nimrod Belus Ninus and Semiramis and when their posterity did it not their Empire was in the wain and ended with Sardanapalus who hid himself from the sight of men among his women Cyrus led his Armies himself so did some of his Successors but when others of them staid at home and sent their Lieutenants abroad the Persian Monarchy decay'd and became a prey to the Great Alexander who manag'd his Wars in person and so did those great Captains of his who cut out Kingdoms to themselves out of their Masters Conquests but their Successors lost them by sitting idle at home and employing their Generals abroad Many Roman Emperours after Augustus went to their Wars in person whereby they preserv'd their Imperial Dignity but when others imployed their Lieutenants though many of these were excellent men and often victorious the Empire was torn in pieces The Kings of Leon Navarr Castile Portugal and Arragon after the destruction of the Gothish Monarchy in Spain went to the field in person and recover'd Many Instances to prove it those Kingdoms out of the hands of the Saracens When the Kings of France of the Merovingian and Carolomannian race kept within their Palaces and suffer'd the Majors thereof to govern their Armies they lost their Kingdoms and Crowns Our Kings of Scotland and England used mostly to manage their Wars themselves the Emperour Charles the Fifth led his greatest Armies himself and for most part was always victorious for his loss at Algiers occasion'd by the visible hand of Heaven and his forced Retreats from Inspruck and the Siege of Metz were but small blemishes in the beautiful and fair Map of his victorious raign But since his time his Successors the Kings of Spain have sate at home and entrusted their Armies to their Generals and we see that their wide and far stretcht Monarchy has been since that Emperours time in a constant decadency All the Kings and Emperours of the Ottoman race went in person to the Wars till Selimus the second changed that custom and since that time none of them have done actions by their Bashas comparable to those of their Ancestors In our own days the Emperour Ferdinand the Second intrusted the managing his War against Gustavus Adolphus to his Generals Wallenstein Tily and Pappenheim all brave and great Captains yet that Martial King being in person on the head of his Armies prevailed over them all We may perceive the great odds of managing a War by a Prince in his own person and by his Captain General by taking a view of the actions of two Brothers both of them excellent Princes these were the Emperour Charles the Actions of two Brothers compar'd Fifth of whom I but just now spoke and Ferdinand the First King of the Romans Hungaria and Bohemia The first as I have already said led his most considerable Armies himself the second staid constantly at home and sent his Captain Generals to manage his Wars of greatest importance mark the issue Ferdinand lost three Royal Armies each of them composed of a well appointed Cavalry Infantry and Train of Artillery one of them at Esâ—câ—hiâ— under Cazzianer another at Buda under Rocandolf and the third at Pesth under Joachiâ—â— Marquess of Brandenburg all three were wofully and shamefully lost without fighting And if any think that the misfortune of all the three or any one of them could not have been prevented by the Princes own presence I shall answer that undoubtedly it had and my reason is this because that which lost them all was the irresolution of the Generals who durst neither fight nor retire in time as being shie and wary to hazard that which was not their owâ—â— whereas Ferdinand if he had been present would quickly have resolv'd either on the one or the other and consequently would have either retir'd in time and sav'd all his three Armies or have fought and by that means been victorious or would have been beaten with more glory to himself and mischief to his insolent enemy And this is more particularly clear in that Army commanded by Rocandolf who after multitudes of Infidels were already arrived
Sardinia and of the Sea too when Hannibal I say notwithstanding the Roman power and all the obstructions that Hanno and his party made against him within Carthage durst fight and did beat the Romans so often that if he had pursued one of his Victories he had gone fair to have set up his Trophies in the Capitol When with such a stock Hannibal could do so great things I think in all humane probability Alexander who was master of the best and richest places of the World who was an absolute Soveraign Monarch and so not liable or accountable to a Senate not in fear or jealousie of any Competitor a great and an experienced Warriour of an Invincible Courage Master of prodigious Forces both at Sea and Land his power almost boundless and yet his Ambition more unlimited than his Power If he I say had enter'd Italy and invaded the Roman State then but in its Infancy and shouldering for more room with its neighbour Cities he had made it submit to his uncontrollable pleasure or drown'd the very Roman name in the pit of eternal Oblivion PALLAS ARMATA Military Essays OF THE MODERN ART of WAR BOOK III. CHAP. I. Of the Modern Militia in General HE who will rightly shape or form that monstrous Beast that War the wild Boar of the Forrest Bellua that wild Boar of the Forest that plucketh up all Vineyards by the roots War must begin saith Themistocles with the Belly meaning Provisions and Victuals must be prepared to maintain the Armies of those Princes and States who wage War And because meat in an orderly way costs money they say money is the sinews of War yet we have seen and known Armies rais'd and maintain'd with little or no money prepared by those who levied them but some exceptions take not away an universal rule How the ancient Nations as well Grecians Romans as others shap'd this Beast of War how they composed his members and how they entertain'd and fed him both for their own defence and to offend others I have shew'd to my Reader in my former Discourses as far at least as by conjectures rationally grounded on the authority of approved Authors besides Aelian Aeneas Polybius and Vegetius it was possible for me to reach But coming now to speak of the Modern Art of War I find my self more embarrassed than in the delineation of the rest for besides the differences of the manner of War used by several Nations which perhaps might all be digested in one form with some exceptions not very essential I know not of what date age years or Centuries of Modern Militia of an uncertain date years I shall make the Modern Militia If I shall date its Birth from the time the Roman Art of War began to be corrupted I should perhaps make it too old for Vegetius complains that the substance of that was well near spent and no more but a shadow of it left long before his time which mov'd the Emperour Valentinian to command him to compose a Systeme of the ancient Roman Constitutions of War which had been needless if they had been then in vigor and how Vegetius hath acquitted himself of that undertaking I have already told you But if I should date the age of the Modern Art of War from the time that Gunpowder was invented I might perhaps hit right enough at its age because no doubt Gunpowder made a great alteration on the whole face and body of War But I am sure I have but few or rather no helps to write the Series of its History either from the decay of the Roman Militia or from the time that Gunpowder was heard to make so loud and so fearful a noise in the World Though we are told that the ancient Roman customs of War were worn out The Militia of several ages forgot of use yet none tell us when either they were restor'd or yet what others were brought in their room Neither do we find that those who wrote Histories after the decadency of the Roman Empire give us light in it or yet what kind of Militia was used by those Nations who had the confidence with their sharp swords to cut out to themselves very large portions of the great bulk of that almost Universal Monarchy From History we know that the Goths the Vandals the As that of the Goths Vandals and Huns. Huns and the Longobards invaded the Empire and fought many successful Battels with some Roman Emperours and their Lieutenants and that they conquer'd Kingdoms by feats of War and got them confirm'd to them by articles of peace But what order these Nations kept in Modelling their Armies what Discipline to preserve them how they arm'd them what art they us'd in Embatelling fighting or taking Towns none of the Roman Writers that I know of hath either told us or given us ground to conjecture except a few things of one of the Theodoricks King of the Goths And from those Nations who were Barbarians who it may be knew not what it was to read or write we are not in reason to expect any significant account As little do we know what manner of Militia was used in France Germany Batavia and England when they first emancipated themselves from the subjection That of the ancient Germans and Batavians of the Roman Empire The Victories the Saracens had in all the three known parts of the World the whole power of the Emperours of Greece in the East with almost innumerable Armies from the West to recover the Holy Land from those Saracens long before the name of a Turk was heard of not being That of the Saracens able to keep Jerusalem long from them demonstrate that they were well arm'd well train'd and had a Discipline of War and that a very exquisite one but what it was we are yet to seek for any thing we find in History and yet those Expeditions are very famous and stand authentically recorded We read that Charles Martel Major of the Palace in France made War with the That of Charles Martel Pepin and Charles the Great Saracens and in one Battel which he fought in Provence laid one hundred thousand of them in the dust His Son Pepin made a successful War against the Lombards in Italy at the instance of Pope Zachary so did his Son Charles the Great against both them the Pagan Saxons in Germany and the Moors in Spain but how the Armies of either the one party or the other were arm'd model'd marshall'd or Embattel'd is wrapt up in the abyss of dark oblivion What shall we say since Fire-guns alter'd many of the ancient customs of War and by piecemeal hath obtained the pre-eminence over almost all offensive weapons and challenges the Prerogative even before and over the Sword the Lance and the Pike much more over the Bow the Arrow Dart Javelin and Sling and yet from History we are no more acquainted with the manner of War since they came in use
than we were before their invention of the truth whereof take a short view What vast Provinces and goodly Countries the Turk since the birth of Gunpowder hath acquired in Asia Africk and Europe is obvious to our sight though the Histories of all Nations were silent And though in the general we are told We have but confused notions of the Turkish Militia that his order is good the Government and Discipline observ'd in his numerous Armies is strict and excellent yet the particulars have been hitherto related to us but very confusedly neither doth Mr. Rycaut in his Book of the present state of the Ottoman Empire Printed a few years ago help us much but rather gives us occasion to think that the Turks have lost their ancient Art of War or if they still retain it we must wonder how these Unbelievers have triumph'd over so many both Christian and Mahometan people with so undisciplin'd and disorderly multitudes as his relation makes them to be for he saith their principal Foot which are the Janizaries reputed to have been the strength and support of that great Monarchy fight confusedly and the Spahies who are the best of their Cavalry fight likewise in little good order he says that sometimes they charge thrice and if they then break not the enemy they fly and withal he makes their Artillery very insignificant in regard that as he writes they have no Gunners but such as either they take Prisoners or are sold to them for Slaves who stay no longer with them than any fair opportunity is offer'd them to run away Though perhaps the Victories which the great Tamberlan obtain'd and the And of Tamberlans order of War celerity he used in making these Conquests which have render'd him so famous be not so vast as Stories make them yet we may believe his Atchievements to have been extraordinary in regard the Great Mogul of India derives his Pedigree in a lineal descent from him and at this day possesseth a vast and a Great Empire which is but a remnant of a far greater acquir'd by Tamberlan whose Discipline is cry'd up to have been exceeding strict his Art of War so exact and orderly that he never went out of the Field without Victory or from a besieged Town without either its submission or destruction It is written of him that the day he fought with Bajazet at Mount Stella his Army consisted of a Million of men and yet he made use of them all in the time of the Battel If this be all true is it not pity that the manner of his Encamping Besieging Embattelling and fighting is not left on record to posterity And to come home the Scottish the English and the French Histories tell us what bloody Engagements have been among them and what Battels have been fought with various success but except that we are told that the French As also of the Scötish French and English Gens de Armes were numerous besides their other Cavalry that the English used the Bow and the Bill and had men of Arms likewise and that the Scots fought on Horseback with Lances and Jacks of Mail and on foot with long Pikes Battel-axes Bows and two-handed Swords what know we more of the Art of War that any of all the three practis'd of the order they kept how strong their several Bodies and Batallions were or what names they gave them how deep they Marshal'd either their Horse or Foot how they Embattell'd how they Encamped and how they form'd their Sieges for all these we have nothing but ill grounded conjectures and very confused notions I know not whom we shall justly blame for this great defect but the several Generals of several Armies belonging to several Nations and in several ages who if either they could not or would not write the History of their own or others actions as Xenophon and Thucydides among the Grecians Julius Caesar and Cato Many Historiographers defective among the Romans Monluc and a few others in our Modern times yet I think they were obliged to cause their Secretaries to keep exact accounts of the manner of these Sieges and those Battels which under their Command were either form'd or fought that so they might have been transmitted to posterity Some have done so but most have neglected it thinking it enough if their actions were generally remember'd recommending the particulars to the information of Historians which many times is such that it looks rather like a Romance than a true story But I had rather you should hear Monluc that famous Marshal of France upon this Subject who in the Third Book of his first Tome says That Historians who write the feats of War describe seldom or never the Particularities Monluc his Complaint of them of the action as how such a Castle was surprized in what order such a Town was assaulted or in what manner defended how such two Armies were Marshal'd before they join'd in Battel how the Horsemen were arm'd and how the Foot with many more circumstances necessary to be known by those who in time coming desire to be instructed and especially such as intend to serve their Prince and Country in Military Employments that from thence they may learn how to demean themselves in the like occasions But says he the whole multitude of Historiographers conceive they do enough if they tell us such a Battel was fought such a Prince or General gain'd the Victory such a City was besieged and yielded and such a one was taken by assault For himself he professeth he wrote his Commentaries to be registers of the actions of his time the particulars whereof might serve to inform those who were to come after him how to carry themselves either in Sieges Assaults Skirmishes Rancounter or Batteâ— for those saith he who think they know not so much as I will be glad to learn of me but those who fancy they know enough already need no Master In another place he says Historians are to be blam'd for not writing particular things and of particular men they think says he they do enough if they name Princes or Captain-Generals and pass over with silence all other persons that are not of so large a Stature Thus far Monluc Marshal of France To this same purpose you may see Polybius his complaint in his Twelfth Book Polybius his complaint of them where he says Historians first err in not writing things truly and as they were done and next that they give no particular account of the manner of Battels Skirmishes Surprisals and Sieges and this he attributeth to their want of skill and therefore wisheth that all great Captains would write the Histories of their own actions themselves These Complaints of Polybius and Monluc are just but I complain of another kind of Historians who take upon them to give us descriptions of all â—hose The Authors complaint of some of them Particularities without having receiv'd particular relations from the principal
were of necessity to be all Gentlemen a custom worn clear out most of German Troops being now composed of Einspanneers without Gentlemen unless it be the Officers and not all of them neither The Commission of array in England is an excellent order by which an Army In England Royal may be brought together either for defence or invasion in a very short time The ancient custom of Levy in Scotland as we are told was to command all between sixteen and sixty years of age to appear in every Shire and you need In Scotland not doubt but out of these an Election was made of such a number as the Kings Lieutenants thought â—it But in latter times a far better and more expedient way was found out and that was to impose the raising such a number of Horse and Foot on every Shire proportionably according to the true valuation of the Estates of the Heritors and Proprietaries Assuredly a way very orderly methodical and just provided it never be made use of in an unjust cause The Kings of Sweden have constantly standing forces within the Kingdom to In Sweden prevent both Invasions and Insurrections they consist of Regiments and Troops which have their denominations from the Provinces where they are raised and where they reside they have their Officers and Colours and are appointed at several times to meet muster and exercise but are not in pay only some small thing is given to the Captain and the Ensign who ordinarily are their Drill-masters and upon that account get wages But these Troops and Regiments are sometimes carried out of Sweden to foreign Wars and that in great numbers and others appointed to be raised in their rooms As in the time of Charles the Ninth they were carried to Liefland against both Pole and Muscovy in the time of Gustavus Adolphus and his Daughter Queen Christina to Livonia Prussia and Germany and more lately by Charles Gustavus to Prussia Livonia Pole Germany and Denmark The Kings of Denmark have their Countrey Militia for defence of the Kingdome In Denmark but are neither so orderly nor so numerous as those of Sweden neither do they take them so frequently to foreign expeditions as of old they did when by their mighty Armies they invaded many places of Germany Scotland and England and made an entire conquest of Normandy But these were like the inundations of the Huns Lombards Goths and Vandals which two last both the Sweedes and Danes pretend to be their Ancestors on the Roman Empire The like of such an Election or Levy hath been in former times used in In Spain Spain and may be yet But when we consider that it hath been often drain'd of men in the days of Philip the Second for the maintenance of his Wars in Italy and the Low Countreys but more especially for his Plantations in America which began in his Father Charles the Fifth's time and continued during the Reigns of Philip the Third and the Fourth we must conclude that all the Spanish Levies made within that Kingdome neither were nor could be voluntary The French Levies of old were all made of the Natives the Cavalry consisting of the Nobility and in the number and strength of a Cavalry France surpassed any other European Nation Charles the Seventh took the assistance of Scottish Foot who joyn'd with his own in his long Wars with England In France But his Son Lewis the Eleventh beside the Scots made use of the Switzers who had at that time acquir'd the reputation of a stout and warlike people not only in maintaining their liberties against the house of Austria but in a bloody War against Charles the Warlike Duke of Burgundy whom they defeated in three great Battels in the last whereof they kill'd himself if he be not yet on his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem These Switzers were so much the more highly esteem'd of by Lewis because they had routed and undone his capital Enemy of them his Infantry was mostly compos'd and he appointed some thousands of them to guard his person as his Father had appointed the Scots to guard his but Lewis kept the Scots likewise and it was well for him that he did so for they defended his life valiantly at the Siege of Liege when the Inhabitants by a desperate Sally had pierced through the Burgundian Army even to his lodging as Philip of Comines relates the story Not only while he liv'd but in the reigns of his Son Charles the Eight and of his successor Lewis the Twelfth did the French Infantry consist of Switzers but Francis the first having had some bloody-trials of the Infidelity of these Mercenary Soldiers put on a resolution to stand thereafter on his own legs and not on those of strangers In order to which in the year 1534 in imitation of the Romans he appointed to be levied and enrolled seven Legions of French Foot French Legions six thousand each which made up a gallant Infantry of two and forty thousand men how these were arm'd shall be told you in its own place This Ordinance fell out to be made in the days of Marshal Monluc who seems in his Commentaries rather to disapprove than approve of it but gives not his reasons I suppose these Legions were kept up in the reigns of this Francis who was the instituter of them and of his Son Henry the Second But if I have observed right they began to wear out in the reigns of his Grand-children Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third who in the time of their Civil Wars made use again of the Switzers as also of Germans and so did likewise the Protestants take the assistance of both Horse and Foot of the German Nation as you may find them ordinarily design'd in the French Histories under the name of Reuters and Landâ—sknechts the first in the German Language signifying Riders or Horsemen the second Country fellows For as I told you the Germans composed their Cavalry of Gentlemen and their Infantry except the Officers of Peasants In the Seventeen Provinces both before they became all subject to the Dukes of Burgundy when they were under several Dukes and Earls and after the Levy In the Low-Countries of their Foot was imposed on the Commons to be made of the sixth fourth or tenth man according to the danger of the Country or for most part the pleasure of the Prince The Cavalry was made up of the Nobility according to their several qualities and abilities and they were obliged to keep such a number of serviceable Horses and Arms in the time of peace on their own charges having for that some exemptions and priviledges of no great consideration and in time of War they were paid with some small wages appointed at the first forming their Militia Which Cavalry saith Bentivoglio used to be of a high repute and estimation but now saith he not being composed of the Noblest as formerly it was but of common and ignoble persons it
d'Armes and men at Arms from their defensive armour but the light armed are now called Harquebusiers from their offensive weapon the Harquebuss which before the invention of the Musquet and Pistol was a weapon only differing in length common to both the Foot and the Horse and they had both their denomination of Harquebusiers why so called Harquebusiers from it And though none of them now use the Harquebuss and that the Foot-firemen are called Musqueteers from the Musquet yet the light Horse though they use Pistols keep still the old name of Harquebusiers What Arms both for offence and defence both those kinds of Horsemen had formerly and what now they have is formerly told you in several Discourses It hath been of late a custom to arm the light Horsemen with Carrabines Carrabine hung about their shoulders in Leather Bandileers besides their Pistols so that upon the matter whole Troops are so armed with Carrabines that you may call them Carrabineers but it was not so in former times for only a prescrib'd number of them were ordain'd to attend every Troop of Curiassiers and had no Officers of their own the manner of their service was to ride up within such a distance as they were order'd and discharge their Carrabines on the enemy and immediately turn to either hand by a Caragoll and get them behind the Troop and this they were oblig'd to do as oft as they were commanded to it by him who was Captain of the Company of Curiassiers Hence it is that Why so called the Lord Carbousine tells us that Carrabine is a Spanish word deriv'd from Cara which signifies a face and Bino which signifies twofold as one would say double fac'd because the Carrabineer kept his face to his enemy till he had fired his piece and then turn'd his face to his friends when he Caragol'd Seventy or eighty years ago there were no Regiments of Horse properly so In former times there were only Troops but no Regiments of Horse called only Troops or Companies and these sometimes were two hundred strong sometimes one hundred and sometimes not so many and upon occasion of service Troops were join'd together and the command of some of them given for a time by the Prince or State to some person of great quality whom they thought fit for that imployment Sometimes three Troops were join'd together sometimes five or six yet they had not the name of a Regiment nor had he who commanded that Body so composed the title of Colonel The Estates of the Vnited Provinces used this much but now they levy Regiments The furious Wars which began in Christendom in the year of our Lord 1618 whereof in process of time we had a deep share at home reversed many good old customs and constitutions and with other changes introduced Regiments of Horse and not only so but brought in such numbers of them that in many Armies there were near as many Regiments of Horse as of Foot yea Numerous Regiments of Horse I have seen in more Armies than one a greater number of Horse-Regiments than of Foot Insomuch that some years before the Peace of Munster Regiments of Horse were so weak that the Officers of the several Troops being all in the Van did near make a full rank equal in number to any of the three ranks behind them which were composed of Riders or Troopers And because in Battel Officers by their courage give good example this helpt well to make the Regiments and Troops fight well and upon this account I aver that these Regiments consisted rather of four ranks than of three and so were not properly three deep But let us look a little further back yet not beyond the time that Pistols came in request The French Cavalry even in Henry the fourth's time and the beginning of the Reign of Lewis the Just was composed of three kinds these were Gens d'Armes French Cavalry Archers and light Horse How the Gens d'Armes were mounted and arm'd hath been told you and these were used by the ancient Gauls before ever the Roman name was known among them and were called Clupeati These latter Clupeati Gens d'Armes or Curiassiers were all order'd in several Troops but not in Regiments these Troops were all to be composed of Gentlemen by their birth and were not of equal strength they were of two kinds for some were in the Gens d'Armes of two kinds Kings pay some not Those entertain'd by the King were called Des Ordonnances du Roy or of the Kings Establishment Some of them consisted of one hundred Gentlemen some of sixty some of fifty and some of forty according to the quality or merit of the Captain or the pleasure of the Prince The French Troops of Gens d'Armes which were not in the Kings pay were composed of those Gentlemen who were obliged to serve on their own charges three months within the Kingdom of France and forty days without it The French Archers before the time of Gunpowder carried Bows and Arrows Archers and from thence had the name of Archers but at this time of which I speak they had for weapons Pistols Swords Maces or half Lances Those who were called Chevaux Legers or light Horse had much the like Arms but Light Horsemen instead of a Pistol each had a Harquebuss hanging at his Saddle The main difference between these two consisted in this that the Archers composed no several or distinct body of the Cavalry but were to attend the Gens d'Armes for every man of Arms had the allowance of an Archer to wait on him so that how strong soever the Company of the Gens d'Armes was of that same number The difference between an Archer and a light Horseman were the Archers that attended it But the Cavalry Legere or the light Horse were not at all obliged to any such attendance but had a General of their own who marshal'd them who march'd with them and fought with them either as he himself thought good or as he was order'd to do by the Great Constable or one of the Marshals of France And assuredly the Institution of the Archers to attend the men at Arms was excellent for the Curiassiers not being able to Caragol are obliged in their charge to break thorough or be beaten and in any of these cases the Archers were of good use If they were worsted to support them or to pursue the enemy when he was put to flight which the men at Arms could not do because of the weight of their Armour Now all these three Gens d'Armes Archers and light Horsemen How many Horses all three were oblig'd to keep were obliged to keep each of them more Horses than one whereas now our Troopers are obliged to keep no more but one and have allowance of pay little enough for that one I find that in the Wars which the Protestants of France made with their Kings In the
Bourbon Great Constable of France the First for bringing the Lombards into Italy the second A Prince cannot affront his Subjects for deserting his Masters service and going over to Charles the Fifth for a Soveraign Prince cannot give his Subject a just cause to cast off his duty And Tacitus tells us that we should suffer the wrongs of Princes as we do Rain Tempests Hail Thunder Lightning and other injuries of the Air. And yet for all that hath been said or can be said on this subject this high and important charge of Captain General of all the Forces and Armies of a whole Kingdom hath been offer'd in all Ages by Soveraign Princes to Subjects for of necessity sometimes free States must do it and we find but few of those Subjects who have refus'd it for desire of Honour the Idol of ambitious Souls makes them insensible and blind that they can neither Mens ambition feel the present weight or foresee the future danger of so high and so heavy an imployment but if Princes and Monarchs will have such Captain Generals as are not of their own blood they had better trust their own Subjects with the charge than strangers for the first owe them Fealty Loyalty and Allegiance the second only Military service from which obligation they shake themselves free when ever they think it time As Francis Sforza Father of him who Usurped Millan deserted Joanne Queen of Naples and went over to her Enemy of Arragon I humbly think that a Prince who hath many Armies should be either by himself or one of his Blood present with one of them and entrust the rest to persons of known abilities who should have no higher titles than that of Lieutenant Generals and are to be independent one of another and this will make them emulous endeavouring which of them shall do their Master best service but when Reason of War requires a conjunction of Forces then as I have often said the Prince or one of his Blood should have the supreme command for to a Prince all the Lieutenant Generals will give ready and submissive obedience without repining grudging or murmuring which men ordinarily do not to fellow-Subjects Charles the Ninth of France made but a sorry progress in his Wars against his Protestant Subjects till he made his Brother Henry Duke of Anjou his Captain General who though he was The French Kings Brother Generalissimo but very young yet all the Kings Generals giving him an intire obedience in a short time he brought those of the Religion to a very low and petitioning condition The Emperor Ferdinand the Third in the year 1637. gathered together most of his Armies to the number of Eighty Thousand men gave the conduct of them all to one Count Gallas with the title of Generalissimo and commanded him to chase the Swedish Feltmarshals Banier and Leslie out of Germany Gallas put them indeed to a fearful retreat which they made to the Baltick Sea but his Authority was not so great as to procure an absolute obedience of all the Generals under him to his commands which ocasioned the ruin of most of those numerous Forces within less than nine Months But three or four years after the same Emperour made his Brother Arch-Duke Leopold Captain Leopold the Emperours Brother Generalissimo General of his Armies and sent him against the same Banier whom he forc'd to retire in some disorder in which he lost well near the whole Left Wing of his Cavalry The Arch Duke notwithstanding some losses which he suffered did not only preserve his Brother the Emperors interest and Forces but gained several advantages against the Sweed till he was called to be Governours of the Spanish Netherlands Then again went the Emperors The late Emperour in person with his armies affairs wrong till he went in person to his principal Army where his presence made his Generals do their Duties so well that the Sweed was once more at a loss so much doth a Princes presence contribute to the carrying on of Military designs To lay a side that Chimerical description I gave you in the beginning of this Chapter of a General give me leave to say that one ought to be chosen for that high charge who knows something of all inferiour charges below his own The Sweed breed some of their Nobility in Armies making many of them begin with an Ensign bearer or Cornets place and so rise by degrees till they attain to the command of a part or Wing of an Army theâ— Qualities requisite for a General continue but a short while in one Station yet so long as they may understand what belongs to every charge under a General In the next place our General should be stout not rash resolute to lay hold on occasion as knowing she is bald behind he should be very secret and ready to hearken to advice and have judgement to discern whether it be good or bad Very young this General ought not to be for he must not be a meer novitiat I speak still of Subjects very old he must not be for age dries up the radical moisture cools the blood and weakens the body and thereby makes a man unfit for these Actions which require both present resolution and present expedition In short if you have a General indued with some knowledge in Military Affairs with some prudence with some liberality and an unblemish'd reputation he may pass for sufficient enough though he have not all these qualities in the Superlative degree for perfection is not to be look'd for in the depraved condition of mankind As to Stratagems if he be witty he needs not lose his time to read Frontinus for as Xenophon tells us a General should Stratagems know how to invent Stratagems of his own as well as to know those who have been before him as that Musician is the better Artist who can make new Tunes than he who can only sing or play old ones And in all those qualifications I have now spoke of all General persons are invited to take a share But there are some who in the choice of a General require another qualification and that is that he be fortunate but how shall you know whether he will be fortunate in his future undertakings if you say because he was happy in his lower imployments you will take your measures very ill for many are fit to conduct parties or parcels of armies and to follow such directions as are given them who are very uncapable to manage the charge of a whole army and it is very well known that a Commander in the Wars may be fortunate enough under Fortune unconstant one Master and very unfortunate under another Besides fortune is unconstant in all things and in nothing more than in matters of War I knew when Count Koningsmark was Major Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel no enterprise succeeded well with him nor had he fortune favourable in any party he conducted But
twelve Regiments and allow for every Regiment staff eight Waggons you are to have ninety six Waggons more add these ninety six to the other eleven hundred the Waggons of your Cavalry besides Coaches amount to eleven hundred ninety six Let there be an Infantry of nine thousand men join'd to this Cavalry let it be divided into fifteen Regiments and each Regiment into eight Companies there will be a hundred and twenty Companies for every Company two Waggons are allowed and one for the Sutler these are three for a Company inde for a hundred and twenty Companies three hundred and sixty Waggons for the Staff of every Regiment allow eight Waggons inde for fifteen Regiments a hundred and twenty Waggons add a hundred and twenty to three hundred and sixty you have four hundred and eighty Waggons for the Infantry besides Coaches Add 480 to 1196 the Waggons of the Cavalry the total of Waggons for both amounts to 1676 you may safely allow to the general persons of this Army at least a 120 Coaches and Waggons and then you have 1796 besides all these numbers of Waggons belonging to the Train of Artillery and the Proviant I have seen in a German Army that exceeded not 6000 Horse and Foot not so few as 900 Waggons My second instance shall be of the Dane and some German Princes whose Dane and Germans allowance is somewhat less than the Swedes The third of the Emperour who allows more Waggons to both Horse and Emperours Foot than the Swede doth and that is needless My fourth Instance shall be of the French allowance not of our times but French allowance of Waggons and Horses fifty years ago Fifty years ago for four of the Gensd'arms Baggage a Waggon was appointed inde 25 Waggons for 100 men at Arms. The light armed were allowed no Waggons but were appointed to carry their stuff on Horseback and how many Horses were allowed them for that use I find it not specified but we may make a conjecture when we see how many were allowed to the Foot In the time of Henry the Great who died about sixty years ago one Horse was allowed to carry the Baggage of four Souldiers hence we may conclude that a horse was allowed for the Baggage of two Light-horsemen or of Archers so for Infantry of 10000 men besides Officers 2500 Baggage horses were allowed Besides a Gudget or Boy was allowed to serve two Soldiers inde for 10000 Souldiers 5000 Gudgets the very Vermine of an Army These horses and Boys did no doubt very unnecessarily destroy both Proviant and Fodderage And yet Louis de Montgomery in his Milice Francoise Much retrenched approves of this allowance But the French now of all other people puts the greatest restraint on their Baggage And indeed it Montgomery had liv'd till my time I could have let him see one hundred French Souldiers whose Baggage except the Clothes on their backs might all have been carried in a A Souldier may carry his own luggage Handkerchief And though I joyn freely with him in his opinion that the Souldiers should not carry such burthens as the Romans did of old yet I would have neither Horse nor Boy allowed to them It is too much that the bad Custom of later times hath eas'd most of them of the burthen of defensive arms and therefore every one of them both may and should carry his own Knapsack and four or five days provision of meat with a Hatchet at his girdle which last I see too much neglected on this side of the Sea in so much as where an Infantry comes to encamp if it be for one night or two or more the Souldiers must make use of their Swords for cutting down branches of Trees and to cleave Wood either for making their Huts or for fire indeed I know not for what most of their Swords serve being for most part so extreamly base yet assuredly Hatchets were more proper for those uses I have spoke of than their Ammunition blades which Allowance of Boys to serve Soldiers out of use can hardly cut any thing But such an allowance of Boys and Horses were in fashion in France long before Louis de Montgomery's time for I find some in Records of the Civil Wars the Protestants did retrench these allowances when their Souldiers were Garrison'd for then it is said four of them had but one Gudget allow'd them to wait on them and a whole company of them were but allow'd six horses for their Baggage and indeed I think both these were too many for them in the field in Garrison they needed none of them Though you allow every Souldier two pound of Bread and Cheese every day and God knows he gets not so much many times in four days suppose he hath a couple of Shirts a pair of Stockins and a pair of Shoos in his Knapsack As not necessary and how many Souldiers have all these and a Hatchet I say all these will not weigh so much as a Head-piece and a Corslet and therefore he may well enough be obliged to carry them Every Regiment whether of horse or foot should have a Waggon or a Baggage-master and where the establishment of the Prince doth allow him no pay the Colonel should order a sufficient Serjeant or Corporal to exercise that Office by turns these are to see that every Officers Baggage from the highest to the lowest march according to the Dignity and Precedency of him to whom it belongs whether it be carried on Waggons Carts or Horses But these Regiment Baggage-masters are not to suffer the Baggage of the Regiments to march till they have received their Directions from the Waggon-master General Waggon-master General when and in what manner it shall be done This Waggon-master General 's charge is exceeding toylsome when an Army marcheth Every night after the Army comes to Quarter and every morning before it march he must attend the Major Generals of the Cavalry and Infantry and receive his Orders from them if the whole Army march together but if the Cavalry march apart then the Major General of the foot gives the Waggon-master His Toyle his instructions particularly a list in what order the Army is to march for ordinarily Regiments and Brigades change by turns and their Baggage must march in that same order that themselves do the Waggon-master having got his list he accordingly orders the Regiment Baggage-masters who are obliged to wait on him every morning to cause their luggage march wherein they may not fail for unless some extraordinary occasion alters it the Prince or in his absence the Commander in Chief his Coach or Coaches with his Waggons go first then the whole Train of Artillery behind it the The order how the Baggage of an Army marâ—heth Coaches and Waggons of all the general Officers according to their dignity after them the Waggons of that Brâ—gad that hath the Van for that day and so all the rest in order according
there was a precedent for this it was not to be imitated by one who professed the name of Christ And that which made this action of his altogether inexcusable was that he expected no succours And altogether inexcusable for after he was forc'd to yield the Town wherein many of those Citizens whom he permitted to stay were consum'd with Famine and the remnant of his Souldiers so hunger-starved that they look'd like Skeletons He confesseth in the first Tome of his Commentaries That he could never think of what he did but with a sad affliction of spirit for his folly he should have said vanity and arrogance in reducing that noble City and his own Souldiery to the last morsel of Bread and submitting them to the mercy of an incensed Enemy when he knew well enough that his Master Henry the Second of France was neither able to relieve him at that time nor desirous he should bring himself and the City to those extremities Reinach Governour of Brisac in the year 1638 had a great deal more reason Brisac to keep out that strong Town to the very last against the Duke of Weimar since he knew his master the Emperour would use all means under Heaven to relieve a place that was of so great a concern to the house of Austria yet did he shut no Inhabitants out of it after it was besieg'd This Brisac for the famine it suffer'd during that Siege was an Epitome of the miseries of Samaria and Jerusalem in the Holy Land and of Sancerre and Rochel in France Caesar in his Gallick War tells us with a great abhorrency of the fact That when he had reduced Vercengentorix and his Gauls to great want within Alesia at a Alesia Council held by the besieged one of the prime men among them proposed that all the old and unserviceable people of the Town should be kill'd and preserv'd for food to those who were able to work and fight But the provisions for the belly be they great or small should be sparingly measur'd out after the publick store-houses are once broke up To what I have said of things requisite and necessary for besieged places I shall add the care that should be Physicians Apothecaries and Chyrurgions requiâ—â—te taken â—or the sick and the wounded for which Apothecaries Shops and Chyâ—uâ—gions Chests should be well furnished for curing both sicknesses and wounds for the inspection whereof some skilful Physicians should be entertain'd Our fortified place be it never so strong is but a dead body till men be put into it and then we may say it hath living members whereof Victuals are the nutriment and Munitions of War Arms and Moneys shall be the supporters In this Body to make it serviceable to the Prince who is the Creator of A Governour of a Forâ—ress it a Rational Soul must be infused and that Soul shall be called the Governour And of him I may say almost as I said in another place of a Captain General that such a Governour as many in their Discourses and some in their Writings describe is to be found in no Countrey unless it be in Vtopia or to be read of in any Books except Romances He must say they have an universal knowledge of Fortification and Gunnery he must be very wise of a ready A noâ—ional description of him judgement and a great memory he should be affable and courteous yet severe eloquent vigilant sober temperate religious loyal above measure couragious and indefatigable This seems to be enough but there must be more he must be an old experienced Captain and one who hath given good proof that he can both take and defend fortified places This is a very strange qualification for if a man be not admitted to be a Governour unless he have been one before he shall never be one in his life It needs therefore to be restricted thus he shall not be chosen to be Governour of a frontier Town or a Royal Fortification unless he have formerly well defended some Fort or Castle of lesser importance The real qualifications he should have The truth is much of the safety of the place depends on the Governour and therefore he should be no Novice in Military affairs but for all that he should not be an old man for age wastes that natural vigour which is requir'd in a man of his charge and makes him unable for that fatigue which he is obliged to undergo As to his experience I think it is enough if he have been at two or three Sieges and within one or two besieged places provided he be of a quick apprehension and judgement for such a one will learn more at one sight than others will do at twenty He should understand the general rules of Fortification and Gunnery he should be of a jocund and jovial humour for when Souldiers who are besieged look on their Governour and see him sullen who perhaps naturally is so they fancy he is conscious of some defects weakness or danger whereof they know nothing He should be very couragious and though he be bound to save himself from all needless dangers yet in assaults he should not be shy to expose his person to the most eminent perils for his presence doth exceedingly animate those who are hazzarding their lives in that piece of service If this be true as I believe it is then those are mistaken A Coward a had Governour who think a Coward a fitâ— person to be a Governour because his constant fear will make him constantly vigilant but to what purpose his vigilance when two or three hours Battery of Cannon shall terrifie him to a surrender An opiniator our Governour should not be but ready both to seek and follow the advice of his Captains Engineers and Gunners and yet of that judgement that he may of himself conclude the advice that is given him to be rational It is fitting he have two or three or more Engineers with him for ordering Retrenchments Engineers and Gunners and inventing new Defences Engines and Machines according to the emergencies of the Siege Good Gunners and Cannoneers he should have in the Fort who have skill to make Batteries Counter-batteries and sunk Batteries and to dismount the Enemies Ordnance And if there be more Regiments than one in the Garrison it were fit the Colonels Lieutenant Colonels and Majors were men of good understanding and experience that if either the Governour or any of them chance to dye which frequently falls out those who succeed to them by their antiquity or priority of place may be endued with those qualifications that are suitable to their trust and charge Being satisfied with the qualifications of the Governour and those who are to assist him let us in the next place take a view of those duties he owes and is bound to perform in the time of a Siege Before the danger be near he Duties of a Governour should destroy all the Suburbs for those
great Stranger in their Courts they should have set the Duke and all that were with him at liberty and then have taken their hazzard of all the mischief could befal them All which concludes that the death of that unfortunate Lord was plain Murther Of this stamp was that agreement made by those who took Count Montgomery Count de Montgomery's little better who had kill'd Henry the Second of France at Tilting sore against his will He had done very signal services to the Protestants in the time of the Civil Wars and at length was besieged in the Castle of Domfron which he maintain'd gallantly resolving to dye with his Sword in his hand but being at length deserted by most of those that were with him he accepted of conditions which were That his Life should be safe and he should only be Prisoner a few days and then have his liberty But the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici pretending that those Lords who had besieg'd the Castle had no power to grant any such conditions caus'd him to be brought to Paris where his Head was publickly cut off in the Greve not without a previous torture At that same time his Son Lorges yielded Carentan upon Articles but had been likewise sent to Paris there to partake of his Fathers fate if he had not been dextrously shifted out of the way and suffer'd to escape by a near Kinsman of his own Many Parleys and Treaties are without any Cessation of Arms. That at Munster which produc'd the Peace in the year 1648. lasted six years and yet the War in Germany was as hot and fierce as ever And so it was in England in the Cessations of Arms and Parleys time of the Treaty of Vxbridge But if there be a cessation of Arms which you may call a Truce during the time of it acts of hostility cease yet Armies may retire Souldiers may be levied Fortifications may be helped unless by Articles all or any of these be forbid If this Truce or Cessation be broke by one party the other may lawfully run to Arms without any new denunciation of the War or he may not do it as he pleaseth or thinks convenient for the present posture of his affairs Commonly at Sieges in time of Parley and Cessation all works above or under ground are forbidden But when Besieged Towns Castles and Camps are necessitated to Towns and Forts surpriz'd in time of Treaty come to a Parley though there be a cessation of Arms let neither the Besieger nor the Besieged trust to it but stand on their guard for many times the Besieged contrary to agreement Sally to destroy the Approaches to shift away their Horse-men or some of them for Intelligence and oftner do the Besiegers take the advantage of a Parley and without his order or knowledge who commands in chief fall on the Besieged place whose Garrison then over-wearied with former fatigue is secure and so soon overmaster'd For the desire of booty whereof the Treaty robs the Souldiers stirs them up to take their advantage of those who thinking themselves safe by a Cessation make little or no resistance And though the Besieger who commands in chief may pretend it was done without his knowledge yet he keeps what he hath got as his lawful gain without any thought of restitution Thus was Therouen and Monmorancy Marshal of France in it taken by the Instances Imperialists in time of Parley and Cessation Thus Coqueville at Sainct Valery was surpriz'd in the time of Treaty by the Marshal de Cosse his Forces Thus the strong Castle of Fontenay kept by the French Protestants in the year 1574. in the time of Treaty was storm'd by the Duke of Montpensier at the breaches of the Wall and though it was defended at that time yet it was forc'd to surrender for fear of a second Assault on mean conditions And thus was Maestricht storm'd in the year 1579. by the Duke of Parma's Army where most of the Souldiers and Inhabitants in time of Parley were put to the Sword after they had defended themselves bravely for the space of four months Nor can I fancy there can be better ways found out to prevent such â—ays to prevent it mischiefs at such occasions than to keep strict Guards to discharge all private Parleys to suffer neither Officers nor Souldiers of the two parties to speak together be the pretence of the conference what it will and to oblige the one party to stay within the Walls and the other within the Approaches not only till the Treaty be finished and the Articles sign'd but even till the evacuation of the place for Homo Homini Lupus One Man is a Wolf to another Much more generous would it be to give fair conditions to those who are Articles ofâ—times ill observ'd reduced to extremities than to take such unjustifiable advantages against them So did Serriou to the hunger-starved Inhabitants of Sancerre in France And truly I think Marquess Spinola left a noble testimony to the World of his Heroick Spirit when he gave very advantageous conditions to the Governour of Breda in the year 1628 when he knew well enough as I observed in another place that there was no relief to be expected from without and not above three days Victuals within When Articles are sign'd I suppose there is not any man of what perswasion soever but will say they should be religiously observ'd and inviolably kept neither is it in the power of any either Prince or State to break them without perfidy and violation of Faith the very Cut-throats of humane society The Turks who were accustom'd to keep no Treaties but to kill all or most who yielded on Articlâ—s have learn'd of late to keep their Promises as finding the breach of them was prejudicial to themselves because it forc'd the Defendants to stand out to the last drop of their blood It were to be wish'd that many Christians had not prov'd perfect Turks in this Caesar Borgia Duke of Valentinois after Articles Instances of an accord sign'd strangled some principal Lords of the noble family of the Vrsines and put many others to death Nor did Leo the tenth Bishop of Rome enslave himself to his promise made solemnly to the Dukes of Vrbino and Ferrara The Bloody Tenet No Faith to be kept to Hereticks could not excuse this fedifragy being it was done to Roman Catholicks In the year 1632. we shall hear of Faith broke by both Protestants and Papists The Imperialists forced a Suedish Garrison in the Town of Sultsbach to yield the place on conditions sign'd some whereof were basely broke Not long after the Suedish King besiegeth it and makes it render upon Articles notwithstanding which when the Governour was march'd a good way out of it he was shot dead and with him some other officers the Souldiers all plunder'd and forc'd to take service You may be sure Lex Talionis was pretended here but in vain for the fedifragy
another place of the Military Punishments and Rewards of the Ancients I have likewise spoke of our Modern Military Laws where observe that most of them threaten Punishment few or none promise Reward the first is due to Transgressors the second is ex beneplacito because all men are bound to do their duty yet Princes and States have rewarded Vertue of late times as well as the Ancients did I shall speak of Punishments and then of Rewards Though Princes and States have their several Laws of War yet all agree Punishment of Capital crimes Treason that Treason against the Prince in betraying either his Forts Forces or Munitions should be punish'd with an ignominious Death but the crime should be throughly examin'd by the Judge Marshal and Court of War whereof I have formerly spoke Mutiny against Command or Superiour Mutiny Officers is punishable by Death If it cannot be compesc'd without force either all or most of the Army are to be call'd together to cut the Mutineers in pieces But if a Mutiny be quieted without blood in doing whereof both Courage and Prudence are requisite then ordinarily the ring-leaders are to dye and the rest are eitheir all pardon'd or all to run the Gatloupe or the tenth man of them is to suffer death which custome is borrow'd from the Ancient Romans If Officers run away from the Mutineers and leave them mutinying the Law of War orders them to dye unless they can make it appear that either they had kill'd some of the Mutineers or had been wounded themselves by them But it is not to be denied that too many of them are more ready to give a rise and beginning to a Mutiny than to put an end to it The Death of a Mutineer should be ignominious and therefore it should be hanging or breaking on a Wheel All crimes that are Capital by the Civil Law Many more are so also by Martial Law as Wilful Murther Robbery Theft Incest Sodomy and others needless to be rehears'd But Martial Law makes many crimes Capital which the Civil and Municipal Law doth not Such are to desert the Colours to Sleep on Sentinel to be drunk on a Watch to draw a Sword or strike at a Superiour many times these are pardon'd and very oft they are punish'd with Death when a General thinks Justice more convenient than Mercy To be absent from a Watch by some Military Laws is Capital but seldome put in execution Yet I find in the Reign of Henry the Second of France that one Granvillâ—n a German Severe Justice Colonel in a Court of War condemn'd an Ensign bearer to be hang'd for playing at Dice in his Lodging when the Company was on Watch and he put the Sentence in execution The crime of Cowardize is by the Law of â—aâ— Cowardise Capital but should be well examin'd by the Auditor and the matter made clear in a Court of War before Sentence be past because it and Treason taints the Blood of the parties To run away in time of service either in the Field or from the Assaults of Towns Forts and Out-works brings Death upon the guilty or that which to generous Spirits is worse than death that is to have their Swords broke over their Heads by the hand of the Hangman and so turn'd out of the Army and this I have known more frequently practis'd than death inflicted but the Instances I could give are too fresh and therefore I shall tell you only of one about a hundred years ago At the Siege of Dinan Gaspar Coligni that famous Admiral of France commanded some Ensign-bearers to run with their Colours to the Assault of the breach they did not go pretending the place was too dangerous for the Kings Colours for they might chance to be taken by the Enemy for which the Admiral caus'd all their Swords to be broke over their Heads by a Hang-man in view An ignominious punishment of his whole Army It will be about two or three and thirty years since Leopold Arch-Duke of Austria and his Lieutenant General Piccolomini caused a Regiment of Horse to be cut in pieces and all the Officers to be hanged in the place where-ever they could be apprehended without any Process or Sentence of a Court of War because it was well known that the whole Regiment had run An exemplary and deserved punishment away in a full body without fighting at the second Battel of Leipsick where the Suedish Felt-marshal Torstenson gain'd the Victory over the Imperialists I have spoke in the last Chapter of the punishment due to those Governours who give over Forts sooner than they need and gave you some instances but now I shall tell you that by some Articles of War the whole Garrison is lyable to punishment which is to be Pioneers to the rest of the Army I dare say A severe Law nothing against the Justice of this Law but I think if the Garrison disobey the Governour and do not march out at his command he pretending the Prince or Generals order for what he does all of it may undergo the censure and punishment of Mutiny But many Laws are made ad terrorem which do but little good I think the Turkish Punishments not imitable by those who profess the name Inhumane punishments of Christ such as are roasting at slow fires flaying quick and gaunching the manner of this last is to throw the condemned person from the top of a Tower or a high Wall the place where he is to fall being all beset with Iron pricks and the wretch is happy if his Head Breast or Belly fall on one of them for thereby he may be soon dispatched but if a Leg Arm or Thigh catch hold he must hang till extremity of pain hunger thirst and the fowls of the air put an end to his miserable life The Muscovites for a Military Punishment can whip to death and that is cruel enough They and other Christians can impale condemned persons on wooden Stakes and Spits which in some extraordinary cases is also practised in Germany and I have heard that Hang-men can so artificially do it that the woful Delinquent will sometimes live three days in unspeakable torture When Mahomet the Great saw a Valley in Valachia beset with these Stakes and Wheels on which some thousands of Men and Women lay executed it is said that he much commended the Vayvod or Prince of that Countrey for a good Justitiary so near did the one of their tempers both barbarous and cruel resemble the other The fairest and justest way of Punishment is by Courts of War if the case do not require a present animadversion And that Court is to judge and give Sentence according to the Military Laws of the Prince or State in whose service the Army is When the Sentence is pronounced the General may either Generals may pardon pardon the offender or delay the execution or alter the manner of his death The most honourable
it with the Modern Art of War Milice to want its imperfections so I suppose none will be so void of Reason as to grant to him that the Roman one was absolutely perfect He hath read it sure in the best of Authors That nothing below the Sun is perfect And I would have it observed that though the Title of the Comparison be Of the Ancient and Modern Militia yet all along in the Comparison it self he mentions only the Roman as if that had been the only Ancient one whereas he knew the Grecian was more Ancient than it the Judaick older than the Grecian and the Aegyptian older than all the three My purpose then being neither to derogate from the excellent worth of the Roman nor to vilipend the Modern Art of War I hope without any offence to the ashes of the Learned Lipsius I may take a view of his Comparison wherein he speaks of all the five essential In five points points of War and in them all gives the preheminence to the Roman let us hear his Reasons The first point is Election or Levy of which he avers very magisterially First in Election or Levy that the Roman was the best and which now saith he cannot be imitated except perhaps in some Republicks and among those he says the Common-wealth of Venice is so far from imitating the Romans that she restrains her Citizens from the Exercise of Arms at Land permitting them only to serve in her Naval Militia In answer to this I think Lipsius deals very rudely with Monarchs himself being a subject of one of them who by his assertion neither have the best way of Levy nor can imitate the best way for he plainly says the Roman Levy is the best and cannot be imitated but by some Republicks and not by all of them neither In the next place I say that though Princes do not bring all their Subjects together in Arms every year and out of them enrol some to be Souldiers as the Romans did yet it may satisfie Lipsius if they do the equivalent and that is to order the matter so that theâ—r Subjects on a Frontier be ready in an instant to withstand an invasion till the Prince with a greater force comes to repel it Or if Princes intend to invade others then by their several Municipal Laws they make in a short time such a Levy as serves their turn witness the Commission of Array in England the raising of all between sixteen and sixty in Scotland out of which an Election is quickly made But Lipsius might have remember'd the seven Legions which were appointed by Francis the First to be perpetually maintain'd and in readiness in France in imitation of the Romans Of which notwithstanding Marshal Monluc writes that France in its Wars found no advantage So little did that great Captain care for imitating the Roman Levy and if it be true that Credendum Artifici in suâ arte we should in a matter that belongs to War sooner trust Monluc perpetually vers'd in Arms than Lipsius mew'd up most part of his life in a Cell And if Lipsius be offended with the beat of Drum and sound of Trumpet for our Modern Levies he should have remember'd that Rome had likewise her sudden and tumultuary Levies And if he mislike that Princes and States should give such trust to so great numbers of Strangers as ordinarily they Levy and keep in Pay he should remember that the Romans trusted their Allies as much if not more and after the name of Allies was obliterated Auxiliaries of strange Nations had the same trust In the days of our Fathers and our own too the Estates of Venice and the Vnited Provinces the Emperour the Kings of France and Spain of Denmark and Sweden have done great feats by the Levies and maintenance of Strangers The second part of the Comparison consists in the Order kept in their Armies Secondly in Order Here he crys out O ille bonus in re Romanâ O how good it was in the Roman Milice But that is not enough he adds See the Centurions the Ensign-bearers and the Options here says he nothing is wanting nothing redounding Yes by your favour Lipsius I have shewn in my Discourses of the Roman Milice there was much wanting But here our Author speaks not one word of or against the Order of the Modern Militia and therefore I need not speak one word for it yet he seems to detract from it by crying up the other so much When he speaks of Officers he seems to say the Romans had enough of them and we too many But if this last be true as perhaps it is I affirm the Romans had too few for to speak of their Foot I know not what to make of their Centurions Sub-Centurions or Options but Caporals Lancespesates and Bringers-up as I told you in another place Nor do I find their Cavalry commanded by any Officers in chief under a Consul or a Legate for the Decurions were not subordinate one to another nor had any of them a greater command than our Corporals or Brigadeers of Horse All these I look on as Defects nor hath Lipsius prov'd the contrary In our Modern Militia there is an order that our Colonels shall be with their Regiments and Brigades and not stand in an heap together as Lipsius makes his Roman Tribunes to be in time of Battel all at the Eagle of the first Legion waiting on the Consul as his Lackies or at best as his Adjutants And this I conceive was another defect in the Roman Militia whereof our Modern one cannot be accused Thirdly He compares the Ancient and Modern Arms and truly I shall easily Thirdly in Arms. grant that Defensive Arms were more used in Lipsius his time than they are now that they were better in more ancient times than in either his time or ours But that will not satisfie him for he will have the Roman Weapons or Defensive Arms to be preferr'd to ours He acknowledgeth the Pike to be an useful Weapon The Pike but not so good as those Arms the Romans had and for this he cites the authority of Polybius of which I can say no more than I have done in my view of that Authors comparison of the Grecian Phalange and the Roman Legion whereof I shall repeat nothing in this place Lipsius says A Bow is a more The Bow useful Engine of War than an Harquebuss I shall not add any thing here to what I have spoke of the neglect of the Bow but though I think well of it I dare not for all that attribute so much to the strength of an Arrow shot by the strongest Arm and most experienc'd Archer that ever liv'd as to a Bullet shot out of a Harquebuss and yet Lipsius attributes full as much and offers to prove it by several instances taken out of Authors I pray have the patience to hear them Plutarch in thâ— life of Crassus says That the
Protestant War in France 100 years ago Charles the Ninth and his Brother Henry the Third they managed them at as small an expence as possibly they could yet they obliged every man at Arms to keep three Horses two strong Coursers and one Gelding every Archer and Light-Horse-man two a good Horse and a good Nag And I suppose you will really think it strange how they could keep so many when I tell you what allowance of pay they had Every man of Arms had 45 French Livres in the Month about Three pound fifteen shillings Sterling every Archor and Light-Horse-man had Thirty Livres about Two pound ten shillings A Captain of all three had five Riders pay allow'd him the Lieutenant four the Cornet three and the Quartermaster two very inconsiderable wages but assuredly they had either other shifts or things were at easier rates in France then than they have been since In the times of the Emperours Ferdinand the First Maximilian the Second Rodolph the Second and Matthias I find that the German Establishment was Old German Companies of Horse particularly Curiassiers that no Ritmaster or Captain of Horse should have any Rider in his Troop but Gentlemen and that every Troop of Curiassiers should consist of Three-hundred Riders many whereof were bound to maintan three serviceable Horses and all the rest two at least and every one of these Gentlemen who kept either two or three Horses were to keep a lusty fellow well Hors'd in quality of a servant armed with a long Gun wherewith they rode when commanded before the Troop and fired on the Enemy and immediately retired behind the Troop as I told you the Carabineers did these being equal in number to their Masters made up Three hundred and resembled the French Archers These Dutch Servants had the Emperours pay or that of some German Prince but their Masters received it with their own nor had the Masters power to put away these Servants or the Servants to go from the Masters so long as the War lasted but if any difference arose between them it was voided by the Ritmaster or Marshal of the Army These German Companies of Horse had for Officers a Captain a Lieutenant a Cornet a Quartermaster Their Officers and six Corporals whom they called Ritmasters which is to say File-leaders each whereof had fifty Troops under his command two Trumpeters There was likewise allowed to every Troop a Priest a Clerk a Chirurgion a Dagmaker a Saddler and a Smith All these Curiassiers were armed for offence with two Pistols a Sword and a Lance so long as this last was in fashion so if you will reckon all that belonged to this German Troop both Masters and those who attended them who were all obliged to fight you will find it consisted of six hundred fighting men and of nine hundred Horses at least But since that time I have seen four Regiments in that same Country who were not all of them together so strong In later times Commissions have been given for levying Regiments free Squads and Troops but all Regiments did not nor do not consist of alike Troops and Regiment of those times number of Companies nor all Companies of alike number of Riders nay not under one Prince you shall see a Lieutenant Colonel have four Troops in his Squadron which he calls free because he acknowledgeth no Colonel or other Commander under the Major General and each of these Troops to have fifty or sixty Riders being oblig'd to have no more by their Ritmasters Capitulation You may see in that same Army a Regiment of six Companies each of Seventy men another of eight Troops each of fifty horse so little is an uniformity in equal numbers of Troops or of Horsemen in every Troop regarded or look'd after I saw one Regiment in the Sweedish service I may say one for I saw not such another in any of their Armies in which were according to Capitulation twelve Troops each of them consisting of one hundred Riders effectively but four of the Regiments of that Army were not so strong as that Regiment was alone Troops Squads and Regiments of Horse in our Modern Wars are not cast into Wedges or Rhombs as some of the Ancient ones were at which manner of figures Aelian makes his Grecian Companies to be very dexterous The Square front being now only in use The number of Ranks of either Regiments or Troops whether they be strong or weak are alike in all because the depth of the Battel is determined by the Prince or State to be alike in all and in the matter of this depth there hath been great variance among those who assume to themselves the title of Tacticks who teach the rules of War Many would have the file of Horsemen to be five deep others will not hear of How deep Horse should be marshaled Difference of opinions that because thereby ranks cannot double an objection which I have answer'd already in my discourse of Exercise Others will have six because that admits doubling of ranks but that is rejected because if six deep be enough for the Foot it will be too much for the Horse There be others who would have every Troop of Horse to consist of sixty and four Riders and these being Marshall'd eight deep and eight in front according to the square root make a perfect square of men and Horse and this speculation seems very pretty but I Square Root reserve my answer to it till I speak of the square root it self for the present let it suffice that if six deep be too many for a Cavalry eight deep will be very far out of purpose The late Earl of Strafford as he appointed in his Military Instructions the foot to be eight deep so he order'd his Troops of Horse to be four in File But Universally now for any thing I know unless it be in the Low-Countries the Horse are Marshall'd three deep without Three deep regard to doubling of ranks whereof I have already spoken and assuredly this of all others brings most hands to fight When you have known how deep the Troop is to be drawn up you should cause to be set down in paper in what order you will Marshal your Horsemen whom you ordain to be Leaders and whom Bringers up and whom for the right and left hand files that all your Riders may be placed according to their dignity then it will be an easie matter to draw up your Troop and for the Major to draw up the Regiment for being that all the Horsemen are arm'd alike there is no separation to be made of one part of the Troop from another as there is of separating the Pikemâ—n from the Musqueteers in Foot-Companies the Major giving every Ritmaster his place of dignity according to his antiquity or Commission and those intervals being kept that are appointed the several Troops be they few or many are very soon cast into the mould of a Regiment In my discourse