Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A53478
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A treatise of the art of war dedicated to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty / and written by the Right Honourable Roger, Earl of Orrery.
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Orrery, Roger Boyle, Earl of, 1621-1679.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing O499; ESTC R200
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162,506
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242
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Reason will not make Men change irrational Customs Losses will which are the usual Converters of all those on whom Ratiocination at first does not operate I have designed this whole Treatise shall consist of Two Tomes partly because it will be too Voluminous in One but chiefly to know if the first may have the Honor and Happiness to be acceptable to Your Majesty since the onely Rule I have set up to my self of liking or disliking any thing I do is As Your Majesty shall Approve or Disapprove it I have prepared the chief Materials for the remaining Tome in which is to be contained the Greatest the most Useful and the most Intricate parts of the Art of War If this now Publish'd shall be blest with Your Majesties Favor I shall have therein the highest Encouragement to proceed but if it is not I shall have more reason to Apologize for having written so much than to do it for writing no more I was not induced to undertake this VVork at the Importunity of many Friends nor by the Flattery of divers others who endeavor'd to persuade me it might be of some Use to Your Majesties Subjects nor yet to evidence when Your Majesty had as much above my Desert as Expectation rais'd me by Your Letters Patents to be the Major General of Your Majesties Army in Ireland I had not intirely neglected to study the Duties and Knowledge of the Military Art though possibly this last might have been no unpardonable Design but the chief Ends which induced me to compose this Treatise were Two The first was That to perform the VVork well was highly desirable and I would provoke others to do what I acknowledge I am only able to attempt The second was That as from the first Time I had the Blessing to know Your Majesty and the high Honor to be employ'd by You which having been both at one and the same time I might be proud of it with more Reason than I could be condemn'd for being so I paid my healthful Time to Your Service so now I would humbly endeavor to evidence to Your Majesty and to all others that I Dedicate my sickly Time to the same Duty whereby all the Parts of my Life will appear Devoted to Your Service which cannot be more the Debt than to discharge it acceptably is and will be to the last moment of my Life the utmost Endeavor and the highest Satisfaction of May it Please Your Most SACRED MAJESTY Your Majesties most Humble Most Obedient and Most Intirely Devoted Subject and Servant ORRERY The Titles of the several Chapters with the Pages where they Begin and End The Choice and Educating of the Soldiery Begins Page 4 Ends Page 22 The Arming of the Soldiery 23 35 The Disciplining of the Soldiery 36 41 The Ordering of Garisons 42 58 The Marching of an Army 59 72 The Camping of an Army within a Liâ—… or 〈◊〉 73 147 The Chapter of Battels 14â—… 20â—… LICENSED Novemb. 17. 1677. ROGER L'ESTRANGE ERRATA PAge 1. Line 14. for peaceable read peaceably Page 3. Line the last save one for embrainâ—…g read embracing Page 6. Line 9. for made read makes Page 19. Line 22. for all read ill Page 23. Line 13. 27. for Iavelet read Iavelin Page 24. Line 9. for fo read for Ibid. Line 27. for Iüry read Iury. Ibid. Line 28. for of theire read other Page 25. Line the last for then to read and not Page 26. Line 13. blot out of Ibid. Line 26. add of after day Page 27. Line 7. for will read would Ibid. Line 16. for front read fight Page 28. Line 13. after day add of Page 30. Line 35. blot out made Page 31. Line 36. for he read him Page 39. Line 28. for division read divisions Page 40. Line 9. for do read does Page 43. Line the last blot out as after prove Page 46. Line 26. for they read their Page 47. Line 15. 17. for Parrepett read Parrapets Page 48. Line 10. for would read will Page 50. Line 13. after it read is Page 52. Line 14. for on read in Pag 53. Line 30. for their read the. Page 54. Line 5. for open read open'd Page 55. Line 35. for ot read on Page 57. Line 15. for surprised read surprisal Ibid. Line 16. for Parropett read Parrapett Page 59. Line 30. for is read are Page 60. Line 10. after discover point it with a semicolon Page 65. Line 10. after not read so Page 66. Line 17. 18. for expeditiâ—… read expeditionâ—…y Page 67. Line 22. after another blot out for Page 75. Line 6. for aâ—… read and. Ibid. Line 8. for dersues read derives Page 81 Line 3. for Retrenchments read Intrenchments Page 87. Line 14. for breadth read length Page 90. Line 33. for 3 read 2. Page 92. Line last for 2 read 3. Page 94. Line 32. for as read are Page 96. Line 15. for sett read sell. Page 126. Line 35. for favour'd read indulged Page 128. Line 20. for on read in Page 133. Line 13. for Continents read Continent Page 134. Line 18. for Ottomen read Ottoman Page 135. Line 17. for 18 or 19 read 8 or 9. Page 150. Line 36. for Francis the First read Charles the Ninth Page 154. Line 30. for Iüry read Iury. Page 156. Line 23. for that read the. Page 158. Line 35. 37. for Hostatii read Hastati Ibid. Line 36. 38. for Principi read Principes Page 159. Line 14. for easie read easier Ibid. Line 17. after in add a. Page 165. Line 25. for if read of Page 170. Line the last save 〈◊〉 for Economies read oeconomies Page 171. Line 7. for 320000 read 318000. Page 191. Line 14. for Lines read Line Ibid. Line 32. for Squadron read Squadrons Page 192. Line 32. for Faces read Paces Page 196. Line 30. after may be read thereby Page 202. Line 25. for follow read following Page 205. Line the last for estimable read esteemable A TREATISE OF THE Art of WAR THough no one Nation in the World hath acquir'd more Glory by Arms than the English hath done yet I never saw or indeed so much as credibly heard of an entire Treatise of the Art of War written in our Language Whether those who were Ablest to Compose it esteem'd it unadvisable to have the Secrets of that Fatal but Necessary Art prostituted as it were by being made Common to All Or whether they did present what they writ to their Kings onely who if Martially inclined kept them as Secrets unfit to be Communicated or if Peaceable neglected and buried them in crowds of other useless Writings Or whether in those former Warlike dayes that Needsul Science was so universally known by great Commanders that every one in particular esteemed it needless to write an express Treatise of what was known to All in general Or whether that great Profession by daily Experiments did so Improve and Heighten as what in one War was worthy to be known in the next War was so
exactly obedient to it to keep silence And when the Parties are numerous enough to compose Battalions and Squadrons to observe in going to the Charge the just wideness of the Intervals for the Reserves or second Line to relieve the first Line But if there must be any Error therein to be sure the Interval ground be rather inlarged than streightned For 't is better the Reserves should have too much room to march up to the Front than too little since the latter will render them almost useless But before I come to Treat of that part of Disciplining the Soldiery which consists in drawing them up into Battalions and Squadrons which I intend to discourse of when I come to Treat of Battels I shall crave leave to offer some Considerations on what we generally observe and seldom or never alter whatever the occasion requires And that is the drawing up our Shot and Pike six deep and our Horse three deep And this I should not presume to do had not I been emboldened to it by some Experiments of my own which God did bless with success For when I found my self over-winged by the Enemy they drawing up their Foot six deep and their Horse three deep I judged it best for me to Fight my Foot four deep and my Horse two deep whereby I added one third of more hands to the Front and Breadth of my Battalions and Squadrons For I was fully satisfied that it was likelier I should be worsted by the Enemy if he fell into my Flanks and Rear holding me also to equal Play in the Front than if four Ranks of my Foot should be broken or two Ranks of my Horse that the third Rank of the Horse and the fifth and sixth Ranks of my Foot should recover all again for I had often seen Battalions and Squadrons defeated by being overwinged But I never saw the last Rank of the Horse and the two last Ranks of the Foot restore the Field when the four first Ranks of the Foot and the two first Ranks of the Horse were Routed For commonly if the two first Ranks of the Horse are Routed they themselves for they still are broken inward Rout the third Rank and though the like cannot truly be said of the Foot in all points yet in a great measure it usually follows But I must confess that he who makes such an alteration in Military Discipline unless he be a Sovereign Prince or have sufficient Orders to do it ought to resolve his success only must Apologize for it that is to be victorious or be kill'd I should therefore humbly desire that fighting no deeper than four for the Foot and two for the Horse where the ground is fit might well be considered and then let true Reason give the Rule For my own part I will ingeniously acknowledge that after having as throughly weighed all the Arguments for and against it as my weak judgment could suggest to me I would without hesitation if it were left to my own Election fight my Foot and Horse no deeper than four and two in any case where the ground would admit me to extend my Battalions and Squadrons to the full For if I fight against equal Numbers and equally good Soldiers to my own 't is more likely falling into their Flanks and as much into their Rear also as I overwing them the depth of a File in each Flank that I shall Rout them then it is that before I perform that they shall have pierced through my four Ranks since Rank to Rank of equally good Soldiers and equal in Number will more probably hold longer play one with the other than Soldiers equally good can defend themselves at once if briskly charged in Front Flanks and Rear and since the Flanks and Rear of Foot them selves fight with great disadvantage against those who Charge them there all at once but when Horse are Charged in the Flanks and in the Rear 't is next of kin to a miracle if they 'scape being broken For the Troopers in the Ranks when they go to Charge are as close as the Riders knees can endure it and therefore 't is impossible for the Flanks to do any thing or the last Rank to face about and consequently they must have their backs expos'd to the Shot and Swords of their Enemy The Foot indeed will easily face about but then if the depth of Files be the advantage I have it who Charge every where four deep and they every way defend but three deep at the most If this way of fighting will afford me solid and great advantages against an Enemy equal to me in the goodness and number of his Soldiers I do not think it can be denied but if I fight against fewer or worse men than mine but greater and more certain benefits will result from it The chief Objection to this way of fighting that I know of is as to the Musketeers who being but four deep and advancing firing the first Rank cannot have loaded their Muskets again by that time the fourth Rank has done firing so that there will be an intermission of shooting To that I answer Let the Musketeers Charge their Muskets with such Cartridges as I have mentioned and the first Rank will be as soon ready if you are but four deep as the first Rank will be if you are six deep loading with Bandeleers especially if I use the Fire-lock and the Enemy the Match-lock Besides you will still have a Rank to fire till you fall in if you begin to fire but at a short distance which I would do to choose if I were six deep Lastly were both these denied which yet I must say I have on Experiment found to be true and a demonstration is the strongest proof It is not enough to say one method hath such Objections to it which the other hath not but all Objections to both methods are to be examined and that Rule is to be observed which on the whole matter has the least For how few things in the world would be entertained as best if only such were so against which no Objection could be made The first of the Ancients which I have read of who found it much more advantageous when the ground allowed it rather to extend the Ranks than deepen the Files was that great Captain Cyrus in his famous Battel against Cressus King of Lydia for Cyrus finding himself over numbred took off half the depth of his Files and added them to his Front whereby he won the Victory by overwinging Cressus As the drawing up the Infantry but four deep and the Cavalry but two deep where the ground will allow it has great advantages in Fight over those who draw up the Foot six deep and the Horse three deep so it has in marching for the shallower the Files are in the several Divisions the shorter the Army or Regiment must be in their long march which is a great ease to the Soldiers in and towards the Rear of