Therefore the best remedy will be to give him way and withal to remember to do all things like wise men and Souldiers as hath been said already by driving and withdrawing the Countries cattel and provisions that your Enemy may not be relieved and nourished Duke of Alva against the Prince of Orenge Did not the Duke of Alva defeate the Prince of Orenges great Army by forbearing to fight with him and leaving him a vast Country to walk and way himself in Did not the Constable of France defeat the Emperours attempt upon Province France against the Emperor by this only temporizing course Did he not burn the Mills destroy the Ovens spoyle the fruit c. himself retiring to Avignon there to joyn with his forces after that he had provided for the frontier Towns leaving nothing but a wast Country for his Enemies to spend themselves in whereby he drove the Emperor in the end to make a most dishonourable retreit Monsieur de Langey doth alledge that example of the Constable of France proving greatly his device and policy therein Notwithstanding there were divers who did not stick to blame him for that he did not seek to stop the Enemies passage through the mountains which they supposed he might have done very easily and with few men But he foreseeing the mischief that might grow by a small foyl or loss received at the first thought it the safest way to prevent all dangers by temporizing until his forces were assembled in full strength and his Enemies weakned saying moreover that it is a great point of wisdome for a Prince or Captain General to defer fighting when the Enemies are entered in his Country for saith he if the battel should be lost through the encountring of them the Country would also be in hazzard to be lost and this may appear by divers examples First The King of Hungary against the Turk the King of Hungary being assailed by the Turk in the year 1562. thought it better to hazzard the Battel and to fight with the Turk at his arrival than to forbear and stand upon his guard which was the cause he himself was slain and a great part of his kingdom lost William the Conquerour and Henry the seventh got the Crown of England by Battel And did not William the Conquerour and King Henry the seventh become kings of England by reason the defendent gave them battel at their landing and lost the same Obj. But some may here object that the Parties and Factions within the land were cause thereof And doth any man think that a Forraign Prince is so void of Judgment as that he thinketh to prevaile by way of Conquest without a party The Duke of Burgundie won the Countrey of Leigh by Battel Did not the Duke of Burgundie get the Country of Leidge by reason of some Battel he won against the the people thereof Philip de Comines saith that a man ought greatly to fear to hazzard his estate on a Battel when he may otherwise avoid the same for faith he of a small number of people lost there followeth a great change to him that loseth them not so much by the fear they conceive of the Enemy as in the little estimation they will have of their Master afterward being ready still to enter into mutinies demanding things more boldly than they were wont alledging further that one Crown before will do more with them than three will do after Whosoever will read the Book of the actions of Lewis the eleventh King of France who was both a very wise and valiant Prince shall find Lewis the eleventh aginst Charles the Duke of Burgundies Son that after the great incounter between him and Count Charles the Duke of Burgundies son at Mountleyrre notwithstanding that the conflict went so indifferent as neither side knew almost by the space of three or four hours after who had the Victory so soon as each party had rallied their broken Troops c. having some good means so to do by reason of a great ditch and long hedge that was between their two Armies where the fight first began although the Kings power remained still great by reason of so many Princes as he had assembled together yet then and ever after he determined no more to venture so great a Kingdom as France was upon the uncertain event of a Battel And therefore the night following he dislodged and retired to Corbel after which time he carried all his Wars with such a Temporizing course as thereby he wearied his Enemies and became a mighty Prince making his Army so great as his adversaries at no time after durst attempt to give him Battel Although Philip de Comines doth write that our Nation hath been wonderfully fortunate in Battel and are much addicted thereunto yet he doth more allow of the politique and wise temporizing of Lewis the French King in forbearing to fight with Edward the fourth when he entered France proffering him Battel near Amyens Lewis against Edward the fourth The King considering how dangerous an adventure it was to his estate If it should not succeed well with him looking also back to the great thraldome and subjection that his predecessors had brought the Kingdome of France into under the English Nation by such like rash acceptance of Battel he determined to temporize though it were to his charges thereby to weaken the King of England the winter season drawing then on In the mean time sending great presents to those that were near about the King and Victuals of free-gift to relieve his Army condescending also to pay a yearly sum of 50000 Crowns into the Tower of London thereby to hasten the peace and to get our Nation to return After all was concluded and the King returned home one of the King of Englands men being with Phillip de Comines in discourse he told him he had been at the winning of nine Battels and how many said Phillip have you been at the losing Only one said he and that was at the last forbearance of my Master to fight with yours at Amyens whereby we have gotten more shame unto our selves than honour by the first nine When Lewis the King heard of this speech he said this is a shrewd boy and sent for him to dine with him and after gave him 1000 Crowns with other great promises to the intent he should be a means to entertain the peace begun between the two Kings What success had the French at the Battel at Poytiers and Cressey The Battels of Poytiers and Cressey who although they were in number far greater than the English and in the heart of their own Country yet they tasted nothing but the bitter effect of a lost field And we by other such manifold examples might be warned not to commit the good estate of a Realme to so tickle and dangerous a trial as is the uncertain sway of a Battel Spanish Fleet defeated 88. And now never to
think few or none who be avouched The Priest of Saint Margaret with his Bow and Arrows unless the president of the Priest of Saint Margarets near Dover shall be admitted for one of whom the old Fletchers retain a memorial in honour of their Bowes who is said with his Bow and Sheaf of arrows to have kept down the French men that offered to land in a narrow passage up the Clift near Dover Who came for fresh water as was supposed where they found a gate fast barred and lockt to stop the same And he standing over them on the top of the Clift played a tall Bow mans part when as in these dayes the French had not any shot but some few Cross-bows that could not deliver an Arrow half way up the Clift to him and so it was given out that he kept them down till the Country was come down to the Sea side to repell them back to their Boats or rather I suppose my self knowing the place when they saw the gate was so fast as they could not suddenly break it open they returned before their coming But yet I must confess the Bow bare the bell before the Divel I suppose sent the musquet c. out of Hell But here lest the Authour be mistaken he prefers the force of the Harquebuz and Musquet far before the Bow yet in judgement doth not disallow the Bow but rather judge the same to be a serviceable and warlike weapon as well in Town as Field and although it be not greatly pertinent to this question yet it may be convenient to consider here how and wherein good use may be made of this weapon first in the field against the Horse men The use of the bow how serviceable though it be shot at the highest random only with the weight of the fall it galleth both Horse and Man and though the wound be not mortal yet both Horse and man are hereby made unserviceable then and long after if they escape death Secondly in rainy weather when men come near together it is a good weapon Thirdly in the night time it is a ready and a secret shot c. and the use of it may be good in the forcing of the Enemies Trenches in fallying out of Town or else Fourthly at an assault when all the defences are taken away in any Town you may deliver your Arrows over the wall and shroudly gall your Enemy with the fall of them Fifthly to shoot Arrows with wild fire to burn gate or draw bridge to fire thatched or shingled houses When our English Army was before Paris those of our Commanders wished they had brought Bow men over with them and I see no reason it should be wholly laid aside for the worst Bow man that can but draw his Bow is better than a bad fire man But if we should not make use of our Bow in any of our warlik enterprises it should be every Commanders care to chuse good fire men for Ammunition is much wasted by the unskifulness of the Musquetteer and execution not to expectation Mustermasters cure and as we have an order established for our Musquet bore I could wish the Mustermaster in every County would look so to it that they may not be too big as well as too little But now touching landing let us see what may be conceived out of the former experience Examples and presidents of landing Did not the Earl of Warwick notwithstanding the Duke of Burgundies great and puissant Navy which he had provided to joyn with Edward the fourth for the impeaching the Earls landing from out of France and the fleet being before the Haven in Normandy out of the which the Earl must come the Duke having also warned the King into what part and Port of England the Earl meant to make his descent whereby in all likelyhood he was or migt have been provided sufficiently to withstand the same yet I say did it not so fall out that the Earl of Warwick escaped their Fleet landed in England and drove the King to flee for succour into the Low Countries and enlarged Henry the sixth and set him in his former estate After this did not Edward the fourth with some small aid from the Duke of Burgundie given him Edward the fourth relanded in England and deposed Henry the sixth and that under hand both of shipping men and money transport himself into England again and in Battel slew the Earl of Warwick and his adherents deposed Henry the sixth resuming again unto himself the Kingdom of England Have not the Kings of England many times entered France by Navie and Scotland during the time of Wars betwixt them Queen Mary landed 5000. in Britany and burnt Conquet Did not Queen Mary land 5000 men in Brittany one of the most popular parts of all France and there sackt and burnt Conquet and other places our men remaining on shoar two dayes and a night burning and spoyling and were not or rather could not be resisted upon the suddain Have not our English though but small forces in Queen Elizabeths dayes landed in the Indies English landed in the Indies at sundry times sackt and ransacked their Towns brought away their Munition with other great spoyles and riches yet at their landing were not withstood English in Spain and Purtugal And did not our Army land in Spain and Portugal at sundry times and in sundry places they having knowledge a long time before of their coming whereby the Country was or might have been in that readiness themselves would have desired and yet by a temporizing course used against them they were driven to retire both feeble and broken whereas if they had been fought withall at their landing and had won the field there had been a great hope they might have prevailed in that enterprise The Spanish Forces landed in Portugal Did not the Spanish forces also land in Portugal his other Army by land under the conduct of the Duke of Alva who by wining the Battel won the Kingdom withal and drove the King quite out of his Countrey The French in Terceras And did not the French forces likewise land in the Terceras in despite of the Country And did not the Spanish forces after reland slay and drive all out again The Spanish relanded there Infinite are the presidents of landing and a rare matter to find any example of an Army coming to invaid to be prevented of landing by the Countries fury and running down to the Sea side and what Souldier or man of War would not undertake to land even a few men in comparison of a royal Army in any Princes Realmes and Dominions spoile and burn at his pleasure until such time they had assembled greater forces than the inhabitants of the Coasts Whatsoever a man cannot resist he must give way unto Reason and experience do plainly prove that it cannot be withstood but that a forceable Enemy will land
Triumph And from this word Antesignia or Antesigne for it hath been so written in antient Records it hath been judged that this word Antient in many places used amongst us and given to our Ensigns hath been corruptly retained by us for it hath no coherence in signification nor can any way be alluded unto this Officer more than to his Antiquity and long standing in the Wars But this did not quench any flame in the Enemy for the Romans found them every way as eager in pursuit of these weak and fained Devices as the greatest hereditary Coat-Armour they could carry for when in any skirmish Fortune made them Masters thereof they took as great Pride as if they had subdued whole Armies and bare them with as much Pomp and Triumph as if they had got all Rome in subjection which the wisdom of the Romans and other Nations looking into it presently became a custom among all their Armies that thence forth no Foot Company or Chieftain of the Infantry should carry in his Ensign any Coat-Armour or other Device what ever more than the mixture or true composition of two colours together with the general Ensign of the Kingdom in the most eminent corner thereof And after this time the Romans called their Ensign-bearers no more Antesignia Read Markham's Souldiers Accidence or Antesigne but of late only Signifier from Significo to to signifie a thing as being men of special note and regard and that the thing signifying was only a Mark of much Honour c. The Spaniards and Italians that took all their imitation from the Romans who were their great Lords and masters do at this day call this Officer Alferes and make account of him next unto their Captains not suffering any second to step in between them The Dutch call this Officer Vandragon or Vandragar which holdeth with the same significations And we of England properly call him Ensign and in some Countries Antient The first from the thing he carrieth and the latter from the Honour and Antiquity of the Institution And both may well be agreeing with the first Titles conceiving better cannot be invented CHAP. III. The Original of Horse and Horse Colours HAving treated of the definition and signification of the several names which belong to the Ensignes of Foot I will now take leave to speak a little to the Colours or marks of Honour that are born on Horseback which I find by experienced Souldiers to be full as ancient or rather more than those which belong to the Foot Companies But omitting all prophane Opinions and vain circumstances I find when the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea how they were pursued by Pharaoh and all his Host which did consist most of Charriots which in those dayes were accounted Horsemen and very properly too because being drawn by the violent force of Horse and laden with the strongest and best experienced Souldiers they had a double power to enter into Battalias to disrank and break their array and to make their Enemies to run into a rout and confusion and though they had not the use of our Discipline nor the true managing of the Horse as we have yet all their purposes and intents in the use of their Charriots were to the same ends to which at this day our Horse are applyed To these Chariots belonged Colours or Ensignes of Martial Honour which were called Standards or Standarts or the Kings Emperial Trophie Indeed these were nothing so general as those on Foot but more precious and reserved as an Attribute only belonging to the King and not to any other These Standards were charged with the Kings Emperial Coat-Armour and usually born by a Prince or some man of high place and dignity the imitation whereof we still pursue and follow at this day giving it a superiority above all other Ensignes After the use of Chariots was found out the use of Elephants a warlike beast and of all other the strongest for these cerried cartain little artificial Houses in the form of Castles on their backs in which were some few experienced Souldiers 〈◊〉 with warlike Ensignes and weapons by which they overthrew the Foot Compâ—â—â— and made passage through them in despight of all opposition as you shall read in the History of Porus King of India Not long after the Exercise of Elephants was found out the use of the single Horse in those Countries where Horses were most frequent as in Arabia Parthia Persia and Scythia for the Asian parts in Barbary Egypt and Carthage for the parts of Africa and with us in Europe in Russia Muscovia Poland Hungary Italie but principally and above all the rest in France who were accounted in antient time the flower of warlike Horsemen both in number and discipline therefore from them hath been taken our Authority and examples But now I conceive we may not go so far for either referring for satisfaction to the present mode of Discipline in England for his Majesties Horse now in Command it is thought none can exceed them I have read of a Guydon used with the light Horse in former times Antiquity tells us of Gentlemen at Armes Launciers and light Horsemen In the old Wars the Gentlemen at Armes belonged to the Kings own person or in his absence to his General only And the Empresa of honour that they followed was the Kings Standard Royall being Damask and charged with his Coat-Armour The Launciers they had their Cornet to follow which had Devices in them according to their commanders pleasures And then the Light-hors-men had their Guydon which was somewhat long and sharp at the end but with a slit which made it double pointed much like to our late Dragooners but for these Guydons I need not stand upon only to shew all along there were Horse Colours as Ensignes of honour used And now the Cornets being most in use with us in England for the Horse service I need not decypher the length or breadth of them CHAP. IV. Of the Dignitie of Ensigns 1. THe Dignitie and estimation of Ensignes in all ages hath been held most Venerable and worthy they have been esteemed the glory of the Captain and his company and indeed they are no less for where they perish with disgrace there the Captains honour faileth and the Souldier's in hazzard of Ruine for if the loss proceed either from their Cowardice or misgovernment it hath been death by the law of Armes to all that survive and the best mercy that can be expected is that every Souldier shall draw a lot for his life file by file so that one out of every file perisheth for it 2. The next Dignitie of the Ensign is that every Souldier as soon as he is inrolled and hath received either pay or impress they antiently took a solemne Oath to be faithful to their Colours to attend them carefully and to defend them valiantly And that upon all summons of the Trumpet or Drum or Command of their Officers to repair to
attempts it is adjudged not safe and therefore not to allow of confused and disorderly running to the Sea side to encounter a select well trained Enemy invading and secondly neither is it safe to suffer the Enemy quietly to land all his forces munition c. It is by some conceived that a middle or a mean course far more serviceable than either of them both may be taken whereby the benefit of that old custome may be embraced and the disorders of the other well noted may be reformed and no advantage to annoy the invading Enemy omitted as by these following reasons may be judged Reasons and Resolutions against the second Opinion It is subject to invasion notwithstanding it is not meant but our Navy should annoy them both before and in landing if they can First I say one of the chiefest forces of this famous Island of England consisteth in this that it is fortified naturally with such a Trench or ditch as the Sea is whereby it is not so subject to invasion as other Countries lying on the main which singular benefit and peculiar advantage to our Countrey is utterly lost if we suffer the Enemy to land all his forces c. and take firm footing on the Main A reason made where there is no contradiction Secondly Whereas this noble Island hath such a number of Mariners and good Shipping both of his Majesties Royal Navy and also of Merchants as may hope with good success to encounter on Sea the force of any forreign Enemy Now if we suffer the Enemy quietly to land and then temporize afterward according to the second opinion we lose a great part of this our strength Rather by supposition than by experience Thirdly There is no man of any experience but knoweth with what danger men land out of boats if there be any ordinary force before landing to resist them for if any storm arise the Sea alone fighteth for us and with but small resistance on land may drown great numbers of our invading Enemy Fourthly No small work to entrench all the landing places about England Any small Trench on land shall lodge Musquetteers enough to spoil as many of our Enemies as in boat shall offer to land before they can approach the shoar Also In landing True if the Enemy would not resist you with a far greater force than can possibly be gathered together on such a suddain to encounter him before they can have time to put themselves in Order what an execution may a far less number of well armed men do on them before they shall have time to unite their forces Again After the Remnant shall land if they be not all drown'd slain or repel'd in or before their landing how easie a matter shall it be for a few well Armed Souldiers to put such a confused dispersed scattered Sea-beaten Company to the sword A strong Imagination upon a weak supposition before they shall be able to advance a Standard or put themselves in order of battel Besides all this No intendment but our Navy should impeach them upon all assays if his Majesties forces should not in time be assembled of such strength as to be able before landing to give them battel yet any mean force assailing their Ships while their men are in landing cannot but greatly annoy them if not utterly defeat them Again An Invador will both forecast and prevent those dangers In most places if except the Enemy bring his tide justly with him he cannot land and then if part land and any mean resistance made to give impediment to the rest till the tide pass their divided forces may more easily be defeated Also You grant him victuals enough if he can land you say he shall find houses and Barns full It is no small time that is requisite to land an Army with Horse Carriage and Ordnance Munition and Victuals without which an Invader shall never be able to prevail And then if any mean resistance be made at the landing it much prolongeth the same time so as any storm happening the Winds Tides Shelves Rocks Bars and Seas fight for us in our favour and to the ruine of our Enemies and therefore I utterly disallow that opinion to give an Enemy leave quietly to land and then by device to temporize afterwards It behoueth an Invader to be as wary of burning and spoiling as your self lest he make himself odious to his own party Further If any such resolution by the Prince and people be taken that the invading enemy should be suffered to land quietly to spoil and burn at his pleasure and the inward forces of the Countrey not permitted even at the first landing to come to their rescues Let the Company come down to the Randesvouze as fast as they can so they give no battel it would cause no doubt the Inhabitants of the Coasts to abandon their Towns and leave the Frontiers desolate which the wise Kings and grave Counsellers of this Land have everto sought to make populous by granting many privileges and immunities to allure Inhabitants on the Frontiers But touching driving or carrying away of Victuals No great difficulty though not easily done as wished and leaving the Countrey waste thereby to famish our landed Enemies it is a thing more easily wished than performed By which retreiting and driving away of Victuals and keeping of streights and passages they starve and weary them that follow them I confess in Ireland where most of their substance consisteth of Kine it is easily done But in this rich and wealthy Countrey of England it is not possible but that the Enemy if he be once landed with all his force shall find houses full of provisions and barns full of all kind of Forrage That is where the prince is a Tyrant otherwise he shall be obeyed in all things that tend to the preservation of the Countrey and Corn all the Country over unless the King should command all to be wasted with fire which president we see seldome or never put in use neither in the Wars in France Flanders nor in any former invasion that we read of for it will make the Prince odious and alienate the Subjects minds therefore not to be used but upon a great extremity when all other means fail and here in England above all other Countreys it may worst be done for our Towns be poor weak and unprovided and unfortified the Countrey full of habitations populous rich and abundance of all commodities In the Low Countries by reason of their great store of strong well fortified Towns they might much more easily drive and carry to their Cities at hand all victuals and forrage c. And yet when the great Army of the States and Don John were in the Field I grant for Forrage because they came in harvest but all other victuals came out of the Towns behind their backs notwithstanding all the Boars and Country People were