While it is accepted that England had no national uniform on the army level until the New Model Army was formed in the spring of 1645, authorities do not agree on whether or not uniforms were worn earlier. During the wars of the late 16th Century English troops favored red clothing although there would seem to be little conformity above the company level. Also during this period regiments were known by the color of their flags. In the Scots War of 1639 at least one English regiment had coats of a uniform color (Savile's Redcoats). It must be remembered that officers were given commissions to raise regiments and companies. Therefore, much would depend on the amount of money these officers had or were willing to spend on their men. Colored cloth was expensive and as the Civil War disrupted many parts of the country shortages would undoubtedly occur. Throughout the war Parliament would have far less trouble with shortages than the King, who was plagued with a shortage of everything. THE ROYALIST ARMY In July and August of 1642 the King began commissioning officers to raise regiments. Late in August the Standard was raised at Nottingham. Slowly the Army assembled. Leaving Nottingham in September the King marched west to Shrewsbury and then southeast towards London all the while recruiting men. Several regiments did not join the Army until five days before the Battle of Edgehill which was fought on the 23rd of October. It can be seen that in the two or three hectic months between receiving his commission and Edgehill a commander would be hard pressed to arm and train his men let alone clothe them in like colored coats. Some individual companies probably were uniformed and perhaps some of the richer Colonels had acquired coats for their entire regiments but surely not many. It's worth noting that in the Parliamentary Official Account of Edgehill only twice is a color named in regard to the King's Army. One refers to a regiment with green flags and the second refers to the King's Lifeguard, which had red flags, as the Red Regiment. Coat colors are not mentioned. At any rate on October 29th Oxford became the Royal Headquarters. In January 1643, a school boy in Oxford, Antony Wood, wrote that all the tailors in the area were busy making four or five thousand coats for the soldiers. The following March one Thomas Bushell offered to supply the King's soldiers with caps, coats, breeches and stockings to be delivered at Oxford from time to time until the whole army was clothed. In June, the King wrote Bushell, thanking him for many services, among them the clothing of the Lifeguard and three other regiments with coats, breeches, stockings, caps, and shoes. Finally, in July, Wood wrote that all the soldiers then at Oxford had new coats, breeches, and caps. Some in red and some in blue. The regiments then at Oxford were the King's Lifeguard of Foot, the Queen's Lifeguard of Foot, Gerard's Foot and Pennyman's Foot. Were these the regiments the King refered to in June? Thus, as the war settled down and Royal fortunes rose during 1643 it would seem that efforts were made to clothe the men in regimental colors. Cloth shortages would probably have prevented complete uniformity in many cases however, but the Foot, unlike the Horse, spent a lot of time in garrison which would have made supply easier. THE PARLIAMENTARIAN ARMY Parliament began raising its Army in June of 1642. As they controlled London and much of the wealth of England they were able to give their Colonels money along with the commissions. Also many of the Colonels were wealthy in their own right. Twenty Regiments of Foot were to be raised with the Earl of Essex in command. In August Parliament ordered that the soldiers should be given coats, shoes, shirts and caps. Two regiments were in Oxford during September, one wearing blue coats, the other wearing russet coats. In early October the complete Army assembled at Worchester. From this it would seem that in the beginning the regiments in Essex's Army wore coats of a uniform color. During 1643 Parliament raised three more armies. However, it seems that they could not or would not supply any one of these four armies sufficiently. By 1644 most of the Roundhead soldiers probably looked as bad as any the Royalist had. Early this same year the Scots sent an army into England to fight the King. As part of the payment for coming, Parliament supplied them with 20,000 suits. These suits had probably been withheld from the English soldiers and stockpiled for the Scots, as the former continued to suffer from lack of supplies. There were also the regiments of the London Trained Bands and other auxiliary regiments which saw service during 1643 and 1644. As none of these regiments saw constant duty it seems likely they presented a more uniform appearance than any of the regular regiments. This brings us to the list of coat colors. Red was very popular, especially in the Royal Army. It is said that Newcastle's Army of white coats was to have been red coats but enough dye could not be found. When white is a coat color it usually means undyed wool which would range in shades from white to grey. Often the coat color would be the same color as the regiments flag but not always. And last, most lists of coat colors make two regiments out of one by showing the same unit under different Colonels. This happened as Colonels died or left the regiment. SOURCES Asquith, Stuart; various articles in Battle, Military Modelling and Arquebusier Magazines Emberton, W. and Young, P.; The Cavalier Army. Embleton, G.A. and Potter, R.; The English Civil War. Toynbee M. and Young, P., Cropredy Bridge. Tucker, j. and Winstock, L.; The English Civil War. Young, P.; Edgehille; Marston Moor; The English Civil War Armies. THE ROYALIST ARMY COLONEL: COAT COLOR (1) Sir William Pennyman, (2) Sir James Pennyman, (3) Sir Richard Page: Blue King's Lifeguard: Red (1) Sir Thomas Lunsford, (2) Henry Kunsford (3) Prince Rupert: Blue Charles Gerard: Blue Earl of Northampton: Green (?) Earl of Lindsey, Lord General: Red Duke of York, C.O. Sir William St. Leger: Red Queen's Lifeguard: Red (1) Sir Ralph Dutton, (2) Stephen Hawkins: White Prince of Wales, C.O. Sir Michael Woodhouse: Red (1) Sir Edward Stradling, (2) John Stradling: Blue (1) Richard Feilding, (2) Sir Jacob Astley: Red (1) Sir Edward Fitton, (2) Anthony Thelwall: Blue Sir Lewis Dyve: White (?) Marquis of Newcastle: White (1) Richard Bolle, (2) Sir George Lisle: White(?) Sir William Savile: Red Lord Percy (Firelocks?): White (1) Thomas Pinchbeck, (2) Sir Henry Bard: Grey Sir Thomas Blackwall: Black Sir John Paulet: Yellow Sir Gilbert Talbot: Yellow Ralph Hopton: Blue(?) Henry Tillier: Green Robert Broughton: Green (1) Sir Allen Aspley, (2) Edward Hopton: Red Sir Francis Gamul: Yellow(?) (1) Sir Charles Vavasour, (2) Sir Matthew Appleyard: Yellow John Lamplugh: White John Frescheville: Blue(?) Lord Byron: Red(?) Sir John Owen: Blue(?) (1) Marquis of Hertford, (2) Sir Bernard Astley: Red Prince Rupert's Firelocks: Red (1) Sir Thomas Salusbury, (2) Sir Charles Lloyd: Red(?) Lord Inchquin: Red THE PARLAMENTARIAN ARMY COLONEL: COAT COLORS Earl of Essex: Orange Samuel Jones: Green Ralph Weldon: Red Sir John Gell: Grey Simon Rugeley: Grey Sir William Springate: White (1) Lord Saye (2) Sir John Meldrum, (3) Edward Aidrich: Blue Lord Mandeville: Blue Earl of Manchester: Green lined Red (1 ) Charles Essex, (2) Adam Cunningham, (3) Richard Fortescue: Green(?)(Perhaps Blue -- Asquith) (1) Thomas Ballard, (2) Francis Martin: Grey Southwark Auxiliaries -- Col. James Houblon: White Tower Hamlets Auxiliaries -- Colonel Francis Zachary: Yellow Westminster Auxiliaries -- (Westminster Liberty Rgt) Colonel James Prince: Red LONDON TRAINED BANDS Thomas Atkins: Red Isaac Pennington: White Sir John Wollaston: Yellow Thomas Adams: Blue John Warner: Green John Towse: Orange Air.William Constable: Blue Denzil Holles: Red Sir Henry Cholmley: Blue Lord Robartes: Red Lord Brooke: Purple (1) Earl of Stamford, (2) Edward Massey: Blue Sir John Merricks: Grey (1) John Hampden, (2) Thomas Tyrrell, (3) Richard Ingoldsby: Green Thomas Grantham: Russet Sir Arthur Heselrige: Blue Colonel Byng: Green Norfolk Regiment: Red Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. 2 #2 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1980 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com