THE END OF 1642

At the end of 1642 the Royalist garrison towns were generally governed by their Mayor, and the garrison consisted of the citizens, company supplemented by whatever forces had been raised among the tenants and friends of the local Royalist gentry. These units, probably the "freehold band" mentioned earlier, had replaced the local Trained Bands, disbanded by Derby because of their unreliability.

The main effect of all this was, that for all practical purposes, there was no effective Royalist standing army in Lancashire. At this stage, it is doubtful whether Derby had any units approaching regimental strength; the evidence suggests that both sides followed the practice of the Cheshire Parliamentary forces and made the troop and the company the normal operational unit. (24)

Derby raised his field forces by three main methods. Throughout the war, but increasingly from early 1643, he had a small number of "regulars", principally the horse and foot of Tyldesley, Molyneux and Girlington, plus a few Welsh troops. These were supplemented by the "freehold bands", sometimes resulting from a general attempt to call out the gentry of a particular locality and their tenants, and sometimes limited to reliable Royalists.

Finally the Royalist forces would be filled out by a general levy of the able-bodied male population of a particular locality, often called out to meet a particular threat; usually Parliamentary Plundering was made the reason. An example of how this system operated occurred in March 1643, when the Royalist Commissioners of Array ordered all males aged between 16 and 60 in Fylde "upon payne of death to be and applare before his Honour (Derby) at Kirkhain the next morning bv 8 of clock in their best weapons to attend the King's service, which was obeyed of all the Country." (25)

Threats were used to coerce any recalcitrants. It was no doubt the usual practice, as on this occasion, to appoint captains for these "clubmen" from among the local yeomen. In this case two of them were Hoole of Singleton and John Ambrose of Plumpton.

Derby was never able to arm these levies, who were frequently equipped only with agricultural implements. Discipline and enthusiasm were also low; in practice the "clubmen's role was largely that of cannon- fodder. At the storming of Bolton in 1643 the levies, armed mainly with pitch forks, were driven on by a line of regulars in their rear. (26)

Pay was practically non-existent for all the Royalist troops; in consequence plunder was not only a driving force among them, but an essential means of keeping Derby's forces in the field. The clubmen who stormed Lancaster in March 1643 "Plundered unmercifully" and carried away "great packets" of booty, (27) and were later very ready to join Derby again. But Plundering was not confined to the irregulars; Tyldeslcy and his Major, Hugh Anderton, were noted as leading plunderers at the capture of Preston in March 1643. (28)

By the spring of 1643 the Royalist position had improved slightly. Tyldesley and Molyneux had been recruiting throughout the winter. Tyldesley's Dragoons were being raised in December, when William Blundell of Crosby was commissioned as a Captain. (29)

All of these units seem to have included a large proportion of Catholics; in the case of Tyldesley's foot, a number of the rank and file were raised in the Fylde. There was however still a shortage of ammunition, which was not eased until after the capture of Preston in March. (30)

The increased coherence of Royalist operations during the early spring of 1643 was probably due to Ty1desley's presence. His foot and dragoons seem to have been the spearhead of the Royalist offensive, seeing action at Lancaster and Preston.

But, though by early April the Royalists seemed to be gaining the upper hand, their success was laid on fragile foundations. The survival of both sides in the war in Lancashire depended upon the small number of regular troops which each had; if either sides were destroyed the results would be serious; for the Royalists, whose ability to raise new adequately armed and trained units was non-existent, they would be a disaster. Derby's regulars seem to have consisted of Tyldesley's, Molyneux's and Girlington's foot, all weak units, some troops of horse and Tylelesley's dragoons.

SABDEN BROOK