The Master of Caithness’s regiment was so disillusioned with its commander that in 1651 its strength went from 644 to 7. Sir Charles Lee’s company of foot was marching past an acquaintances house. Lady Anne Fanshaw propped herself up against a tree to watch the soldiers of her friends regiment and the commander in compliment ordered a volley of shot. One of the muskets was loaded and the soldier forgetting this shot a brace of bullets into the tree, not two inches above her head! Lt Col Robert Blake, Governor of Taunton replies to a demand to surrender with the statement that he would first eat his boots! John Hampden a staunch Parliamentarian wore a silver locket around his neck inscribed “Against my King I never fight, but for my King and country’s right.” A drunken trooper roasting a pig in Oxford started a fire that caused £30,000 worth of damage. During house to house fighting in the siege of Bristol in 1643, a bullet ricochet off Colonel Moyle’s helmet to wound his captain in the arm. Weather played a key factor in the war, for when Lord Byron’s army were marching in North Wales during a freezing spell, the surprise thaw of the frozen river caused the splitting in two of his army. This made it impossible for him to win the battle which ensued. A severe frost hardened the roads about Arundel in 1644, that it helped Sir Ralph Hopton and his Royalist force to travel over the ruts so quickly that they surprised the garrison with their speed of advance. Arundel surrendered three days later. The Earl of Denbigh maintained that he would, “Rather lose ten lives than one piece of my artillery.” Very often, the number of men directly available for battles was limited: King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden had in 1632, 183,000 soliders under his command during the Thirty Years War. 52% were on garrison duty, while 36% were serving in independent armies. This meant the King could count on only 12% under his direct command. King Charles I in 1645 had nearly 40,000 men, but of those, 48% were in garrisons, while 25% were in his army at Naseby. From 1642-43, the town of Exeter spent £4,374 11s. 4d. on its defences. Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament #4 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com