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Over the winter of 1642-43 many men seem to have been lost to sickness or desertion, and by February 1st, 1643, the Life Guard was down to about 400 men and 100 officers strong. The regiment was poorly armed, as were many in the Royalist Army at that time, even though it was assumed that they should have received preferential treatment, being the King's Life Guard. On that day Sir Jacob Astley, Sergeant-Major-General of the King's Oxford Army Foot, wrote to Sir John Heydon, Lieutenant-General of the Ordinance, that of the King's Life Guard only 190 were armed and 210 unarmed, and those being "weakly unarmed," having little better than cudgels. It was requested that any arms brought into the arsenal were to be used to supply the Life Guard first, before any other regiment, since it was the King's own regiment. Sir Jacob Astley's letter was as such:
"Sir John Heydon may be pleased to take notice that the regiment of the King's guards being very weekly Armed; as the last time his Majesty saw this garrison in Armes, where they appeared 190 armed and 210 unarmed wherefore I pray as many Armes shall be brought into the Magazine let some especial care be taken first to furnish the King's guards before any other regiments with the number of 110 Armes or some sufficient supply". (Ian Roy edition, Royalist Ordnance Papers, 1642-46, Part I, 1964, p.195) A contingent from the garrison of Oxford was with Prince Rupert at the storming of Cirenchester (2nd February 1643). This included a detachment of a strong company of about 100 of the King's Life Guard. William Leighton, now promoted to Lt-Colonel (having taken over for Vavasour upon his capture), and Captain Thomas Min and Lieutenant William St. John, were among those mentioned as being present the officers present, so it is logical that their two companies were there. Evidence suggests that the Life Guard detachment may have been employed as the Forlorn Hope, as Lieutenant-Colonel Leighton's horse was shot through the neck during the storming, and Lieutenant William St. John was killed leading the Forlorn Hope, but the contingent did not suffer significant casualties. It can be assumed than, that the Life Guard detachment was made up entirely of muskets. Recruiting was good for the Royalists in early February - no doubt that officers had been sent home in December to raise new men. On February 18th, 1643, Sir Jacob Astley wrote that the Life Guard had received recruits and now had 512 men, although 322 were unarmed. With officers, sergeants, corporals and drummers in ten companies, this would make a total strength of just over 600. Despite Sir Jacob's urging, the officers of the ordinance were not able to fully arm the regiment until April, an illustration of the shortage of arms in Oxford at this phase in the war. The arms issued to the Lifeguard during this period were: |
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Since the regiment at this time had 512 private soldiers, one would expect it to have had about 170 pikemen and 340 musketeers, but it is evident from the issued equipment over the two month period from February to April, that the proportion of pikes to muskets in the Lifeguard (as in other Royalist regiments at this time) was far higher than it should have been by mid-17th-century standards (the ideal ratio was 1 pikeman to 2 musketeers), with a ratio of 3:2, or possibly 2:1, being more reasonable for the Lifeguard at this time. No doubt the explanation is that it was comparatively easy to make pikes locally, while muskets were "in short supply". The pikes received were "long pike staves" (15½ feet long). Pike staves were made by Thomas Hiss "of Cheeveley parish in North Heath near Newbury", and "long pike heads" (four-square and long types) were "made in the iron-working regions of Shropshire," according to the Royalist Ordinance Papers. A detachment of the regiment was evidently with Prince Maurice in his brief campaign against Sir William Waller in the Severn Valley, seeing action at the Forest of Dean (Little Dean). Major Leighton is mentioned by Captain Richard Atkyns in his account of Little Dean (11 April 1643), where he reported that some Royalist cavalry were "worsted", but when the Parliamentarians pursued them into the town of Little Dean, "Major Leighton had made good a stone house, and so prepared for them with (Lifeguard) musketeers; that one volley of shot made them retreat..." Major Leighton and his detachment of the Life Guard must also have been present when Prince Maurice worsted Sir William Waller at the action at Ripple Field (13 April 1643), though details are lacking. It can therefore be assumed that the detachment during this campaign with Prince Maurice was a good company strong, and probably being made up of musketeers drawn from more than one company. The regiment's next affair was less fortunate, when on April 23rd, 1643, it was sent with others to attempt the unsuccessful relief of Reading. Quartering that night at Dorchester [Oxfordshire], and "not being so careful of their watch as they ought to be, they were surprised and lost some 40 prisoners including the Captain-Lieutenant and another lieutenant." It is not certain that all casualties were suffered by the Life Guard, for other units from Oxford may have been represented in the total lost. It is certain that the attempt to relieve Reading, which ended in the abortive action at Caversham bridge (25 April 1643), denuded Oxford of its regular garrison. On April 24-25th, 1643, "the country men of the trained of the county, being summoned, came in and appeared here at Oxford, to receive orders about a garrison to be made of them, for the defense of the University & City of Oxford during His Majesty's absence", made by the Lords and commissioners of the Council of War which had been left there by the King (this formed the City of Oxford Trained Bands Regiment). After the Reading garrison yielded to Parliament (27 April 1643), all the foot and horse returned to Oxford. About this time, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Vavasour of the regiment (shortly to be created a baronet), who had been taken prisoner at Edgehill and imprisoned at Warwick Castle, then transferred to Windsor, where he had escaped about the April 10th, 1643, to Reading, "where he was kindly entertained and welcomed." He arrived at the Court in Oxford on 13 April 1643, to take command of the regiment in time for the action at Caversham bridge. He did not remain in command long. He was still lodging in Oxford as late as June 14th, 1643, when on that day he was commissioned Commander in Chief "of all forces in any of the Counties of Hereford, Monmouth, Glamorgan, Brecon and Radnor [Gloucestershire]." He was to command a brigade from those parts of Gloucestershire at the siege of Gloucester and the battle of First Newbury, and on the July 17th, 1643, he received a further commission to raise a regiment of 500 horse for the King. The commissions of former Major William Leighton to Lieutenant-Colonel, and of former Captain Robert Markham to Major occurred at this time. One of the lieutenants of the regiment, Charles Fox, formerly an ensign, became a captain at the same time. The Life Guard remained quietly in garrison at Oxford for the next four months. On July 15th, 1643, the regiment again received issue of clothing and other items, as "all the common soldiers then at Oxford were new appareled, some all in red (coats, breeches and monteros) and some all in blue." We know from the Royalist Ordinance Papers that these 4-5000 suits were started on January 23rd, 1643, when a "great many of tailors" cut them out, and then passing them on to all other tailors within a ten mile radius of Oxford, to sew them up. These suits were probably issued earlier than July. Thomas Bushall, the great Royalist financier, later thanked by the King in a letter for, "clothing our life Guard and three regiments more, with suits, stockings, shoes and monteros when we were ready to march into the field." (from Sir Henry Ellis', 'Original Letters', 2nd series, Vol.3, p.309). It was with Lieutenant-Colonel Leighton as its commander that the Life Guard, not less than 600 strong, newly clad and fully armed, marched off to take part in the siege of Gloucester in August, 1643. However, a detachment under Quartermaster Benjamin Stone seems to have remained behind in garrison until September 3rd, when it was sent to join the main army as escort to a munitions convoy, leaving only the sick and wounded in Oxford. While details of the Life Guard's activity at Gloucester are lacking, the unit is presumed to have taken its turn in the siegeworks and trenches as the other Royalist garrisons. The Colonel of the Lifeguard, now the second Earl of Lindsey and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, probably rejoined the regiment before the walls of Gloucester, having arrived in Oxford from London on August 12th, 1643, presumably after having been exchanged after being taken prisoner at the battle of Edgehill. He had been treated with respect by his captors, and the House of Lords even ordered that the goods belonging to Lindsey's sister and remaining in the Earl of Rutland's house, should be exempted from any search "being the House of a Peer;" such was their tenderness for one of their own House, a known "person of honour", regardless of which party he supported. At the battle of First Newbury (20 September 1643), the Life Guard fought in the first tertio under Sir Nicholas Byron. Byron's tertia was drawn out to support his nephew, Sir John Byron's, brigade of horse, in the bitter fighting against the Earl of Essex's foot regiments for the enclosed ground of "Round Hill." Byron's tertia made a determined advance against Round Hill, the key to the Parliamentarian center. The Life Guard suffered 29 seriously wounded casualties in the fierce fighting for the enclosures around Round Hill, including two officers. The two officers could have been Lieutenants Cranfield and Godwin, whose names disappear from the records between June, 1643, and January, 1644, but they could have easily fallen at the siege of Gloucester. It is more likely that Lieutenant Abrie (Aubrey), whose widow and two children were living in Oxford in January, 1644, was a victim of this campaign. There is nothing to suggest that the Life Guard did anything to particularly distinguish itself on this occasion, of which Sir John Byron claimed, "our Foot played the poltroons extremely that day." The Life Guard then returned to Oxford, although on the whole its losses seem to have been lighter than at the battle of Edgehill, and not as heavy as in a number of other units that fought at First Newbury. There is some suggestion that by this stage in its history, the Lifeguard's company commanders may have tended to be professional soldiers, while their juniors were more likely to have been drawn from among the gentry. |
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