A History of the British Army, Vol. 1: First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' WarFortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir
History
A History of the British Army, Vol. 1: First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' War
Fortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir
Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
But far more striking than these superficial changes is the sudden
deluge of military pamphlets which burst over England from the
year 1587 onwards. The earliest military treatise, so far as I
have been able to discover, that was delivered to the English in
the vulgar tongue is _The Ordering of Souldiours in battelray_,
by Peter Whitehorn, which was published in 1560. This book
produced, no doubt, some effect in its time, but it is of small
import compared with those that follow. The earliest written by an
Englishman, though not published until four years after his death,
was the work of one William Garrard, gentleman, who had served
with the King of Spain for fourteen years and died in 1587. It is
a remorseless criticism of the existing English military system.
The author sweeps away bows and bills in a single contemptuous
sentence, and lays it down for a dogma that there are but two
weapons, for the tall man the pike and for the little nimble man
the arquebus. But in the matter of equipment, he notes that the
English are lamentably deficient. As good an arquebus could be
made in England as in any country, but the armourers had already
learned to make cheap and nasty weapons for common sale to the poor
men of the shire. Again, other nations carried their powder in
flasks or metal cartridges, but the English actually carried theirs
loose in their pockets, ready to be kindled by the first spark or
spoiled by the first shower, and in any case certain to suffer from
waste. Such slovenliness, says the indignant Garrard, is fit only
"for wanton skirmish before ladies"; it is impossible for such
arquebusiers to attain to the desirable consummation of "a violent,
speedy, and thundering discharge." The pikemen, again, instead of
a light poniard carried "monstrous daggers like a cutler's shop,"
fitter for ornament than use. Moreover, the dress of both was open
to objection. Colour was a matter of indifference, though some fine
hue such as scarlet was preferable for the honour of the military
profession, but all military garments should be profitable and
commodious, whereas nothing could hamper the limbs more than the
great bolstered and bombasted hose that were then in fashion. I
cannot resist the temptation of transcribing Garrard's picture of
the march of the ideal soldier, and the delicate appeal to the
soldier's vanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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