Historical Record of the Fifth Regiment of Foot, or Northumberland Fusiliers: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1674, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1837Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Fifth Regiment of Foot, or Northumberland Fusiliers: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1674, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1837
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Northumberland Fusiliers
The Prince of Orange's army, consisting of about 15,000 men, of
which "the most formidable were the six British regiments,"[12]
put to sea, after some delay from tempestuous weather, on the 1st
of November, 1688; "the trumpets sounding, the hautboys playing,
the soldiers and seamen shouting, and a crowd of spectators on the
shore breathing forth their wishes after them."[13] Sailing in
three divisions, the first, consisting of the English and Scots,
commanded by Major-General Mackay, under a red flag; the second,
being the Prince's Guards and the Brandenburgers, commanded by
Count Solms, under a white flag; and the Dutch with a corps of
French Protestants, commanded by the Count of Nassau, under a blue
flag: they passed triumphantly through the British Channel and
landed on the Devonshire coast on the 5th of November. Colonel
Tollemache's regiment (the Fifth) landed at Brixham key, two miles
from Dartmouth, from whence it marched to Exeter and afterwards to
Honiton, where, on the night of the 13th, it was joined by a number
of men of the Earl of Oxford's and Duke of St. Alban's regiments
of horse, and of the Royal Regiment of Dragoons, who had quitted
the service of King James to espouse the national cause. These
desertions were followed by others of a more important character;
and King James, discovering that his army would not be subservient
to his designs against the kingdom, fled to France, William and
Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, were solicited to ascend
the throne; and thus the Revolution was happily effected without
that sacrifice of human life which such events usually occasion.
Colonel Tollemache's regiment had, in the mean time, marched to the
vicinity of London, and it afterwards proceeded into quarters in
the western counties. It was now permanently placed on the English
establishment, and taking date from the 5th of June, 1685, the day
on which it first received pay from the British crown, as before
stated, it obtained rank as FIFTH REGIMENT OF FOOT in the British
Line.
Colonel Tollemache having been promoted to the command of the
Coldstream Guards, the Colonelcy of the FIFTH was conferred on
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lloyd, by commission dated the 1st of
May, 1689; and in the following month the regiment marched from the
west of England for London, and was quartered in Southwark until
October, when it embarked at Deptford and Greenwich for Plymouth,
and in December marched into Cornwall, with detached companies in
Devonshire.
[Sidenote: 1690]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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