No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 December 2009
MS 23 consists of eight closely written foolscap folios, in the handwriting of Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger. Although it is now bound together to present the appearance of a continuous work, there is a break in the sense between f.2v and f.3r, and it is in fact two separate fragments of an incomplete treatise. These fragments must represent the ‘broken papers’ described by George Wyatt in MS 17, and are the only extant parts of the elaborate militia scheme drawn up by the ‘consort’ of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir James Wilford, Leonard Digges and others. If, as George states, the ‘consort’ did ‘distribute amongst them selves the sundry parts of this busines’, these pages may represent a substantial part of Wyatt's own share. Since the final version was ‘faiere written out’ and then lost ‘in the ruin of him and his howse’ upon his attainder, the surviving pages must be part of a preliminary draft. The first two folios, which aim a direct exhortation at the Protector and Council, probably belong to the ‘epistle dedicatory’ mentioned in MS 10; the remaining six to the second section of the main document, the ‘order for raisinge and leviinge of an Army’. According to George, this section was ‘principaly propounded … out of Polibius and Vigetius’, that is out of the Histories and the Four books of martial policy, each of which had run through several editions in the first half of the sixteenth century. However, classical influences are not particularly obvious in this surviving part, which seems to be singularly free from slavish dependence on the ‘ancients’.
page 163 note 1 See p. 60.
page 163 note 2 It is possible that An Arithmeticall Militare Treatise Named Stratioticos (STC 6848Google Scholar) which was published in 1579 by Thomas Digges, may also have originated in the work of the ‘consort’. The MS of Stratioticos was originally written by Leonard, and may have developed out of his share in this project. In spite of the friendly relations which seem to have continued between the Digges and the Wyatts, there is no evidence that Thomas ever saw this draft.
page 163 note 3 See p. 202. This theme was a constant one among Elizabethan military writers; see especially Barnabe Rich, Allarme to England (1578, STC, 20978).
page 163 note 4 See p. 58.
page 163 note 5 Five Latin editions of Polybius appeared in Rome, Venice and Paris between 1473 and 1521. The first English translation, by C. Watson, appeared in 1568 (STC 20097).
page 164 note 1 De Re Militari (Christian Wechel, Paris, 1535), Lib. II, 35, 36–8.Google Scholar
page 164 note 2 Cruickshank, 51–2. Regimental organization was not adopted in England until about the middle of Elizabeth's reign.
page 164 note 3 Cf. Webb, H. J., Elizabethan military science, 52–7Google Scholar. The nearest to Wyatt's specifications for a general are those of Digges, who thought that he should be ‘learned in histories, and in those sciences and arts that may enable him … to conceive and judge of military actions’ (Stratioticos, 1590, 305–6).Google Scholar
page 164 note 4 Cruickshank, 110–13. Boynton, 21.
page 164 note 5 The system of selective training was already in use when the theory was explicitly set out in a document written in 1572. The Queen needed to have ‘… perfect knowledge of the numbers, qualities, abilities, and sufficiencies of all her subjects from the age of 16 years upward that may be found able to bear armour or to use weapon on horseback or foot; and out of that total and universal number being viewed, mustered and registered, to have a convenient and sufficient number of the most able to be chosen and collected to be by the reasonable charge of the inhabitants in every shire tried, armed and weaponed, and so consequently taught and trained for to use, handle and exercise their horses, armour, shot and other weapons both on horseback and on foot, for the service and defence of her Majesty, her crown and realm, against all attempts both inward and outward.’ (Harl. MS 6844, f.16) Cruickshank, 24. This is very close to George Wyatt's summary of his father's argument, see pp. 55–6. The organization and development of the Trained Bands is fully examined by Boynton, 90–126.
page 164 note 6 Local men of skill and experience were appointed as captains by Elizabeth's council for the purpose of training the selected men, but this was not a full-time work, as Sir Thomas seems to have envisaged, nor were annual changes made. Boynton, 96–107.
page 165 note 1 Leader of the Cornish rising defeated at Blackheath in 1497.
page 165 note 2 2 & 3 Edward VI c. 1, which passed both Houses by 21 January 1549, and received the royal assent on 14 March.
page 165 note 3 Page torn.
page 165 note 4 Sic, perhaps for Asteri, a legal term meaning residents, from atterrare. Cunningham, Law Dictionary; Du Gange, Glossarium.
page 165 note 5 I.e. in proportion to their feudal dues. Presumably this levy was intended to be raised from the gentry of the shire to support one of their number as a full time mustermaster, or fee'd deputy lieutenant. When the Elizabethan Council began to appoint professional muster-masters, it paid them itself, and only gradually succeeded in shifting the burden to the counties. Boynton, 106.
page 166 note 1 That is, if a sufficient force can be raised from the native population to keep a mercenary army in check.
page 166 note 2 It is not quite clear whether ‘feare’ at this point refers to a rebellion or an invasion from outside, since both are in question. From the following reference to ‘arminge both sides’ the former is more probable.
page 167 note 1 The victory of Charles V over the Schmalkaldic League at Mühlberg, 24 April 1547.
page 167 note 2 Boulogne had been taken by the English in 1544, and garrisoned. It was retroceded to the French by the Earl of Warwick in March 1550 for 400,000 crowns.
page 167 note 3 The sense of this passage has become confused by the introduction of the second ‘will’, which seems to be an error on the part of the author. It should probably read ‘… beinge uncerteine of the others good will withe whome what our countries freindshipp showed him is able to doe, we may hope …’
page 167 note 4 I.e. Protestantism.
page 167 note 5 Sic, perhaps for ‘than’.
page 168 note 1 Space equivalent to one word in MS.
page 168 note 2 Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, obtained the position of Protector a few days after Henry VIII's death at the end of January 1547. He was arrested and deprived of his office on 10 October 1549 by a faction on the council led by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick.
page 168 note 3 From the context it would appear that Wyatt is here urging the Protector to employ experienced soldiers from abroad to train the militia. The more explicit statement which seems to be referred to must have been made in the portion now missing.
page 168 note 4 I.e. Roman Catholicism. This passage is particularly significant in that it must have been written on the eve of the Prayer book rising in Devon, which broke out on 10 June 1549.
page 169 note 1 Sic, this appears from the sense to be a mistake for ‘ever’.
page 169 note 2 The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536. Wyatt's conclusions are once again extremely unprophetic.
page 169 note 3 Sic, presumably for ‘calm’.
page 169 note 4 See p. 165.
page 169 note 5 This cryptic phrase seems to be capable of more than one interpretation. Perhaps ‘intended’ is a mistake for ‘pretended’.
page 170 note 1 The extant folios are complete, but at least one, and probably more, is missing between f.2v and f.3r.
page 170 note 2 Commissions of musters were the normal method of initiating general musters before the office of Lord Lieutenant came into general use. They continued to be used during Elizabeth's reign for those shires without a Lord Lieutenant, and were also used for special or occasional musters. In theory they were irregular, but tended to follow a four-year cycle. Cruickshank, pp. 130–4. Wyatt here is referring to a special muster for overseas service. The Elizabethan practice was to distinguish home from overseas service so that the Trained Bands were not liable for the latter. It does not seem from this surviving part that Wyatt made any such distinction.
page 170 note 3 This word runs off the page.
page 172 note 1 Wyatt's scheme of ranks can only be pieced together from these surviving pages. He is assuming that the commander of the projected army (‘princes lyvetenante’) has already been selected. The five general officers listed here are to be appointed by the commander and Council. Presumably the ‘fyve principall captaines’ already on the Council are the commander of the cavalry and the four infantry ‘legates’ (see p. 173.) The Marshall is responsible for the discipline of the army at large, and the titles of the other four general officers are self-explanatory. It is not at all clear, however, how the authority of these specialists relates to that of the four legates, or of the cavalry commander.
page 173 note 1 The normal practice was for provisioning to be ‘contracted out’ to civilians, usually the merchants concerned. ‘Purveyance’ in the technical sense of requisitioning at fixed rates, although still used into the reign of Elizabeth, was open to abuse and caused much discontent. It is not clear whether Wyatt had this old fashioned procedure in mind, or simply provision by direct purchase.
page 173 note 2 The nearest equivalent to this position in normal terminology would seem to have been ‘colonel’. This term was derived from that used for a Roman Legionary commander. See p. 93.
page 174 note 1 Wyatt's concern with the social status of his officers is unusually elaborate and precise. Most writers did not go beyond a general statement that commanders should be of high rank. Webb, 53–5.
page 176 note 1 Literally stature or frame of body. Presumably used here in the sense of strong or well knit.
page 177 note 1 Light helmets.
page 177 note 2 Pieces of plate armour for the forearm; originally called the vambrace or avant-bras.
page 178 note 1 Sic, perhaps for ‘some’.
page 178 note 2 Standards, banners and pennons were all used as designations for the bearers of these ensigns in battle, and by extension, for the units they represented. Here the terms simply mean commanders of divisions and sub-divisions of the cavalry force. There was no generally accepted scheme of cavalry ranks, as distinct from the infantry ranks. Webb, 110–11.
page 178 note 3 Ancient or ensign. In later years this rank was normally called Cornet.
page 179 note 1 Presumably Commissions of array. On the operation of these Commissions during the Tudor period see Lawrence Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy (Oxford, 1965), 202–5.
page 179 note 2 Heavy armoured cavalry, equipped with long lances.
page 179 note 3 Usually a general term for any soldier armed with this weapon. Here apparently used to mean a less heavily armed lancer.
page 179 note 4 Light horsemen, armed with short lances.