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Folger Documents of Tudor and Stuart Civilization

If

CERTAIN DISCOURSES MILITARY

FOLGER DOCUMENTS OF TUDOR AND STUART CIVILIZATION This volume

is

one of a

series of publications of

Tudor and

Stuart documents that the Folger Library proposes to bring out.

These documents

scripts as well as reprints of rare effort will

light

be made

on the

from 1485

social

books in the Folger Library.

intellectual

background of the period

to 1715. In response to almost

be modernized

original printing

is

in printed texts. In

clear

graphically reproduced.

and

An

throw

to choose significant items that will

and

unanimous requests of

interested historians, the spelling, punctuation, will

manu-

will consist of hitherto unprinted

some

and

cases,

easily read, texts

The Folger Library

ply microfilm of original texts to scholars

who

is

capitalization

where the

may be

photo-

prepared to sup-

require a facsimile.

THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY IS ADMINISTERED BY THE TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE.

CERTAIN DISCOURSES MILITARY By sir

JOHN SMYTHE EDITED BY

J. R. Hale

PUBLISHED FOR

The Folger Shakespeare Library BY

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca,

New

York

^

Copyright

©

1964 by the Folger Shakespeare Library

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS First published

1964

0/'-

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-17765

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY VAIL-BALLOU PRESS,

INC.

PREFACE If

Sm John

Smythe's Certain Discourses Military was the most and controversial of Tudor military books at the time appearance, and both for the information it contains and

original

of

its

for

what

it

reveals about the personality of

its

author

it

remains

was banned as subversive within a few days of its publication in 1590, and though Smythe prepared a corrected edition and repeatedly begged Lord Burghley to allow him to issue it, the ban remained. There was no second edition and the work has become rare. The decision of the Folger Library to reprint it and to employ an editor from Oxford has a further excuse: the Folger possesses what is in all likelihood the manuscript from which most of the book was printed, and a copy of that printing, revised by Smythe in the hope that his work would once more find an audience, is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Left to the Library in 1834 and known as the Douce copy, it contains corrections and additions in Smythe's hand. They comprise all the marginal notes to the proem, thirteen marginal notes in the rest of the work, and a very few lines in which a train of thought was clarified or expanded with an additional example. The text given here follows that copy and the most interesting.

thus constitutes the

It

first

printing of Smythe's projected second

edition.

The Folger Library manuscript

(V.a. 268 ex Phillipps

V

MS

Preface

"A discourse concerning the mistaking of the effects of divers sorts of weapons in these our days, and chiefly of the musket, the caHver, and the longbow; as also the excellent and wonderful effects of archers, with divers other particularities. Composed by Sir John Smythe, knight, 1589." This consists of the Discourses, omitting the proem. The text is v^itten in a copyist's hand. There are marginal notes, some by the copyist, the majority in a hand closely resembling Smythe's own formal (but inconsistent) italic. The manuscript contains corrections and minor additions, together with indications that large passages are to be inserted,^ and the many small discrepancies between the manuscript and the printed text consist invariably of additional material in the latter. The manuscript is thus an emended but still incomplete draft, and the intermediate stage between this and the printed text must have been represented either by a further draft or more probably by this manuscript plus corrections given separately to the printer. The Folger manuscript is a working, not a presentation, copy. It was apparently retained by Smythe after publication.^ I would agree 18380 )

is

entitled

with T. H. Spaulding's conclusion, in his discussion of the

manuscript in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (1937), pp. 180-184, that "all things considered, it seems probable that this manuscript

The

is

Sir

John s own/'

text printed here follows Smythe's directions in the

Douce

copy. In conformity with the policy for this series of Folger ^ These insertions, signified by a line across the page and the symbol (g) and presumably written on loose sheets, now lost, comprised in the present gentlemen of our nation edition pp. 70-76 ( "And now having before that have seen the same"), 83-84 ("Which with the terrible coming as are before mentioned"), and 106-107 ("And even so hkewise .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

archers and bows"). ^ On f 22 recto of the manuscript ( which corresponds roughly to f 17 verso of the printed text), there is a marginal note almost certainly in Smythe's hand against the phrase "kneeling upon their right knees," which comments, "The printer failed to put in that word 'right' before knees." .

.

In the

Douce copy Smythe has

vi

inserted "right" in the text.

Preface

Documents, the spelhng and punctuation have been modernized; apphes also to quotations in the introduction and notes.

this

Where the original spelling modern spelling, it has been markedly, the original

of proper

names

similar to the

Some conventional

ern equivalent added in square brackets.

anachronisms

is

emended; where it differs spelling has been retained and the modsilently

like 'liath," "wot," "betwixt,"

have been retained,

plained in

To reduce footminimum, obscure points in thentext have been exsquare brackets whenever this can be done briefly.

The

complete, although marginal notes have been omitted

and

in

no case has the word order been

notes to a

text

is

altered.

unless they contain additional information; in this case they are

quoted

in the footnotes.

For an understanding of so subjective a work as the Discourses, is

and

of the controversy to

which the book gave

rise, it

helpful to be acquainted with the personality and the ex-

perience of

author.

its

short sketch

by

As no biography

exists apart

from the

Sidney Lee in The Dictionary of National

Sir

Biography, the opportunity has been taken here to provide, by

way

of introduction, an account of Smythe's

and a discussion

of his published

life

and unpublished

and opinions writings.

Acknowledgments For the invitation delight

it

to

undertake

this edition

fessor R. B.

a great deal of most valuable advice. It

The

and the steady

me I must thank Dr. Louis B. Wright. ProWernham read the work in manuscript and gave me

has given

errors

and the

is all

failures of imagination

incorporated here.

remain

my

own.

My

wife shared the tedious and drudging side of the book's preparation

and

I

am

deeply grateful for her help and judgment.

J.

R.

Hale

Jesus College, Oxford

vii

4

j

IVT'T' I?

TVTTT C

n

V

Preface

Abbreviations

xi

Introduction 1.

II.

Soldier of fortune

and ambassador, 1531

The Parma mission and

The Discourses

IV.

Bow

V. VI. VII.

XXV

VIIL

XXXV

versus gun in Renaissance England

Suppression and appeal

Barwick and the "Answer," 1590

The

to 1591

Treason and disgrace, 1592 to 1607

Certain Discourses Military

xli

Ivi

Instructions, 1591 to 1592

Technical words

xiii

a militia colonelcy, 1578

to 1590 III.

to 1577

Ixv

Ixxv Ixxxii

xcv 3

i

ABBREVIATIONS If

— Certain

Discourses

Forms and Instructions

Discourses Military

Effects of Divers

—Instructions,

Sons

of

.

.

.

concerning the

Weapons

(1590).

Observations, and Orders Military,

Requisite for All Chieftains, Captains, and Higher and

Lower Men of Charge and and Observe (1595).

Officers to Understand,

Know,

—Calendar of State Papers, Domestic. —Calendar of State Papers, Foreign. Cal. Span. — Calendar of State Papers, Spanish. Lansdowne — British Museum Manuscripts, Lansdowne. E.C.R.O.— Essex County Record Acts P.C. —Acts of the Privy Council. Letters— Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men, ed. Cal. S.P.,

Dom.

Cal. S.P., For. S.P.,

Office.

H.

Ellis

(London, 1843).

xi

Sir

INTRODUCTION If

Soldier of fortune

/.

and ambassador, 1531

to

1577

John Smythe ^ was born in 1531,^ the son of Sir Clement Smythe of Little Baddow, a small village near Chelmsford in Essex. Sir Clement had married Dorothy, sister to Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour and aunt to Edward VI, and John was thus sufficiently near the blood royal to have been referred to by Queen Elizabeth on one occasion as "a gentleman of her family."^ From somewhat scanty evidence Sir Clement emerges as a conservative in religion ( he was "chidden" for hearing Mass shortly before his death,^ though he had cheerfully bought land when the nearby abbey of Coggeshall was dissolved ) and a reasonably prosperous country gentleman, with land scattered over a number of parishes but owning no great house. He was not one of those gentry

who

turned their dissolution purchases to advan-

tage and he was forced to ^

He

sell

some

of his properties, a process

always signed himself Smythe. Contemporaries refer to him as On the title page of Discourses he is Smythe;

Smith, Smithe, or Smythe.

on that of Instructions he ^Philip Morant,

(London, 1768), refers to

him

is

Smithe.

The History and

II,

Antiquities of the

County of Essex which

136, quotes Inquis. 7 Ed. VI, January 30, 1552,

as twenty-one. Cf.

DNB's "1534?"

'CaZ. S.P., Span., 1568-1579, September 24, 1576, p. 533. *J. G. Nichols, ed,. The Diary of Henry Machijn (London, 1848), p. •

326

n.

xiii

Introduction that continued under his son,

whose

lifetime

melancholy records of mortgages and

known

was punctuated by

sales of land.^

John Smythe's early life. Anthony a Wood said that he had been to Oxford but went on to add that he had not been able to identify the college "because both his names Little

are very

is

of

common."

unlikely that he spent long at the Uni-

^ It is

versity, as his reference to

two sundry

in

Kett's rebellion

He

having served "armed in the

rebellions against rebels"

and

field

probably points to

Western Rising, both

tlie

also served in

"

of 1549.

France during Edward VI's reign. ^ Under

Mary we have no news

of him, but shortly after Elizabeth's

accession he was sent to France in the entourage of the Lord

Chamberlain, Lord William Howard, lish

commissioners

who

who was one

of the

Eng-

took part in negotiating the European

peace settlement of Cateau-Cambresis. The mission had unfortunate consequences for Smythe. writes are vague, but

member

it

The terms

in

which he

seems that he had a quarrel with a

Lord Chamberlain's household and was denounced by Howard to the Queen. The result was a Star Chamber fine of two hundred pounds and two terms of imprisonment of the

in the Fleet. After this,

finding that

and that

I

my

Her Majesty's

Smythe

was brought

into further displeasure with

good behavior here favor, I

later recorded,

at

home

Her Majesty

could not confirm

determined with her license

to

me

in

go beyond the

^ John spent most of his life in England in three houses that he inherited from his father: Tofts, Graces, and Little Baddow Hall. Of Tofts there is nothing to be seen today. Graces has been much altered, but the present building retains some of the original structure and outbuildings. Little Baddow Hall has changed least, and this little half-timbered house is a useful warning to Smythe's biographer not to allow him too much weight in the shire. None of these houses was important enough to be mentioned by John Norden in his Historical and Choro graphical Description of the County of Essex (written in 1594 but not printed until 1840). ^ Athenae Oxonienses (London, 1691), I, 247.

Lansdowne *

64, 57.

Discourses, below, p. 75.

xiv

M Introduction seas, to

prove whether that by serving against the

my good

Christendom and that might

grow thereof

common enemy

of

behavior there, with some good report

my

to

commendation,

I

might recover Her

Majesty's good opinion and favor toward me.^

The evidence

for his vv^hereabouts during the period

followed a roving career of arms

so scanty

is

—the

he gives concerns his service with Maximilian Turks

—that

Burghley

it is

in 1587,

which

that he attempted. of experience

is

letter

only detail

II against

he wrote

the

Lord

to

the nearest thing Jo an autobiography detail, as it shows the sort

quote in some

I

he drew on

my

even from

I

worth quoting from a

when he

in the Discourses

very tender years have delighted to hear histories

read that did treat of actions and deeds of arms, and since that by my father's

came

I

was brought

to years of some discretion and rank I up to school and brought with time to understand the Latin tongue somewhat indifferently, I did always delight and procure my tutors

much

as

as

I

could to read unto

me

the commentaries of Julius

Caesar and Sallust and other such books.

And

after that

I

came from

school and went to the university, then being better able to under-

stand that which

I

did read,

I

gave myself

to the reading of

other histories and books treating of matters of

many

war and sciences tend-

ing to the same.

Since which time, going abroad into the world, divers courts of princes

®

Lansdowne

in divers

I have been in camps and armies of divers

46, 35, a letter to Burghley relating the miserable state of

his financial affairs his behalf.

and

The

and begging

letter

is

Lord bound

for the

undated.

It is

Treasurer's intervention on in

with others of the year

1585, but on internal evidence (taken together with the letter that follows

Lansdowne

appears to have been written in or near 1580. According to William Camden, The History of Elizabeth (London, 1675 [1st ed., 1615]), p. 82, it was in 1566 that Smythe, among "others of the English nation, who, according to their innate fortitude, thought themselves born to arms, not to idleness, when gentlemen out of all parts of Europe were excited upon the fame of the war against the Turks, went into Hungary." Lansdowne 54, 77, November 15. For its purpose, see below, p. xxx. it,

46, 36)

it

Instructions, p. 145.

.

.

.

XV

Introduction and many nations under sundry generals, ver)' I

have

own

at

all

which, being always

in the

well furnished of good round sums of

money

times served as an adventurer

mine own,^^

of

[volunteer]

charges without procuring of any charge

at

mine

company

a

[i.e.,

of

own] or pay, making choice so to do because I wanted [to] be free and at liberty in all actions to accompany the lieutenant general and the masters of the camp general and other such principal And by my thus serving as an adventurer in good acofficers. count and opinion with the most principal officers in those journeys and by accompanying them, I had alwa)'s the opportunity to see the forming and fortifying of many forms of camps, with carriages, with trenches, with half rounds,^^ with mounts, indents, and traverses of divers forms and sorts, with the lodging both of horsemen and footmen in their quarters and placing of great and small ordnance for his

.

.

.

the defense of those camps; the placing of the sentinels, the order of the continual night rounds, with the forms of the bodies or standing

watches, with the entrenching and fortifying also the powder and

munitions belonging to the

artillery

guards for the preventing of

all

with

many

sentinels

and great

treasons and accidents of

fire;

the

discharging of the watches, the raising and dislodging of the camps

and armies, the reducing

of these armies

into vanwards,

battles,

and rearwards, into sleeves, wings, and forlorn hopes, the ordering and forming of horsemen according to their armors and weapons into divers squares, troops, and forms according to the ground and grounds; the reducing and ordering also of the great ordnance, powder, and munitions belonging laborers,

with the gunners and

to the same,

with companies both of horsemen and footmen for the

guard and safe marching of the same; and

also the ordering of

all

the carriages of the camps both public and private in their march. I

have had

also opportunity to

be

in discoveries of

the enemy's

marching, as also to the skirmish and great encounters both of horse-

men and

footmen, retreats both honorable and

foul,

slaughters, with sundry other accidents in the field.

executions and I

have had the

opportunity also to see the disembarking and landing of two armies His father died in 1552. ^'^

For technical terms, see pp. xcv-xcviii. xvi

Introduction out of galleys and other vessels in the Levant, at w^hich times I have had the opportunity to see many boats of purpose made for landing,

and shallops, every one of them with two double bases before in their prows or foreships, with the wonderful diligence and celerity used in the disembarking and landing of soldiers, with their captains, colonels, masters of the camp, and gentlemen adven-

many

with

turers; and,

frigates

they being landed, the wonderful celerity used in bring-

them under

ing

their ensigns

and the present reducing

of

them

into

forms of battle; the landing also of horses; the disembarking of great and small ordnance, with their powders, bulJiets, and all kinds of munitions, as well as biscuits and other victuals; the great diligence also

used in employing laborers and companies of soldiers in cutting form and fortifying the same for the safeguarding

of trenches into of the

powder and other munitions belonging

artillery;

the present taking of the tops of

hills

to the

vent the enemy, with divers other actions and events. the opportunity to see the manner

how two

ordnance and

or mountains to preI

have had

approached with crooked and cross trenches, with gabions plenated

forms

Likewise

with earth. I

have had the opportunity

in these services to

opinions of divers master engineers and other

and

terre-

filled with earth], otherwise called baskets, of divers

[i.e.,

filled

also

places fortified have been

sufficiency in

travel seen the

many important

most and the best

men

matters of arms. fortified cities,

hear the

of great experience I

have

also in

my

towns, and places

would have some knowledge to be somewhat of fortifications, I have at divers times given myself to understand and learn of very sufficient master engineers the perfections and imperfections and other particularities of divers places fortified in divers and sundry situations.

in

Christendom, and because

I

able to understand and judge

Fighting in the service of foreign princes was not then against the English law^ and

were tion.

it

was a popular occupation

in straitened circumstances or of

At about

this time,

for

men who

an adventurous disposi-

however, the government was beginning

was losing too much military talent and some of these men, which were difficult on

to feel that the country

that the activities of

xvii

Introduction occasion to distinguish from piracy by sea and highway robbery

by

were contributing

land,

turns. Accordingly,

and low customs reOctober 26, 1575, the

to high prices

by a proclamation

of

Queen's subjects were forbidden to take service overseas without royal license. There stantial

a reflection of this change in the

is

news we have

of

letter of July 24, 1567, to

Smythe

after

he

first

England.^* In a

left

William Cecil, the Secretary of

the Earl of Sussex described

sub-

how he had come

State,

across Smythe,

and old acquaintance," in Augsburg and had told him that his long absence from the country was giving rise to "a neighbor

amount

a certain

of criticism.

To

Smythe had roundly reemploy his time in learning home, and that he was ready

plied that "he thought

it

better to

spend

it

idly at

to serve than to

when

the

this

Queen should command

to serve her either at

home

or any other place."

The same comes into beheading

Egmont. tain

forthright tone characterizes

Smythe when he next

Antwerp, on June 6, 1568, the day after the of the anti-Spanish Netherlands leaders Horn and sight, at

He had become

involved in an argument with a Cap-

Maria and "gave him the

lie in

the throat."

The consequent

disturbance was the occasion of Smythe's writing a statement in

which we

for the

personality.

I.

time catch more than a glimpse of his

Maria had said that he could not think of any notable

feat achieved

"No?" said

first

by the English.

Quoth

he,

"Not that

I

have heard." "Why," said

the Battle of Poitiers did not 10,000 Englishmen break and

upon the

bellies of

50,000 French, as Froissart witnesseth? Did

not in Spain, in the favor of

power

He

I,

Don

"at

march

we

Pietro the Cruel, overthrow the

of Spain?"

also

mentioned

Hawkwood

in Italy

and the conquest of

" The only previous reference is a letter written to Smythe at the Spanish court concerning the winding up of Sir Clement's estate {Cal. S.P., Dom., Addenda, 1547-1565, January 9, 1565, p. 556). Cal S.P., For., 1566-1568, p. 296. xviii

Introduction

Cyprus by Richard

I,

"at

which Maria shook

his

head and made

a disdainful countenance." The discussion then turned to a com-

parison of the status of England and Spain and led to Smythe's

challenging Maria. Before any blood could be shed, however,

News

the city magistrates intervened.

home by his

Sir

hand

was sent was from return to Eng-

of this episode

Henry Lee, the Queen's Champion, and

that a

summons came

for

Smythe

to

it

land.i7

The

years that followed are a poignant

r^inder

the brilliance of

the Elizabethan court, for

all

where the Queen and her

favorites

glow

its

that behind

foreground,

in the light of con-

temporary and subsequent acclaim, were dingy corridors, endlessly

paced by depressed and resentful country gentlemen.

"After

my

coming

over," wrote

Smythe

bitterly,

had attended in Her Majesty's court two or three months and saw that there was no occasion of service wherein Her Majesty was to employ me, I meant to have retired myself into the country, and that

I

there to have lived

upon the

remained unsold, and somewhat

rest of to

my

lands and living which

have recovered myself by sparing,

and not to have troubled Her Majesty with any suit. Which when I had put myself in order so to do and had retired myself from the court, the progress then

he had been

coming on, Mr. Dyer [Sir Edward Dyer; 1566 and was a dependent of the Earl

at court since

my Lord of Leicester wrote Her Majesty's pleasure was that I should repair to the court and attend upon Her Majesty. And that whereas she understood that my service beyond the seas had been chargeable unto me, that therefore I should find out some good suit that might do me good, and that I should not need to make suit for it because Her of Leicester]

unto

me

by the commandment of

that

it of her own most gracious disposition toward me. Whereupon, to my great charges, I put myself in order and came to the court, where it pleased my Lord of Leicester within

Majesty hath already granted

two or three days

after to use

unto

me

speeches to the like effect

"Ca/. S.P., For., 1569-1571 (Appendix), pp. 591-592. " As he says, without giving a date, in Lansdowne 82, 71. xix

^

Introduction and a great deal more

Dyer before had

largely than Mr.

written.

Which speeches my Lord used unto me by Hampton Court, the Queen the same time riding a-hunting, and Her Majesty being at that time so near that she might,

and

I

am

sure did, hear every

word that my Lord spoke unto me. Whereupon, within a while after, I found out a suit, which my Lord of Leicester moving unto Her Majesty, there were causes alleged wherefore another,

I

all

could not have

which

for

it.

After that

I

found out another and

one cause or other Her Majesty could not

grant. And yet was I still put in hope by my Lord of Leicester that Her Majesty did intend to do much for me, which caused me to attend still following the court in a manner five years continually, to my very great charges and hindrance, still bringing myself further and further into debt.^^ It

was not

until 1576 that fortune relented.

One

of the acquire-

ments Smythe had picked up abroad was a sound knowledge of the Spanish language,^^ and he was chosen ambassador to the first he hesitated to accept the post. His were so confused that he was half afraid to take his eye

court of Philip H. At aflFairs oflF

them. "Howbeit, Her Majesty at that time did use so gracious

and comfortable words and promises that she would do me good at my return out of Spain, as Sir Francis Walsingham at that time told me, that I was thereby greatly encouraged to There was a further encouragement; shortly before his go." departure he was knighted.^ The mission was an important one. Elizabeth had for long been hoping to bring about a negotiated peace in the NetherLansdowne

46, 35.

account of his embassy (Lambeth Palace Library MS 271) is in that language. Camden, History, p. 214, n. 10, refers to Smythe in this connection as "a man of Spanish comportment and very well known to the ^®

An

Spaniard."

Lansdowne

W.

46, 35.

A

Book of Knights Banneret (London, 1885), p. 130. on November 20, after being referred to as plain Mr. John Smith on September 24 {Cal S.P., Span., 1568-1579, p. 533).

He was

XX

C. Metcalfe,

sent to Spain

Introduction lands which, while guaranteeing Spanish sovereignty, lead to the withdrawal of Spanish troops

and the

would

restoration

and (within the context of foreign sovereignty) political to the provinces. For England, the presence of Spanish troops in the Netherlands was a constant threat. The struggle with the Dutch interrupted trade, provided Spain with an excuse to keep an army, and perhaps in the future a navy, alarmingly close to the English coast, and threatened to serve as an

of legal

freedom

incitement to French intervention. At

first

Elizabeth's solution

was rejected both by William of Orange and by Philip, who despised the idea of coming to terms with rebels. In 1576, however, a settlement of just the type Elizabeth desired seemed to be at hand. The death of Don Luis Requesens in March left the Spanish administration in the

Low Countries without a strong

head, and with a bankrupt Spain unable to send pay to the troops, a series of violent mutinies in the Netherlands culminated in

November, when the garrison

in the citadel

Antwerp

of

savaged the citizens of the town. This atrocity, together with another outbreak at Maastricht, brought the provinces of the

Netherlands together to take action, and by the Pacification of

Ghent

of

November

8 they

demanded

the withdrawal of Spanish

troops and a restoration of the political liberties they

had poswas

came what Elizabeth had been seeking, and she was determined now to do all she could to induce Philip to accept it. Smythe's part was to represent her as a mediator between the States-General and the Spanish crown. He was to point out that the King could only lose by maintaining garrisons which goaded the whole Netherlands into rising against his government and that tlie solution proposed by the Pacification was in sessed before Philip

to the throne. Such a settlement

just

his

own

best interest. Smythe, moreover,

release of

any English traders or

was

to press for the

soldiers in Spanish

hands and

especially to seek redress "for the late outrageous spoil

mitted upon them and their goods in Antwerp."

com-

He was xxi

to

Introduction apologize for the fact that so

manv

of Elizabeth's subjects

had

taken service with Orange and to explain this bv implying that the treatment of it

EngHshmen by

difficult for their

the Inquisition in Spain

countr\Tnen to fight on Philip's

made

side.

He

was then to withdraw his hand a little from the velvet glove and point out that if the King, instead of accepting the terms proposed by the Queen, attempted drastic military action, it would be "so prejudicial to her state that neither she could nor w^ould endure easier for

demands

it."

him

Finally, Elizabeth

that

it

would be

to accept the suit of a fellow prince than the

of subjects

and thus, by means

he might be able to turn

and employ

hoped

his

his eyes

powers against a

of her sisterly mediation,

away from northern waters more natural adversary, the

Turk.22 Sm\i:he's route took

him

in the

first

place to Blois, where he

hoped to get a passport from the Spanish ambassador at the French court.-^ On December 15 he was presented to Henry HI and his Queen and tlie Queen Mother, Catherine de' Medici. He wTote to Elizabeth that "there were besides other ladies, young and old, fair and foul, to the number of nine or ten, but this I do assure your Majesty of my faith, that there is more beaut)' in your Majesty's

little

lady that there was, or in them

finger than tliere

is

in

any one

all."

Then, in another vein of romantic patriotism he wrote in cipher that

if

Queen wanted to take Calais by stealth, now do it. The garrison was weak, the governor was

the

was the time to on leave: "I think

that three or four

hundred

horse, with every

one a footman behind him, the time being well taken and they ~ SmjlJie's

instructions are in British

Museum MS

Titus B.2 (a shortened

given in John Strype, Annals [Oxford, 1824], II, 8-9), and cf. "List of certain instructions to be procured from Walsingham," Cal. S.P., For., 1575-1577, November 20, 1576, pp. 424-426.

version

is

^ There was no Spanish ambassador resident in England between 1572 and 1578. Cal S.P., For., 1575-1577, December 16, p. 446. xxii

Introduction well led from 'Bleptis,' might take the gate that fields

and

town by

so the

open

is

to the

Not surprisingly, Elizabeth proposed attack on a monarch who had re-

took no notice of this

stealth."

cently confirmed the Anglo-French treaty of Blois.

Shortly after January 8, 1577, Smythe settled into a handsome house in Madrid, and he was given audience by King Philip

on the twenty-fourth. The next day the King's secretary called to ask for a summary of the points he had made. Smythe was

when he had been assured by the Genoese was standard practice at the Spanish court, summary in Latin, Burghley having recommended

at first suspicious,

ambassador that

he wrote

his

but

this

the use in such circumstances of "the

common tongue of ChrisweU known to

tendom, because the ambiguities of Latin were all

nations."

Smythe wrote

to

Burghley that he was at pains to

praise to Philip not only the Queen's excellencies but those of

her Lord Treasurer and passed on the gratifying news that

"even the

Duke

one of the most

of Alva himself gives [you] the honor to sufiicient

men

in

Christendom

be

in all politic

government."

As

main purpose of Smythe found that he had no role

his mission

far as the

governor in the Netherlands,

to play, for the

Don John

dor spent his time trying to obtain

and

new

of Austria,

to the terms of the States-General in February,

slaves

was concerned, Spanish

had agreed

and the ambassa-

relief for

English galley

for other nationals languishing in the jails of the

As the Inquisitor General, the Archbishop

Inquisition.

of Toledo,

represented an almost autonomous state within the state and was treated

by

Philip with the utmost caution

and

respect,

Smythe

could obtain neither an audience with the Archbishop nor sup,

port from the King. At length, exasperated

by

rebuffs of varying

degrees of politeness, he determined to beard the Inquisitor in ^

447-448. February 5, 1577, pp. 503-504.

Ibid., pp.

"^Ibid.,

xxiii

Introduction his

own

by

J.

It

palace. The. subsequent encounter

rousingly described

is

A. Froude.

was

The Archbishop was

after supper.

Conde de Andrada and two

who proceeded

truder,

priests.

in his private

He

room with the

stared haughtily at the in-

to tell him, with entire coolness, that

sidered he had been treated with scant courtesy.

He was

he con-

the minister

Queen, he said, and as such, was entitled to be received and heard when he had anything to communicate. The promises made

of a great

to

Cobham

Office

no offence,

ambassador] had been broken. The Holy

[a previous

had continued

to ill-use English

to rob, imprison,

request the immediate release of those Inquisitors' hands,

seamen who had committed

and otherwise

He must

injure them.

who were

at present in the

with compensation for the injuries which they had

sustained.

The Archbishop had remained while ing,

dumb

starting

the ambassador was speak-

with anger and amazement. At

from

his seat in fury,

last,

— he exclaimed:

finding his voice

and

"Sirrah! I tell you, that,

would so chastise you for these words that you have spoken, that I would make you an example to all your kind. I would chastise you, I say, I would make you know to whom but for certain respects,

you speak

in

such shameless fashion."

Smith in a fury

"Sirrah!" replied

of the language

you that

I

I

which enabled him

too,

and proud of

his

command

to retort the insult, "Sirrah! I tell

care neither for you nor your threats."

"Quitad os!" "Be

off

with you!" shouted Quiroga, foaming with

rage, "leave the room! away! I say."

you

"If

me

call

Sirrah" said Smith "I will call you Sirrah.

complain to his Majesty of

"Complain

to

I

will

this."

whom you

will," said the

Archbishop. "Be

off

with

you! Go!"

"Be

off yourself," retorted

the Englishman, moving however to

the door; the graceful interchange of insolence continuing

till

the

Ambassador was out of hearing, and the Archbishop following and railing at

him from the head

History of

1575-1577, xxiv

of the stairs.^^

England (London, 1870), XI, 66-67.

May

19, 1577, p. 580.

Cf.

Cal

S.P., For.,

Introduction

Ten days

He

later

Smythe was

still

wrote bitterly to the King, pointing out that these delays

were not only a disappointment a great prejudice to

my

trying to obtain an audience.

my

for the

Queen but "may cause damage to

reputation, as well as grave

Smythe was

private affairs in England."

still

complaining

June that nothing was being done, but it is unlikely that his reputation suflFered; more experienced men than he had failed in

make an impression on

to

the Archbishop. Philip himself wrote

warmly to Elizabeth on his behalf, describi|^g him as "a wise and good gentleman," and shortly after his return sometime in the summer of 1577, the Queen asked, through Walsingham, for a report on his mission and an account of the present state of Spain.^^ Smythe later told Burghley that pleased Mr. Secretary Walsingham

it

Willoughby (he and

I

with him at the court, not words: "Her Majesty and are

more beholding

of the state of the

six

to

say unto

weeks before he died)

we (meaning,

my at

Lord

supper

these very

as I think, her Council)

to Sir John Smythe for the true understanding King and kingdom of Spain, both within and

we were

without, than ever

...

and divers others being one night

to

any before the time of

his

employ-

ment, for he hath brought us into the right method and understanding of Spain."

//.

The Parma mission and a

militia colonelcy,

1578 to 1590

However useful his service in Spain had been, Smythe did not manage to extract any financial reward for it. The most the Queen would do was to free his lands from the mortgage she ""Cal

S.P., Span.,

1568-1579,

May

29, 1577, p."540.

""Ibid., June, 1577, p. 541.

^The last date on which Smythe is known to have been in Spain is June 26, 1577 (ibid., p. 541). This possibly refers to the Lambeth MS cited above (n. 19). ^ Walsingham died on April 6, 1590. Lansdowne

65, 62.

XXV

Introduction held and thus enable him to

sell them.'^'^

Even

he obtained

this

only in return for his bond for £2,000, payable to the

Crown by Michaelmas 1579, and he was forced to go on suing for some relief. In 1580 he obtained a loan (as did his friend Sir James Croft and his future

the Earl of Leicester ),^^ but he re-

critic,

mained hard pressed. Shortage

of

money may have

led to the

frequency with which he was indicted between 1577 and 1579 for failure to repair bridges difficulties, too, in

on

He was

his properties.

other ways. In 1577 a jury was

to investigate charges of various

nocumentis

in legal

summoned

et offensis said to

have been committed by him,^^ and in 1578 there was a plot to father a bastard child for a normally

no surprise

on him.^^ Nothing

in this

was unusual it comes as

independent country gentleman, and

to find

him acting

regularly as a J.P. himself from

1581,^"^

passing sentence on the nuisances and fornications of

others.

Then, after four years on the rural bench and dogged,

fruitless

hanging about the court, he was summoned to the

storm center of militant European diplomacy. In August, 1585,

he received

his instructions for a mission to the

Duke

of

Parma,

the greatest soldier of the age and Philip iFs governor in the

Netherlands.

The period

of Smythe's Spanish

unnatural calm in the

Low

embassy had been one of

Countries.

Don John had

the Perpetual Edict only because he lacked the

agreed to

money

to fight.

In July, 1577, at about the time of Smythe's return to England,

war broke out

again, with the Netherlands consistently losing

ground. In 1579 the Walloon provinces

with Spain, and under

Don

made

a separate peace

John's successor, Parma, Spanish

troops swept through the southern Netherlands to the Sir Nicholas H. Nicolas, Memoirs of the Life and Times of pher Hatton (London, 1847), pp. 92-93. Cal. S.P., Dom., 1547-1580, March 15, 1580, p. 646. ^E.C.R.O. Quarter Sessions Roll 65/65.

Lansdowne

27, 68.

^E.C.R.O. Assize xxvi

File,

35/23/H59, and

thereafter.

Maas

Sir Christo-

Introduction

and Rhine, taking Antwerp itself on August 7, 1585, after a spectacular siege. At the same time the power of Spain was advancing on other fronts. In 1580 PhiHp became ruler of

and

Portugal,

in January, 1585,

he

with the leader

allied himself

of the Catholic faction in divided France, the

Duke

of Guise.

war party had been formarmed intervention on behalf of Orange before the Netherlands became a bridgehead

Under the pressure

of these events a

ing in England, urging an

William of

for a Spanish invasion of

Queen put up

a stubborn, diverse,

explicable resistance. It

ment

England. Against^

was

in

and

this

at times

demand

the

apparently

in-

an atmosphere of high excite-

that she at length consented

on August

send

10, 1585, to

an expeditionary force under the Earl of Leicester, and

it

was

she was at

and bitterness when it became known that the same time planning a last overture of peace.

Smythe was

to

a matter for alarm

this

be one of

its

instruments, and

it

may

well be that

earned him the enmity of the war party.

He

received instructions dated August 22 which told

him

to

go to Calais and write from there for a passport to Parma's headquarters.

When

he met the Duke he was to say on the

Queen's behalf that it

cannot be unknown to him that during these troubles

we have

sent

divers messengers (whereof

you [Smythe himself] have been one), both to the King of Spain and his governors in the Low Countries, to persuade them to take a peaceable course with the people and .

.

.

not to force them by desperation to withdraw from the obedience

they

owe

to

him

as to their natural prince.

Because of England's close connection with the

he was

to

we caused

Low

Countries,

go on, our ministers to say to the said King (as yourself can

best witness, having

been sent thither) that unless he would take some peaceable course we should be constrained to assist him until he was drawn to deal favorably with them. Therefore ... we have xxvii

Introduction at their

earnest request

.

.

.

consented

(though not to take the

sovereignty as they desired, yet) to assist them as our good friends

and neighbors, having no those countries



as will

intent to

appear

if

make

ourselves possessioner of

the King ever grow to a friendly

accord with them such as was offered at the Pacification of Ghent, which none would be more ready than ourselves to persuade them to accept.

At At

Smythe was

his first meeting,

his

to

go no further than

this.

second audience he was to urge the Duke to rest on the

had won to date and agree to religious tolerDuke appeared agreeable, then Smythe was "to

military laurels he ation. If the

move him esty." If

"you

for a surcease of

until

he hears from His Maj-

he refused to consider these proposals, however, then

shall plainly let

him understand

employ such means

to

arms

as

God end

of those countries, to such

that

we

are determined

has given us in the assistance

as

is

contained in the declaration

At this point Smythe was to produce propaganda booklet entitled A Declaration of the Cause Moving the Queen of England to Give Aid to the Defense of

you the

.

.

shall deliver to him."

little

.

the

Low

Countries, which

was

to

be distributed in Latin,

French, Dutch, German, and Italian in an attempt to gain as

much sympathy

as possible for English intervention.^^

The book

described the natural and commercial bonds between England

and the

Low

Countries and deplored the hostile policies of the

Spaniards in spite of the "many friendly messages and ambassadors" sent by the Queen. If

the motives for choosing Smythe remain unclear,

because the Queen's

ovm

he was chosen because

it is

partly

purposes are not transparent. Perhaps

as a friend of Sir

James Croft he was

August 22, 1585, p. 671. from a manuscript "given at Richmond the first of October, 1585," and it is possible that Smythe was to have been provided with a manuscript version in the event of his leaving England before the booklet was finished. Cat. S.P., For., 1584-1585,

^^The printed

xxviii

text

is

Introduction

be sympathetic to peace and because he could urge the Queen's case fluently in the Spanish tongue; and further, because he was unimportant enough to be disavowed in case

known

to

Be that as it may, the news of the Queen's intention to send Smythe to Parma was soon known in the Low Countries. On September 4 WilHam Davison, a supporter of the war party, wrote to Walsingham from Middelburg to emphasize the bad eflFect of this attempt to go behind her allies' backs and how unbecoming it was, in any case, to approac}^ the servant of a monarch who had himself recently refused to give audience to an English ambassador.^*^ The expeditionary force duly sailed in December, 1585, but as late as February in the following year Leicester was writing in exasperation about the attempt to bind his hands and make nonsense of his enterprise. "The enemy," of need.

[as the Dutch] know what conferences have been about Sir John Smythe's embassage The embassage and how earnest Her Majesty is for peace."

he told Walsingham, "doth as assuredly

itself in fact

land,''^

came

but there

to nothing,

is little

and Smythe did not leave Eng-

doubt that when he came

in his Dis-

courses to criticize the leadership and conduct of the English military operations of the next

many

two years he was

of his influential readers as the

identified

by

man who had been

in-

move to sabotage Leicester's expedition. The year 1586 was one of domestic tension; the fate

volved in the

Stuart

was being decided, there were rumors

of

Mary

of invasion in the

Cal S.P., For., 1585-1586, p. 5. " Correspondence of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1585-1586 (London, 1844), p. 93, letter of February 7. ^ This is clear from Lansdowne 64, 45, a letter to Burghley dated May 20, 1590, where he complains that "I have found by so long experience (ever since Her Majesty called me from beyond the seas) that I have been *°

.

.

.

it were once into Spain) I was never any service of hers, neither at home nor abroad, but only in the mustering and training of the regiment of this shire of Essex in the year 1588." This would seem to correct the assumption of the editor of Cal S.P., For., 1584-1585 (p. li) that Smythe did actually go.

so little

accounted of that (except

employed

in

xxix

Introduction

and

Catholic interest

of plots both imaginary and, as in the

case of the Babington conspiracy, real.

November

in

Smythe

oflFered his serv-

both Burghley and the Queen,^^ apparently in vain, for

ices to

of the following year

he complained

to

Burghley

of the "opinions of those that within these three or four years

have maliciously detracted from me." This

letter

record of his military experience from which

contained the

we have

already

quoted, although Smythe claimed that he was no longer looking for active

For

I

employment.

do with

in times past

all

humility protest unto your Lordship that although

when

thought there had been a better opinion con-

I

ceived of some sufficiency in there hath been, then

any service that

in

I

had,

I

me I

than of late years

I

have perceived

confess, a great desire to

had given myself

to the

my desire my vocation

is

beholder than an actor in matters of

and

mood he

drafted "a

little

of;

but

rather to be a

at this present, all things considered,

In this

be employed

understanding

profession.

revealed that he had turned author and had

book

entitled 'Certain military discourses

and

and demonstrations for a lord marshal or for a sergeant major to form squadrons and to reduce both horsemen and footmen into divers forms of arithmetical tables, with divers forms

battle,' "

and begged Burghley to consider accepting Smythe went on,

its

dedi-

cation to him, "Howbeit," I

have stayed the writing of mine

finishing of as

two or three

little

epistle dedicatory, as also the

things in

my

said book, until such time

your Lordship hath perused the same, doubting

ship will like the

the

new

first

leaves of

my

last discourse,

same make myself merry with the new disciplinated

*^Ca/. chester,

men

XXX

54, 77,

Lord-

do

fancies of

some

I

in

of those

of war.^*

S.P., Dom., 1581-1590, letter written September 23, 1586, p. 355.

" Lansdowne

how your because

November

15.

to

Burghley from Col-

Introduction Apparently Burghley did not welcome the idea of patronizing a

work still

likely to give ofiFense as well as advice, for the

work was

unpublished when Smythe printed his Instructions in 1595,^^

but he offered a more substantial consolation, for in December,

Smythe was commissioned to help in the organization and training of troops in Essex and Hertford and to supervise the 1587,

fortifying of the port of Harwich.^^

This was part of a national program to provide an army capable of repelling an invasion force,

and the Essejj-Hertford scheme

provided for a lengthy course of training instead of the previous

and

"short musters

trainings

which have served more,

as

it

is

thought, for fashion than for substance of discipline." At least 2,000

men were

and they were to a

to

to

new camp

be

raised, with 100 horse for every 1,000 foot,

be exercised

for at least sixteen days,

moving

every three or four days so that they were not

a burden on the inhabitants of any one region for too long. This force

was

to

be "mustered, viewed, arrayed, armed, and weap-

make

march as to lodge and be in camp, and so be enabled by that exercise and discipline to encounter the enemy that shall oflFer to assail them either in marching or in camp." For this service, and for supervising the expenditure of £1,000 on the entrenching and fortifying of Harwich, Smythe was paid twenty shillings a day with oned, and afterwards trained as well to

their

the rank of colonel.*^

There

is

no doubt that he threw himself into

task with vigor,

the good *^He

men

though some of

his

more

this

congenial

exotic experiments with

of Essex, like "the order of

marching of a semi-

it there (p. 41) as "a book which I mean shortly to put There is no record of its ever being published. Hist. MSS Com., 15th Report, Part V, The Manuscripts of ... F. J. Savile Foljambe (London, 1887), pp. 28-31.

refers to

into print."

*^ This, at least, was his rank when rank is first mentioned in connection with the Essex trainings in 1589 {Cal. S.P., Dom., 1581-1590, May 24,

1589, p. 602).

xxxi

Introduction

two ranks oblique according to the Hungarian and may have caused some surprise. His own verdict on his conduct was that the troops circle of

Turkey manner,"

were not only

at that time thereby wonderfully

great desire to encounter

and

encouraged with a

with the foreign enemy, but also

fight

and officers that had served, some eight, some ten, some twelve years in the Low Countries and France, did with great humihty confess that they had learned divers matters military of divers captains

me, both for the ordering of horsemen and footmen, that they had never seen in the wars of France nor Flanders. The report whereof

was the cause that many captains and gentlemen shires did

come, or send their

Another verdict was of a the Essex contingents

officers, to

see

my

of divers other

trainings.^^

strikingly different nature.

came up

to Tilbury in July, 1588,

very eve of the running fight with the

Armada

When on the

in the channel,

the Earl of Leicester wrote to Walsingham in scathing tones of their

commander:

You would laugh to see how Sir John Smith has dealt since my comHe came to me and told me that his disease so grew upon him as he must needs go to the baths. He said his health was dear

ing.

.

to him,

and he desired

.

.

me, which I yielded unto. came again to me to dinner, but

to take leave of

Yesterday, being our muster day, he

*® He describes his Essex trainings in Instructions, pp. 30-31, 146, and 174 (the present reference). He also did his best to demonstrate the advantages of the bow. At Chelmsford one day, for instance, he set up sticks with pieces of paper tied to the tops to stand for an enemy squadron. His archers then discharged at them at ranges up to twelvescore yards, hitting them all down or striking them aside. His audience, which included "many officers of bands that had served long time in the Low Countries," admitted that this was "a most wonderful effect" ("Answer" [see note 128], f. 106 recto). *^ Lansdowne 65, 62. And in Lansdowne 64, 45 he described how, thanks to "the malicious and false reports of Leicester," he had "been made inferior in all affairs of the shire to divers that are but of the same calling that I am and that were but boys and went to school when I had spent

some time xxxii

in the service of

some

princes."

Introduction such foolish and vainglorious paradoxes he burst withal, without any cause offered, as made all that knew anything smile and answer little.

The Captain General then went out

He

was not impressed.

He

men

review the

to

v^^as still less

of Essex.

impressed by Smythe's

behavior when the review was over. "After the muster," he wrote,

men made me think he was God forbid he should have charge of men that knoweth

"he entered again into such strange cries for ordering of

and

for the fight with the

not well.

weapon

as



pronounce that he doth"^(i and Leicester Smythe was dismissed from his colonelcy and re-

as little as I dare

saw

to

it

that

duced to inactivity once more.^^ Between a self-portrait on the one side and a sketch from an unfriendly hand on the other, it is probably wise to strike a mean, to see Smythe somewhere betw^een an enthusiastic, somewhat eccentric officer and a ridiculous and impractical pedant

who

cared more for his

own

health than for the welfare of the

realm in a time of national emergency. His

illness, at least,

was

not imaginary. In January, 1590, he asked permission to leave the country "to go over the seas to the Spa, there to recover self of

my

disease."

He

my-

expected to be away for two or three

years.

came at the end of a Smythe was not content

This request

showed

that

and sink back again

self-esteem

remained especially

alert for signs of if

letter to

Burghley which

wounds

to lick the

abuse in the country's military

they revealed a

to his

into the life of a rural J.P.

selfish

He

aflFairs,

and unpatriotic frame of

mind. The abortive expedition of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris to Lisbon provided

him with evidence he determined

put before the Lord Treasurer. There

no cause

to

to

doubt the

Dom., 1581-1590, July 28, 1588, p. 515. Quoted by The United Netherlands (London, 1864), II, 492-493. As Smythe himself complained (Lansdowne 65, 162).

''Cal J.

is

S.P.,

L. Motley,

Hist. MSS Com., Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Salisbury, IV, 5 (hereafter referred to as H.M.C. Hatfield). .

.

.

Marquess of

xxxiii

Introduction veracity of his story,

and

it

casts a baleful illumination

on a

widely shared attitude to war. I

at

thought good

my

last

...

you

to advertise

some things

of

that I heard

being in London. Being one day at dinner in a place where

there were divers gentlemen, and some of good calling, two of

happened into Spain

to speak, in a kind of jollity, that this last

them

summer's journey

and Portugal would be worth unto one of them above a

thousand marks and to the other above £400, although none of

them both had been so great profit

in that journey.

And

they being

demanded how

might redound unto them, they answered: by the

death of so many of their tenants that died in that journey, that the would be worth that or more. new fines [paid by a new tenant] Upon which speeches it was further said by a gentleman that came .

a

little

.

.

before out of the west parts, and confirmed by others there,

that there

is

a knight in the

West Country who with

certain other

gentlemen are about to make a regiment of near 3,000 men, with tent this next spring to go over to

in-

serve the French king. Whereunto,

being answered that unless they and their soldiers went well furnished with money, that very few would return that

if all

their soldiers died (so that the knight

their landlords lived) that the greater profit

alive,

it

was replied

and the gentlemen

would grow

way of fines for new lives [tenants], which was moved them ... to take that enterprise in hand.

to

them by

the cause that

Smythe went on to deplore this sacrifice of good men, emit was no excuse to say that the realm was bidding good riddance to rogues and vagabonds. It was not the undesirables who came to the drum they hid; it was brave stout fellows who were being cast away by these profiteer landlords. Broadening his target, he described a situation in which good men enlisted and were turned into bad citizens by conditions of foreign service that kept them without discipline and so short of pay that they had to live oflF the country by theft and violence.

phasizing that



When

the survivors returned they joined the domestic ranks of

rogues and vagabonds. Thus the xxxiv

eflFect

of each enlistment

was

Introduction to swell the ranks of

wandering malefactors and diminish the

pool of reliable recruits. This

bad

military policy led to social

danger. I

will only

so

much

make mention

to

do

in the

of the helium servile that

gave the Romans

time they flourished most, the Jacquerie of

France, and the dangerous rebellion of the peasants of Hungary.

Commonly

.

.

.

the beginnings are very small and therefore lightly re-

garded, but once begun, they suddenly grow great, and then they turn

blood and

all to

fire.^^

«

Though Smythe himself was proposing to leave the scene of had written a book to take his place.

these possible disorders, he

The Discourses

77/.

concerning the Forms The book was Certain Discourses Other Very ImporSorts Weapons and Divers and Effects of of .

.

.

tant Matters Military, written in 1589, entered in the Stationers'

Company

Register on April

6,

1590, as Certain Discourses con-

cerning the Great Mistaking of the Effects of Divers Sorts of

Weapons, and Chiefly of the Musket, Caliver, and Longbow, and Use of Archers, and published by Richard Johnes with

of the

the date

May

1,

1590.^^

and repetitious in style, truculent and overbearing in was nevertheless the most original, practical, serious, and cultivated work on military science yet written by an Englishman. Before 1590 English military books had been heavily deProlix

tone,

it

pendent on foreign and ^

Ihid., pp. 4-5.

^*

He was working on

classical technical works, or

had

dealt

the book in June. In "Answer,"

f. 66 recto, he Warwick, dated June 20, 1589, to whom Smythe had written asking his opinion of archery. Both the Folger manuscript and f. 1 recto of the 1590 edition give the date 1589 for the body of the work. The proem might have been written early in 1590, however; the absence of marginal notes in the 1590 edition suggests that it was written later than the rest of the work, and possibly in a hurry.

copies a letter from the Earl of

XXXV

Introduction with individual campaigns or with war and martial qualities in

Only Thomas Styward

abstract terms.

had attempted any-

thing like a comprehensive survey of military techniques, and

he was an obscure and uninfluential man. The most thoughtful general works on the art of war available to an English reader

War had been translated and Military Discourses of Frangois de la Noue in 1587, the Instructions for the Wars of Fourquevaux in 1589. The English military book comes of age with Smythe, and other contributors to the genre were both encouraged by his rank and goaded into comment by his intransigently reactionary

were

translations. MachiavelU's Art of

in 1560, the Politic

point of view.

Smythe looked

to history as a teacher and, of course, the

lessons of history are those of the past.

He

believed that in

former days things had been done as well as they ever would be,

and that

this applied, in spite of

trary, to the art of war.

He was

appearances to the con-

strengthened in this belief by his

and tumultuary modern wars as which any decent lesson would be learned. The true schools were the wars of the past and of his youth, no civil broils, but campaigns that employed the carefully organized resources

lack of faith in disordered

schools in

of a

whole country. As a man whose own military experience lay and who had no good opinion of the modern gener-

in the past, ation,

with

he rejected

their opinions with testy impatience, dwelling

on those of "our brave ancestors," "our most

aflFection

worthy ancestors." While

sufficiently cosmopolitan, thanks to his

early campaigning abroad, to admire military efficiency in other nations,

he was yet enough of a

for introducing the English to

bluff patriot to

blame the Dutch

drunken manners and

to gird at

the adoption of Continental technical terms,

^For

a complete chronological

Military Books

up

to

1642 of M.

see the admirable Bibliography of D. Cockle (London, 1900; reprinted

list,

J.

1957).

^ The Pathway xxxvi

to Martial Discipline

(London, 1581).

I

Introduction as

though our EngHsh nation, which hath been so famous in all acmany hundred years, were now but newly crept into

tions military

the world, or as though our language were so barren that

not able of

itself

by derivation

or

our minds in matters of that

He praised foreigners

to afford convenient

words

were

quality/^'''

as others of his contemporaries praised the

Turks in order to shame Christians; England had slip to

it

to utter

let

the lead

other nations and had ceased to be true to the traditions

of native warfare, especially to archery, the n^fblest tradition of all.

In his eyes the craft of war was not to be learned from of

no background

who thought

men

themselves experts because they

had seen a siege or two and some beggarly skirmishes. It was the men of standing in the shire who were the repositories of military wisdom,

men

with a stake in the country and

who were

above looking on war as a means of earning a living and on

mere cannon fodder. The humanitarianism which is book is that of the local dignitary who takes into battle the men of his own countryside whom he knows and values, and his contempt for the indifference of "Low Country captains" toward their men made it impossible for him to learn anything from them as soldiers. The strength of his feelings on this point led him to send Burghley a scheme for ridding England of rogues and vagabonds in which it is charitable to see some irony drifting in the sea of indignation. In the margin of this bizarre document he sounds soldiers as

so generous a feature of the

its

theme.

It is to

be noted that

I

have many times heard some of the chief

ventors and executors of the

had rather have three hundred

new

in-

discipline military say that they

soldiers rogues than five

untary soldiers or taken up by commission.

And

were that the rogues can abide more hunger,

hundred

vol-

their reasons alleged

cold,

and

travail,

Below, pp. 41-42. xxxvii

and

Introduction therewithal provide and

make

other sort of soldiers can.

And

better shift for themselves than the

because that they themselves have

made them rogues it is great reason, them away and consume them. His recommendation was that

in

lists

my

fancy, that they should rid

be kept,

of rogues should

and when an emergency arose they should be marched coast and committed

to the charge of such captains as are malcontents,

presently with

all celerity to

to the place of service

be embarked and sent out

all

If

.

.

.

Then

and

England of perI

would

those bands should be reduced into divers regiments,

under such colonels and captains

by their

of

and employment, with proclamation

petual banishment never to return into England.

wish that

to the

actions that they

as in times past

make no account

have made proof

of the lives of their soldiers.

any of the ex-rogues deserted and were caught

in

England,

then three justices should "give sentence of death upon them

and presently by the martial law hang them." In spite of his repeated assertions that when he criticized it was not with any animus against individuals but solely for his country's good, it was inevitable that his book should be read against the background of the unsuccessful English intervention in the Netherlands, and that his accusation of "divers of our chief men of charge and war" and "those in the highest places of office or charge" should be understood to refer to Leicester and his subordinates. His indictment of the methods of recruitment, equipment, and supply, as well as of the organization and

army, reflected, too, on the Privy Council. The book had a polemic quality that must have made reading it an electrifying experience, and it is an indication of Smythe's blinkered mind that he was unaware of this. tactics of the

Lansdowne 66, 62 ( 2 ) undated, "A mean how the realm should be disburdened of the greatest part of the thieves and rogues that are dispersed throughout England." ,

xxxviii

Introduction

The book

is

called Discourses, but

it is,

rather,

one discourse

together with a long introduction or proem, a brief appendix on

horse archers, and a final exhortation to the magistrates and

gentlemen of England. The proem

is

devoted to a warning

against the introduction of novelties from France

and the

Low

Countries (which were "without any formed militia and dis-

by young soldiers who had no respect for the and betters. A good army needs regular pay and discipline, and neither exists in a state of civil war; there is only exploitation and violence. Instead of the careful working-out of the best troop formations and tactics there is a pother of innovation and experiment. The English expeditionary force had listened too carefully to irresponsible "Low Country captains," and in consequence that army had no proper regard for military law; it was not directed by a proper council of war; it was badly trained, equipped, and supplied; and its officers were selfish, prepared rather to sacrifice their men's than to save them from lives in order to collect dead pays needless risk and hardship; they had introduced the foreign vice of drunken carousing; and they had given up the virtuous English reliance on archery. The discourse itself goes on to criticize in greater detail the faulty equipment and organization of the contemporary English soldier and proceeds by way of sword, pike, and halberd, company and regiment, to the heart of the book: the comparison of bows and firearms, granting a triumphant victory on technical and historical grounds to the former. The archer, Smythe claimed, could fire four or five arrows for every one bullet. The gun was at the mercy of the weather; rain could damp its match, wind could blow away its touch powder. The invisible path of the bullet could not compare in terror to the whistling streaks of arrows, volleys of which could darken the sky; arrows too, unlike bullets, were as lethal in descending cipline military" )

past or for their elders

^ The pay a captain received for a name that remained on the muster though its owner was dead.

roll

xxxix

Introduction

and

as in level flight

mark little

inflicted a

bow was

In accuracy the

wound which was harder

to heal.

far superior to the gun, hitting

regularly at 160-220 yards, while the harquebus

its

was

of

use beyond 60 yards, the musket beyond 200. Indeed,

"it

hath often happened that in discharging on both sides

many

thousands of bullets within three, four, and

five scores and been on both sides slain and hurt with men, which greatly argueth the insufficiency of

nearer, there hath not bullets thirty

those kinds of weapons for battles and encounters." Smythe said

nothing about siege work (although

it

is

important to realize

were becoming an increasingly predominant feature of contemporary warfare, and no one denied the superiority of the gun in attacking and defending fortified places), but he

that sieges

stated that the

bow was more

effective

than the gun in both

He

skirmish and pitched battle, for horse and for foot.

indeed, that the

bow was now more

to the increasing

claimed,

effective than ever, thanks

tendency of soldiers to leave

off their

arm-

and legpieces and to disarm their horses, in order to minimize their burden of heavy bullet-proofed armor. Archery had decayed; but it was not too late to revive it. He rejected with contempt the suggestion that the dwindling stature of Englishmen made it impossible for them to bend the bow with the strength of their ancestors.

was enough archery was due to

of small fathers of

One

glance at the

to give the lie to that.

tall

sons

The decay

the great fault and negligence of divers sorts of magistrates, who,

having excellent statute and penal laws established in other kings' times for the increase and maintenance of archery,

.

.

.

have so

neglected, or rather contemned, the due performance and execution of those laws that a great deal

through the fault of the people hath so few good archers. «°

Below, xl

p. 81.

more through their own fault than now come to pass that the realm

it is

Introduction

God had made use of the bow.

EngHsh

the

To throw

it

skilled

above

nations in the

all

and

aside on inadequate, misleading,

prejudiced advice from defenders of the gun would be an insult to

God,

to the

memory

and

of Crecy,

to the stout

yeomen

of

England.

The

consideration whereof, for the great love that

borne, and do of

still

according to

my

England and English nation, was the

moved me

(as

much

and diligence

as in

to revive

first

my power

and better

magistrates,

and put

have always

and principal cause that

hand, to the intent to advise

to take these discourses in

and persuade nobility,

I

duty bear, to the crown and realm

and small

ability is)

the

of our nation with all care

sort

in execution the ancient statutes

provided and established for the increase and exercise of the youth of

England

in archery.^^

The Discourses was a panegyric weapon but as a symbol

only as a

English nation which stood for a

and

bow

of the

—the

bow

not

of the past glories of the

way

of life virtuous, energetic,

As a result, what might have been merely a technical became a celebration of the history and an indictment

free.

treatise

of the present character of militant England.

IV.

Bow

Soon

versus

gun

in Renaissance

after the publication of the Discourses,

identified

Archery, published under the a restatement

Camden,

Britain,^^ referred to

when

of Smythe's

in his

arguments.

Remains concerning

as the representative defender of

the Reverend

he had preached to the Artillery

which he had had occasion p.

Brief

and Excellence of the Use of was hardly more than

on weapons

Smythe

A

initials R. S.,

(duly acknowledged)

in the chapter

the bow, and

Below,

Smythe became

with the defense of the longbow. In 1596

Treatise to Prove the Necessity

in

England

J.

Davenport printed a sermon

Company

to touch

of

London

on the

in 1629,

rival merits of

119.

The chapter

"Artillery"

was

first

published in the edition of 1614. xli

Introduction

bow and For

gun, Smythe was the authority he cited in the margin.^^

advocacy of the

his

bow

an age of

in

firearms,

Smythe

has earned the reputation of being something rather worse than

He

an eccentric. topic

was

still

references above, however, suggest that the

considered relevant in the generation after the

and

Discourses,

terms of the

has become ridiculous, the symbol of irrational

The

conservatism.

him fairly we should try to gun controversy as a whole.

to judge

bow

versus

him

see

in

should be said at the outset that this controversy was not

It

conducted on a purely technical

level.

It

was charged with

emotional issues, and these account for the prolonged nature of

an argument which might have been settled by an hour s

ex-

periment in the butts. For the moralist, archery was a God-given protection against vice.

open

fulfilling

air,

It

kept

men

healthily occupied in the

the function of compulsory games in the

nineteenth-century English public school. Archery, Latimer re-

minded a congregation a gift of

God

withal,

.

.

.

that included

but

now we have

of measures running

all

in 1549, "is

other nations

taken up whoring in taverns

stead of shooting in the fields." a moral as well as a military

in the

Edward VI

that he hath given us to excel

This treatment of the

weapon was

from Richard

II's

bow

in-

as

explicit in a series

reign and culminating

key statute of 33 Henry VIII, which regulated the practice

and was repeated by proclamation after proclamation beyond the turn of the century. The statute declared that "forasmuch as the former laws [concerning weapons] have been defrauded by inventing of new unlawful games, whereby divine of archery

service

is still

of the peace

^

A

neglected and archery also decayed," the justices

were

Royal Edict,

ness of this

to ensure that every

p. 4. Referring to the

weapon above

man under

bow, he

says,

those muskets and calivers

the age of

"About the

now

in use,

usefulit

be-

comes not me to dispute; others have handled the argument largely, to whose discourse I refer you." And in the margin, "S.I.S. [Sir I (for John) Smythe] his discourse with the preface thereunto." **Hugh Latimer, Sermons (London: Everyman, [n.d.]), p. 170. xlii

Introduction (except divines, justices, and barons of the exchequer)

sixty

possessed bows and arrows and could use them; that boys were

be trained from the age of seven, and from seventeen were expected to keep themselves provided with a bow and two

to

arrows; and that games of chance, or games which (like bowls and tennis) were associated with tavern haunting and riots, were forbidden to all except landowners with an income of one hundred pounds a year. Archery continued for long to be asso-

and avoiding vice. In which is the soberest exavoid drunkenness and other evils,"

ciated with attending divine service this spirit

Smythe wrote

ercise of all others to

and

his disciple, R. S.,

of "archery,

pointed out, "that of

most honest pastime and

least

things do very plainly prove:

and referred

to

it

pestilent gaming."

all

others

it

is

the

occasion to naughtiness, two

viz.,

daylight and open place,"

purge the whole land of

as "a medicine to ^'^

In the light, too, of the aristocratic contention that firearms

were a coward's weapon, the bow became (quite irrationally, as it too was a missile weapon and a common man could strike

down

a knight at a distance with

a symbol of valor.

it)

As the

abominable verses of the soldier-poet Thomas Churchyard put it:

we found out shot aright, the bow great battles won, bow great glory got, before we knew the gun. ... In elders' days, when manhood shone as bright as blazing star. And Christian heart and noble mind disdained this Turkish war, The bow was used as force of man and strength of arms might draw, First, ere

And

long the

^ "The Sabbath day was not so profaned when this exercise was used, and yeomen with their sons and menservants, notwithstanding they dwelt far from their parish churches, yet would they take their bows and arrows for their recreation and exercise, and so shoot to their parish churches and go to divine service, both morning and evening" (William Neade, The Double-Armed Man [London, 1625], f.C 3 recto). Discourses, below, p. 29. F. B 2 recto and B 3 verso. for then the country farmers

.

.

.

xliii

.

Introduction

To

glad the friend and daunt the foe, and hold the world in awe.

But when that strength and courage

failed,

and cunning crept

in place.

The shot and roaring cannon came, stout people to deface. The bow not fit for coward's hand, for coward's strength doth

On

fail.^^

and legendary grounds the bow was par excelWith it he had toppled the pride Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. In Robin Hood's

historical

lence the Englishman's weapon. of France at

hands

it

had protected the weak against the strong, the poor was the weapon whose use had been suggested by God, and no one had made better use of

against the tyrant.^® It directly

that heavenly blueprint, the rainbow, than the English nationJ^ Finally, thanks to the expense of the

gun and

its

ammunition,

bow

to gun meant that a far smaller proportion would be properly exercised and kept out of mischief. Troubled as Tudor governments were by the thought of an idle and restless poor, it is not surprising that they tried to maintain archery by exhortation while taking practical steps at the same time to introduce the gun. Controversy about the use of bow and gun began in earnest in the 1540's. Hard on the heels of Henry VIII's statute came Roger Ascham's Toxophilus, the School of ShootingJ^ devoted to an account of the glorious history of the bow and to an essay on how best to employ it.

the change from

of the population



If I

were of authority [wrote Ascham],

men and yeomen

of

England not

to

I

would counsel all the gentleit with any other thing

change

^Prefatory poem in R. Robinson, The Ancient Order, Society, and Unity Laudable of Prince Arthur and His Knightly Armory of the Round Table (London, 1583), f * 3 verso. .

^ On the

Robin Hood in the sixteenth century, see Chronicles (1587), III, 83b (citing Hall's Chronicles) on pageantry for the court in 1515 and Robinson (op. cit.) on games for the country ( f L 4 verso ) The point was made by, among others, Robinson ( f J 3 cult of

Holinshed's

greenwood greenwood

.

"'^

.

Neade

(f.

B3

recto).

London, 1545; reprinted 1571 and 1589. xliv

verso ) and

Introduction .

.

it

but that

.

use

it

as a

But

for the

still

according to the old wont of England youth should

most honest pastime

most sure weapon

for all that,

the

bow

some

bow

men might

handle

is

no more than

for: the retention of a

positive advantages

abolition of

should be preserved as a powerful

to firearms. This

asked

in peace, that

war

Ascham was not advocating the

guns, merely that the

complement

in

(in their

later partisans of

proved weapon which had

own

eyes) over the gun,

had undeniably *fcome to stay but which Englishmen were not fully proficient.

alongside the firearms which in the use of

By

a proclamation of

May

17, 1559, the

33 Henry VIII was ordered to be

archery statute of

and in 1566 bows was pegged at a price yeomen could aflford.'^^ On the other hand, the gun was rapidly gaining ground, partly on government order,^^ partly because its novelty and violence made it a more fashionable and exciting weapon, while archery was falling into increasing neglect. All over the country the quarter sessions were dealing with cases of archery grounds being put under the plow and with presentments like this from strictly enforced,

the cost of

Smythe's

own

county: complaint

is

keeping a tippling house, maintains

made

ill

rule

that William

by common

Sympson,

resorting of

where the youth of the parish do resort together on the Sundays and holy days, rioting and reveling, to the great decay and hindrance of the use and exercise of artellary [archery], which by that means is little used.^^

minstrels to his house,

''^

"

yew

F. 99

ii

recto, epistle dedicatory.

Statute 8 Eliz. 10.

The

prices ranged from

two

English yew. The statute

shillings for

to six shillings eightpence for first-quality imported

was revived several times before the end of the century. Sir Charles Oman cites an order of 1569 to the commissioners of musters that every government servant or official with a salary of fifty marks or more should be compelled to find a harquebusier, also every parson with pluralities worth £20 per annum and every P. (A History J. of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century [London, 1937], p. 381 n.). '"E.CR.O. Quarter Sessions Roll 41/30, September 17, 1571. '^^

xlv

Introduction In 1572 the Henrician statute was revived once more. In 1574 began the detailed Hterary debate on the rival merits of

gun and bow

of

which Smythe's Discourses was but the most

A

elaborate example. In that year appeared Barnabe Rich's

Right Excellent and Pleasant Dialogue between Mercury and

an English

Soldier.

defending the

At one point in the narrative the

bow when

was "What

soldier

the god broke in with a brisk

hath been done in time past maketh nothing to the purpose for the time present, for the order of the wars

He

especially the musket,

bow remained

the

"for the strength of

a

is

altogether altered."

referred to recent improvements in the manufacture of guns,

list

and

in the

making

men

is

Then he gave gun possessed over the

generally decayed."

in the field the tired archer could not reach

200 yards, while the caliver

and the musketeer

powder, whereas

the same and had less effect than before,

of positive advantages that the

bow. After a week

of

his of

to stand exposed, the

man

retained his range of 360-400

480-600 yards. While the archer had

man armed

with a gun could

cover or conceal himself behind bushes or up a

could

fire

about eight bullets

lie

tree.

to every five arrows,

down

in

The gun

and the im-

pact of a bullet was far more damaging than that of an arrow.

The

arrow's trajectory, moreover, allowed

target area;

it

could even drop

down

it

to cover a very small

harmlessly between one

rank and the next, while the long horizontal

endangered every object

in

its

course.

But

flight of the bullet

after the English

insisted

we may hang our bows that the bow retained its

was not used

in a direct encounter with

soldier's rueful observation, "I perceive

upon the waUs,"

Mercury

usefulness as long as

it

was admitted on both sides of the controversy that English archery had declined in effectiveness since the great victories It



" F. H iii recto H v verso. had begun by asserting, "I am of that mind one thousand good archers would wrong two thousand shoot."

H



F,



The English

xlvi

iii

recto

and

verso.

soldier

that

Introduction of the

Hundred

Years'

War, and none expressed

this

more pun-

gently than William Harrison. Certes the

Frenchmen and

will not let in

taOs is

and

Rutters, deriding our

open skirmish,

that served

laid in bed.

Edward

But

and another feathered about to see

who

Significantly, in

archery,

.

Englishmen now lived

of our

been nailed

in his

shot the

to his

bum

with an arrow

bowels before he should have turned

first.*^^

view of complaints from commissioners of mus-

of the exploits of the

with him to the to say

.

their

because our strong shooting

all

some

.

up

1585 about the decay of archery, nothing definite

ters in

word

if

new

leisure serve, to turn

the Third in his wars with France, the breech

of such a varlet should have

known

and

cry, "Shoot, English!"

decayed and

any

if

Low

company

of

bowmen

is

Leicester took

Even Smythe has no

Countries that year.

about them. In 1589, the year before the appearance

of the Discourses, the statute of 33

Henry VIII was once again

revived.

bow and

In 1590 the sharpest attack yet launched on the

defenders was delivered in a work entitled

War.

Its

A

its

Brief Discourse of

author was Sir Roger Williams, an outstanding profes-

sional soldier, Smythe's junior

by some ten

years.

He was famous

for the boldness of his exploits in the Netherlands,

both before

and well known

at court for

and

after the official intervention,

the pertinacity with the Queen. in

He had

which he sued

for increased favors

from

served Leicester with conspicuous gallantry

1585-1586. In a chapter entitled "To prove

bowmen

the

worst shot used in these days" he claimed that 500 musketeers

were more than a match for 1,500 bowmen; only one archer in five was a really strong shot; archers could not take adequate cover; few could do much damage at 240 to 280 yards; arrows were more difficult to provide than the ammunition for guns; and weather ajGFected men and weapon more than in the case of Holinshed, Chronicles (1807),

I,

333, in the chapter

"On Armor and

Munition." xlvii

Introduction firearms. "I

do not doubt but

have served

in the

all,

honorable and others, which

Low Countries, will

say as

I

do."

On the other

would be only those who alleged "antiquity without other and those who are wrongly deemed "expert because they carried arms forty years and never in action three years during their lives, counting all together." He went on to carry the war even further into Smythe's camp. side

reasons'*

Some

will say,

what

of the Netherlanders

be seen in the actions and France, counting them civil wars.

discipline could there

.

Notwithstanding in these actions were employed

all

.

.

the bravest na-

Europe, their greatest captains, engineers, and counselors

tions of

for war.®^

The publication

dates do not allow Williams' book to be an

it looks uncommonly as if Smythe's known before they got into print, and it is understandable how much he was galled by WilHams' contempt

answer to Smythe's, but views were well for them.

The

battle

was by no means

next year in his Effect of All

had found

A

Manual Weapons

so very

as touching the

over.

Humphrey Barwick

said

Brief Discourse concerning the Force and

many

of Fire that

he

addicted to the opinion of Sir John Smith

commending

of the archery of England, with so

many

by him in that behalf, that many are thereby persuaded that the longbow is the only weapon in the world for the obtaining of battles and victories in these days.®^

reasons and arguments alleged

The Practice, Proceedings, and Laws of Arms, a widely read book by an influential man, claimed that archers, were they properly protected with good plated jacks, would be better than guns in the open field, though firearms were more useful in siege work.^^ 1595, however, the year which saw the publication of Smythe's Instructions, in which his deIn 1593 Matthew

Pp. 46-48. xlviii

Sutcliffe's

F.

A3

recto.

E.g., pp.

163 and 189.

Introduction fense of the

bow was continued,^^ it looked as though the bow were to be silenced, for in that year

de-

the

fenders of the

Privy Council encouraged the commissioners of musters in

Buckinghamshire to replace bows with calivers and muskets, ^'because they are of

more use than the bows," and declared

archers were no longer to be accepted as trained

They remained

other counties.^^

men

that

in the

as a reserve, however, to

be

Two months

for

used in case of a special emergency.

later,

instance, the Council directed Berkshire to provide able-bodied

who "may serve sufficiently troops to make defense upon

squadrons

archers

in the bodies of

or in

a sudden to withstand the

descent or landing of an enemy."

The Henrician

statute

still

remained on the book, and hence-

forward the defenders of the serve the quality of archery of the shires,

and

to get

it

bow had two

among

objectives: to pre-

the able but "untrained''

reintroduced as a

first-class

men

combat

weapon. In 1596 appeared the Brief Treatise of Smythe's admirer, R.

S. Its

intention

was not

to turn

archery from decay (and with

it

back the

clock,

but to save

the fortunes of the Companies

Bowyers and Fletchers, by whom the book was dedicated to the nobility and gentlemen of England) and thus enable the of

country to

make the best use of "that weapon whereby God and made us so excel, and whereby we have ever been

nature hath

prevalent over

all

our enemies."

The next writer to take up the on the opposing

side,

controversy, Robert Barret,

was

though he too was careful not to give the

impression that in praising the gun he was unalterably opposed to its rival, "desiring sinisterly of

me

^ See note 141

you ( gentlemen and others ) not to conceive mine opinion, as not held of me for any

for this

for discussion of date of Instructions

and pp.

Ixxx-lxxxi

below for defense there of archery. Acts P.C., October 26, 1595, pp. 27-28. Ibid.,

December

14, p. 100.

xlix

Introduction

have of our old archery." In one of

dislike I

he puts

ever,

Gentleman:

mind

his

many

hear

I

his dialogues,

how-

bluntly enough. say,

"What need

so

much ado and great won many

charge in caliver, musket, pike, and corselet? Our ancestors battles with bows, black bills,

Captain:

Sir,

jacks."

now

weapons

came

altered since the fiery

And he

and

then was then, and first

But what think you of that? is

now. The wars are much

up.

goes on to say that the gun has more striking power than

the bow, that

is more frightening, and which arrows can be released has been much

has a longer range and

it

that the speed with

exaggerated.^^

The defenders of the bow had in their favor that the price bow was low and was fixed by statute. Individuals and even local authorities were deterred by the thirty to forty shillings for a musket and the cost of powder and ball necessary to of the

keep a

man

in

good

practice. Barret's suggestion that there

should be a general levy on each parish to pay for exercise with firearms

the

is

a useful reminder that the history of the

gun cannot be

told alone in terms of statute

tion or of the literature of the art of war:

it

was

bow and

and proclama-

also conditioned

and cost; and the composition of an Elizabethan trained band was as much the result of local taste and aflBuence as of government policy and the theories of mili-

by

fashion, conservatism,

tary experts.

In Ireland, moreover, there was an

armored

at all,

bow was

still

praise

a

was due

and

weapon to

enemy

lightly

scantily provided with firearms.

armored,

if

There the

As a ballad of ca. 1599 had it, "the valor of the musketeers" and "the nimble, of might.

quick caliver-shot," but

The bowmen brave came out behind. Of stomachs stout and valiant mind. The Theory and Practice Ibid., p. 25. /

of

Modern Wars (London, 1598),

pp. 2-3.

II

Introduction

A

place amongst them they did find

To show their true loves to England. For many a warhke English king Most noble conquests home did bring, Obtained by the grey goose wing,

The ancient fight of England. Then bows for England! Bows, we see, Doth bring home fame and victory. For one gun shot they will shoot three Against the proud foes of England! §^

A

change of reign brought no change of policy. In 1609 the

Henry VIII was yet again revived, though how far was on moral rather than military grounds it is diflBcult to tell. It was, of course, in the interest of both church and state to preserve the custom whereby men shot their way to church and statute of 33

this

practiced after divine service, and to avoid the brawling and

improvidence that resulted from ale-nourished dicing and bowls.

The literary war continued, with blows given on both sides, and was waged in unexpected places; in his History of the World (1614), Sir Walter Raleigh explained that English victories in the Hundred Years' War had been won not by the favorite weapon but by the morale of the invaders,^^ and it is in a translation of Aelian (1616) by Captain John Bingham that the next defense of the bow was to be found. Remarking that bows were more of an all-weather weapon,^^ that they shot five arrows to one musket shot, that they were lighter to march with, that a fire together because of their high trajectory, and that they could not be blinded by their own smoke, he con-

full

ten ranks could

cluded that although inferior to firearms in destructive power ®®

A New

Ballad of the Triumphs Kept in Ireland upon Saint George's Last (n.d.), quoted in GeoflFrey Langsam, Martial Books and Tudor Verse (New York, 1951), pp. 128-129.

Day

^ Edition of 1736, verso:

II,

543-544.

Thomas Dekker, The Artillery Garden (London, 1616), "They fled away like archers from a shower."

'°Cf.

f.

B4

Introduction they should be retained on the score of their general convenience,

and that as armor was increasingly discarded their destructive power was in fact greater tlian it had been in the past.^^ More realistically (

Edward Davies suggested

in his Military Directions

1618 ) that "unless necessity constrain, and that harquebusiers

be wanting, archers may be well spared." In spite of the fashionable example of the musket

drill of

the

London citizenry in their Artillery Garden, which was followed by applications from Colchester (1621), St. Edmundsbury (1622), North Yarmouth, Chester, and Gloucester (1626), and

Derby

(

spite of

1627 ) to set up

(and in

gardens of their own,^^ and in

artillery

part, of course,

because of) the continuing de-

cay in volume and quality of English archery, there were tempts to arrest

still at-

decline, sometimes with the government's

its

support.

In 1625, for instance, William

Armed Man. He defended

the

Neade published The Double-

bow on

technical grounds:

it

was

not so aflFected by weather as were guns, an archer could shoot six

arrows to the musketeer's one bullet, the sight of a volley

of arrows all

was more

terrifying than the effect of invisible bullets,

ranks could shoot together; and on moral grounds:

good

for the health,

it

men away from evil games, church.^* He was not, however,

kept

couraged them to go to

was

it it

en-

trying

to oust the musketeer or even to reintroduce the archer as such.

He suggested an invention of his own, a combination weapon, a bow attached to a pike which enabled its owner to shoot arrows at a distant enemy and then, folding the bow along the pikeshaft, present the point of his weapon for close combat. He had persuaded Bingham to practice with the new weapon in the Artillery Garden but was eager to have its use made compulsory

all

over the country. Accordingly he petitioned

mem-

*"T/ie Tactics of Aelian (London, [1616]), pp. 25-27, a long footnote

on bows versus guns. P. 4. lii

Acts P.C., passim.

^

F.

C

2 recto— C 3

recto.

I Introduction bers of Parliament with a leaflet setting out the advantages of

and the petition and the book were referred to the Committee for Arms.^^ For some years, however, nothing was done about the double-armed man. In the meantime, however, there were pleas from local au-

his device,^^

country should not be

thorities that the line of

without a second

left

defense in case of invasion. In 1626, for instance, the

Deputy Lieutenants

of Norfolk

support their attempt to

begged the Privy Council

insist that all

fit

men

to

should possess

bows. They pointed out: the forces of our enemies, consisting of expert and long-exercised soldiers, will far surpass ours, that consist of

such as be

unpracticed in the use of their arms and weapons, to the usual distances

way

therefore, as

we

we

if

and forms of skirmishing and

conceive, must be

tie

new and ourselves

conflicts.

by multitudes and

Our

variety of

weapons that they are not accustomedly acquainted with to put them out of their usual manner of fight and encounter, and courageously, with the help of our bows, which may serve for the while to amaze and trouble them, to run upon them and come to a fight pell-mefl, wherein [by] both the strength of our bodies and ordinary executing

weapons of brown

bills

and halberds we

shall equal

them

if

not

exceed them.^^

In 1627 the Lord

Mayor and aldermen

of

London petitioned Henry VIII,^^

the Privy Council to reinforce the statute of 33

and the Council

itself

ordered two hundred archers to go with

Buckingham's expedition

to

La Rochelle and

sent instructions

to lords lieutenants to raise archers in the shires, as "it

is

con-

ceived to be of very good use for His Majesty's service that ®^

There

is

an example of

Double-Armed Man. ^ Commons Journals, April

this in the

14,

Huntington Library copy of The

2 Charles

I,

p. 844.

®^

State Papers Relating to Musters, Beacons, Shipmoney, etc., in Norfolk from 1626, ed. Walter Rye (Norwich, 1907), pp. 18-19. "

Acts P.C., February 16, 1627. liii

Introduction besides the pikemen and musketeers there should be some archers."

Another appeal to the interest of Londoners was made by the publication in 1628 of the

anonymous Aim

for Finsbury Archers,

a guide to the targets in Finsbury archery ground and a call to

take up once

more the bow,

times the use of the

bow

.

"the rather because in these warlike .

.

may

again be necessary and very

The same year

serviceable to the state."

also

of a proposal for another type of combination

saw the printing weapon,

A New

Invention of Shooting Fireshafts in Longbows. The anonymous

author approved Neade's combination of pike and bow, "that ingenious device of screwing both together," but went on to con-

how

the bow, which

was already speedier and safer than the gun, could be made equally effective: "And my opinion was that if the arrow could be so enforced with fireworks as might give no impediment to the flight and quick delivery, the thing were found." The thing was an arrow shaped like a rocket, with a charge of gunpowder, saltpeter, and brimstone ignited by a short fuse, which was lit before fitting the arrow to the bow. Armed with this missile, archers "may shower down such incessant drops of fire, like Sodom's rain, upon an enemy, as will not only annoy the pikes and rout the horse but altogether disable sider

the musketeer."

He

ing purposes he

recommended using

might then make

put their range at 240-280 yards. For

trial

with their

a bull tied to a stake.

fireshafts

(

train-

"Men

a brave and manlike

where haply the madding of the enraged beast (beside inuring men to conflict) would teach some profitable stratagem sport),

for war."

The

fireshaft failed to

Charles

I

appeal to authority, but in August, 1633,

issued a proclamation in favor of the double-armed

man. As a reminder of England's attachment to the bow at a time when the Thirty Years' War on the Continent was bringing ^ Ibid., August 24, 1627, pp. 500-501. Pp. 5-8. The fireshaft is illustrated on liv

F. p. 12.

A3

recto.

Introduction the military art to a point

beyond which there was Httle change it is worth quoting the

before the end of the eighteenth century,

preamble.

Whereas in former times bows and arrows have been found serviceable weapons for the war, whereby great victories and conquests have been gotten, and by sundry statutes the use thereof hath been enjoined, which statutes are still in force and we expect that our subjects should conform themselves thereunto, knowing the exercise of shooting to be a means to preserve health, strength, and agility of body and to avoid idleness, unlawful disports, ^'drunkenness, and suchlike enormities

and disorder which are too frequent among our

people; and whereas our loving subject William Neade, an ancient archer, hath presented unto us a warlike invention of the use of the

bow

with the pike together,

be serviceable and useful

in

.

.

and we do approve the same

.

time of war,

... we do by

this

to

our

proclamation signify and declare our will and pleasure that the use

and exercise of the bow and pike together

be put

shall

in practice

within this our realm of England and dominion of Wales.

When

to this proclamation

is

added the suggestion

lowing year by Gervase Markham,

Low

lonely nor an It is

it

is

outmoded

evident that Smythe's was neither a

voice.

true that in 1590 the

attempts to revive (

in the fol-

seen service in the

Countries, that the trained bands should include bands of

ordinary archers,^^^

ing

who had

it

bow was on

were increasingly

the double-armed

man and

its

way

artificial

the fireshaf t )

.

out and that

and compromisIn supporting

it,

moreover, the government was largely concerned with adding a cheap element to a defense force of pike, caliver,

and was probably influenced,

too,

by the

and musket

beneficial effects of

archery on morality and public order.^^^ Nevertheless, for over The Art of Archery, Showing How It Is Most Necsseary in These Times for This Kingdom Both in Peace and War. James I, in his Book of Sports, which was reissued by Charles I, repeated the Tudor point of view when he complained that the Puritan Sabbath was preventing "the common and meaner sort of people from

h

Introduction forty years after the appearance of the Discourses, there

was a main contention: that the effectiveness of firearms was exaggerated and that the Enghsh archer still had a part to play on the Renaissance battlefield. body

of opinion sympathetic to Smythe's

V. Suppression

and appeal

The Discourses had been on sale only a few days when BurghThomas Heneage, Elizabeth's vice-chamberlain, the following letter, which led to its suppression. The letter was dated from the court, May 14.

ley received from Sir

My Lord, Her Majesty hath even now told me that Sir John Smith hath lately set forth a book in print of the discourses of the use which

Her Majesty telleth me) he toucheth Her Highness doubteth that it may breed discredit to divers of great quarrel. And therefore Her Majesty hath commanded me to write to your Lordship that you should give of sundry weapons, in

(as

divers persons in a sort so as

present order that those books were called

and

in,

both because they be

may breed much

printed without privilege, and that they

question

quarrel.

According to Smythe the book had sold 1,200 copies in eight days,^^^ and it was with a sense of the work's usefulness as well as of the slight to his

own reputation that he

set

about addressing

a series of appeals to Bxu-ghley, intermittently his patron since

when Burghley had engineered Chamber fine.i^e

1559, Star

The

first

appeal was dated

May

20, within a

pression. Pointing out "the reproach

went on

week

and shame"

of the sup-

to himself,

he

to urge that

using such exercises as

may make

in place thereof sets

up

number

the remission of Smythe's

of idle

and more able for war, and drunkenness and breeds a

their bodies

filthy tipplings

and discontented speeches

.

.

.

in their alehouses."

Letters, p. 48. ^'^ ^'^

in

Lansdowne Lansdowne

65, 62. 46, 36.

Burghley 's employ.

hi

The

title

And

in

page bears the date May 1. 1590 Reginald Smythe, a kinsman, was

Introduction it will not only be hereafter a great encouragement upon all employments military unto our such men of war again to follow such de-

testable courses as are contained in

the realm, but also

may

He had said

to the great evil of

come upon some employments divers shires here at home to imitate

occasion some of our captains of

and follow the

my proem

in time to

like.

nothing unsupported or untrue.

What is more. If

all

men may

posed

some

see that Sir Roger Williams, in a

of late,

book that he com-

doth in the beginning thereof in terrible sort touch

chieftains of our such

served in the

little

Low

men

Countries.

.

of

All

.

.

war

(as I call

them) that had

which notwithstanding

his

book hath been very well allowed of and never called in question any suppression.

for

Then the

was the Discourses Country wars,

there

Low

of

La Noue, who,

doth not only make manifest the subversion of

all

in describing

discipline military,

numbers of disorders and lack of piety committed both on the one side and of the other, but also doth in terrible sort blame and disable almost the whole nobility of France of this time, imputing unto them many imperfections. Which book is notwithstanding both in France and England greatly allowed of. Whereas contrariwise, I, being as much an Englishman as Monsieur de la Noue a Frenchman, and in all love and aflFection to my prince, country, and nation noways inferior to any man living of the English nation withwith

infinite

out exception of persons, little

so

book, which

good

I

it

seemeth unto

have dedicated

intention, doing

me

very strange that

to the nobility of the

my

realm with

honor in the same both to Her Majesty, to

her Council and nobility, and also to

all

her subjects (saving only to

few private men whom not only I but almost the whole realm doth greatly blame for their detestable disorders and cruelties), shall be put to silence and abolished. All which considered, I have great cause to doubt and fear that the condemning thereof doth proceed rather upon some great misliking had of me, being the author of the a

book, than of the book

itself.

Ivii

Introduction

He

then struck a more piteous note, going on to say that

because

I

have been noways employed

matters of war nor peace, and that

hunting and hawking but do

house (except sometimes

some other thing

have not yet this

Crown and

profit the

my

written

fully finished

foresaid

hand

to

many

skill

years neither in

nor desire to follow

my

almost continually retired in

go to the court),

have given myself up

have done with intent that

ways

I

aU treating more or

five little books, I

to do,

live

when

in so

have no

I

less of

to

I,

for lack of

compose four

And

matters of arms.

or

that

come the same might someOf the which there is one that I

in time to

realm.

and now never mean

to do, which,

if

book had had good success, I thought in a fair have dedicated and presented unto Her Majesty.

Which, with some corrections and additions added thereunto by your Lordship (whose favorable help therein

I

thought before the pre-

humbly to have craved), might in mine opinion have availed the Queen the more for the cutting ofiF of all dangerous accidents of foreign and intestine wars than a million of ducats upon such accidents would stand her in stead. Howbeit, the suppression and evil success of this first book set forth by me shall now teach me to cease my care and travail in writing any more such unliked matters and instead of dedicating and presenting to commit them senting thereof

to the fire, greatly repenting myself that I

so great care

and

have spent

my

time with

travail in those matters so fondly.

This set the pattern for the appeals that follow. They

betray the unimaginativeness of a

man who had

all

asked Burghley

book and had hoped that he would inspect the next but had gone straight into print with one whose radical tone he seemed unable to appreciate. Working for the good of the Queen and the realm, with malice toward none save to

examine

those

his previous

who deserved

it,

he was unable

to see that

he had called

not only the knowledge but the motives of the higher into question,

as to accuse captains of deliberately sending their

Lansdowne Iviii

command

and neither Williams nor La Noue had gone so

64, 45, printed in Letters, pp. 56-62.

men

far

to their

Introduction

Had

been concerned merely with the technicahties of fighting, he might have been stigmatized as a captious, outmoded meddler; Elizabethan England was tolerant of deaths.

cranks. It

his criticisms

was the

assault

on the character as well

as the technical

folly of the Leicester expedition that got him into trouble. At

when military ideas were constantly changing, when the way of exploiting fire power was still a matter for lively debate, when different methods of fortifying* were being canvassed, when the relationship between pike and musket, light a time

best

horse and heavy cavalry, horse and foot, were in a highly experi-

mental phase, and

when England was

well behind the Continent

shame in being accused of using the wrong formations or even the wrong weapons. What hurt, and Smythe should have realized it, was in military matters generally, there

was no

special

a charge of unpatriotic behavior, whether this involved wasting

the Queen's treasure or the Queen's men. Careers crucially

on court patronage, and charges of

this sort

depended

could bring

such patronage to an abrupt stop. Smythe should have it,

because, in a

like so

many

could give

(

humble way, he was

known

a courtier. Dependent,

Crown

alone

though the Crown could be influenced by the

parti-

others of his class, on favors that the

sanship of a great

man

enough time with

his fellow suitors "following the court,

like the

Lord Treasurer), he had spent both

and also many other times" to be despised the Earl of Oxford in Chapman's drama The Revenge

in divers progresses

by men

like

of Biissy d'Amhois, of

and

risk

whom

it is

said that he

would shun favor

independence rather than

Be frozen up

stiff (like

His countryman) in

a Sir John Smith,

common

nobles' fashions,

Affecting as the end of noblesse were

These

servile observations.

^""Ihid., p. 58. iv.

The speaker

is

Clermont d'Ambois. The play was

first

lished in 1613. lix

pub-

Introduction is all the more striking since he damage that was being done to his own favor from a Crown to which he was still uncom-

Smythe's lack of imagination

was

so conscious of the

chances of

fortably in debt. In his second appeal of June 3, he told Burghley that his detractors

have taken such courage and boldness that both country, and in

all

in court, city,

and

and say that

great meetings, they do report

book by Her Majesty and her Council hath been found

be

to

my

utterly

false and untrue and so foolish and void of all reason that I was by Her Majesty and her Council judged not only to be decayed in memory at the making thereof, but also that I did with over-many years

dote,

and that these were the causes

with

many

to

my

ticed (as I

believe)

am

me

new in

with revenge.

And

all this

at divers their

hath been prac-

and skillful deviser and practicer, and chief inventor, beginner, and prac-

malicious,

being the

in troth,

mentioned

book,

credibly informed and for divers reasons do easily

by a cunning,

ticer of the

my

other false and injurious words and slanders altogether

shame. Besides the which they have not letted

meetings to threaten

who

of the suppression of

first

detestable discipline in the

my

Low

Countries so plainly

book, doth find himself so touched in his guilty con-

science that underhand, with aU the malicious hath, he doth invent, procure, and

stir [?]

(not so guilty as himself) to injure

me

skill

and

others of his

art that

own

he

discipline

both by words and writings.

He then referred to a letter he was sending to the Queen, 'loy which your Lordship may see that I am determined to stand to the maintenance of

A

copy of the

that he

is

my book."

letter to the

Queen was

desolated to find that the

enclosed. After saying

men whose

he had pointed out are given favors while he shamed, he proceeds

in

is

evil practices

penalized and

what we can now recognize

as a char-

acteristic vein. I

do now

that "°

it

oflFer

unto your Majesty to

shall please

Lansdowne Ix

you

64, 52.

justify before

to appoint that

...

in

any of your Council

composing thereof

Introduction I

have performed but the duty and oath of fidelity of a faithful servant subject, which (as I once heard defined and concluded in the

and

Hungary by divers notable and great few Spanish words, Allegar el bien, el mal, which doth signify (as your Majesty knoweth very apartar y well) to draw to princes and their kingdoms all good and to avoid from them all evil. Emperor Maximilian's camp

in

captains) doth consist in these

Protesting his innocence

Queen will

be

and

warn the maintaining the ban on his book

loyal intent,

that the consequence of

he

gdfes

on

to

to provide a spur to the spread of evil practices,

consequent

men and

loss of

money

of

to the

with a

advantage not of

the realm but of a few covetous commanders.

Three days to a

later

most malicious

he sent to Burghley a copy of "An answer libeler

hand against

in written

Sir

'"been very lately published

and

published

false libel, very lately

John Smythe, knight." The (

as I

am

libel

credibly informed ) in

had

many

London and also elsewhere." It was anonymous, and its purport was that Smythe had v^itten rather to help the enemies of England by slandering her allies than to bring parts of the city of

about any useful reforms in the conduct of war. Indignantly

Smythe quoted passages like "The disgrace is not unto the capand states that we served," and "I per-

tain but to the princes

suade myself the spleen of these choleric writings against the actions of France

and Flanders proceeded rather

to

overthrow

both the states by disgracing their actors than to advance true militia,

.

any good

.

.

which

in truth confirms plain malice rather

than

Smythe answered these charges by restating his motives and recalling his experience in^ arms and his service to the state and finished by saying for

answer

discipline."

to the libeler

intention in composing to the nobility,

(whosoever he be) and

and

setting forth

my

his libel, that

book, by

me

mine

dedicated

hath noways been to disgrace any of those princes

Ihid., enclosure, printed in Letters, pp.

62-65. Ixi

Introduction nor their governments that he mentioneth and meaneth, nor to over-

throw

their estates, nor yet to deface rehgion, as

down,

is

most maliciously

and untrue,

false

Smythe, knight, do constantly affirm and say hath and doth

Almighty God, person,

the said Sir John

he

to the libeler that

I will,

with the help of

in all worshipful sort maintain the

then was Smythe's

investigation libel?

and that

in his throat,

his libel set

my

same with

treason and villainy set aside.

all

Who

lie

I,

And

he writeth.

because the same, by him imagined, alleged, and in

and banning

The most

rival,

man who had prompted the book and the circulation of the

the

of his

likely candidate

is

Roger Williams, who had

Sir

Low

joined the English volunteers in the

Countries at about

when Smythe, returning to England, had come to the end of his own military experience. Williams held important command under Sir John Norris, then, from 1585, under Leicesthe time

ter,

and he brought out

few War,

in the very year 1590, within a

weeks of Smythe's own work,

his

book

A

Brief Discourse of

which praised many of the innovations Smythe detested and,

we have ment

as

commended

firearms to the disparage-

of the bow.^^^ Moreover, while

Smythe was ignominiously

seen, strongly

sent back to Essex after the Tilbury musters, Williams took part in the sensational, if unproductive, expedition to Portugal in

the following year. spite of a

He was much

somewhat uncouth

tained the favor of that of the Queen.

men

admired professionally and,

exterior

and

of influence even

if

in

violent manner, re-

he occasionally

lost

There could be no better example of a captain

who had endorsed

the

new

and prospered between Williams and

fashions in warfare

was some rivalry Smythe was well known. Among Burghley's papers there is an unsigned note dated July 19, 1590, which bears the title, "The

thereby. That there

original cause (as I

^ Lansdowne,

do think) of

Sir

John Smythe's discontent-

64, 57.

"*This went into another edition before the end of the year. There is a copy of this very rare "newly perused" edition in the Huntington Library. Ixii

Introduction

ment with

Roger Williams," and explains the difference

Sir

in

these terms: little book of the discourse of the same little book he seemed by the way the service of bows was at this day not to be thought so weapon as the fire shot of calivers and muskets were.

Which Roger

Williams, writing a

voyage unto Portugal, to note that

profitable a

Upon which

occasion,

in the

seemeth

it

to

me

that Sir John Smythe, being

offended therewith, had taken occasion to write his^ook in generality against evil captains

and that served

and

As another instance of eyes,

evil leaders that

served in the

Low

Countries

in France.

Chapmans

compared with

their antithetical nature in

contemporary

scorn of Smythe in Bussy d'Ambois

his praise of "the swelling valor" of

may be

Williams in

Byron's Conspiracy

There are

diflficulties,

however, in seeing Williams as Smythe's

The provocative discourse of the voyage into Portugal is not known to survive, the quotations from the libel given by Smythe do not correspond in style to Williams' writings, and, above all, in May, 1590, he was with Henry of Navarre in

persecutor.

men were assumed

to be enemies we know; that someone (not necessarily alone) was persecuting Smythe, we know; but the link between these pieces of infor-

France. That the two

mation remains uncertain.

On November

23 Smythe wrote a third appeal to Rurghley, which he recapitulated his grievances. Surely, he pleaded, he had deserved something better than this though it was true in



that the present age

was generally unjust

Lansdowne 64, 65. In Lansdowne 65, 62,

II,

of

November

23,

to the deserving;

it

i.

he speaks of

suppressed "at the request of one principal gentleman,

.

his .

.

book as being brought to be

my book by the crafty, sinister, and wrong persuasions the rest hath been the chief and principal author, inventor,

passionate against of one that of

all

and executor discipline."

of that most odious and to the whole realm most hateful Williams and his patron the Earl of Essex would certainly fit

these specifications. Ixiii

Introduction ignored the experience of age and gave

He had

oflBces to

untried youths.

was always allowable for a book to encourage the good and censure the bad he had, after all, only poured his scorn on those who thoroughly deserved it. And he warned Burghley that these wicked men were not only Smythe's enemies, they were the Lord Treasurer's too, and "if it were in their power, they would sink both you and yours into the very center of the earth." Then, returning to his brief, he thought, however, that

it



made

My

a direct appeal:

hope

that your Lordship's most rare

is

and

excellent

my

have according

to

my

nobility of the realm as to the eyes, ears,

so

good an

nobility,

of the to

be

intention,

by

(in a

Roman and by

brief,

and that

manner) civil

all sorts

is

all

laws,

and voice

by many knights and gentlemen and,

of their

book, to

which

I say,

is

redound so greatly

at liberty

.

.

.

by the whole

both spiritual and temporal throughout the

from a great number

as

of the prince, with

the judges and chief lawyers both

either read or heard the

many such

will

said

so well allowed of

whole realm that have report of

wisdom

book that I duty composed and dedicated to the whole

so deal in this mine, as also public, cause that

own mouths,

have heard

same

as also

(

as I

have heard

by the credible

their opinions), that this

altogether grounded

upon

to the public benefit

.

.

truth .

and

may be

[and] that by your Lordship's favor

my

is

my

likely

again set

book may

again be new printed, with the amendment of the errata committed by the printer, as also with certain quotations and additions only military tliat I have set down for the perfecting and beautifying





of the same, without any further meddlings with any other matter.

From

this

we

can see that the Douce copy used in

had been corrected by this had it been printed, would,

time, like

^^"^

this edition

and that the second edition, the first, have borne the date

1590.

He

tried, too, in other

treason-hating citizen. In '''Ibid.

Ixiv

ways

to represent himself as a dutiful,

March

of the following year

he wrote

Introduction to

Burghley enclosing a

letter

and "a very phantastical pamphlet"

which had reached him from John Arundell, a prisoner in St. Katherine s. He explained that he had no idea what they were about, "because that both the letter and the pamphlet are unto

me to

unto

me

utterly un-

hath been always hitherunto

my

custom not

Arabic, and the gentleman himself

known, and that

it

meddle with men nor matters

that

I

is

may have any

or doubt of."

suspicion

^

In spite of Smythe's appeals and his eagerness to cooperate

with authority, Burghley was in no position to return a favorable answer, for another contribution to the controversy had ap-

peared

in the

shape of a book on weapons by

which, in spite of a plea on the

wick,^

was trying

to resolve matters "of

title

Humphrey

Bar-

page that the author

my

duty toward

country," threatened to revive the blaze which

sovereign and

had been

at least

smothered by the banning of Smvthe's book. So Barwick's book

was withdrawn,^2o though not before Smythe had secured a copy and had determined to answer it, at length, and with

too

crushing force of argument. V/. Barwick

and the "Answer," 1590

Humphrey Barwick,

"soldier, captain, et

explains in the beginning of his

two

to 1591

encore plus oultre"

book that "having read one or

by two several knights, the one dedicated to the magistrates of England by Sir John Smith, knight, the other by Sir Roger Williams, knight also, dedicated to the little

books

set forth

'^'Lansdowne 66, 70, March 20, 1591.

A

Brief Discourse concerning the Force

Weapons

of Fire

and the

Disability of the

of Others of Greater Force

Now

in Use,

and Effect

Longbow

of All Manual or Archery in Respect

with Sundry Probable Reasons for

The Which I Have Done of Duty toward My Sovereign and Country and for the Better Satisfaction of All Such As Are Doubtful of the Same. Written by Humphrey Barwick, Gentleman, Soldier,

the Verifying Thereof.

Captain, et encore plus oultre (London, [n.d.]; 1st ed., 1590 [suppressed]; ed., ca. 1594).

2nd

'^'^

So Cockle, item 59, p. 50. Ixv

Introduction Right Honorable the Earl of Essex," and having been struck by the discrepancies between some of their conclusions, he has de-

cided to resolve them, with particular reference to the respective merits of

bow and

gun.

He

points out that he can speak from

experience, having served in England, Scotland, and France

book he and having come up the hard professional way from being a common soldier depending on his wage of sixpence to a captaincy worth fourteen shillings a day. He warns his reader not to expect any literary graces, but the book is short, energetic, and clearly and economically written by the standards of the day. Its tone is moderate and untruculent, and he pleads that the bow versus gun controversy should not be settled by argument alone but put to the test of an actual combat. He starts with a brief attack on Williams, making hardly more than the general point that the Low Countries had been much exaggerated as a school of war and that Williams erred in his admiring estimate of the modern armies of Spain. He shows a sympathy with Smythe s scorn of civil and tumultuary wars, but here- his sympathy stops. He differs from Smythe on several points he endorses, for instance, the employment of small, flexible bands and criticizes Smythe's picture of what would happen in the event of an invasion but settles down for the greater part of the book to undermining Smythe's defense of the bow. "There are none that in person hath made just trial of the archers that ever will, if he may choose, be partaker with them again," he writes. "It is but the love that many do bear unto the same weapon for that in times past they were the best shot that were." And his outlook is summed up in the sharp, query, "What, shall we refuse the cannon and fall to the ram If the bow is so good, why do not the Spaniards, for again?" instance, hire mercenary archers or learn to use it themselves? since the age of eighteen (at the time of writing his

was

sixty ) ,





F.

A4

Ixvi

recto.

— Introduction Support of the bow, he

says,

is

based not on

utility,

but on

senti-

ment.

He of

criticizes

Smythe's use of historical examples, for

which the evidence

is

either uncertain or points to a quite

diflFerent conclusion. Besides,

bow had no and

it is

rival, is

evidence from the past,

when

the

quite irrelevant to the problems of today,

surely significant that whereas the civilian, especially

the poor civilian

may

many



preserve the

Burgundianf and Walloon

Scot, Irishman,

bow

as a

weapon

of defense, the professional

soldier in every case prefers the gun.

wellborn warrior

who

weapon he condemns,

Smythe

is

typical of the

has had no practical experience of the

it is not "the place for a nobleman or become a musketeer, harquebusier, cannoneer, miner, trenchmaster, or fortifier" unless he began his

worthy personage

for

to

service in one of these capacities.^--

Smythe, he claims, evaded the issue by arguing from the worst

and treating them as representBarwick stresses the need for skill

points of unskillfully used guns

ing the

and

eflFect

of all firearms.

Smythe deprecated the gun as a fair-weather weapon and emphasized the ill effects of strain and hard living on the musketeer and harquebusier; whereas the bow too was aiBFected by wet weather, and the strength of the archer's draw was just as much a prey to inadequate food and hard lodging. Barwick denies that bows are more accurate. Firearms have sights, and the musket was held steady by its rest, I

training.

wonder [he

writes],

what manner

of soldier that should be that

within point-blank of his weapon, be

it

miss the breadth of a trencher.

.

without a rest

many

in a day's sport)

he be perfect, P.

.

.

musket or harquebus, should

The

fowler,

who doth

shoot

times (relying on the strength of his arms alone

and hath

his piece

charged with small hailshot,

will not fail to kill a mallard

.

.

.

within

fifty-

if

yards.

2 verso. Ixvii

Introduction

Then much

less will

the

skillful

harquebusier or musketeer miss the

hitting of a man.^^s

A

musket, properly loaded with good powder, could

through proof armor at 100 yards, in

man

a

kill

common armor

and unarmed at 600 yards ranges far beyond the comparable striking power of an arrow. In fact it is difficult to find cases of anyone being actually killed by an arrow\ He cites the siege of Leith, where of 448 Englishmen killed none fell to the enemy's archers, "nor to my knowledge I never saw any slain outright with an arrow, and but with [crossbow] quarrels few, but with harquebus and pistol shot I have been at several times where 20,000 [presumably 2,000] hath been slain outright." Smythe at 400,



claimed that a volley of arrows

made

a terrifying spectacle

com-

pared to the mere noise of guns. Barwick reports a conversation with a Frenchman during which he, Barwick,

this point,

John Smith often doth," only to receive the answer.

"as Sir

When

made

upon them and, seeing them coming, I do to that end my burgonet shall save my face, and seeing the same arrows lighting upon my headpiece or upon my breast, pauldrons, or vambraces, and so, seeing the same to be of no more force nor hurtful, then do I with less fear than I

stoop a

do march

little

with

directly

my

head

before boldly advance forward to encounter with them.

Barwick does not even concede that the missiles in a given time than a gun, for the

bow

could

gun could

fire

fire

more

several

and thus compensate for its slower rate of loading. When an enemy is advancing, he says, the musketeer should fire one bullet at 480 yards and another at 400. Then he should

missiles at once

^P. 11 verso. Corroboration of this from Essex can be found in a number of charges made against men who used fowling pieces without the necessary qualification of a hundred pounds' annual income from land. One William Berry, for instance, was accused of having killed five ringdoves with twelve shots on one occasion and six doves with eight shots on another (E.C.R.O. Quarter Sessions Roll 118/27, September P. 15 recto. Pp. 15 recto and 14 recto. Ixviii

1,

1591).

Introduction

two

fire

bullets together at

yards he should

240 yards, three at 160, and at 80

Even the speed with which

fire six pistol bullets.

firearms could load and discharge single bullets

understood, he claims, and he describes

how

at

is

much

mis-

dinner one day

during the Scottish campaign of 1560 the Earl of Bedford "de-

manded

of the captains there present

busier might discharge in an hour.

suddenly did answer and said

by

this

'ten.' "

how many

shot a harque-

One Captain Erode even Barwick^was so offended

ignorance that he "did offer there to shoot forty in the

like time, single bullets forth of

one piece. But the Captain

He goes would abide no trial, the which I did offer to make." on to deny Smythe's estimate of the striking power of arrows. Barbed and rusty, they are fit for little else than to hang in the flesh of unarmed horses. He denies their effectiveness against either horse or foot and calls for an actual trial of strength. Let the best archers in the land make up a herse on Smythe's model, twenty ranks or more with seven or eight in rank, and let

them be placed

in the plain field to the best advantage, so that

there be no impediment to let horsemen to I will

be one,

if

it

may be

come

close to them.

.

.

.

hand to but their bows

permitted, that shall take in

charge them and to run through them, having no let and arrows, and we will be but for every rank one horseman.

And he

offers a

Whereas

may

it is

second challenge.

further set

down

in the

same book

that harquebusiers

not give their volleys of shot but within eight, ten, or twelve

and not eight, ten, or twelve scores, and that archers will hurt, wound, gall, and sometimes kill at nine, ten, and eleven scores as well as the fiery weapons can do; to this I say that for trial thereof yards,

I

will stand at sixscore yards distant

from the best of these archers and let him shoot ten arrows one after another at me, and do stir from the place let me be punished, and I will be armed

aforesaid, if I

...

of the pistol proof, P.

and

if I

be therewith wounded,

I

am

4 verso. Ixix

con-

Introduction

my mends in my own hands. And again, let me be same place where this lusty archer stood to shoot his ten arrows, and let there be a whole complete armor set right up by where I did stand, and let me have but two shoots with a musket or harquebus, and let it then appear what the one and the other is in force or cunning. This in my opinion were no harm, and it were not amiss that trial were made, for it is supposed by many that have read Sir John Smith's book that there needeth no pikes to guard the archers, for, saith he, they are pikes good enough of themselves. ^^7 tented to take set in the

Though Smythe in

Sir

that

Roger Williams' book was more offensive it

to

appeared to contain an element of contemp-

tuous personal reference, Barwick's was the more damaging, as it

presented a carefully particular rebuttal of the Discourses,

point

by

point.

And

so, as

answ^ering Barwick that

The

Barwick

moreover, an obscure

v^as,

while Williams had protectors in high places,

soldier,

result

was a

Smythe devoted

stout treatise entitled

trary Opinions Military."

which

it

it

was

to

his enforced leisure.

"An Answer

to

Con-

In the epistle to the reader with

opens, Smythe refers to the undeserved fate of the

Discourses and repeats the substance of his various appeals to

Burghley, stressing his honesty of purpose and his desire to help

Queen and country and protesting nobody at all

his

but only a few of our such

new

men

discipline military of their

war

that he intended

harm

to

as

under the pretense of a

own fond

devising did before the

of

^ Pp. 20 verso—21 recto. There is no title at the beginning of the treatise, which opens with an epistle to the reader. Before the text itself comes the heading "An answer to contrary opinions military" with "Captain Barwick" written ( also in Smythe's hand) over the last two words. It is possible that "contrary" is to be taken as a verb and the title as "An answer to contrary Captain Barwick ['s] opinions military," but I suspect that the treatise began as an answer to Smythe's critics in general and that the "Captain Barwick" was added when he found it had turned out to be predominantly an attack on Barwick. The manuscript is in the British Museum (Harleian 135). Ixx

— Introduction Earl of Leicester's going over,

and abuses

these disorders

all

my

said

and

since that time,

also

military,

commit

and many more that are in

book contained

Lord Treasurer continues his attacks on

a disclaimer hardly calculated to persuade the to

hcense

new

this

book. Smythe also

the "certain malicious

and base-minded men

of our nation,

utterly ignorant of all true discipline military,"

who have

con-

spired "to suppress and utterly overthrow th^ exercise of our

most ancient, peculiar, and excellent weapon the longbow" and

who have "most and

false

falsely invented

and devised divers

He

pamphlets defamatory against me."

attack to one "infamous man," but at the crucial

injurious

narrows the

moment

leaves

us in suspense as to his identity, for "I think [him] not worthy so

much

be named

as to

without any

name

I

in

any book of mine, and therefore

overpass him."

He

also repeats his complaint

that other writers have criticized the military

aflFairs

of their

country "in a far more bitter and terrible sort" than he had done, yet they were not penalized, and he cites both

whose "book

Justus Lipsius,

had appeared

in 1589.

swer Barwick, or at

He

least "all

he

is

not going so

bow

in favor of the

simplicity that

war"

then declares his intention to an-

such his contrary opinions to

discourses as are worth the answering," clear that

La Noue and

of politic instruction for the

much

and goes on

to

my

make

it

produce new arguments

to

as to respell the old ones with a

must persuade even men

as

weight and

opinionated and

ignorant as Barwick. His arguments in the Discourses had been largely based

on an appeal to authority, to the wisdom of

ex-

perienced men, and to the record of great actions. But because the obstinate incredulity of

this

time

is

such and so

wonderful that there are but few that will believe any examples ^™

Smythe

says 1590. Politicorum libri sex

was translated

into English in

1594 by William Jones. Ixxi

Introduction gathered out of histories and briefly cited, the same hath to leave the

most commendable use

citing authorities out of histories

moved me

in all ages of brief alleging

and

to set

and

them down verbatim.

So he quotes extensive passages instead of short ones, providing

French and Spanish.

translations for those in

The

''Answer/' then,

for the

is

most part a massive restatement

of the sections in the Discourses concerned w^ith firearms

longbow.

He

emphasizes the fact that he

the gun but to

show

that

ated and that there

modem wars. and

Barwick

bow

exagger-

much more

will admit.

circumscribed than

Smythe goes further

than he did in the Discourses, for

in his

now he

work and defense, and at when commenting on Barwick's praise of the gun for

claims that archery

is

useful in siege

ability to discharge several bullets at once,

may with

much

an important place for archery in

Firearms have no peer "in their due times, places,

praise of the

one point,

and the

not trying to displace

usefulness has been

distances," but these are

soldiers like

its

its

still

is

is

exercise

nock two arrows

in his

he says "an archer

bow

together almost

and shoot these two arrows at the enemy nine, ^but on revision, he crossed out this passage. He meets Barwick's gibe that other countries would have used the longbow if it were as good a weapon as he claimed by saying that the French had, in fact, tried to imitate the English as readily as one,

ten, or eleven scores"



archers. "°

—6

The

quotations above are

all

from the

epistle to the reader,

ffs.

1 recto

verso.

"^He

quotes the Memoires (1569) of Martin du Bellay, the French and the Spanish of

translation of Paolo Giovio's Historia del suo tempo,

Marmol

Luis de 1573).

He

Caravajal's

La

also cites Francois

descripcion general de Africa (Granada, de Rabutin's Commentaires sur le faict des

derniers guerres en la Gaule belgique (Paris, 1555), Froissart and "the French chronicles," and quotes Horace's Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines/Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum (Satires i. 1.106107) with his translation: "There is a mean in things, and certain bounds are set/Beyond the which, and short whereof, no place can virtue get" (f. 90 verso). Ixxii

Introduction Howbeit, in the end the French king and the captains of many nations did manifestly see that neither the French nor other nations with any

and with that dexterity and whereby they seeing that our our sort of longbows was a very

exercise could attain to shoot so strong

excellency that the English nation did,

manner and use peculiar gift of

of shooting in

God

given unto our nation, they

left

the practice

and use of that weapon, saving only for sport, and returned again the use of their crossbows, and of late years to the harquebus.

to



Smythe takes up Barwick's challenges but only to look at them mockingly and put them down again. If Mr. Barwick and should choose to charge the archers with only the

his friends

men and horses showing through their pistol-proof armor,

eyes of

upon every part of their would make such a noise and clattering as the same would put such a fear and horror in all their horses as they would so fly backwards, skip, and fling that they would, there is no doubt, lay Mr. Barwick and his companions all in the dust and dirt, which being happened and Mr. Barwick and his companions lying tumbling upon the ground, they might happen to be hit and wounded with archers' arrows in the heels and soles of their feet and other disarmed places behind, in such sort as I am persuaded the volleys of the archers' arrows, lighting

horses' new-fashioned bards,

that Mr. Barwick

and

his troop

would always

after

come

to

remem-

ber a more reverent opinion of the effect of archers.

In the same heavily condescending style he rejects the challenge

gun to bow proposed by Barwick as being too far removed from actual combat conditions and maintains that if 300 harqueof

busiers to

and 300 archers blazed away

at

one another from 160

200 yards, either in motion or standing

break and

same "more

flee at

spirit

the

first

still,

Smythe defends Captain Brode

like a soldier

the shot

would

four or five volleys of arrows. In the for

having spoken

than Captain Barwick," for everyone knows

F. 18 recto. Ixxiii

Introduction that a harquebusier cannot fire effectively

more than

eight, ten,

or twelve times in an hour.^^^

Smythe adopts a

consistently lofty tone in dealing with his

He

lowborn adversary.

chides Barwick for the lese-majeste of

aping Charles V's motto plus ultra and for presuming to

his

scold his betters. Barwick has only to imply that a

gentleman

and

in

is

wrong

in the

for

Smythe

nobleman or

to spring to his defense,

answering Barwick's suggestion that noblemen do not

understand the use of firearms as well as the

men who have been

brought up in their use, Smythe launches into a general defense

man

of the well-educated

up

is

able to attain to

of birth, for "a

more knowledge

nobleman well brought in the art and science

military in one year than a private soldier in seven."

His

scorn for Barwick led Smythe into a depressingly humorless vein of scolding.

Barwick had remarked that he had seen archers

who had complained

of the bow's disadvantages.

hearing and seeing there

men do

comments,

"for

their ears,

and not

eyes," so

is

"Now between

a great difference," Smythe heavily

use to see with their eyes and hear with

to see

with their ears and hear with their

Barwick must have heard, not seen, these complaints,

"unless peradventure he hath

with his eyes."

some supernatural

gift of

hearing

Again, referring to Barwick's suggestion that

English muskets should be heavier than they are, Smythe com-

man if he could England could beget and the women of England bring forth such mighty children as might prove half Of Barwick's joke giants ... to carry such heavy muskets." about the cannon and the ram he is even capable of remarking seriously, "Mr. Barwick vainly imagineth in thinking that I do

ments, "He were to be accounted a very wise also devise

how

the

men

of

For the three challenges, see ffs. 81 recto, 84 recto, and 85 recto. Smythe's class feeling, see ffs. 28 verso, 29 recto, 30 verso, and 32

On verso.

F. 74 verso.

Ixxiv

F. 88 verso.

Introduction persuade the use of the ram instead of the cannon."

^-^^

And

after

a running fire of such marginal small shot as "Mr. Barwick's

Barwick might

childish opinion," or "Mr. sufficient old soldier if

his simplicity,"

come

to the last

it is

he had not by

still

have gone for a

this his writing

discovered

with a sense of baffled exasperation that

marginal note of

all:

we

"Debatements and contrary

opinions in matters military should pass in courteous phrase of In this answer to his critics

writing and speaking."

Smythe

some unlikable traits of character, white not producing argument or point of view, and it is as well for his novel any reputation that the work has remained unprinted. reveals

The

VII.

Instructions, 1591 to 1592

On March two books

of

Smythe wrote to Burghley pointing out month past I delivered unto your Lordship

12, 1592,

that "more than a

mine own composing, both dedicated unto your

Lordship in case that your Lordship had any liking that they should go to the printer," and he

now asked

Burghley,

if

he

did approve them, to "confirm the same with some three or four

words

them

to the printer,"

which would have the

effect of licensing

be pubfished.^^^ It is probable that these works were the answer to Barwick and the Instructions, which, according to the

to

title

1595),^^^

page (when the work was composed in 1591.

F. 7 verso.

From

who have

f

.

93 recto he

criticized him.

is

finally

did get into print in

Ffs. 78 recto, 79 verso, and 110 recto. quoting from and answering "the gentlemen"

There

is

no reference

to

sibly they are the authors of the "divers injurious

any name or work. Posand false pamphlets de-

famatory against me" which he mentions in the epistle to the reader. "°

Lansdowne 69, 56. Or 1594. It was entered

on April 12, 1594. "Smythe" ) cites an edition of 1594 and quotes "and now first imprinted" from its title page. I do not know of a copy of this edition. According to W. C. Hazlitt (Collections and Notes, 2nd ser. ), the 1595 edition is "a re-issue of the edition of 1594, with a new title and an enlarged preface."

Watts

(

in the Stationers' Register

Biblioteca Britannia under

Ixxv

Introduction not surprising that the answer to Barwick, being the

It is

elaboration of a controversy

begun by two banned books, did

not receive the necessary words from Burghley, and the Instructions,

though

avoiding

with old

carping in tone than the Discourses,

less generally

tilting at

persons in high places and mainly concerned

strictly professional matters, still

contained enough of the

Adam to perturb the cautious Lord Treasurer. When he came

to discuss the rival merits of large

and small companies, Smythe

broke out, which mine opinion, because with certain examples and

I

have

many

fortified

and proved the same

my

book of discourses, which I set forth and caused to be printed 1590, and yet that the same hath been by certain passionate gentlemen with many malicious

and vain words, void libeling

of all reason military, denied in certain malicious

pamphlets by them

contrary

to all civility

place rehearse and set foresaid

book

And he had little

reasons in

in written

and

down

hand

in

many

places dispersed,

profession military, I will again in this

a part of that which

is

contained in

my

of discourses.

another fling at "malicious and frivolous

further on.^^^ There was, too,

much

libels" a

girding at the practices

war in France and the Low Countries (though the villains were always foreigners and not, as in the Discourses, Englishmen who followed their example ) and at newfangled ideas which were "contrary to all true discipline." In fact, although much of the subject matter is dryly and minutely technical, concerned with marching and countermarching, for instance, or the precise placing of hands and feet in certain postures of attack and defense, the choler noted by the anonymous libeler is seldom far beneath the surface. Speaking of the manner in which pikemen of

should attack, he comments:

No

captains nor officers of bands [shall] suffer their pikers,

shall

approach

"-^P. 101.

Ixxvi

their

when they

enemies to charge them, to shake and '"P. 103.

clatter

Introduction some new

and officers of this time would make their enemies do teach their soldiers to do: as though they like unto such as more afraid before they come at them, which is do play the soldans and Saracens upon a stage than like soldiers their pikes, as

fantastical captains

pikers in the field.

And

faced by something of which he disapproves, he

likely to

abuse

it

and mockery military to be by any man of wft- that do pretend

have seen any action effectually performed."

exasperation

is

too

as "a very scorn

either spoken of or thought of to

is all

partly explained

and science military hath been great declination and decay"

by

This tone of

his conviction that "the art

and presently is, in and that any sound advice

of late years,

would fall on the deaf ears of an increasingly effeminate, licentious, and irresponsible generation. The body of the book is divided into four main sections: the different formations into which an army is divided and the orders needed to manipulate them; the best use of each type of infantry and horse; the mustering, arming, and training of an army; the ideal army and how it should fight. They are preceded, however, by a lengthy epistle dedicatory in which he touches some of the wider issues of war and peace. He starts with a defense of war itself, citing Plato and Aristotle, Cicero and Justinian, as well as the military writers of the ancient world like the Emperor Leo, "of late years translated into Latin by Sir John Cheke, knight, schoolmaster to King Edward the Sixth." Then he turns to the Bible, where "the perfection of a well-ordered militia is so highly esteemed that the Holy Scripture itself doth compare and liken the beauty and the glory of Almighty God unto a well-ordered army, as to the most beautiful and excellent thing of all others in this world." In Numbers, God told Moses how to organize the army of the Israelites, "and reduce them into a most excellent order and form of militia." Now God had in fact '"P. 24. This translation

'*^P. 25. first

appeared in 1554.

^*«P. 202. It

was printed again

in 1595.

Ixxvii

Introduction

no need

to teach the Israelities

and could have won

otent

how

He was omnipthem. He taught

to fight, for

their victories for

them, Smythe suggests, that

might be a continual instruction unto them and

it

all

other

princes and governors of nations, that they should have special re-

gard (next after divine laws established for the honoring, serving,

and

glorifying of His divine majesty,

ment

of people with equal justice)

exercises military

amongst

and laws

politic for the govern-

to establish laws, orders,

and

their people.

This preparation would not only enable them to attack and

defend themselves against their enemies, but their people

and

and subjects from drunkenness, and from

idleness,

He

nacies."

all

would "preserve

it

sloth, covetousness,

other such vile and base effemi-

briskly attacks those

who

say

it is

dangerous to

by pointing out that history caused by unjust government and will

give the people arms lest they revolt

shows that rebellions are happen wherever this occurs. Where the people are unarmed, moreover, a country

is

prey not only to a foreign invader but to

The theses that war, or at least military prephad a bracing effect on the country's moral fiber and that a ruler's best protection was the love of his people had so a domestic tyrant. aration,

long a

life

during the Renaissance precisely because they ap-

pealed both to the intellectual

(

like Machiavelli

)

and

to the war-

rior.

Smythe then turns

mourning the decay of great warriors and warlike nations. His contribution to the mounting controversy between ancient and modern is as conservative as one would expect. "It is manifest," he writes, "that the new opinion by some inconsiderate

men

to

of this time conceived that the longer the

world continueth the wiser

all

nations of necessity must be,

because they have by traduction and reading the experience of all

former ages,

is

most erroneous and

contrast to the days of Charles 1[

2 recto— IT 3 verso.

Ixxviii

false."

V and Francis I,

m

1 verso.

Alas, in sad

Introduction over the dominions of the Christian princes of the continent of

all

Europe there of

at this present not so

is

any excellent personages of rare

war grown of

or peace but that as

in

as

any fame or name

any profession either

few years decayed, turned, and

in a

all is

amongst other nations

much

ability in

former ages to obscurity and to

a kind of barbarism.

Turning

to

England, he continues to

tween military ity.

efficiency

and

political

English arms had flourished under

and even

in the

first

and

pejjsonal responsibil-

Edward

III

and Henry V,

half of the sixteenth century

the order and discipline that the chieftains

connection be-

stress the

was

and love

so good, with the great care

and captains bare unto

the dissolving and discharging of armies

upon was never seen that

their soldiers, that

...

it

the English soldiers, were they in health, sick,

or hurt,

did go

a-begging or become anyways rogues under pretense that they had

been

soldiers, as

now most commonly

they do.

But

as a result of following the disordered w^ars of

the

Low

these days the discipline military of our ancestors

other w^arlike nations

preoccupation linked as

France and

Countries they have so sought "unlaw^ful gain that in

it

vv^ith

was

is

.

.

.

forgotten."

and of

It is this

all

constant

the interplay of the moral and the technical,

to his habit of

impeaching the motives and con-

duct of others, that distinguishes Smythe from the great majority of English military writers

—and that made his work so suspect to

the authorities.

For

the Instructions is a more precisely and economibook than the Discourses and gives a clear picture contemporary English practice and of Smythe's ideas on how all this,

cally written

of

matters should be changed. cal.

Whereas most

It is

highly professional and practi-

military writers

began by

rattling

through the

qualities required of ideal officers of different grades, the armies

which Smythe v^ites have their origin firmly in the shires, and he makes the ideal mustermaster a more significant figure

of

^«'1[l[1[2recto— mSverso.

hxix

Introduction than the ideal captain. As in the Discourses, he with the need for choosing

—of the right age and

men who

inclination, in

is

preoccupied

are properly suited to

good health, and

war

of mostly



background and officers who combine military knowledge with a sense of responsibility for the well-being of prosperous

their men.^°^

He

takes a briskly no-nonsense line with unneces-

sary refinements of military practice, as

when he

refuses to dis-

cuss

forms of

little

battles [formations] that are contained in

some printed

books of divers languages, as of cross battles, of battles in triangle,

and

battles in

form of

stars,

with

many

other such battles of divers

shapes and fashions extraordinary, that are rather set forth to

fill

up

books and to please the curious than for any great use.^^^

He had become somewhat more

tolerant

of the

musket,

though, and refers most warmly to the value of hailshot at close range, thus blending praise with a reference to the weapon's

inaccuracy. While accepting that the

range of a good musket might be as denies

its

maximum point-blank much as 600 yards, he

accuracy at any but a very short range and suggests

that the harquebus should not be used at a range yards. tive

For use from horseback he would

set a

beyond 40

maximum

effec-

range of 15 yards for the harquebus, as opposed to one of

60 yards for the bow. Moreover, goaded no doubt by verbal

made in Barwick's book, he claims that be made in the open and plain field between

challenges of the sort "if

the

trial

were

to

and 3,000 musketeers without any other weapon succor either for the one side or the other," the archers would

1,500 archers of

Cf. his advice that captains of bands should not have fast horses but "a simple hackney, ... by reason that when captains do in the field upon swift running horses or geldings lead their bands, it doth give the soldiers occasion to doubt whether the captains will tarry with them or

not

upon any accident P. 97.

Ixxx

or occasion of extremity" (p. 21).

Introduction "with great

facility,

with a very few volleys of arrows, break

all

the musketeers."

He

is

also in line

with contemporary military thought in rec-

army should be divided not into three great sections, vanguard, battle, and rear guard, but into at least three more, for which he coins the terms "vanguard rearward," "battle On the other hand, of succor," and "rear guard rear guard."

ommending

that an

he swims against the tide in maintaining that large companies of five

hundred are preferable

quently in his books, in

it is

to small ones. Here, as all too fre-

clear that

he

is

much

writing not so

terms of contemporary battle practice as of his

own

observa-

home. In the levies of 1587 and 1588 he had seen the inconvenience of bands of different numbers, bearing differing proportions of pike, halberd, and gun; and this, coupled with his distrust of the sort of captain he saw at home and his desire to reduce their numbers, made him tion of the ineflBcient shire levies at

advocate homogeneous, large companies. to

It is

a policy designed

improve the appearance of muster meetings

at

home

rather

than the effectiveness of armies abroad, which depended creasingly on the flexibility of their

There were many respects

company

in-

organization.

which he remained forcefully conservative. The habit of leaving off arm and leg armor he put down to the effeminacy that had led to the decline of the Roman Empire, whereas it was due more directly to an emphasis on mobility and to the increased weight of pistol-proof armor. His in

scorn of reiters and argoletiers remained intense, and he de-

veloped the suggestion of the Discourses that horsed archers and

crossbowmen would be more useful, fighting as little gadfly and confuse an advancing enemy and to split up and harass a retreating one, supported by light horse armed with units to gall

the lance. His most exotic suggestion was for light cavalry com-

panies comprising forty stradiots, thirty horse archers, and thirty ^'P. 154.

Pp. 86-87. Ixxxi

Introduction horsed crossbowmen. The inaccuracy of firearms "do persuade

me," he wrote, "to think that 2,000 carabins or

reiters are

not

able in the field to abide the charge and volley of 1,000 stradiots, archers,

and crossbowers."

His ideas are tabulated in the

army of "30,000 horsemen and footmen of our The foot consist of 4,500 pikes, 8,500 battle-axes

sketch of an ideal

English nation."

or halberds; the missile force of 7,000 archers, 1,500 musketeers,

and 1,500 harquebusiers; the cavalry

of 240 men-at-arms, 480

demilances, 1,680 stradiots, 1,300 archers on horseback, and 1,300

Of

horsed crossbowmen. in line of battle

it

his

manner

of

drawing out

has been justly said that

that of Somerset at the Battle of

In conclusion, he book out of "the great love that

it

army

"might have been

Musselburgh

in 1547."

he has written the

carefully afiirms that I

this

bear to the continual safety

and prosperity of the Crown and realm of England" and he ends, as he did the Discourses, with

Honor

et gloria in excelsis

Deo

omnipotenti, sempiterno et

incomprehensibili

Amen.

VIII. Treason

and

Such evidence

as

disgrace, 1592 to 1607

we have

for the

first

pression of the Discourses suggests that for

Smythe beyond

years after the sup-

life

held

that of literary composition.

health, out of favor with the

little

pleasure

He was

in

poor

Queen, and disappointed by the

Lord Treasurer. He was forced to sell his best house and its and to appeal to the Privy Council for permission to pay land off his debts at an easier rate.^^^ In April, 1593, he was considerPp. 65-66. E.C.R.O. Estate and Family Archives,

Cockle, p. 51.

p. 177.

Graces,

May

8,

13, sale of the

1591.

Acts P.C., March 30 and Ixxxii

D/DP

May

16, 1592, pp.

380 and 458.

Manor

of

Introduction ing the sale of Little

Baddow and gave the first option to Burghmany and great favors that I have

ley, "as well in respect of the

always found at your Lordship's hands, as also that I do assure myself that your Lordship and Sir Robert Cecil will always hereaccording to your noble custom, favor

after,

However,

reasonable causes."

to print the Instructions

"from

my house

at

Badew

and wrote [Little

me

in

my

just

and

1594 he received permission

in

its epistle,

Baddow]

which

is

dated

in lEssex, this first of

and a lighter note is sounded in an order to Sir Thomas Heneage, in his capacity as lieutenant of Waltham Having forest, to send Smythe a "stag and a leash of bucks." had the Instructions published without disturbance, he had re-

May,

1594,"

gained enough confidence to offer Burghley his services to mus-

and train the horse and foot bands of Essex and Hertford mine own charges," as he emphasized, "and that only to do Her Majesty service and to do honor unto my lord." He made ter

"at

this offer, too, as

he went on to explain, because musters were

usually so badly handled, the captains

making

weaponing, and furnishing of work any good effect to the wellinstructing them in all kind of obedience and in orders and exercises military, but in many vain, disordered, and fond skirmishes without rhyme or reason. very

little

effect to the well-arming,

the soldiers, nor in their training to

Roving captains, with a

Low

little evil

experience in France and the

Countries but no real stake in the country's welfare, should

be avoided. In

my

simple opinion

I

think

it

were a great deal better

Her Majesty and the saving charges that such knights and esquires

service of

of her people

for the

from increase of

as have in former times served any wars should of themselves ofiFer at their own charges to perform the like in such shires where they dwell.

in

Lansdowne 75, 35. Cal S.P., Dorn., 1595-1597, August

5,

1595, p. 85. Ixxxiii

Introduction

The

authorities

had shown a preference

for the

gun

as against

the bow, but by properly conducted exercises he could at least

save the realm "an infinite deal of powder."

The

offer was, in part, accepted,

and

ironies in Smythe's frustrated life that

it is

it

the greatest of the led this passionate

patriot, this crusader against drunkenness, to

become a

traitor

in his cups. It is

possible to piece together the outlines of this disastrous

incident and something of that followed.^^^^

To

its

background from the investigation

the best of his small means, Smythe had

tried to live as the captain of a

servants, like the

minute army; he had a few paid

gamekeeper who promised always

readiness "one able

bow

of

yew and

to

have

in

a sheaf of arrows, with a

bracer and shooting glove, a sword and a dagger,"

and he

had some twenty-two retainers who wore though they did not live with him and he paid them no wages; in at least one case Smythe stood up so vigorously for one of his men who was a notorious thief that the local justices were unwilling to deal with him. By way of equipment Smythe had got together enough armor for a dozen men, forty bows and "great boxes" of powder and bullets. his livery,

From

the beginning of the English intervention in the

Low

Smythe had deplored the waste of life involved in badly managed foreign wars. He saw himself as the champion of the common honest Englishman against dishonest captains and callous statesmen. And he knew that he was not alone. The country was suffering from a long series of bad harvests. The Countries,

peak of

came in 1596, when there were sporadic attacks on wheat haulers, the seizing of grain

distress

rections:

insurships,

Lansdowne

80, 5, October 8, 1595. See in Acts of the Privy Council and Calendars of State Papers, Domestic under the dates mentioned in my account. In what follows I give

only the references to actual quotations.

'^E.C.KO. Estate and Family 1593. Ixxxiv

Archives,

D/OU

239/3, September

1,

Introduction

and the

The government appealed

like.

sacrifice their

own

to the country gentry to

stores to assist the poor,

but the appeal

fell

on

The prolonged war scare had brought burden Not only were they heavily taxed by Parliament, but they had in addition to pay for the training grudging after

ears.

burden

of troops

to the gentry.

and

for the fitting-out of expeditions abroad.

American historian of

this

As an

turbulent year observed, "Forced mili-

tary service outside of the realm v/as of at leasjj dubious legality,

and was more than once during this year openly challenged." The Privy Council, indeed, had to suppress criticism on this score in places as wide apart as Durham, Huntingdon, and London. As early as 1587 or 1588 Smythe had discussed the legality of sending pressed

men

for service overseas with

Manwood,

the

Lord Chief Baron, and had pursued the subject subsequently with lawyers of his acquaintance. In the spring of 1596 the pressing of

men

scribed the

for service in

way

sealed during the

in

France reached a climax. Stow de-

which the church doors in London were service one morning to allow the

communion

recruiting officers to take their pick of the worshipers.

knew

that of the 2,000

men lately sent abroad from

Smythe

Essex not 200

had returned, and he was perturbed to learn in June that 1,000 more men were to be sent overseas from the county. He was also grimly aware that the chief agent of this policy was the Lord Treasurer, Lord Lieutenant of Essex and Hertford and the man who for so long had turned a deaf or unwilling ear to his own demands. His sense of a right to judge the conduct of strengthened by the fact that, though a E. P. Cheyney,

man

of

affairs

was

middle station

A

History of England from the Defeat of the Armada (London, 1926), II, 27. His chapter "Turbulence" provides an admirable background to Smythe's "revolt." To him it is valuable evidence that "under the surface of the carefully regulated to the

Death

of Elizabeth

Ehzabethan administration, there was deep discontent and constant danger of revolt" {ibid., p. 35).

Annals (London, 1605), pp. 1281-1282. Ixxxv

Introduction

and failing fortunes, he was related to the Seymour family, whose head, Lord Beauchamp, eldest son of the Earl of Hertford and Lady Catherine Grey, would be heir to the throne on Elizabeth's death All this should

if

not debarred

be borne

in

by

his illegitimate birth.

mind, plus our acquaintance with

Smythe's dogmatic and aggrieved nature,

when we

turn to the

events of June 12, 1596.

On

June

10,

invitation to

Thomas Seymour,

the Earl's second son,

be entertained by Smythe

came by

at Tofts, near Little

Baddow, where Smythe was then living. Next day they went to Colchester to a muster meeting and were joined by a friend of Smythe's called Thomas Mannock. That evening they dined with Sir Thomas Lucas, one of the main landowners and chief magistrates of the county. The conversation came round to military affairs, and Smythe became very excited, eating and drinking, without noticing what he was doing, a good deal more than was good for him. He was kept awake all night by pains in his stomach and, getting up early in the morning, drank some wine, on a time-honored principle, to try to clear the hangover and the pain. In this attempt he consumed a good deal without any beneficial result. He lunched with Seymour and Mannock at the White Hart in Colchester at 11 a.m. on the twelfth and continued the treatment, but neither the wine nor the oysters (of

which

his head.

he ate largely) did anything

local delicacy

The conversation

naturally

to clear

enough turned on the

present musters, and he said at one point that he was sorry to

consumed by foreign wars. After the meal he room for a short time. At 1 P.M. they left for the muster, which was being held some half-mile outside the town. They came first upon a body of some eighty to a hundred archers and pikemen in Windmill Field ( the harquebusiers and musketeers were being drilled some way off by Sir Thomas Lucas ) The pikes were drawn up in a square, with the archers in two wings on their flanks. Smythe rode up see the country

retired to his

.

Ixxxvi

Introduction to this congenial

audience and harangued them in a speech that

was variously reported but contained the following points. He told them that Englishmen were being daily consumed in foreign wars and there was a new press for more men. "My masters, if you will go with me you shall not go out of the land, but I will spend my life with you." There were traitors about the court and the Lord Treasurer was the greatest traitor amongst them. The common people had long been oppressed, but they should have redress if they would follow him. "No," he went on, "you shall go with a better man than myself or Sir Thomas Lucas. Here is a

nobleman

of the blood royal, brother to the Earl of

champ, that

He

then called out to those

Some

their hands.

whom

be your captain, under

shall

of the

men

who would

I

am

Beau-

assistant."

follow him to hold

up

stepped forward, while Mannock

two gentlemen present set an example by raising their hands. At the same time, however, some of the other men tried to hold their companions back, asking if they wanted to be hanged, while Seymour rode up to remonstrate with Smythe and persuade him to return to town and lie down. This only

and one

or

exasperated the knight, and Seymour rode to

be

On

first

off as fast as

he could

with the news to Burghley.

June 13 the Privy Council had Smythe arrested and

brought up to London and were sent reports on a number of

who had been examined by Sir Thomas Lucas. Smythe was examined that day and made a bad impression. eyewitnesses

Burghley wrote to Lucas that he hath answered so uncertainly

in

some

part, confessing part of the

words, alleging that therein he meant no harm t6ward Her Majesty,

and he

in

some

parts he sought to excuse himself

said, coloring also his

oversight of white

by reason wine and

by forgetfulness what words of me, the Lord Treasurer, with

of his drinking in the

sack.

And

morning of a great deal

yet in the end, finding himself charged

with multitude of witnesses, he began to defend his speeches, pretending that by the laws of the realm no subject ought to be comIxxxvii

Introduction

manded fore

to

go out of the realm in Her Majesty's service, and there-

he seemed

to conclude for his defense that

he might lawfully

advise the people not to go in service out of the realm at that time,

and therefore he had

just cause

(as

he said)

to use those kind of

speeches.

The Privy Council was satisfied of his disloyalty, but because he denied so much, and especially because he claimed that Lucas was no friend and had given a dent, Lucas

was ordered

presence of another

men

to attend

tenant of the

account of the

inci-

to re-examine the witnesses in the

justice.

Tower, where, a few days

false

Meanwhile Smythe was

later,

sent to the

he asked to have one of

his

own

on him. The Privy Council authorized the Lieu-

Tower

to arrange this, "in respect of his years,

which may require a man that is acquainted with the service of Smythe was then sixty-five. him." The new depositions began to come in during the second week of the investigation. In part they were concerned to check Smythe's claim that he had been drunk and irresponsible for his actions. Lucas, for instance, wrote to say that there had been at least a dozen persons at the crucial lunch and all the wine served to them had amounted to no more than three pints of white wine and three pints of sack. On the twenty-fifth Smythe attempted the

difficult task of

explaining to Burghley

had spoken out against him. In a

letter

why he

from the Tower he ad-

mitted that Your Lordship may Majesty called upon

justly say

me

unto

me

hath showed very great friendship in

which

I

that divers years since

from beyond the seas

my

suits

.

.

.

Her

your Lordship

unto Her Majesty,

acknowledge and confess; that during the time that the Earl

of Leicester lived,

and some year or two

after his death,

your Lord-

ship performed your friendship in very honorable sort toward me.

Howbeit,

I

say that within these

Acts T.C., June 13, 1596, p. 459. Ixxxviii

six years, little

more

Ihid.,

or less,

June 20,

upon

p. 480.

Introduction by me declared unto your Lordship upon Monday the fourteenth of this present month in your chamber at the court ... I grew afraid of your Lordship, doubting that upon your Lordship's indignation there might upon some wrong information at one time or other ensue unto me great trouble and occasions and accidents partly

danger, which

same

the

in

I,

my

continually doubting, have often

and often revolved

mind.

which were

He went on

to describe his usual eating halklits,

"either not to

sup but with bread, or with bread and

raisins, or

with bread and honey alone, or else at the most with two sodden

poached eggs,"

or

in order to

throw into

relief

the unusual in-

dulgence of the meals of the night of the eleventh and of the

Coming

following morning.

to his harangue,

he said

that,

thanks

to the distemperature that

was then

the malice and misliking that

I

in

my

stomach and head, and upon

bare unto your Lordship for the causes

aforesaid, [I] did use such drunken, frantic, as I did

acknowledge unto your Lordship,

others,

how and

were if I

in

what

in the ranks next

sort I

unto me,

I

.

and disordered speeches .

.

which speeches, with

spake them unto the soldiers that protest that I at this present cannot,

might have a million of pounds with present

liberty, declare

what

they were, because at that time, through lack of memory, distemperature of diet,

and passion

of

mind

against your Lordship,

I

was not

myself.

In support of his plea that this had not been a planned incite-

ment

to revolt,

he pointed out that he had made no attempt to

own men with

him, and that if he had been planning any such thing he would not have spoken before a mere handful but before the whole band, which had paraded before him the

have

his

previous day.

and

He

then reminded Burghley of his proved loyalty

service in the past

"two sundry times

I,

and begged him

to

remind the Queen that

being beyond the seas, answered in the

my sword in my hand, and a third time English nation, with the danger of my life."

defense of her honor with for the

honor of the

Ixxxix

Introduction

He

had persuaded Harwich for mutiny, being all weap-

recalled too that only the previous August he

large

numbers

of mutinous soldiers to

service overseas. "In

which time

of their

embark

at

oned and armed, they made open and earnest request unto me be their captain and chieftain, and that they would all follow

to

and

live

and die with me, which

make

I

most dutifully refused."

He

Chamber and and have copies sent "to Colchester, ." there to be set upon divers posts and corners of the town in and begged, the light of his repentance, to be freed from the Tower and confined to a mile radius of his own house in the

promised

to

a public confession in the Star

to write a written apology

.

country, "because

I

myself now, after

this disgrace,

.

have no

desire to resort or to be seen in any public place in the world."

Two

days later the Privy Council sent an order to the High

Sheriff of Essex to

writings, books"

have Smythe's houses searched for

appointed Francis Bacon to Solicitor

"letters,

and other possibly incriminating evidence and assist the

Attorney General and the

General in the next examination of the prisoner.

July 7 they put a series of questions to him,

On

among them, "Had

he seen a book dedicated to the Earl of Essex, concerning the "Had he a hand in a libel published against the

succession?"

Lord Treasurer?" "Why did he provide so much arrows, bows, powder, and shot?" "Why had he said that if the soldiers followed him and Seymour the

bells should ring and beacons be and that the common people had been a long time oppressed and in bondage?" Of all their questions, the one Smythe must have found most difficult to answer was this "What redress would he have taken if they had followed him, and whither Unfortunately we do not know what would he have gone?" answers he in fact returned. In October, Smythe turned from the adamant father to the son and wrote to Robert Cecil, stressing once more the extent to fired,

:

Lansdowne 82, 71, printed in Letters, pp. 89-97. Cal S.P., Dom., 1595-1597, July 7, p. 252. xc

Introduction

which he had not been responsible for his actions, being so drunk that "I did ... to the great hindrance of my wife and myself deliver away a great deal of money by £10, by £20, by £30, by £40, and by £50 to my servants and such as came first

my

to

sight." ^'^

that survives, dated

This plea was unregarded, and the next

May

who endorsed

Burghley,

26, 1597,

it

"Sir

was addressed once more

John Smythe's railing

the Tower." It

letter

to

from

*

appears from this that Smythe had indeed read a confession

Chamber, not an entirely truthful one but an account which Burghley had given him to understand would lead to his freedom. This appeared to Smythe to be a trick and caused him in the Star

to burst out,

you prefer a passionate revenge before any convenient

If

to

God

that he that loveth thority as

it

and

my

which

all

.

is

Councilor bear the

have been

loveth mercy.

...

know your high aumay afflict me

I

miserable estate to be such that you

pleaseth you,

authority,

I

satisfaction

your honor, then you do not remember the saying of Solomon,

my

.

.

chiefly in respect of

mightily great as

so like,

I

your exceeding great never

under any emperor or king

knew any one in

whose courts

life.

"For which," he abruptly adds,

"I

would be very glad

you

if

could dispose your mind from hatred to charity and deliver out of these

my

most

bitter afflictions in

my

old years."

me

Next

day Burghley received a letter of apology, which ended, "Many Roman emperors were not offended with plain dealing. I bear

you no malice except

as fearing your hatred."

^^-^

After that, the

records are silent until the following year.

On January

3,

1598, the

Queen wrote

to the Lieutenant of the

Tower: H.M.C.

Hatfield, VI, 450, October 23, 1596.

Cat. S.F., Ibid.,

Dom., 1595-1597,

May

May

26, 1597, p. 423.

27, 1597, p. 424.

xci

:

Introduction Sir

John S my the, a long-time prisoner under your charge, having

made

submission to us in writing before our Council,

to extend our grace unto at liberty,

on security

him and

we

are pleased

therefore require you to set

to repair to his

own house

in

him

Essex and not

depart above the compass of a mile from thence without special license of us or our Council.^"^*

Some cause 6 that Sir

was not until February John Peyton, the Lieutenant, acknowledged an order for delay intervened,

and

it

for Smythe's release.^'^^

His energy and optimism unbroken, Smythe remained con-

much to offer his country. As soon news was published, at the beginning of 1599, that the Earl of Essex had been chosen to lead an army against the rebellious Tyrone in Ireland, Smythe wrote to offer his services in some command, having been given to understand that the Earl would try to obtain permission for him from the Queen. Rebuffed in this attempt to regain a foothold in national affairs, he contented himself with sporadic efforts to widen the circle of his liberty in Essex. At the end of February, 1600, the Queen agreed vinced that as a soldier he had as the

^'''^

to extend Little

its

He moved from

limits to a radius of five miles.

Baddow

to Tofts,

and there he received an inquiry from

—the

Robert Cecil which caused him to look on Burghley's son



Lord Treasurer had died in the fall of 1598 as someone to whom he could turn for favor. Cecil was engaged in following up his fathers negotiations for a peace with Spain and had turned to Smythe for the notes and correspondence concerning the Inquisition from his Spanish embassy of 1576-1577. Smythe answered According to your no one to help

letter, I

me

but

have sought myself

my

page,

who

Dom., 1598-1601, January 3, 1598, H.M.C. Hatfield, VIII, 37. Ibid., XIV, 103-104, January 17. Acts P.C., February 29, 1600, p. 131. Cal. S.P.,

xcii

to satisfy you,

having

does not understand foreign p. 2.

Introduction languages; howbeit, the disorder of

my

infinite

number

of notes

and

and many concerning Her Majesty's services, by the High Sheriff and other gentlemen at my first imprisonment, was such that although I stayed the pursuivant here one whole day, I cannot satisfy your pleasure, but send you these few

writings of foreign matters,

notes. I

wish you

all

good success

Smythe's business

dow had been

in the pacification.

continued to plague him. Little Bad-

affairs

sold in 1596, though

he and his^wife retained

and by 1602 he was reduced

use,^^^

armor.^^^

The

^''^

to paw^ning

some

legal consequences of his indebtedness

made

necessary for him to go to London. In April, 1600, the

its

of his it

Queen

gave him permission to come up for one law term, on condition that he came nowhere near the court,^^^ and he took the opportunity to pay a call on Cecil.^^^ In Cecil for helping

him over

May he

wrote to thank

his business affairs,^^^

and two years

he was allowed to come up to London for two law terms a year for reasons both of business Cecil's favor, however, was not without reservaand health. on

later,

tions.

Cecil's intervention,

When in 1604 the who wished to

persons

The purpose

Lieutenant of the Tower sent a visit Sir

of Cecil's inquiry

is

list

of

Walter Raleigh there, Cecil clear

from the instructions given

shortly afterward to the English negotiators with the Spanish commissioners in the Netherlands. Cf.

H.M.C.

Hatfield, X, 145-146.

D/DRa T57, sale to Arthur Pennynge. D/DP E90, November 20. He got £50

E.C.R.O. ^'nbid.,

for "one white

armor cap a

pie,

graven and

gilt,

from Sir John Petre with all pieces both of

horseback and afoot belonging unto it, and one arming sword and dagger gilt, and also two pair of pistols graven and with bone." Acts P.C., April 13, p. 249. At least he wrote announcing his intention to call, (H.M.C. Hatfield, X,

^

124, April 25, 1600).

London of the armor that had been imSmythe had asked leave of the Privy Council he could sell it and obtained their permission ( Acts

Probably over the

pounded by the High to

have

P.C.,

sale in

Sheriff.

back so that 13 and May 25, 1600). H.M.C. Hatfield, XII, 167, May 27, 1602. it

May

xciii

.

Introduction crossed out Smythe

s

name, and so he was not permitted

to offer

a fellow prisoner his condolences.

The istic

record of Smythe's agitated

last

one. It

is

life is

a not uncharacter-

a presentment at the Essex quarter sessions of

April 15, 1605.

We the

present that on

number

March 26

last,

Sir

John Smythe, knight, with

of twelve or thirteen persons, did go to the house of one

Baddow, standing on the common, with pikestaves no pistols seen nor drawn), and did go unto the said cottage and did carry certain household stuff out of the said cottage and there withoutdoors did leave it, and two carts with horses which also did come to the said cottage did part away again empty, and the said Sir John Smythe with the said company did depart withBrygges in

Little

and cases of

pistols (but

out any further act done.^^^

Smythe disappears. He died two years later and was buried on September 1, 1607, in the church at Little Baddow.

With

this inscrutable act of petty violence

XVI, 193, July 30. It appears, however, that he did succeed Lord Cobham there ( ibid., 198 )

Ibid.,

visiting

E.C.R.O. Quarter Sessions Roll 172/70.

xciv

in

Technical Words

«

Armor The burgonet was a

helmet, which protected the neck and

frequently had hinged pieces to protect the cheeks.

used by infantry and

The

light cavalry.

by an additional piece

It

was widely

face might be protected

called the beaver.

The morion was a

simple open helmet, used especially by archers and harquebusiers.

ders

The

collar protected the

and upper part

neck and sometimes the shoul-

of the chest.

The pauldron was the

plate

defense for the shoulder and part of the upper arm, while the

vambrace protected the tion for the elbow.

The

rest of the

cuirass

upper body, comprising a back this

was

arm, including a jointed sec-

was the

plate defense for the

tested against pistol bullets

(if

and a breast; a long-bellied dipped low at the waist in front.

called a back at the proof)

breast, or

peasecod breastplate,

The thigh was protected by tasses of thin overlapping plates, or by a cuisse, usually of one piece. The greaves protected the leg between knee and ankle. Corselet was the term for an armor which protected the head, body, and arms, or

for a

man

wear-

ing such an armor. Jacks and brigandines were defensive doublets with metal pieces of various shapes

or canvas; an eyelet-holed doublet

sewn

into

was a canvas

heavy cloth

jacket stiffened

with buttonholing. The armor for a horse was known as the bard and included the headpiece or chanfron, a pectoral for the chest,

and a

crinet for the neck.

xcv

Technical

Words

Weapons a ) Bows.

The bracer was

on the forearm of an

a protection, usually of leather,

archer's

bow

hand. The

gaffle

was a

worn steel

lever for bracing a crossbow.

b) Portable (maniable) firearms. The lightest and simplest form was the harquebus. There were differences in the way the barrel was mounted, the shape of the stock, and the method of firing, which led to some confusion between the terms harquebus and caliver (see p. 64). The musket was heavier and was fired from a forked rest. The matchlock harquebus or musket was fired by moving a trigger that lowered a smoldering match held in a cock or serpentine into a pan containing priming powder, which ignited, via a touchhole, the main charge in the barrel.

The

firelock or petronel lock, instead of a

when the

match, used a piece

was pressed, was brought in contact with a spring-tensioned wheel and caused sparks that ignited the priming powder. The snaphaunce form of this lock had a ffint which produced a spark as it snapped down and knocked back the pan cover that had been protecting the primof iron pyrites which,

trigger

ing powder.

Archers and handgunners either shot at point and blank, that is,

point-blank, the range of a missile's more-or-less horizontal

flight,

or roving,

when, by aiming high, an increased range was

some expense of accuracy and striking power. The cannon was a heavy, 7^ -inch, medium-ranged gun; the culverin was a type of gun that came in several sizes, all characterized by their ability to fire light shot over a long range; the saker was a small culverin; the base was a very small possible at

c) Guns.

breech-loading culverin.

d) Armes blanches. The arming sword was the military cut thrust sword; a slath sword was a large two-handed sword.

and

The

partisan

was a weapon with a long haft and a variously its head. The commonest

shaped but symmetrical steel blade at xcvi

Technical hafted

weapon was

both hacking and

bill,

head shaped

for

moved forward under

the

with a

steel

piercing.

and

Fortification

the black

Words

siegecraft

In besieging a town, the attackers

cover of trenches or earthworks to successive cross trenches, rings of entrenchment surrounding the town^ Further cover

from the defenders'

fire

was provided by gabions, baskets or Cavaliers or mounts were raised earth-

filled with earth. works from which the besiegers' guns could

frames

command the enemy The counterscarp was the side of the ditch facing the besieger, and one of his objects was to capture part of it and set up batteries of guns there. (There was a path called the covered way running along the counterscarp, protected from fire by the sloping ground or glacis up which besiegers had to come;

walls.

in case the besiegers

fending force

(e.g.,

broke into the covered

a raiding party)

was on

way it,

while a de-

the defenders

could take cover behind a series of traverses, short walls built across the covered way, as they retreated )

.

He

then bombarded

the flanks or flankers, which housed the concealed batteries in

which projected from the which protected the stretch of curtain behind them; and any platforms or gun emplacements on the walls together with those on the inward mounts or cavaliers. Half rounds were semicircular bastions. Casemates were batteries in the dry ditch. Sconces were the sides of the bastions or bulwarks,

curtain wall of the town; the detached works or ravelins,

made of earth, either Camps formed were camps

small temporary forts, usually

square or

indented,

protected

i.e.,

star-shaped.

by earthworks.

Troop formations and types of cavalry

An army was commonly ward,

battle,

divided into three main units, vanand rearward. These were subdivided into smaller xcvii

Technical

Words

troops or compartments. Large bodies were protected from flank

by wings or by sleeves. Archers might be drawn up in a by Smythe as 'iDroad in front and narrow in flank." The forlorn hope was a body, usually of light cavalry, sent out attack

herse, defined

in

advance of the vanward. Argoletiers, carabins,

reiters, lances,

and

stradiots

were

all light

pistoletiers,

cavalrymen, the

first

two armed with guns, the second two with pistols, the last two with lances. A demilance was a light horseman armed with a short lance.

xcviii

Certain discourses military concerning the fotms and effects of

weapons and other very important matters military greatly mistaken by divers of our men of war in these days. And chiefly of the musket, the caliver, and the longbow, as also of the great sufficiency, excellency, and wonderful effects of archers. With many notable examples and other particularities; by him presented to the nobility of this realm and published

divers sorts of

for the benefit of this his native country of England.

corrected and

emended with certain quotations and by the author

By

Sir

John Smythe

Newly

additions

The Proem Dedicatory of the

Realm

of

to the ^Nobility

England

Right honorable and most noble lords:

The wisdom and humility

men of men

of the notable

have given greater honor to the excellency of

later ages

in all arts

and sciences of former ages and of greater antiquity than to themselves, yea, they have not only acknowledged themselves to be inferiors unto them but also that the greatest skill and

knowledge which they have attained unto hath, in the greatest part, proceeded from such notable persons, either by hearing

and observing else

their opinions, or

by reading

of others that

by reading

of their works, or

have written of the judgments

and actions of such excellent men. Contrariwise, the vanity and overweening of young men, and chiefly of our nation in this our ( I mean within these twenty years have so exceeded and ) superabounded that they have not been ashamed to attribute

time

,

unto themselves greater wisdom and suiRciency in sciences,

and

men and

great captains of former ages

all arts

and

specially in the art military, than to the notable

and

Yea, they have not been ashamed to disable

themselves and their sufiiciency) and

all

of greater antiquity.

them

(

in respect of

others also yet living

men of greater years and antiquity than they own nation, as also foreign, that have seen and

that are

are,

of our

served in

the well-ordered wars of emperors or kings in times past.

both

They 3

Sir

make

John Smythe

same more probable, that their wars are now grown to greater perfection and greatly altered from the wars of times past, under pretense whereof they have of late sought both by public and private persuasions and inducements to reduce all say, to

the

our ancient proceedings in matters military (which they are utterly ignorant of ) to their also, as

much

as they can

own

by

errors

and

their vain

against our archery, to suppress

disorders, procuring

and

frivolous objections

and extinguish the exercise and

serviceable use of longbows.

But now that

us

let

come

to consider

who

are these of our nation

do attribute unto themselves greater wisdom and

in all arts

and

sciences,

and

sufficiency

especially in the art military, than

men of former times and ages and to the ancient men yet living. Are they newly fallen from heaven

to the excellent

experienced

with some divine instinct and

gift to

renew, reform, and teach

us the art military? No, no such matter, but even such they are

we knew years. What as

children or very young

men

within these twenty

then? Are they noblemen themselves by

descended of noble and excellent

title,

or

fathers, or themselves of great

and worthiness of mind? No, truly, for such as are noblemen by birth, or descended of noble fathers and themselves worthy, do know by good education and instruction that experience is the mother of science and therefore will not neglect nor contemn the wisdom and sufficiency of former ages, nor the opinions and judgments of the ancient and experienced sobriety, continency,

men

of this time, but will with humility yield themselves to hear

and learn by

their experiences.

with any such rare

gifts or

my

What

then? Are they endued

corporal presences, wisdoms, and

known divers, and do yet know some very few young gentlemen endued withal) that therefore we may admire and think them to be extraordinary and notable men? No, in troth, but some young and some now grown to be of the middle age, all which are but after the common sort both in their corporal presences and in their wisdoms and virtues, un-

virtues (as I

4

have

in

time

Certain Discourses Military

when they fall into argument of would seem to have great skill of; then, indeed, they show themselves to be extraordinary, for instead of alleging reasons and examples, according to the use of other nations, with quietness and courteous phrase of speech, they argue for life and death, with hasty and furious words, as though there were no more in the experience of men of greater years but that which they say! Which, in th% opinions of all men of any judgment that are of wise and brave nations, is thought more meet for the common sort of such as are chiding women than for men that do profess any knowledge in arts and sciences, and chiefly military. What, is the number great of these less,

peradventure, sometimes

some such matters

that they

controllers of antiquity in matters military, that are infected

an overweening? Certainly no: the number of the chief

so great

of

with

them

is

very small and few, and therefore, saving for arith-

metic's sake, not

worthy

to

be called number. And those that

are possessed with this overweening are such as do their long experience in such

presume of

wars as they have served

in, all

which are more addicted to self-will, new fashions, and fancies than to any reason and experience military. What, have they no imitators? Yes, many, that are abused by their persuasions, but yet they are such as I do think may be easily persuaded and reduced to better judgment upon sound reasons and demonstrations unto them showed, or upon the experience of some new

and well-ordered wars. But now, I pray you,

in what wars of emperors, kings, or formed commonwealths have these our such men of war served and learned their great pretended skill and sufficiency, by the which they may with the more reason and experience assume

unto themselves to condenm the ancient orders and proceedings military of divers foreign warlike nations, as also of our' valiant of

and wise

most

ancestors, or the experience in the art military

many both foreign as also of some ancient men yet living of own nation in respect of the wars that they have served

our

5

Sir in,

John Smythe

and by the which, upon

and orders military

and judg-

their greater experience

ment, they should seek to reduce to their

all

own

our ancient proceedings

opinions and fancies, and

therewithal to procure the utter suppressing and extinguishing

and peculiar weapon the longbow? Certainly

of our ancient

men know

that the chiefest wars that they ever served

in,

all

where

they have learned any experience, hath been in the disordered

and tumultuary wars of the Low Countries under the States, or, peradventure, some little divers years past, in the intestine and licentious wars of France. Well, if it be so, without any further question I do not then marvel that they do allege (to set forth and beautify their own suflBciencies, and to disable all others both ancient and modern that have served in the wellordered wars of emperors or kings) that their wars are

grown

now

and greatly altered from the wars of times past. Wherein I do concur with them, and the rather because they verify the old proverb, which is that such as were to greater perfection

never but in hell do think that there true

it is

Low

tumultuary and disordered wars of the

have been

their schools

and therefore

Countries, which

and the chief wars that ever they saw,

have been altogether without any formed military

no other heaven. For

is

that the civil and licentious wars of France, and the

far different

militia

^

and

from the well-ordered wars

been in former times betwixt emperors, formed commonwealths. that have

And now briefly as I

much

discipline

kings,

and

intend in this proem unto your Lordships as

I

can to show by what means our nation hath very

decayed, or rather forgotten,

all

our ancient orders and

exercises military, with the wonderful evils that

have in other

ages and do now, through long peace, threaten us again to happen; as also that

it

hath been impossible for them, or any others,

to learn any art or science military in the civil wars of France,

nor in the disordered wars of the ^

By

"militia"

6

Smythe always means

Low

Countries under the

"military system."

Certain Discourses Military States,

but rather the contrary, that

is,

disorder and confusion.

by what means and accidents the art and science military hath in many empires, kingdoms, and commonwealths, as also in this kingdom, come sometimes to be utterly forgotten and at other times to grow to great disorder and confusion. And so, finally, will I prove it most evident that such of our nation as have seen and served in no other wars but in such confuse8 and disordered wars as aforesaid could noways attain to any such understanding in the art and discipline military that they may be anyways deemed or thought worthy to control or find fault with the orders and proceedings of our wise and worthy ancestors, nor of the old and ancient noblemen, gentlemen, and captains yet living that have been trained up in matters of arms; as it shall evidently appear by a few of their infinite unsoldierlike proceedings and disorders, which I will set down in the end of this I

therefore will

first

make manifest by

divers examples

preface. I

think

it is

evident to

have read divers notable

all

men

of

histories

wisdom and

discretion that

with consideration and judg-

ment, as also that have well considered of

this

our age, that

two things of all others that are the greatest enemies to the art and science military and have been the occasion of the great decay, and oftentimes the utter ruin, of many great empires, kingdoms, and commonwealths. Of the which the first is long peace, which ensuing after great wars to divers nations that have had notable militias and exercises military in great there are

by enjoying long peace have so much given themselves to covetousness, effeminacies, and superfluities that they have either in a great part or else utterly forgotten all perfection, they

and exercises military; in such sort that when they have been forced to enter into a war defensive for the defense of their dominions against any foreign nation or nations that have orders

had a puissant and formed militia, they have been so void of the orders and exercises of war of their forefathers that either 7

Sir

John Smythe

they have been conquered by their enemies invading, or at least

have been put

dominions. As

it

may

in

hazard of the

loss of their estates

and

very well appear by the Egyptians, being

had the art and science military in great perfection, by the which they attained many victories and conquests; and thereby finding no nation that durst assail them, they did after by enjoying long peace and prosperity so give themselves to their delights, covetousness, and effeminacies, neglecting all orders and exercises military, that being in process of time and in divers ages assailed and invaded by divers other warlike nations that had the art and science military in great perfection, and were allured thereunto partly by the wonderful fertility of Egypt, but chiefly because the Egyptians were grown effeminate, without any orders and exercises military, they came to be by them subdued and conquered, and one of the

first

nations of the world that

ever since have lived in subjection and servitude to divers other nations.

The Macedonians and Grecians

also, that

that notable conqueror Alexander the Great

had under

and other notable

princes and captains of those nations the art military in great

whereby they achieved many notable victories and conquests, did after, by living in long peace accompanied with great dissension, covetousness, and superfluities, so forget all their orders and exercises military that they came to be conquered by the Romans. And of late years, by their like negligence in matters of war, they were utterly subdued and brought into servitude by the Turks. The Romans, also, themselves, after that they had by their notable militia and discipline military achieved wonderful victories and conquests, through the peace but of a few years did grow so to decay in their discipline miliperfection,

tary that Hannibal, that notable captain of Carthage, achieving

Romans, and marching with army through France and passing the mountains of the Alps, did, before that the Romans could renew and reduce themselves to their ancient mflitia, invade Italy and won divers

divers victories in Spain against the his

8

Certain Discourses Military notable battles, and killed divers of their consuls and their

whole armies, and put Rome

itself in

great fear to be sacked

and

conquered.

And

if

we

list

to consider of our

divers ages, omitting infinite

own

numbers

greater antiquity as also of later ages,

country and nation in of other

we may

examples of

see that our an-

(the

cestors the Saxons conquered and expulsed the Britons

reasoif that they found

by ) them altogether without any orders and exercises military, wholly given to idleness, viciousness, and dehghts. The same Saxons ancientest inhabitants of this realm

by long peace with foreign nations being given to covetousness, vice, and superfluities, as also to civil dissension amongst themselves at home, did so confound and forget their art and science military by the which they in former times had been conquerors, that they themselves came after to be conquered by the Danes, and shortly after by the Normans. All which after,

examples of conquests and dangers of conquering, with

infinite

others of great empires, kingdoms, and commonwealths, have

proceeded chiefly through the negligence of their princes,

rulers,

and magistrates, who through long peace and overmuch security did govern their subjects only by laws politic, neglecting and contemning all orders and exercises military. And this doth most manifestly appear

by many notable

histories that

do contain

great actions.

The second cause which doth confound and disorder all discipline and orders military is intestine and civil wars, as we may see by many examples, of the which, for brevity's sake, I will only allege two, tlie one ancient and the other of this time. The first is of the Arabians, which nation, under Mahomet that false prophet and his successors halifas [caliphs] conquered a great part of Europe, Africa, and Asia, and were ( so long as they had but one supreme halifa or prince to govern the Arabians and all their dominions by them conquered ) so mighty through their excellent militia that

no foreign nation durst

assail

them. 9

Sir

But

after,

by

John Smythe

their long living in

peace and great prosperity, in

the end, through the viciousness and insufficiency of one of their

supreme

halifas

who

at that time reigned over them, they fell

and intestine wars amongst themselves, the supreme throne and government; in such sort

into revolt

striving for

that in

few

years they did so corrupt and confound their ancient discipline

and so weaken themselves by many confused battles, and spoils, and by dividing their great empire into divers parts under divers halifas, that the Turks, a new nation, who had an excellent militia, did invade their dominions and military,

sackings,

within few years brought them into subjection to the Turkey

Empire.

Now the other example, which

is of our time, is France, which XI did serve himself with mercenaries, had a well-ordered militia, offensive and defensive, and that chiefly on horseback, and yet divers years after had some relics and remnants of the same. But now in this later time, the French

kingdom,

until Louis

nation having continued seven- or eight-and-twenty years in civil

wars amongst themselves, they have so corrupted and con-

founded

all

their ancient orders

and proceedings

military that they have at this present

tion of the same, but disorder, disobedience,

which hath proceeded of the bians and

many

in matters

no show, token, nor men-

like causes that

and confusion,

brought the Ara-

other nations through intestine wars to corrupt

and science military, as it shall more particularly appear by that which followeth. I think all men of experience and judgment in matters of war and confound

their art

do know that the first and principal thing that is requisite to assemble and form an army or armies and to keep the same in obedience with good effect is treasure to maintain, pay, and reward, with severe execution of excellent laws military; which

and other officers to command and govern, may very well have a well-ordered militia, by reason that no soldiers well paid and

what prince soever he be

10

that hath, with sufficient generals

Certain Discourses Military chiefly being subjects to the prince that they serve all

laws and orders military, of sea or

field.

Besides that upon any transgression

excuses not to observe

camp, or

land, town, of orders

it is

can use any

lawful for the captains and higher officers to cor-

reform, and punish according to the laws and ordinances

rect,

military.

From whence

it

cometh

to pass that,

even as the citizens

of a well-ordered city, through the execution of

good laws

civil

and criminal by excellent governors, do live in great order, quietness, and prosperity without any civil dissension, even so an army in the field, being well paid, provided for, and governed, do

live as orderly in

town, camp, and

field,

without robbing,

any other but the common enemy. Now to maintain and continue the same it doth behoove a king in his kingdom, and chiefly in the body of the same, to be well obeyed, that by the quiet obedience of his subjects he spoiling, or otherwise injuring

may

receive

all his

customs, rents, and revenues, with

subsidies

and aids that of antiquity

customed

to receive,

from time All

with

new

men and

munitions

army

or armies.

to time to ranforce [strengthen] his

which the French

other

have ac-

his progenitors

supplies of

all

kings, through their subjects so often

many years, have so come want that they have not had any means possible to maintain any other but a deformed and disordered militia, by reason that the nobility and princes of the blood, upon divers legitimate causes by them pretended, with their friends and followers taking arms against them, a great part of the revenue of the crown taking arms and such intestine wars so to

with

all

other customs, subsidies, and aids have in divers

towns, and provinces

come

cities,

and the same to be enjoyed by the King's enemies armed. By means whereof, the French kings that have lived in the times of these intestine wars have not had treasure to pay their armies, whereby to keep their men of

war

in

any

to cease

by those continual disand subThe nobility, also, and princes of

discipline. Besides that,

sensions they have lacked a great part of their nobility jects to ranforce their armies.

11

Sir

John Smijthe

the blood, that have continued in arms against their kings, not-

withstanding their usurped revenue and treasure of the crown,

have been all

as Httle or less able to

pay

their

men

of war; so that

the intestine and civil wars that have continued so

numbers

many

with the slaughter and destruction of such

in France,

of all sorts of people, have

years

infinite

been maintained and con-

tinued tumultuarily, more by spoil, sedition, passion, and faction

than by any pay, order, and discipline military.

Whereof

it

hath come to pass that such armies as have served

under the French kings or under the nobility that have continued in arms against them,

how good

and governors

officers

soever they had, could not have any certain nor ordered militia,

by reason

that through the lack of certain

reward for extraordinary deserts soldiers,

tains

thereby being

made

it

pay and no hope of

hath come to pass that the

voluntary, have obeyed their cap-

no otherwise than hath pleased themselves, altering and

changing their weapons, as also themselves, out of one band into

and sometimes horsemen to become footmen and footbecome horsemen ^besides their foraging and straggling

another,

men

to



their negligence

and

lack of vigilancy in their watches, bodies of watches,

and

sen-

and by disordering themselves upon every both in battalion, squadron, and troop. Captains

have

from their ensigns without order, as also

tinels,

light occasion

also

oft-

times formed, or rather deformed, their bands, both on horse-

back and on

with armors and weapons

foot,

new

themselves, without controlment, different from tary.

and

The

all

invented by orders mili-

and whole armies also, both of the one side have very seldom or never, according to the

generals,

of the other,

art military,

lodged themselves in any camp formed, but

dis-

by bands in many towns and villages with persed and great disorder. Besides that, both captains, soldiers, and all other men of war for lack of ordinary pay have lived a great deal more scattered

upon the subjects

12

and misusing of the common people, their fellow and friends, than upon any spoil or annoying of the spoil

Certain Discourses Military

enemy armed. Through which contrary to

such

divine and

all

oflScers, captains,

great disorders and lack of piety,

human

and

laws,

soldiers as

it

hath come to pass that

have served any long time

and tumultuary wars, be they subjects or mercenaries, can very hardly after be reformed and reduced to containing themselves and to live under any discipUne military

in such licentious

where

without favor

justice

executed, because they never

is

before lived under any severity of laws martial but have spent

and learned their chief soldiery in such disordered where in respect of spoil and gain they have accounted and holden both friends and enemies all in one recktheir times

and

licentious wars,

oning and degree.

Now the civil wars of France having grown to be so disordered and without any as I

deal

discipline through their intestine dissensions,

have before mentioned, with many other disorders a great

more orderly and

soldier,

Monsieur de

further, then,

wars of the

is

it

Low

la

particularly set

None,

down by

in his discourses,^

that brave

how

far off

evident that the tumultuary and confused

Countries have been from

all

order and dis-

where both mercenaries and subjects have

cipline military,

served under subjects, called by the

title

of States?

Which

gov-

ernment hath been popular and consisted of sundry heads, and of those very

whose pay,

few noble, but merchants, citizens, and burghers, it was many years to the English, French, and

as

other mercenaries

more by words and promises than by any good

performance, so the services of such hirelings were as disordered

and void of

all

discipline military, as

it

hath most manifestly

appeared by their proceedings and actions; of the which some part it

(

by the help

may be

of

Almighty

God

)

I will set

down, that thereby men of war those

apparently discovered what kind of

^Francois de

la

Noue (1531-1591),

Protestant sides in France

and the

a French soldier

Low

Countries.

who

fought on the

Taken prisoner by the

Spaniards in 1580, he wrote his Discours politiques et militaires in prison. was published in French and English (see above, p. xxxvi) in 1587.

It

13

John Smythe

Sir

Low Countries have bred and brought and of what experience and sufficiency they may be esteemed to be that do with such an overweening disesteem and disordered wars of the

forth,

condemn of war of

the great captains of times past, as also the old

ing further that their wars of the

and excel the wars of times past

And

Low

Countries do far exceed

in all perfection.

down and compare

therefore I will set

ions, proceedings,

men new

men

divers nations yet living, in respect of themselves, say-

part of the opin-

and orders military of the great captains and and modern, with the strange opinions,

of war, both ancient

kinds of militias

ceedings of our such

(

or rather mal-itias

men

of war.

And

)

,

and disorderly pro-

in all those things

which

proem will mention concerning them and their wonderful errors and disorders military, I will not set down anything of mine own knowledge, nor invented nor devised by me, but a very few of the smallest of an infinite number of their disI in this

orderly proceedings, contrary to

all

piety and discipline military,

have heard many and many times publicly reported by many valiant gentlemen of our nation that have detested the same, of which gentlemen divers are of very good houses, and

which

I

not any one of them but hath served in those wars, some of them fifteen or sixteen years past, in the

time of the

Commendador

them a dozen years past in the time of Don Juan de Austria,^ and others at the Earl of Leicester's going over,^ and also before. All which gentlemen, having been eyewitnesses of those wonderful disorders which have redounded to the consumption and loss of many thousands of young gentlemen, yeomen, and yeomen sons, and others of the most disposed and lusty sort of people of our nation, have moved me not upon any hate, I protest, that I bear unto any of them

Mayor Requesens,^

others of



Luis de Requesens y Zuniga succeeded the Duke of Alva as Philip II's governor of the Netherlands in 1573, He died in 1576. * Don John of Austria succeeded Requesens while Smythe was on his ^

Spanish embassy. See above, p. ^In 1585.

14

xxiii.

Certain Discourses Military in respect of myself,

but only for the great love that

my

and nation

prince, country,

great

blame



to

I

bear to

commit those things with same may to take such barbarous and

to writing, to the intent that hereafter the

be some kind of terror

to all others

base proceedings in hand.

And

therefore

I

will

proceed to the

matter. First, it is very well known to all men of experience and judgment in matters of arms that all such great ^captains as have been lieutenants general to emperors, kings, or formed common-

own nation have served knowing that justice is the prince of all order and government both in war and peace, by the which God is honored and served and magistrates and oflBcers wealths, or that with regiments of their

foreign princes as mercenaries,

obeyed, have at the ments, by politic

first

forming of their armies or such regi-

great advice of counsel, established sundry laws both

and

martial, with officers for the superintending

execution of the same. These laws have been notified to

men

of war, as also, at every

been

set,

encamping

and due all their

or lodging, they

have

written, or printed in certain tables in convenient

all soldiers and men of war to behold, to the intent none might transgress the same through ignorance. All

places for that

which by some of the chief of our such mercenary men of war have been so utterly contemned, or by them not understood, that they never used any such matter, but instead of the same have

down

few written laws, altogether cunningly and artificially, tending to terrify their soldiers from demanding of their pays due, as also from complaining of the misusages of their captains and higher officers. But to terrify them from spoiling, robbing, and taking by force from the common country

only set

a very

people, their friends, with

many

was down, they often terming

other great offenses, there

no prohibition nor penalty of laws

set

those to be best soldiers that could live without pay

by stealing to form and establish was the manner of old duncical

and spoiling most; saying further that

many

laws politic and martial

it

15

Sir

John Smtjthe

who

captains in times past,

did not understand their excellent

and that

discipline of this time,

which

their gross

justice,

and ignorant

hath cost the

ceived in their

many

upon

upon laws

own

brave men. For

such laws as they con-

to

simple brains. Whereof

of honest parentage

in-

military established, as

it

hath come to pass

have been condemned

to

death

which the transgressors themselves have be transgressions of death, and others that have

divers offenses

known

committed little

conceits, through their lack of

proceeded according

aforesaid, they

not

laws of town, camp, and

lives of a great sort of

stead of proceeding orderly

that

all

should be in the wisdom and discretion of the general;

field

or

to

as great or greater offenses

no punishment at

have escaped with very

all.

Furthermore, in all ages and times, all emperors, kings, and formed commonwealths that have employed their generals with armies either in wars offensive or defensive have established a council of

men

of great suflBciency both in

assist their generals.

Of

the which

some

war and peace

to

of the chief officers of

by the right and due of their oflBces, were always of the same council, as also some others, according to the choice and liking of such princes, and this to the intent that the army,

their generals

in all important matters should consult with

them, the conclusion and resolution of such consultations notwithstanding to remain in the wisdom, judgment, and valor of the generals. Likewise

it

hath been always the use of

all

mer-

cenary colonels both Almains and Italians that have been hired into the services of foreign princes to consult with their sergeants

and

ofiicers for the

upon

all

important occasions

major and certain other captains

well-ordering and governing of their regi-

ments. But, contrariwise, some of our chief

have had great charges

in the

Low

men

of

war

that

Country wars have not only

contemned and disdained to have any council about them, or to take counsel of some of their captains and other ofiicers, but have also spoken to the blame and reproach of some notable 16

Certain Discourses Military sufficient generals of this

time because they have used

in all important matters to consult

with their counselors, saying

and very

that they w^ere therefore very simple

men, and that they were

by the advice of war have not only showed

able to do nothing of themselves but only council.

By the which our such men

of

a wonderful overweening and lack of discretion in those their vain and fond opinions, but also have in the government of their

charges

(which was altogether of

themselves as fond and void of Again,

at

their

own heads) showed

reason and order military.

wise and sufficient generals and colonels have

all

ways had

all

when

special regard,

the

enemy hath not been near

hand, that their sergeants major, captains, and other

should oftentimes in the into divers forms,

and

field

al-

officers

reduce their bands and regiments

to teach their soldiers all orders military,

with the use of their weapons in every degree, time, and place; as also

how

to lodge in their quarters orderly,

and therewithal

to

understand the orders of watches, bodies of watches, sentinels, rounds, and counterrounds, with

many

other matters military

whereby they might be made prompt and ready with the enemy. But, contrariwise, our such

Low

men

to

of

encounter

war

in the

Countries did very seldom, or rather never, instruct nor

teach their soldiers any such matter.

Whereby

it

hath come to

pass that their old soldiers, pikers with their pikes, harquebusiers

and musketeers with ings here in

their weapons of fire, have in certain trainEngland showed and used such matiches ^ as they

have given occasion

to

be scorned and laughed

at

by such old

captains of experience as have seen their doings.

And whereas care that

also all

men

all their soldiers

of

war

in times past

should be

fitly

according to the different weapons that

have had special

appareled and armed,

all sorts

of their soldiers

did use, and that they should not lack any of their weapons nor

any part or piece of their armors, but that the same should be

by them ®

fitly

Matisse:

and aptly worn and from time

Old French

to time kept clean

for honte, "confusion."

17



John Smythe

Sir

and

neat,

some

matters for such

of our such trifles

men

of

and have had

war have holden these so httle care thereof that

they have been contented to suffer their soldiers to go evil

many

vv^eaponed and worse armed, and

kind of armor at torn,

and some

of

of

them without any be tattered and

and them barelegged, or barefooted

all,

in their apparel all to

a thing never before heard of in any age, that

like

men

rogues

of war,

and

chiefly the English nation, going to the aid of a foreign nation (

and the country and people wonderful

rich

and

plentiful in all

abundance, and their captains themselves very gallant in apparel and their purses full of gold ) that their soldiers should be ,

in such

poor and miserable

whereas

estate.

hath been the use of

all great captains and upon any long march and enterprise intended, with foresight and providence to provide plenty of victual and all

Also,

it

chieftains, all

other things necessary for the sustenance of

even

to tlie

and plenty

meanest and of

all their soldiers,

least of account, as also of great store

powder and

shot,

with some overplus of weapons

and employments, with all other some of our such men of war upon their occasions of marches and enterprises have provided plenty of victual only for themselves and their followers, suffering their bands and regiments to straggle and spoil the people of the country oftentimes to their own mischief, and in the rest to take their adventures and sometimes to starve, or at least to be driven to great extremity of hunger. Besides that, for powder, shot, and overplus of weapons they have provided no more than that which their soldiers have carried about them, which have been with great scarcity, which doth argue their small care of the health and safety of their soldiers and their little intention to do any great hurt to the enemy, and therewithal a great ignorance in the art and science military. And whereas also in all well-ordered militias the commendation and sufficiency of all generals, colonels, captains, and other of divers sorts for all accidents

things requisite,

18

Certain Discourses Military officers

hath consisted in knowing

how

to

command, govern, and

order their armies, regiments, bands, and companies, and to win the love of their soldiers safeties, as also

by

by

all

by taking great care

of their healths

and

examples of virtue and worthiness not only

instruction but also

by action

in tlieir

own

persons, venturing

enemy amongst them, and sickness and health or wounds

their lives in all actions against the

therewithal accounting of

received as of their

them

in

own children; and whereas, *gain,

all

colonels

and captains of horsemen according to all discipline have used to serve amongst their horsemen on horseback, and all colonels and captains of footmen, yea, even the very lieutenants general and kings themselves, if their armies and forces of the field have consisted more of footmen than of horsemen, have always used

by

all

upon the occasion

discipline military

their horses

from them and

lives in the

former ranks behold, the

to serve

:

on

foot,

new

of

any battle

and

to put

to venture their

discipline of

some

of

our chief men of war of the Low Countries hath been never to win nor procure the love of their soldiers by any affability or favor showed unto them, nor yet by any caretaking for their healths and safeties, and upon any accidents of sickness or wounds received they have presently disesteemed them as base and vile

coming amongst them neither in sickness nor upon occasion of service. As for any instruction or examples of virtue and worthiness in the actions of their own persons to be showed amongst their soldiers, it hath not been their delight nor profession. And for them to have imitated the great and famous captains of all other times, both ancient and modern, in venturing their lives amongst their soldiers, as aforesaid, according to their mihtia that hath consisted more of footmen than of horsemen, it hath been contrary to their new discipline, which hath not permitted that they should learn anycreatures, never

health but only

thing of any great captains but only of themselves; whereof

hath come to pass that some of our such chief the

Low

Countries,

whose strength

in the field

men

of

war

it

in

hath consisted of

19

Sir

John Smythe

numbers and forces of footmen than horsemen, and some other ordinary captains also, whose charges have con-

far greater

that

sisted only of footmen, have presently, upon their squadrons formed and approach and sight of the enemy, mounted upon

horses of swift careers, and, being so well mounted, either have

accompanied

their

footmen upon the

flanks or rearward, or else

have put themselves into some bands of horsemen,

were against

their reputation to serve

soldiers, or rather, as

it

may be

as

though

on foot amongst

it

their

thought, that upon any hard

accident they might be ready, leaving their soldiers to the slaughter, to save themselves rather with the force of their heels

and spurs than with any dint of sword. Which, amongst many other, hath been one special cause that there have been so great

numbers of soldiers at divers times consumed and slain, and never any chieftain nor any other of our such men of war. Now this their new discipline is such a mockery and so contrary to all order military as that such are not to be accompted worthy to take the charge of men, nor yet to be reckoned amongst the

number

of soldiers.

And whereas

and men of by all means posemploy and hazard

also all great captains, chieftains,

charge have holden for a

maxim

and not

sible the Hves of their soldiers,

them upon every

to preserve to

and therewithal to esteem the preservation of the lives of a very few of their soldiers before the killing of great numbers of their enemies, the new discipline of some of our men of war in the Low Countries hath been to light occasion,

send and employ their soldiers into exploits

and

services without

regard to their

own

safeties; as

have more gain and

to

slain

vain

having sure

though they desired and hoped

by the dead pays

of their soldiers

enterprises.

Besides that, '

military,

than increase of reputation by the achieving and prevailing

any such

in

profit

many dangerous and

any reason

it

hath been sometimes a practice by some of our

See footnote 59, p. xxxix.

20

Certain Discourses Military such

men

of war,

when

they have borne any hatred or malice to

such as have served under them, to devise some dangerous enterprise of purpose to

employ them

hardly escape with their

lives, to

in,

from whence they might

the intent that they might hit

two marks at one shoot, that is, take revenge of such as they hated and gain the dead pays of such as were there slain; which was an infernal invention (which I would not have set down if I

had not heard

it

some

most constantly affirmed

of those

themselves that have been of purpose sent to such banquets and

have with great danger escaped out of such enterprises). whereas there

is

nothing more requisite to keep

men

of

And

war

in

obedience and discipline than pay and good usage of their chieftains, colonels, captains,

cause that in

all

and other

officers

—which hath been the

well-ordered wars both ancient and modern

the generals, chieftains, and captains have always used to pro-

cure and liberally to pay, or to see the same paid to their soldiers

— so

without defrauding them of any part thereof

such

men

soldiers,

of

but

war have

in those

some

of our

wars procured pay for their

when they have obtained and

received

it

they have

used divers ways to defraud them of the same, but chiefly two specially to

be noted: of the which the

upon the

pay

first

hath been that

have been assured that they should receive the same), within a day or two days after they have presently devised some very danpresently,

receipt of their

(

or else that they

gerous enterprise to employ their bands and companies

make proof how many

in

such exploits should lose their

in, to

lives that

they might enrich themselves by their dead pays; during which

employments, some of our such chief

men

o£ war that devised

the same remained in great towns feasting, banqueting, and

carousing with their dames. Their second policy and practice

hath been that they have plainly kept and converted, or rather perverted, a great part thereof to their

own

uses, lodging their

and straggling in villages, and instead of pay have suffered them to go a Za picoree, that was, to rob and spoil soldiers dispersed

21

John Smythe

Sir

the boors [peasants], their friends.

Whereupon

it

more than

that the boors, fearing such mercenaries

came

to pass

their enemies,

did arm themselves and stood upon their guards in such sort that at times

And

it

number of our brave nation. ways to become merchants, and chiefly bands one to another, as also in letting them to

cost the Hves of a great

for captains divers

in selHng their

farm for a yearly rent unto their lieutenants (as if they were flocks of milch ewes ) it hath been too often put in practice. And ,

whereas,

also, all generals

and

chieftains of all nations of

judgment, upon the approach of any

have used gabions,

to

city,

town, or place

any

fortified,

approach the same with trenches, cross trenches,

and divers other ordinary and extraordinary

inventions,

according unto the situation of the ground, for the preserving

and saving of the

and have not offered to give any assault until by the battery and effect of great ordnance planted upon the cavaliers (by us called mounts), or by battery from the counterscarp cut and opened, the flankers of the bulwarks, platforms, and ravelins have been taken away and the artillery of the inward mounts dismounted, and a sufficient

lives of their soldiers,

breach in the curtain made assaultable, with the dry or

wet ditches

filled to

take

away

the effects of casemates, as also

to make the entrance of the soldiers into the ditches and breach more easy and with less danger, and otherwise with great order of their armies of horsemen and footmen reduced into squadrons and other forms for the guard of their camps and field our such :

men

of war, being ignorant of all discipline military,

have been

so prodigal of the lives of their soldiers that they have divers

times sent them, as certain sconces

it

were

to the butchery, to give assault to

and other such

order of approach, or taking

fortifications

away any

without any such

flankers, or

making any

breach.

Besides that, in this later time (I

mean

within these very

few years) most grossly and ignorantly in the time of winter, with some thousands of our brave English people, they lay 22

Certain Discourses Military guns divers weeks against the great town of Nijmegen,^ well fortified with a broad and large river navigable being shooting

oflF

betwixt them, without any otherways besieging of

it,

their

camp

wet moorish ground, where their soldiers in their watches and sentinels stood to the midlegs in dirt and mire, with frost, snow, rain, and mists, and small store of victual, and at their dislodging from thence did dislodge straggling by bands and pieces of bands, without any chieftain to dfrect and govern them. All which disorders cost the lives of some thousands of lying in a

our gallant English nation, the dead pays of the which so great

numbers of

dound

soldiers so fondly

and willfully cast away did resome of our such men of war.

greatly to the enriching of

And now

in the

same

later time,

when

all

things should

by

all

reason have been reduced unto order and discipline because the

nature of the war was altered from mercenary and voluntary to

mean the summer before the Earl of Leicester went over), some our such men of war that had served divers years before in those parts devised a new invention, never heard nor read of before amongst any men of war but only upon some great lacks and extremities. And that was that their soldiers instead of pay with money should be paid in provand,

princely authority

(

I

which was bread and cheese and other such victual of the best cheap and basest sort, and that taxed by measure, saying that it

was not convenient that

own

their soldiers should receive their

knew not how to they would spend it idly. Which

pays, because they

but that rance,

if it

had been

in

them

(as

it

was

not),

by good

instruction should

covetous

men of war under that pretense

had been

lay out their simplicity

they and their

own

(

as

though their

soldiers

either natural fools or children) did contrary to

purses, allowing

which means

nn May,

officers

have reformed the same. But such

military order put the greatest part of their soldiers' their

money

and igno-

it

came

them great

pay

scarcity of provand.

all

into

By

to pass that divers thousands of their

1586.

23

Sir

John Smythe

by hunger and partly and altogether by the small care and misuse of our such men of war, did perish. Besides that, great numbers of such their sick and starved soldiers, by the order of the Earl of Leicester, were in those parts embarked and transported into Essex, Kent, and other parts of England to recover health; of which foresaid great numbers of miserable and pitiful ghosts, or rather shadows of men, the Essex and Kentish carts and carters that carried them can testify. Of these, scarce the fortieth man escaped with life. Also, when any of their soldiers through the naughtiness or scarcity of their victual or by their evil lodging, or by the pestering or lying of two or three hundred of them together in some one church ( and so in divers churches upon the bare pavements ) or upon divers other disorders and misusages of some of our such men of war fell sick, our such men of war presently did casse [cashier] and discharge them out of their bands for dead men, turning their provand money with all oversoldiers in those plentiful countries, partly

by

evil lodging,



,



pluses into their

own

purses, procuring

appareled and lusty young to serve their

men

new

supplies of well-

out of England, to the intent

own turns and to consume people

after people.

All which marvelous disorders of some of our such men of war against their soldiers, contrary to all discipline military, by them practiced and used, with infinite others ( which to rehearse would make a huge volume), were the occasion that many thousands of the lustiest and most disposed sort of our English people were in those wars as it were wittingly and willingly cast away, besides great numbers that at divers times did choose rather to fly to the enemy than to serve under such cruel and

disordered chieftains.

And

these wonderful disorders, with in-

and increase until such time as divers young noblemen, lately coming to take principal charges in those wars, as also divers knights and gentlemen of

numerable

others, did continue

noble and of worshipful houses, and themselves of great valor

and worthiness, did complain 24

of

and discover those most strange

)

Certain Discourses Military

and wonderful abuses unto the Queen and

to her Council,

who,

understanding thereof, did very nobly reform and redress divers of those disorders, taking further order that the aforesaid

new-

devised provand should be abolished and that instead thereof the soldiers should receive their

own pays

money, which with

in

the wise and worthy proceedings and courses of the aforesaid

noblemen, knights, and gentlemen that

and

discipline to serve in those wars,

b^an

some

at

with great order

and others since the

going over of the Earl of Leicester, hath of late greatly pre-

and redounded to the reformation of divers of those strange inventions and abuses, invented and brought into those vailed

men

wars by the aforesaid new-fantasied

But

now

the casting

for excuse

of war.

used by some of our such

away and

loss of

men

thousands of our gallant English people in those wars, as also in later wars

(

I

war

of

such great numbers and

mean

Low

for

many

Country

not in France, where

I

never

heard any blame but great honor imputed to the chieftain and

commendation

to the captains,

deal further distance

®

but in a very short war of a great

but of a wonderful consumption of our

brave nation through great disorder and lack of discipline military, the particularities

handled,

I

whereof, because

omit), some of our such

men

I

of

have not hitherto

war have not been

ashamed many times to report and say that all those brave peoconsumed and lost in the Low Countries and those other forementioned wars by their disorders ( as aforesaid were the very scum, thieves, and rogues of England and therefore have been very well lost; and that the realm, being too full of people, is very well rid of them, and that if they had not been consumed in those wars they would have died under a hedge; with divers other such brutish and infernal speeches, even

ple that have been

® Smythe added a marginal note here: "The author meaneth the disordered journey into Portugal." This was the expedition led by Sir Francis

Drake and Sir John Norris in 1589. Its intention was to destroy Spanish shipping and persuade the Portuguese, who had been ruled since 1580 by Spain, to revolt against Philip II. It was badly organized and unsuccessful.

25

Sir

John Smythe

new disciplhie by them invented and practiced, rather to dispeople a kingdom of England of the youth and flower thereof than anyways to do any hurt unto the enemy. Whereas, contrariwise, it is very well known unto all the jusunto themselves and to the

like

tices of

peace in

all shires

of

England from whence those

soldiers

did go, voluntary or otherwise, even from the beginning of the voluntary wars until

first

in the city of

tliis

day (saving such

as

were levied

London by commission, and some few rogues

one year levied

in other shires

)

,

that they

were

part young gentlemen, and in a far greater part of

yeomen's sons, and the

in

in a very great

yeomen and

rest of the bravest sort of artificers

and

other lusty young men, desirous, of a gallantness of mind, to

adventure themselves and see the wars;

many thousands

of the

which, being the very flower of England, did far exceed and excel our such

men

worthiness of mind.

scum

of

war both

And

in goodliness of

personage and

these were no rogues nor thieves nor

men

of war do ofttimes by experience that such malefactors and base-minded people never had any desire nor will to go into any wars and actions military, but have hidden and absented themselves away during the times of musters and levies, and when the same have been past they have again followed their vile occupations of robbing, pilfering, and stealing. Besides that, it is most manifest that before some of our such men of war took those voluntary wars in hand there were very few thieves and rogues in England, in comparison that there are now that have come out of their discipline. For it is certain that this new deformed militia and evil government of our such men of war, by suffering their soldiers for lack of pay in those

the

of England, as those our such

report, for

it is

very well

known

in all shires

wars to go a-robbing and spoiling the country people, their friends ( as aforesaid ) hath brought many of them from good to ,

and made most of those that have returned into England impudent rogues and thieves that were true men before they evil,

26

Certain Discourses Military

went

By which their marvelous disordered and deformed it is come to pass that many and many thousands of

over.

discipHne

and

the bravest

lustiest sort of

people able to wear arms and to

serve in any wars either offensive or defensive are (as afore-

and the number of exercised and upon any occasion to serve the prince and realm by those services noways increased^ by reason that all such as have come out of those services ( unless it be the captains and a few officers of bands ) are almost all turned from miserable soldiers that they were in those Low Countries to most impudent rogues and thieves, which by no order nor policy can be reformed and reduced to any honest course of life. And all this hath come to pass through the extreme evil government of some of our such men of war (as aforesaid). And whereas they talk and boast so much of their new discipline military, and of their own sufficiencies, and that they do exceed and excel all the ancient men of war of times past as also such said )

consumed

in those wars,

expert soldiers meet

as are yet living, certainly all militia of their

that

own forming

do swarm

in all the

(

men that

list

may behold

as aforesaid ) of thieves

highways and

jails

their

new

and rogues

of England.

Which

doth make manifest the great insufficiencies of such as have been authors, actors,

Some

of

and performers

them

also

of that infernal discipline.

have not contented themselves to work the

aforesaid great evils to their country clared

)

but have of

late years since

and nation (before de-

Low

they came out of those

Country wars sought to bring to pass two other such notorious

and deformed to

effects

come be the

amongst the English nation

as

may

people, even as the like hath been of divers other great archies.

Of the which two

brate, the other to abolish

effects,

time

in

most noble kingdom and

utter ruin of this

mon-

the one hath been to cele-

and extinguish. That

to celebrate

hath been to the feasts of Bacchus, with carousing and drunkenness.

Which most

cipline

and

foul

and detestable vice

exercises military and, to

be

is

enemy

to all dis-

short, to all virtues

27

and

Sir

John Smythe

excellencies both of body, mind,

and

soul,

and

in the rest

is

the

very mother and nurse of effeminacy, of cowardice, of sensuality,

and

of rebellion, of covetousness,

imagined; as

we may

all

evidently see

other vices that can be

by our next neighbors the

Flemings and Dutch, whose vices and imperfections

grow

(

saving only

and gather goods) for brevity's sake I overpass. And this foreign vice hath been brought out of those Low Countries by some of our such men of war within these very few years, whereof it is come to pass that nowadays there their policy to

rich

few feasts where our said men of war are present but that they do invite and procure all the company, of what calling soever they be, to carousing and quaffing. And because they are very

will not

be denied

their challenges, they will with

many new

congees, ceremonies, and reverences drink to the health and prosperity of princes, to the health of counselors, and unto the

health of their greatest friends both at

which exercise they never cease carousings, with

all their

ing and offending of

Which

ceremonies,

God

abroad, in

they be dead drunk,

till

the Flemings say, doot dronken.

home and

is

or, as

their quaffings

and

no other but a blasphem-

in the highest degree, a touching of

the honor of the princes unto

whose healths they

carouse,

and a

very offering of sacrifice unto Satanas, or rather to Belzebub himself, the prince of fiends. Certainly a wonderful pitiful case that

any of our such men of war or nation, under the pretense and warlike discipline, should nowadays instead of

of soldiery

praying to

God for the health of princes, which hath been

very commendably used amongst

all

always

good subjects Christian,

drink and carouse drunk to the health and prosperity of kings,

kingdoms, and

God

to

glory,

His

states,

own

by such

filthy disorder

the most brute beasts.

within these

and that men that have been created by and likeness should, contrary to His

similitude

six or

And

make themselves

far inferior to

this aforesaid detestable vice

our English nation, that in times past was wont to be of

28

hath

seven years taken wonderful root amongst all

other

Certain Discourses Military nations of Christendom one of the soberest.

And

this is

one of

and merchandise of their disciphne that our such men war have brought in amongst us. Now the other effect that they have sought most bHndly and mahciously to bring to pass, to the great danger that upon divers accidents may hereafter happen to the crown and realm of England and English nation, hath been and is to^seek to abolish and extinguish the notable exercise and use of our longbows and the fruits

of

archery,

by which weapons our

victories,

and

Asia.

ancestors, with

have made our nation famous both

So that instead of archery, which

exercise of all others to avoid drunkenness

a

many

in

miraculous

Europe, Africa, is

the soberest

and other

evils,

and

most manly exercise and wholesome for the health of the body

and

to increase strength,

and

greater effect than any other

invented, our such

men

for battles

weapon

of war,

and

that ever

victories of far

was or

shall

be

under pretense of the excellency

weapons of fire by them misreported, would bring in carousing and drunkenness. Which two things I mean of the neglecting and suppressing of the use and exercise of bows and archery, and bringing in of superfluities and drunkenness hath been the ruin of many great empires, kingdoms, and commonwealths, as it is apparent by the testimony of many notable histories. As for example, the Egyptians (before mentioned in this proem), under their most valiant and mighty King Sesosis or Sesostris and other their of the





notable princes, did conquer a great part of Asia, Europe, and

by their notable militia, which did consist most of archery and bows. But after, through long peace and the negligence of

Africa

some

of their effeminate kings, the

to such

same warlike nation did grow

drunkenness and gluttony

that,

thereby forgetting the

use and exercise of their bows, they were conquered and sub-

dued

by the Persians, under their great King Cambyses, the force of whose militia was in the greatest part of bowmen. And not many years after, the same nation of the Egyptians through first

29

Sir

John Smythe

and forgetting of all exercises miliwere again conquered by Alexander the Great, the greatest part of whose army did consist of archery. And after that they were many times subdued and kept in servitude by the militia and force of archery of divers other sober nations. The empire their gluttony, drunkenness,

tary

of Constantinople and Rome also, at such time as they were under one empire and that the emperors held their imperial seat

some of those emperors were to keep their subjects, the Romans and Grecians, in exercise of arms and chiefly of archery, yet after, in the time of other emperors that were careless and effeminate, their Grecian subjects, in Constantinople, as careful as

giving themselves through long peace unto feasting and drunkenness

and neglecting

of the exercises of

forget the use of that most excellent

many

bows and archery, did so weapon that they were

times vanquished by the militia of the Arabians, that

consisted most of

all

of

bowmen. Which conquering nation at and travail, and to the ex-

that time gave themselves to labor ercise of their

And

bows with

great sobriety, and not to drunkenness.

the subjects of the very same empire of Constantinople,

long after the time of their great overthrows by the Arabians,

through the negligence of some of their effeminate emperors,

were by the constraint of certain imperial statutes and ordinances of some otlier wise and valiant emperors reduced in a great part from their drunkenness to sobriety and from idleness to theii* ancient exercise of archery. By which exercise they

as aforesaid,

did defend themselves against the Turks and Saracens during the time of those worthy Emperors very valiantly. But after again, in process of time, through the effeminacy of other emperors of

and negligence

no valor nor worthiness, the said Grecians

did return again to their former drunkenness, superfluities, and

and exercise of their bows and archery. Whereby it came to pass that Mahomet, the second of that name of the house of Ottoman, with his notable militia of Turks and Janissaries, that consisted most of bowmen (a nation noways utter forgetting of the use

30

Certain Discourses Military given to drunkenness ) did utterly subdue and conquer that em,

pire. I could, if it were not too long, allege kingdoms and mighty nations which many others of many through the detestable vices of drunkenness, covetousness, and

Besides which examples

have given themselves

superfluities

of all use of their

to effeminacy

bows and archery and

and forgetting

othej^ exercises military;

by means whereof they have been after conquered and brought into servitude by other sober and valiant nations that have had the use of the bow in great perfection. And to be brief, there is no

man

that hath read

as also of later ages, festly see that

many

notable histories of great antiquity,

with observation but he shall most mani-

drunkenness, covetousness, and superfluities have

caused the forgetting and contempt of the use of archery and all

other exercises military, which hath been the ruin of most

of all the empires, kingdoms,

and nations that have been known

or written of in Europe, Africa, or Asia.

men of war be histories, let

of

if

slain

resort to the Bible,

doth breed in them

weapon

by the

any of our such

which

is

the

Book

they be not possessed with some infernal

see the great account that of that

if

so obstinate that they will not believe such notable

them then

God, and then,

spirit that

And

infidelity,

they shall not only there

King David, that holy prophet, made

overthrow and death of King Saul, whose power did at that time greatly

after the

Philistines,

many

consist of archers, but also

other great effects performed

with that weapon by the Jews under Joshua, their most excellent

many kings; with many other parmay be justly gathered that God gave such excellent effects to that weapon that when He divers times promised help to the Jews against the Gentiles He made special mention of that weapon. And when it pleased Him to captain, that did depose so

ticularities.

By

the which

it

punish the Jews for their idolatry, gluttony, and drunkenness

by the hands of the Gentiles, they received divers overthrows by the effect of bows. Besides that. King David doth call bows a 31

John Smythe

Sir

mighty power and,

in his Psalms, the vessels of death.

By which

examples before alleged (that drunkenness and neglecting of the exercise and use of

and kingdoms),

I

ruin of

many empires

of consideration

and judgment

bows hath been the

think

all

men

may

evidently see

such

men of war have by their evil and foul examples and

what pernicious and dangerous matters our sinister

persuasions sought to draw and persuade our nation unto.

Which, with

their

innumerable disorders military by them com-

Low

Countries, as also elsewhere, to the consumpand destruction of many and many thousands of our nation (as is before declared) may, I think, evidently show how unfit

mitted in the tion

and unable such men

of

war

are to

compare themselves with

the great captains of former times or with the ancient

men

of

war

arms

in

yet living that have been trained

up

in matters of

how much more insuffiany new discipline military

the wars of emperors or kings, as also cient they are to erect

and innovate

amongst

us, or anj'ways to suppress or find fault with the exer-

cise, use,

and

effects of

our peculiar and most victorious weapon,

the longbow.

And now

that I have in this

proem

laid

open many foul and

of some of our such men by them in the Low Countries, as also some here at home, greatly to the hurt and prejudice of our country and nation, I think it good to notify unto your Lordships that I have not taken it in hand and performed the

detestable proceedings of war, practiced

and disorders

and put

in execution

same anyways moved thereunto upon any private hatred or malice by me to any of them borne. For I protest that if they were all my very near kinsmen, the cause being public, I would respect them no more than I have respected these. But as for those men, whosoever they be, to my remembrance I have had very little or no conference with any of them. Besides that, there is none of them, to my knowledge, that ever gave unto me in respect of mine own particular any occasion of offense. But 32

Certain Discourses Military the very original and principal cause that hath

down my

discourses following, as also this

moved me

my

proem

to set

your

to

Lordships in this form and phrase, hath been the exceeding love and extraordinary zeal that I bear unto my prince, country, and nation. For seeing and foreseeing the wonderful evils that have already, and are likely daily and from time to time more and more to ensue, if the same be not speedily provided for and

remedied, to no

hazard of

duty

(

all

process of time than to the ruin or great

most noble monarchy,

this

I

therefore thought

private passion of fear, of love, of hatred

set aside)

disorders

less in

and

make manifest unto your Lordships

to

and

evils

it

my

aflFection

those great

before declared, that by your being put in

remembrance and knowing of them, your Lordships, being the nobility and magnates of the kingdom and the very eyes, ears, and voice of the king, and the body of the watch and redress of the commonwealth, may provide for, prevent, and reform the do threaten hereafter to ensue. All knowledge by the certain and assured

aforesaid great evils that

which have come reports of very cipal houses, of

them

the

first

at

to

my

many both wise and

and others

of very

good

gallant gentlemen of prinsort that

have served some

one time and some of them at other times, even from

voluntary going over into those wars

till

within these

two years and a half and within these three years last past; all which gentlemen have greatly detested those aforesaid infinite disorders.

And now, because have

in these

that no chieftain, colonel, nor captain that

wars governed themselves and their charges with

great care, reputation, great praise

and worthiness and therefore deserved

and commendation

shall justly think themselves

anyways reproached or touched by anything contained

in this

my proem or discourses following, I notify unto them that no part of my intention nor meaning, nor any word to my knowledge

in these contained,

do anyways sound

to the touch or

33

Sir

John Smythe

blame of any such worthy men but altogether to their praise and commendation. For I would be sorry to err so greatly as

anyways with

to

my

For

if I

men

of

touch with blame any

men

of worthiness, but rather

word, writing, and action to increase their reputations.

have

war

in respect of the public cause

guilty conscience will discover

detesting

touched our such

aforesaid with reproach, they themselves

my proem

virtue of such

men

more through the

and

who

discourses,

upon a

they are by blaming and

by the which the honor and and flourish the

of worthiness shall shine

clearness of their consciences not touched,

according to the old saying that the reproaching of vice

honoring of virtue. For in

troth,

mine intention

in this

is

the

my proem

and discourses hath been only to discover the great disorders and evils that some men of charge of our nation, under pretense of a new discipline military by them invented in the Low Countries, did with great covetousness practice and exercise to their own gain and profit in that their disordered militia, neglecting and contemning all true honor, reputation, and worthiness to the great dishonor of our country and nation. That thereby all young gentlemen and captains that have misspent their times in those tumultuary and disordered wars without any discipline, as also all other young gentlemen that are desirous to follow the profession of arms, may reject and detest such new, disordered, and detestable disciplines and reduce themselves and follow the true discipline military of all warlike and worthy nations both ancient and modern, which do all concur and conform in one, and that is: that all true and universal disciplines military do (as I have learned by hearing the opinions of divers great captains, as also

by reading divers histories) briefly consist as followeth: That be he an emperor, a king, or a lieutenant general of an emperor or of a king that doth command and govern an army: first of all other things, that he do make God to be loved, feared, and served throughout his whole army. The second, that he do know how to command and govern with great providence, care, 34

Certain Discourses Military

and justice, and by rewarding the good and punishing the bad and by keeping his whole army in discipHne, to make himself to be no less loved than feared. The third is often to consult with his council, and to know how of himself, after the opinions of his council heard, with valor to resolve and perform. And, order,

in the rest, himself to

how

dents

know upon

to prevent,

others with great

skill

all

doubtful occasions and acci-

remedy, and execut% as also to direct

and

dexterity.

And

these are the most

principal points that do belong to the general of

The

an army.

suflBciency of colonels doth consist in the well-governing

of their regiments with all care, valor, aflFection,

and

diligence,

and that they do make their regiments, as well in particular bands as in the whole body of the same, to observe all orders military in lodging, dislodging, in

marching, and in fighting, as also that

they do live in great order without straggling, spoiling, or any-

ways

injuring.

with

all

And

in the rest, that the colonels themselves

do

obedience perform the commandments and directions

of such higher officers as

have authority

to

command

them.

knowing how to govern and order their bands and companies and to win the love of their soldiers by all examples of virtue and worthiness not only by instruction but also by action in their own persons, ac-

The

sufficiency of captains doth consist in

compting of their soldiers as of their

own

children.

And

in the

be obedient, valiant, and resolute, as also of sufficiency to perform and execute all commandments and directions with

rest, to

discretion, valor,

The duty and consist to

and judgment. sufficiency of soldiers doth

be obedient

perior officers.

The second,

and arm themselves

fitly,

that they do

and

to handle

in every

time and place, and to

military.

The

labors

The

and

third

is

to

first

and

to their captains

and principally

all

other their su-

know how and use

their

know and observe

be sober,

patient,

to apparel

and able

weapons

all

orders

to

endure

travails.

sufficiency of all higher

and lower

officers of

armies under

35

John Smythe

Sir

the general

is

to

know how

And

to

perform their

offices

with

all care,

and obedience.

fidelity, diligence,

such a prince or lieutenant general of an army as hath

him

those sufficiencies in

that

have before mentioned cannot

I

camp and army, as also good and sufficient colonels and captains. And such officers, colonels, and captains cannot fail to make good soldiers. All which, with the serving of Almighty God, tendeth to the orderly proceeding and managing of a war in all affairs and actions to the end of frame good

fail to

the

same with

And trary

victory.

this that I

and

militia is

officers of his

have above

set

down

is

a principal part of a

discipline military of all warlike nations,

tumultuary and clean opposite to

all art

and the con-

and science miliproem for a note

And this I have written in the end of my and remembrance for all young gentlemen of our nation that have a desire to win honor by following of actions of arms. And tary.

now

I

proceed to

my

Authorum nomina

in

discourses.

quibus

et

huius proemii et tractatus varia

exempla, rebusque diversa continentur: 1.

Biblia Sacra.

2.

Diodorus Siculus.^^

3.

Herodotus.^i

4.

Thucydides.^2

5.

Quintus Curtius.^^

"Greek historian of the first century b.c. His Historical Library dealt with the conquests of Alexander the Great's successors. It was available to Smythe in an English translation of ca. 1569. " Translated into English in 1584. Englished in 1550. " His life of Alexander the Great was one of the most popular military sources in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Englished in 1553 and three times reprinted before 1590.

36

Certain Discourses Military 6.

Cornelius Tacitus.^*

7.

Plinius.15

8.

Titus Livius.^^

9. Plutarchus.i"^

10. 11.

Appianus Alexandrinus.^^

12.

Paulus Diaconus.2^

13.

Pomponius Mela.^^

14.

Vegetius

De

^

re militari?^

15. Adrianus.2-^ 16.

Polidorus Virgilius.^*

17.

Historia Imperatorum.^^

18.

Herodianus.26

19. Eutropius.2'^

" None of Tacitus' works was translated into English by 1590. The History of Pliny the Elder ( Caius Plinius Secundus ) was translated into Enghsh, in part, in 1566. Not Enghshed until after 1590, though Italian and Spanish versions were available. " The famous translation of Plutarch's Lives by North appeared in 1579. The History of the Church of England, English translation, 1565. An Ancient History and Exquisite Chronicle of the Romans' Wars, English translation, 1578.

The history of the Lombards by this eighth-century historian was not Englished until after 1590. There was an Italian translation. His De situ orhis was translated by Arthur Golding in 1585. ^ The most famous

of all classical military treatises,

translated

by

J.

Sadler in 1572.

Probably G. B. Adriani, whose History of His Own Times ( 1536-1574) was published in Italy in 1583. It was not translated. ^An abridgment of Polydore Vergil's History of England (1485-1537) was translated in 1546 and reprinted in 1551 and 1570. ^ Suetonius' lives of the Caesars was not translated into English until 1606. There was a French translation. '^The history of the years a.d. 180-238 by this third-century Greek writer was translated ca. 1550. ^The work of this fourth-century Roman historian was translated in 1564.

37

.

Sir

John Smythe

20. Sparcianus.^^

21. Luis



The work

de Caravajal,-^

et mtilti alii.^^

of the early-fourth-century historian

AeHus Spartianus was

not translated into Enghsh.

^ Luis de Marmol Caravajal, La descripcion general de Affrica 1573). toto,

It

( Granada, does not follow, of course, that Smythe read these authors in

even in translation. His information could have been gained from

compilations.

Others mentioned in the to

text,

apart from

La Noue, already

referred

(see note 2 on p. 13 above), are Froissart, available in English from

1523, and Martin du Bellay, Memoir es (Paris, 1569), not translated. Smythe's references to "the French chronicles" (pp. 88, 91, and 92 below) are probably to Les grands chroniques de France ( 3 vols., Paris, 1493, and later editions

38

)

Certain Discourses concerning the forms and effects of divers

weapons, and other very important matters military

sorts of

by divers of our men of war in these days, and chiefly of the musket, the caliver, and the longbow, as also of the great sufficiency, excellency, and wonderful effects of archgreatly mistaken

with

ers,

The

many

notable examples, and other particularities

strange opinions so wonderfully mistaken in these our days

in all matters military

and war, skill in

divers of our chief

men

of charge

matters of arms serving under the States in the tumul-

tuary, licentious,

and starving wars

peradventure some

me

by

accompted, that have learned their greatest

as they are

to take in

little

hand

in the civil

of the

Low

Countries, or

wars of France, have moved

this discourse, to discover their strange

and

erroneous opinions military by them published to our nobility

and chief magistrates

as also to all the better sort of our people

upon any important war either offensive or defensive, may greatly redound to the loss and danger of our prince, country, and nation. In the which discourse my meaning

and

is

nation, which,

not to touch the reputation of divers of our ancient brave

captains

and

soldiers

who were men

of

good

skill

and

sufficiency

before they entered into those wars, nor yet the reputation and

honor of divers noblemen, as also gentlemen of noble or worshipful houses, that of very late years services rather to for

have entered into those

win reputation, knowledge, and honor than spoil ( of the which there be divers who,

any hope of gain or

by the testimony of their honorable actions and government of themselves and the charges unto them committed, have deserved 39

Sir

John Smythe

and honor ) but only to touch with blame and discommendation such as, attaining (I wot not how) to the highest places of office and charge to command our English nation in great praise

,

those parts, have through their covetousness and lack of love

toward the soldiers of

much

their nation so corrupted, or rather, as

them hath lain, subverted, all discipline military, to the great loss and dishonor of our country and nation, that neither they themselves nor any of their imitators are worthy to be accompted in the number of men of war, and much less to be esteemed by men of experience and judgment in actions military to be anyways worthy to command and govern soldiers. In this discourse also I mean not at this time to meddle with the infinite numbers of disorders military by them committed in the Low Country wars, where they made a far greater war upon our people and nation than upon the enemies of our country,

as in

but to handle divers abuses of theirs and,

chiefly, the

abuses

by mistaking of weapons out of their

that they have sought to bring our nation into fortification

and

of the effects of divers

some weapons such

due times and

places, attributing to

as are not to

be performed with them, and detracting most

effects

ignorantly the excellent effects of our peculiar and singular

weapon

the longbow, seeking

by

extolling the effects,

by them

misreported and mistaken, of the musket and caliver to our nation believe that our longbows have utterly ancient effects and therefore no

more

to

lost

be used but

make their to

be

and extinguished; with divers other gross errors, contrary to all reason and experience military of all ancient and modern warlike nations. The most of the which that shall fall into my memory I will, with the help of Almighty God, answer in such sort as all men of experience and judgment

utterly suppressed

in matters of arms, that

have served in armies and camps formed commonwealths, shall easily dis-

either of emperors, kings, or

cover their lack of experience and knowledge in matters mili-

40

Certain Discourses Military tary.

And

therefore

begin with one of their toys and so

I will

proceed to greater matters.

These our such

men

war before mentioned, in a manner and proceedings in aflFected the Walloons', Flemings', and

of

utterly ignorant of all our ancient discipline

actions of arms, have so

base Almains'^^ discipline (as some of them term

have procured to innovate, or rather

it)

proceedings in matters military, and therefore have in a

that they

to subvert, all our ancient

manner untouched without seeking

to alter

left

nothing

and change the

same. As, for example: they will not vouchsafe in their speeches or writings to use our ancient terms belonging to matters of

war, but do call a

camp by

afford to say that such a it is

the Dutch

town

name

of leger, nor will not

or such a fort

is

besieged but that

"beleaguered." Their ensigns also they will not call by that

name but by

the

name

of "colors,"

fondly and ignorantly given as

young scholars be asked

if

in their accidence,

how many

colors of

which term

is

by them

so

they should be apposed as

and should instead

footmen there were

of ensigns

in the

army

against by Remenen [Rijnemants] under the Count Bossu Don Juan de Austria, they must then either answer, a hundred, or more or fewer, as white, black, blue, green, yellow, russet, etc.,

or else forsake their

new terms

ensigns, bands, or companies,

which

of colors in troth

is

and say so many no direct answer

body of the watch also, or wont we were to term it, they now call after the French or Walloon corps du garde, with many other such Walloon and Dutch terms, as though our English nation, which hath been so famous in all actions military many hundred years, were now but newly crept into the world, or as though our language were so barren that it were not able of itself or by derivato the question. All sorts of the

"standing watch," as

The inhabitants of lower Germany. ^ Maximihan de Hennin, Count of Bossu, was commander for the StatesGeneral in the actions against Don John in 1577, 41

John Smtjthe

Sir tion to afford convenient

words

to utter our

minds

in matters of

that quality. is more strange, these our such new-fantasied war do despise and scorn our ancient arming of ourselves both on horseback and on foot, saying that we armed ourselves

But that which

men

of

term

it.

much

with too

in times past

And

armor, or "pieces of iron," as they

therefore their footmen pikers they do allow for

when

very well armed

and

their cuirasses,

they wear their burgonets, their collars,

their backs, without either pauldrons,

vam-

braces, gauntlets, or tasses.

and themselves serving on horseback with lances or any other weapon, they think very well armed with some kind of headpiece, a collar, a deformed high and longbellied breast,-^"^ and a back at the proof. But as for pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, tasses, cuisses, and greaves, they hold all for superfluous. The imitating of which their unsoldierlike and fond arming cost that noble and worthy gentleman Sir Philip Their horsemen

Sidney his of divers

life,

also,

by not wearing

his cuisses.^^

For in the opinion

gentlemen that saw him hurt with a musket

he had that day worn

his cuisses, the bullet

shot,

had not broken

if

his

thighbone, by reason that the chief force of the bullet before the

blow was

couragement

manner

in a

past. Besides that,

it

is

armed, to encounter with them and their soldiers see so

ill

a great en-

to all foreign nations, their enemies, that are better

armed.

the enemy, so

it

And is

as their ill-arming

is

whom

they

an encouraging to

unto them a discouragement and a great

disadvantage. For in case any horseman or footman piker so

armed should be wounded on the thigh, or chiefly on the arm or hand, either with lance, pike, sword, or any other weapon, his fighting were marred, besides that by such wounds received ill

'^^In

the margin

by

Smythe comments: "Long-waisted and and for many reasons and horsemen and footmen in the field to wear."

this passage,

high-bellied cuirasses or breasts are very uneasy

experiences very unfit both for ^*

At Zutphen.

42

He

died shortly after the action, in 1586.

Certain Discourses Military he

put

is

eflFect it

and

in

hazard either to be

hath been a

maxim

skillful soldiers that

men

is

slain or taken.

in all ages

amongst

And all

to the

same

great captains

the well-arming of horsemen and foot-

a great encouragement unto

whereas contrariwise, being

evil

them

armed,

it is

to fight valiantly,

a great discourage-

ment unto them encountering with well-armed men, and most commonly, through wounds received, the very occasion that doth make them to turn their backs. And as they do mistake the convenient arming of horsemen and footmen, so they also mistake the weaponing of them. For whereas swords of convenient length, form, and substance have in all ages esteemed by all warlike nations of all other sorts weapons the last weapon of refuge both for horsemen and footmen, by reason that when all their other weapons in fight have failed them either by breaking, loss, or otherwise, they have then presently betaken themselves to their short arming swords and daggers as to the last weapons of great effect and

been of

execution for

all

martial actions, so our such

men

of war, con-

and use military, do nowadays prefer and allow that armed men pikers should rather wear rapiers

trary to the ancient order

and a quarter long the blades or more than strong, arming swords. Wherein they do little consider, or not

of a yard short,

understand, that a squadron of armed

men

in the field,

being

ready to encounter with another squadron, their enemies, ought

and close themselves by front and flanks; and that they have given their first thrust with their pikes and being

to straiten after

come

to join with their enemies front to frpnt and face to face, and therefore the use and execution of the pikes of the foremost ranks being past, they must presently betake themselves to the

use of their swords and daggers, which they cannot with any

draw if the blades of their swords be so long. For in armed men in such actions, being in their ranks so close one to another by flanks, cannot draw their swords if the blades of them be above the length of three quarters of a yard or a

celerity troth,

43

,

Sir

John Smythe

more. Besides that, swords being so long do work in a

little

manner no press

is

effect, neither

with blows nor thrusts, where the

so great as in such actions

it is.

And

the rapier blades,

being so narrow and of so small substance, and

hard temper to

fight in private frays, in lighting

made

of a very

with any blow

upon armor do presently break and so become unprofitable. Horsemen also, and chiefly lances, wearing their swords by their sides as soldiers ought to do, cannot readily draw them without letting fall their bridles out of their left hands if their swords be above the length of three quarters of a yard, or a yard at the most, and yet that too long. All which considered, their opinion

of such long swords or rapiers to be

or footmen

armed

is

worn

either

by horsemen

very ignorant.

Long, heavy daggers

also,

with great brawling alehouse

hilts

(which were never used but for private frays and brawls, and that within less than these forty years, since

long peace,

we have forgotten

all

which time, through

orders and discipline military )

they do noways disallow nor find fault withal, but rather allow

them

for their soldiers to

wear than

short arming daggers of

convenient form and substance, without

hilts,

crosses, of nine or ten inches the blades,

brave ancestors but

all

little

little

short

other warlike nations both in war and

By

show consider how over-burdensome and cum-

peace did wear and use. that they do very

or widi

such as not only our

the which they evidently

bersome such alehouse daggers are

horsemen and footmen,

as also

for all sorts of soldiers, both

how

unfit they are to

be used

with the point and thrust by soldiers (pikers or halberdiers)

where by proof, reason, and and other encounters, the nearness and press being so great, short, strong, and light arming daggers are more maniable [manageable] and of greater execution amongst all sorts of armed men than such long deformed daggers as aforeagainst their enemies in squadron,

experience, in

all battles

said.

Pikes also, which are the strength of squadrons in the field as

44

Certain Discourses Military well against horsemen as footmen, they do allow of divers

seem long, having no regard to their uniformity of length nor whether they be portable or maniable through their too much wood or no. Whereby they show the lengths, so that they

little skill

pikers,

they have in the use of that weapon, considering that

being reduced into squadron to

their pikes of

should have

fight,

all

one equal and proportionate l^gth, to the intent

that all the ranks, being closed

by

front

and

flanks either to

charge another squadron of pikers, their enemies, or to receive

and repulse a charge

of lances, all the points of the pikes of

every rank carrying one equality, and so divers ranks, being incorporated by front and flank with their pikes bent against their enemies,

may

all

together give a greater blow and thrust

to the repulsing either of

horsemen or footmen than

of divers lengths like organ pipes

and

force

resistance. Besides that,

if

they were

and thereby become of it

is

less

a very uncomely sight

to see a square of pikers enlarged in their ranks to

march

that

the butt ends of their pikes, through their disequality of length,

should disorderly precede one another.^^ All which, being neg-

and contemned by our such men of war, is by the Almains, Switzers, Spaniards, and other nations skillful in the art military

lected

greatly regarded.

Halberds of the Italian fashion, with long points, short edges,

and long

staves, to

be placed within a squadron of

pikes, they

do better allow of than of halberds or battle-axes with short points, long edges,

that they

do very

and short

little

rons do encounter, the

staves. In the

which they show

know

when two squad-

consider or first

that

thrust of pikes being past, they

do

Smythe comments in the margin: "I would wish that all the pikes throughout England that are for the field should be reduced unto one uniformity of length, that is, either to seventeen foot long by the rule or else to eighteen foot, and not above, which are two foot longer than the Spaniards do use in their militia, and therewithal I would have them to be

made

so light

and of very good wood that they should be both portable and

maniable, which

many

of our pikes at this present are not."

45

Sir

John Smythe

come

to join with short weapons, as with swords, and daggers, and that then weapons that are with long points, long staves, and short edges do work no effect, by

presently

battle-axes,

reason that the ranks being so close, and nearby front and flanks

and the press on both they can have no room

in their distances,

sides so great as in such

actions

to stand thrusting

and

foining [lunging] with long halberds nor pikes as our such

men

of

it

is,

war do imagine. But then

is

the time that the ranks of short

halberds or battle-axes of five foot and a half long, with strong, short points, short staves, soldiers that

do follow the

and long edges, first

in the

hands of lusty

ranks of pikers at the heels, both

with blow at the head and thrust at the face, do with puissant

and mighty hand work wonderful

effect and carry all to the and excellent executions of such short halberds and battle-axes in battles our most worthy ancestors

ground.

And

of the great

and divers other warlike nations had experience many years

when they ture

did use to fight

some not

skillful in

that such opinions in

many

great battles.

matters military

weapons mistaken

Howbeit, they are much deceived, for is

no mistaking so small that

and

chiefly the mistaking of

and executions

of

war

Now

may happen is

past,

peradvento say

no great matter.

in matters military there

understanding

is

not great,

weapons, with the which

all effects

in true

are performed.

Calivers also, as they term them, being of a greater length

and more ranforced than harquebuses and therefore a great deal heavier, they do better allow of than they do of light, well-formed, and ranforced harquebuses, alleging for their reasons that calivers will carry further point and blank and also give a greater blow than harquebuses. In the which

and height

of bullet

they do very

little

consider that neither calivers nor harquebuses,

considering their uncertainty, are to be used by any soldiers with

any volleys of shot against the enemy

skillful

in the field

above three or four scores [of paces] at the farthest, and that harquebuses within that distance will wound and kill as well 46

Certain Discourses Military as calivers. Besides that,

them they are

through the hghtness and shortness of

so maniable that the harquebusiers

a great deal longer and with

more

may

skirmish

and certainty than upon a hasty retreat

dexterity

the caliverers with their calivers, as also

they

may

very well save and keep their pieces, being so

to the intent to

make head

overmuch heaviness them away and trust to

actions through the

of their pieces

commonly

their ^eels.

cast

great reason

it

light,

again, whereas the caliverers in such

may be concluded

do most

So as with

that light harquebuses, well

formed, of convenient length and ranforced (such as the old

and Walloons do use), are a great deal more and therefore of greater effect for soldiers in field to use the than our ordinary and heavy calivers, which our such men of war do so much allow of. Now some of our such men of war that were of great offices and charge under the Earl of Leicester, that was lieutenant general of the Queen's army at Tilbury this last summer, 1588, seeing the Essex regiment of 4,000 footmen reduced into great bands of 400, 500, and 600 to an ensign ( under the charge and government of knights and esquires of great worship, discretion, and desire to do service to their prince and country), they persuaded him with great vehemency that it was very meet and convenient that all that whole regiment should be reduced into bands of 150 soldiers to an ensign, or into 200 at the most. And bands of

Italians

maniable, more

fit,

therewithal they persuaded that

all

those small bands should

be committed to the charge of our trained as they call

tending,

Low Country captains,

them, of the which there were a great number

some

of

them more hungry

after charge, spoil, '

at-

and

gain than skillful to do any great service or to win reputation or the love of their soldiers.

And

the chief est reasons that they

did allege for reducing them into such small bands were that

by seeing so great numbers of ensigns in the field, would judge the army to be very huge and great in numbers of men and therefore redoubt them the more. Besides that, by the the enemy,

47

John Smythe

Sir

employment and

duced

of such a

consequently,

so,

number all

of trained captains, the regiment,

the whole army, assembled and re-

into such small bands, should

and

service

skill.

know very

Which

be the more

may seem

their reasons

full of

men

of

pretty to such

and that do not fall into the reckoning of their second meanings, which I omit. Howbeit, how unsoldierlike persuasions and opinions these were, how unprofitable for the prince and unfit and unready for services in as

the

little

field, I will,

When

of matters military

by the help

of

Almighty God, make evident.

the great princes of Germany,

injury offered, are disposed to

upon any occasion

make war one

or

against another,

upon an imperial army assembled to invade or resist the Turk, being bound as they are by their tenures military to the Empire, some to find horsemen and others to find footmen at their own charges, they then upon such occasions have always used, and do still use, to form their regiments of footmen into or

great bands of 500 to an ensign. for

two

causes.

The one

is

And

that they use especially

thereby in their regiments, and so

consequently in their whole armies, to save the pay of a great

and other which would be greatly increased and so amount to a far greater charge and pay in case they should compose smaller bands of 300 to an ensign or under that number. The other cause that doth move them to form their bands so great is that, their militia consisting of harquebusiers, pikers, and some halberdiers, sort of captains, lieutenants of bands, ensign-bearers, oflBcers,

with a few slath swords for the guard of their ensigns, those sorts of

in great

easily

weapons, by reason of the greatness of the bands, being

compartments and

divisions,

may be more

readily

and

drawn out and separated and with a great deal more

celerity incorporated with the other great

compartments of the

form

their squadrons with

like

weapons

of other great

bands

to

sleeves, wings, troops, or forlorn hopes, according to the order

and direction of the colonels and sergeants major, than if their bands were smaller, either of 300 or under that number, whereby 48

Certain Discourses Military

weapons should be also the smaller and thereby in number the greater, and so consequently would require a longer time not only to draw out but also to incorporate compartments with compartments for the forming of battles with sleeves, wings, and forlorn hopes, as aforesaid. Besides that, such great bands both by reason and experience are as ready, or rather more ready, to be employed either in whole companies under their captains and lieutenants or divided into parts and corporalates under their corporals and sergeants for watches, bodies of watches, sentinels, and all other ordinary and extraordinary employments and actions military in camp, town, or field than any small bands are. Now peradventure some such as do not understand this order military of the princes of Germany above mentioned will say that all the regiments of footmen Almains, that either the King of Spain or the French king have hired and employed anyways in their wars, have of later years been but of 300 to an ensign, which is very true. Howbeit, the cause thereof hath been that when such princes have occasion to employ any mercenary regiments of Almains, they do send their commissaries into Germany to hire so many colonels as tliey will have regiments, in case that they had none before in their ordinary stipends and pay. And those colonels do make choice of captains for the levy the compartments of

of their regiments at their

own

pleasures,

and therefore

will

compound with them and buy their captainship. So as, the more bands the more captains, and the more captains the more compositions and profit. Which, peradventure, was the cause that moved some chief accept of no captains but of such as will

oflBcer or officers

cenaries, to

under the Earl, as imitators of the Almain mer-

persuade him

bands aforesaid into

to

reduce

all

the great and honorable

bands of 150 or 200, thereby to have the more compositions and sums of money at our Low Country captains' hands, to

little

some

of the

which would not

obtain companies, intending after,

by

let to

fleecing

give largely

and ransoming 49

Sir

John Smythe

men of wealth, to pay themselves again which two or three days before the breaking

of their soldiers, being

with great

up

of the

interest,

camp they very prettily did

that such great officers profit of the prince

celerity

begin. Howbeit,

and persuaders had

little

it

seemeth

regard to the

nor yet to the reducing of the army with

and dexterity

into

squadrons and battles and other

forms military as aforesaid, considering that those small bands of 150 or 200 soldiers to sorts of

weapons,

an ensign did consist of

viz., pikes, battle-axes,

five different

muskets, harquebuses,

and longbows, and that therefore every one of them was to be reduced into five divers divisions, which, besides the uncomely sight to see so many small compartments in every such little band, it would have requii'ed a far longer time upon the daily and ordinary dislodging of an army reduced into vaward, battle, and rearward to have drawn out so great a number of compartments out of such a number of little bands than out of bands of 500 to have drawn a few great compartments and to have incorporated and reduced them into any form military. Now whereas our such men of war persuaded with the Earl that the enemy would judge the greatness of the army by the greatness of the number of ensigns and therefore redoubt the more, and that by the number of such little bands under so many trained captains the army should be so much the more full of men of service, it argueth the insufficiency and lack of judgment of such persuaders.

For there

is

no enemy

skillful in

the art

military that will judge of the greatness or smallness of an in the field taffeta,

by the great

or small

number

of ensigns or pieces of

but by the fronts and flanks of the squadrons marching,

by good espials or by prisoners the dismissing and cassing of the knights and and

army

chiefly

taken.

And

as for

esquires that were

captains of such honorable companies, that such

Low

Country

upon the dividing of those great bands into hundreds and fifties or into two hundreds, I think it had been a great deal more meet, for the reasons captains might have supplied their places

50

Certain Discourses Military before alleged, that

than

the whole army,

if it

had been

far greater

was, for the defense of the realm should have been re-

it

duced

all

bands of

into great

five

hundreds, under the charge of

knights and esquires well chosen and of great worship in their countries, tains (I

and that a great part

mean but such

meant, nor yet what

it

of our such

knew what command and

as never is

to

Low

Country cap-

discipline military

govern, as

may

it

well appear by their infinite disorders in the'i^ow Countries)

should have been distributed and placed throughout those great

bands

under such discreet and

as sergeants or ensign-bearers

worshipful gentlemen, to the intent that they might to

obey before they should have authority

to

learn

first

command and

govern the yeomanry of England.

Now

whereas

suflBcient

I

have heard of some of our ancient and most

many

captains that our English militia of footmen

years past did consist of bands but of 100 to an ensign,

by

I

have

and notable captains Italians, that Emperor Charles,^*^ as also in the beginning of his time, did consist of bands of footmen but of 100 to an ensign, and that those bands of hundreds did consist every one of them but of one sort of weapon, as, amongst likewise heard

divers old

the Italian militia also, before the

the Italians, of a

there were a very signs)

and

hundred pikes (saving that of that number few partisans for the guarding of their en-

hundred harquebusiers. So our bands

of a

of

hun-

dreds did also consist of 100 archers and of 100 battle-axes,

without composing them of divers sorts of weapons according to the

modern

use.

Which

certainly, in

mine opinion (saving

only for the increase of the charges of the prince), was a very

convenient order, considering that every sort of weapon, being

reduced into bands by themselves without compartments of divers sorts of

weapons

in

any one band

to enter into the

body

of a

squadron )

had been of weapons are would have wrought that (

two

battle-axes with pikes, because those ,

unless

it

sorts of

^ Charles V, Emperor 1519-1556.

51

Sir

and other

the sergeants major great facility

many forms

and

John Smythe

celerity

oflBcers of

the field might with

have reduced any mean army

march and

of battles, both to

into

fight, as also that they,

being divided into regiments, might have been lodged quarters with great order and readiness in a

camp

in their

or

camps

war did persuade with the Earl

for the

formed.

Now

our such

men

of

reducing of the great bands of footmen into small companies of

one hundred and

fifty,

as

before declared; so did they

is

wise persuade with him to reduce little

all

like-

those small bands into

regiments of one thousand under every colonel.

By which

show that they underwhat causes and reasons regiments were first instituted and since, amongst many nations, continued. Howbeit, I do persuade myself by that which I have heard, their persuasions they did very manifestly

stood very

little

partly from their

for

own

great credit, that in

speeches, partly also from others of very

all their

proceedings in matters of war they

do rather follow the new fashions of the disordered wars

Low

France and the

and experience

of

Countries under the States than any reason

military.

For

in troth,

bands of horsemen and

footmen, of which armies do consist, were at the into regiments for divers causes,

and

first

reduced

chiefly for five.

The first, that divers companies being incorporated into one body of regiment, and so divers regiments being composed and formed, they might be the better and more orderly governed and the more ready upon all occasions to be commanded and employed.

The second,

that they might

be the better and the more con-

veniently lodged in their quarters.

The

third, that

they might be the more orderly and readily

placed in their watches, bodies of watches, and sentinels by the

commandments and

direction of the colonels

and sergeants

major.

The

fourth, that they

52

might for the defense of

their

camp be

Certain Discourses Military

more readily reduced into divers puissant bodies of squadron by themselves, v^ith sleeves and wings in the places of assembly. And the fifth, that upon the dislodging of an army reduced into vaward, battle, and rearward divers regiments might the more orderly and readily incorporate and reduce themselves into three mighty battles or more, according to the order and directhe

tion of the lieutenant general or high marshal of the field, or else

by some

of the sergeant major major,

called

tHfe

sergeant major

general.

Now (which

the nation of Christendom most skillful of

is

that ever

I

saw

clared, with

perform these actions and

to

many

perform

and

And

so they did use

many

their

bands

to

thousand

hundred

five

every one of their

soldiers, at

which time

to every ensign.

be of four hundred

be of three hundred

pire against the services, as

is

to

an ensign.

be of three thousand, and so

present continue, unless

to every it

be

And

And

their

of

company, which doth

common enemy

the Turk, or in their

own

last

bands at this

in the public services of the

Em-

private

before declared.

Now if our such persuaders before mentioned consideration and judgment as they

would very well know

would "seem

thousands, that do consist of great bands of

governed and therewithal

more

celerity

into little regiments of

were

of so great

to be, they

that great regiments of five, four, or three five, foxu*,

hundreds, are a great deal more ready to be

great deal

all

they reduced their regiments to be of four thousand

of all their regiments to to

when

years past,

five

bands did consist of

later years

and

form

to

footmen of ten ensigns to every regiment.

regiments did consist of their

camp and

such actions with the more

have used of great antiquity

dexterity,

their regiments of

all

others

all

before de-

efiFects

other matters military both for the

field), to the intent to

celerity

Germany]

the lance-knights Almains [the lanzknechts of

to

perform

all

or three

commanded and

actions military with a

and dexterity than

if

they were reduced

thousands and small bands of hundreds

53

Sir

John Smythe

and fifties. And that may be with great facihty considered by the Hke comparisons and reasons that I have before alleged, that great bands of five hundreds (and so consequently

by the

reasons of four or three hundreds ) are

to

be reduced

in all important services

with more

into

form and employed

celerity

or

more ready

and dexterity than small bands

two hundreds

are.

Besides

all

of

hundreds and

like

fifties

which, by forming of such

small regiments of one thousand, the prince doth consume a far

pay than by forming of great regiments of five, four, or three thousand, by reason of the great number of officers, which are increased by such great numbers of little regiments. And for further proof and confirmation of every forementioned particularity, I were able to allege many more reasons if it were not to avoid prolixity. Howbeit, peradventure it may now be said greater

unto

me

that the tercios of the Spaniards that have served

years in the

Low

many

Countries do consist some of them but of

twelve hundred and others of fifteen hundred, and some of more,

and others proceeded

of fewer,

which

I

confess to be true. But that hath

of this, that they are not entire tercios, nor never

were since they were drawn out of such principalities where they before were resident. As for example, when the Duke of Alva was to come out of Italy with his army to suppress the intestine tumults of the Low Countries, the whole tercios of Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, and Lombardy were not drawn out of those governments but certain great parts of them, which notwithstanding

were called by the names of tercios, with the additions of the names of the governments and principalities from whence they came as though they had been entire, whereas in troth they were but certain great parts of those tercios. For a tercio is not to be holden for complete of any smaller number than of 3,000 soldiers, according to the ordinary regiments of Italians, Walloons,

and other nations that are in these days of the like number. Calivers and muskets for services in the field they extol and magnify, and chiefly muskets, persuading as

54

much

as they

can

— )

Certain Discourses Military

men

accompt that battles and victories be obtained chiefly by the force and excellency of those weapons; and that the foreign enemy seeking to invade us in any haven with a navy and army royal should with four or five thousand musketeers and some caliverers be all

magistrates and

of

in these our days are to

repulsed and kept from landing; and that certain sconces by



them devised without any bulwarks, flankers, traverses, mounts, platforms, wet or dry ditches in form, with counterscarps or any other good form of fortification but only raised and formed with earth, turf, trench, and certain points, angles, and indents should be able to hold out the enemy landed some three or four days until the force of three or four shires were assembled. They also do further attribute such excellency unto muskets that no squadrons of horsemen or footmen, what number soever they have of archers, are anyways able to abide the volleys and terror of that weapon, being in great numbers within twenty or twenty -four scores [of yards], but that they must of necessity be dismembered and broken. To the weapon of calivers before mentioned they also give exceeding commendation for skirmishes and encounters in the field, saying that they may skirmish with that weapon ten or twelve scores ofiF, to the great terror and hurt of the enemy. Upon which excellent effects by them attributed to the aforenamed weapons of fire, they have persuaded (as much as doth in them lie) that all our bands of late years erected for the defense of the realm should be filled with many musketeers and caliverers and few pikes, and of short weapons, being bills ( which I call battle-axes ) they make small accompt. Now for answer to some of these unsoldierlike opinions, I say that if any such as do hold that wonderful opinion of the effects of musketeers ( how good soldiers soever they think themselves were at any haven in England with five or six thousand of the ,

best musketeers that they ever

saw of our English nation, without a convenient number of horsemen and footmen of other weapons to back them, I think they would work very small effect 55

Sir

enemy

against the

formed

had ensconced themthey and their engineers

landing, although they

term

selves, as they

John Smythe

it,

in

such sconces as

summer, 1588, upon the seacoasts of Suffolk and in Essex and Kent on both sides of the river of Thames. For if they should see a navy with an army of thirty or forty thousand

this last

men

(besides seamen and such as should be left for the

guard of the ships) under some notable and

sufficient general,

enter into any capable haven of England with

wind and weather

fit

for their purpose, with intention to invade

(which God

for-

bid), they should find themselves in their opinions wonderfully

deceived. For this they are to know: that such a general, being

with his whole army entered into such a haven, doth take order before that proclamation be

no

vessels that

man upon

made throughout

all his

ships

and

pain of death, being landed, shall

straggle or stray abroad, but all soldiers to reduce themselves

with

all celerity

under

their ensigns.

Which

discharged out of the general's ship, which captains, officers, their

and

soldiers to

is

done, a cannon a warning for

arm themselves and

is

all

to take

weapons. And upon the second cannon discharged, the

and ensign-bearers, with their ensigns in their hands, with such convenient numbers of musketeers, harquebusiers, pikers, and halberdiers as the longboats, shallops, frigates, azabres [Spanish zabra], and other such vessels of oars lying ready at the ships' sides are capable of, do enter into them, every longboat having two bases aforeship ready charged and gunners ready to discharge them. Then upon the third cannon discharged, all the longboats and vessels of oars for the landing of captains

men do row

with

rible noise of

all

fury toward the land with a wonderful ter-

trumpets and drums.

Now if our such men

war with their musketeers would give their volleys of musket shot upon these ship boats full of men with intent to destroy great numbers of them (being so thick and so many ) they shall find that discharging their musket shot from higher grounds downwards into the sea (which by the ,

56

of

Certain Discourses Military Italians are called botti

de

fico,

accounted of

all

other discharg-

by the overmuch distance and continual motion of the ship boats' rowing, and with the swelling of the salt water, how calm soever it be, made more uncertain, they shall shoot very uncertainly and therefore work very little or no eflFect to the destroying of their enemies, or anyways to ings

most uncertain )

,

as also

keep them from landing. Besides

that, the

enemies, out of such

their ships as are nearest unto them, will (ftscharge cannon,

culverin,

and saker shot

to the terrifying of

ship boats in despite of their muskets

them. So

as, their

to land,

and they some

coming

presently sending certain troops of harquebusiers with halberdiers under their conductors to skirmish

and entertain

the musketeers whilst the pikers and other weapons do reduce

themselves into form under their ensigns, they shall find in the space of three or four hours above twelve or fifteen thousand

men

landed.

fortify tions,

and

then taking some ground of advantage to

powder, and

to place their victual,

they with

their artillery

of

Who all

all sorts

of

muni-

speed possible do proceed to the landing of

and munitions with

all

the rest of their army, both

horsemen and footmen. Which being by them performed, they make their approach upon their indented sconce, not

presently

with any crooked or cross trenches, gabions, nor mounts, according to the order of approaching fortified,

and battering

form

of places in

but with other inventions guardable against musket

shot that peradventure our such

men

of

musket and harquebus

shot,

with pikes and half -pikes,

also with

swords and targets, and with ladders

(

war are ignorant

if it

be needful )

of, as

in such

number of our uuiskillful musketeers and caliverers within their sconce would be found scarce able to abide the first charge and assault, seeing so puissant an enemy landed. And I doubt rather, when they should see with what terror the enemies do approach the land and the small annoyance that they with their musket shot should work upon them, that they would scarce abide the landing of the first boats full

terrible sort as that great

57

Sir of soldiers without

John Smythe

abandoning both sconce and shore

to the

enemy.^'

And whereas

our such

men

war the

of

last

summer had many

devices in their heads of ensconcing of sconces for the defense if they were men of understanding in fortificawould seem to be ) they might very well know that there is a great difference betwixt the situations and natures of the dry grounds of England and those of Holland, Friesland, and other such low and flat countries full of rivers, great ditches, marshes, and wet grounds, where they may ensconce themselves with small cost within little islands or upon points and meetings of rivers, or else where by the opening of sluices and dykes, or cutting of banks and trenches, they may environ themselves with water on every side. The best sort of which sconces, being more strong by nature and situation than by any art or form of fortification, may in those parts resist and hold out a weak or an unskillful enemy some long while. But such their ensconcings in the dry grounds upon the havens of England are to small purpose to hold out a puissant enemy if he should land or anyways to keep him from landing. And therefore I conclude that such fortifications in England are very scorns and mockeries and would be rather profitable for the enemy landed than anyways to annoy or to resist the enemy. Besides all which before alleged, it is further to be noted that a puissant and mighty enemy that

of divers havens, tion

(

as they

in the time of

ions

by

summer intendeth

the invasion of foreign domin-

sea, to the intent to give battle

and subdue, doth not

always bind himself to land his army in a haven, but sometimes

upon an open coast and shore if the sea (without hidden rocks and flats ) be deep and the wind and weather fair, having commodity by the depth of the sea to approach his navy and to cast ^~

Smythe comments

in the

margin

:

"It

is

author, contrary to the opinion of our such

to

men

be understood that the of war, intendeth that

four thousand or five thousand musketeers of themselves, without the help of other weapons, are not able to keep an

army

royal from landing nor

yet to defend their indented sconce against a puissant

58

enemy landed."

Certain Discourses Military anchor in open road, near unto a commodious shore and country

and march upon. So

to land

doubt the invasion of

and provide

their

as

it

behooveth

enemy

for the resisting of the

havens but also

all

such princes as

dominions by sea not only to expect in their ports

and

have as great regard to some such open and as are before mentioned; which cannot be

to

commodious shores

performed with ensconcing of sconces but only with a great and extraordinary wisdom, and with the army and camp formed.

Now

valiant

hands of a puissant

whereas they attribute such excellency unto musketeers

with their

muskets

that,

being in great numbers and backed

with some squadrons of pikes, they are able twenty or twentyfour scores

men and skillful

oflF

break and dismember squadrons both of horseit is

that muskets, being in the hands of

musketeers, are of great effect for divers purposes.

that kind of

was

to

footmen, true

first

weapon

of that length, with rests,

used in Italy above

and

And

so ranforced,

sixty years past (as I

have divers

times heard ancient captains of the Italian and Spanish nation say),

and that

at that time they

were employed

for the defense

of places fortified, as also out of trenches against places fortified

being besieged, which were the very natural places and of greatest effect for that

been used on

foot,

the

foot.

To

weapon; howbeit, since that time they have

most armies

but chiefly on

Duke

greatly

in

foot,

in the field,

came to govern the Low increased the number of that weapon of Alva

it

Countries,

to pass,

who

for soldiers

the which increase of musketeers he long before

persuaded with the Emperor Charles. bring

both on horseback and

but never in any great number until

on

had

Howbeit, he could never

because there were divers great and notable

Marginal note: "Musketeers on horseback were used in the Emperor and Henry the French king's times to flank a square of lances and to give a volley at another square of lances, their enemies, and they did use to wear half-cuirasses, with rests of iron to pull forward or put backward, to discharge their muskets from." The "French king" was Henry II, King of France 1547-1559.

Charles's

59

Sir

John Smythe

Marquess of Guast, Don Fernando Gon-

captains, such as the

zaga, Juan Baptista Castaldo, Antonio Doria, and the Marquess

men

of Marinnan,^^ with divers other principal

of his council of

war, that did utterly mislike the increasement of that

burdensome and heavy for soldiers or great encounters. But within towns besieged,

weapon

for the field as too

to use in

battles

or out of

trenches against places fortified, they did greatly allow of them.

But the Duke,

lute governor in the

numbers that the

Low

Countries, as aforesaid, seeing the

of rutters [cavalrymen] in all armies increased,

most

oflBcers of

he

time being lieutenant general and abso-

at this

of these rutters, as also that

many

and

captains and

footmen, were armed at the proof of the harquebus,

to the intent to frustrate the resistance of their

numbers

increase his

armors did

of musketeers, the blows of the bullets of

which no armors wearable can

resist.

divers ancient captains both Italians

And

this I have heard of and Spaniards who did

rather allow of the opinion of those great captains than of the

Duke

of Alva's so great increasing of that

time the

Duke

weapon. Since whose

of Parma, after the death of the

Commendador

and Don Juan de Austria being appointed by the King of Spain to be lieutenant general and governor there, seeing the greatest part of the

Low

Countries revolted and lost through

de Austria's composition, and that he was therefore

town because they were all fortified more or less, and that when he had won them he must keep and defend them with garrisons (for the which two effects, of wincity after city

and town

Don Juan to recover

after

was Alfonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto. North Africa, and Provence, and became Charles V's lieutenant general in Milan. On his death in 1546, he v/as succeeded by Don Ferrante Gonzaga, who had seen mihtary service in the Low Coun-

The "Marquess

He

fought in

of Guast"

Italy,

Antonio Doria was a notable professional soldier, who won the Order of the Golden Fleece for service on the CathoHc side in the French religious wars. The "Marquess of Marinnan" was Giovanni lacopo de' Medici, Marquis of Marignano, best known for his service at the siege tries.

of Siena in 1554.

60

Certain Discourses Military ning and defending of towns and places

fortified, that

kind of

weapon was very excellent), he increased his musketeers to a far greater number (as I have heard) than the Duke of Alva ever had. Howbeit, I know that the Duke of Alva had more cause to use musketeers in services of the field upon divers occasions than

any of

his successors, governors of those provinces,

ever had, by reason of the often invasions of Count Lodowick,^^ the Prince of Orange,^ ^ and others.

And

therefore he, being as

he was a great captain and of great experience and skill in all discipline and science military, did use to confer with his colo-

and maestros de campo and sergeants major of the use of all weapons in their due times and places and of their distances in

nels

every

sort, as of

very important matters belonging to the art

such wise as there was not any captain, alferez

military, in

[ensign], sergeant of band, or

that did not

know both by

operations and effects of

and harquebus,

in

cabo de esquadra [troop leader]

instruction

all

and practice the particular

weapons, and chiefly of the musket

which two weapons the Spaniards have been to be most perfect and skillful. In such

accompted of many years sort as there

were not any captains or leaders

in his militia so

ignorant that would permit their musketeers to give any volleys

from

their rests

either at

horsemen or footmen

any motion above eight or ten scores at the they

knew both by

instruction

in

march or

farthest,

because

and experience that with

that

weapon, being for divers causes very uncertain, they should

in

discharging farther off have wrought very small or none effect to the

annoyance of

their enemies.

For although the musket,

ranforced and well charged with good powder, would carry a full bullet

point and blank twenty-four or thirty scores, doth

therefore follow that they should give volleys of



Louis,

Count of Nassau,

d.

William, Count of Nassau,

The heavy in the

barrel of a

it

musket shot

1574. d.

1584.

musket was supported by a forked iron

rest stuck

ground.

61

John Smythe

Sir

twenty or twenty-four scores their

corn,

Whereas in failing to take just sight at point and blank no more but the length of a theii* bullets do work as much effect against the moon as

against the

enemy

off?

that they shoot

distance of ground,

how

at.

Besides that, in so great a

truly soever they take their sights at

point and blank, the air doth work very great effect with their

which are lower by four or five bores than the height of pieces,^^ to carry them from the mark or marks that they

bullets,

their

are shot

at.

volleys of

Moreover, by proof they

may

find that in giving their

musket shot but only twelve scores

or footmen that are in motion, they shall

ance,

by reason

that the bullets, being so

height of their pieces, as

is

aforesaid,

at either

horsemen

work no great annoy-

much lower than

do naturally mount and

the fly

uncertainly. Besides that, no musketeers in actions of the field

can have the time to charge their pieces and take their sights at point

and blank

as they

may

being within trenches or from

out of bulwarks, curtains, and rampires in places

with great leisure they

may

fortified,

charge their pieces with

where

full bullets

and charges and may shoot from very certain rests, as it were de mampuesto, as the Spaniards call it. By which reasons and experiences of the use of that

weapon

experience and judgment in our such

in the field, the lack of

men

of

war

that talk of

twenty-four or twenty scores like novices and visonos [recruits]

may

very evidently appear and give occasion to any such as

have seen the true

effects thereof to think that they

never saw

any important matter performed with that kind of weapon the

in

field.

Marginal note: "If musketeers may give effectual volleys twenty-four oflF (as it is fondly reported), then some number of archers being chosen that could with their flights shoot twenty-four or twenty scores (as there be many that can) may by the same reason give volleys of flights at their enemies eighteen scores off^, which both the one and the other are mockeries to be thought of, because there is no weapon in the field effectual further than to a convenient and certain distance." The diameter of the bullet being smaller than the bore of the gun. scores

62

"

Certain Discourses Military

Now

whereas they give so great commendation

that with that kind of

weapon

soldiers

in the plain fields ten or twelve scores

both of horsemen and footmen: unsoldierlike opinion

may

oflF,

to that I

and contrary

to the caliver

give volleys of shot

to the great

answer that

to all experience

annoyance it is

a very

and use

of

old soldiers (and chiefly of the old bands of Italians, Spaniards, and Walloons) who by long experience do better know what eflFects both harquebuses and muskets of all*heights do work

And because

by continual experience they know the wonderful uncertainty of those kinds of weapons in than they do.

the

field,

they will never skirmish nor otherwise give any volley

above twenty, though

that

be

it

men. Saving

thirty, forty or fifty

at a

paces

ofiF

whole squadron or troop

that, true it

is

of

at the farthest, al-

horsemen or

foot-

that the old soldiers harquebusiers

Spaniards, seeing their enemies in the field

some

eight, nine, or

by the commandment of their officers do sometimes give a very few shot at their enemies with no other intent but to abuse and procure them to give their volleys with all fury, that thereby they may spend their powder and bullets, heat their pieces, and work no effect, whereby they, still keeping the force of their shot, may after give their whole volleys at their enemies' ten scores

off,

approaching within effect the

ten, fifteen, or

twenty paces.

And

for that

Spaniards do use this phrase: disparese de lexos, para

atraher y engahar bobos,^^ which our such men of war may truly confess if ever they saw and encountered with any puissant

numbers

Now

of those nations in the field.

because they do

weapons

of

fire,

much

mistake the effects of those two

the musket and caliver, attributing such excel-

lency unto them for the field as

is

not to be performed with them,

thereby to bring our magistrates and the better sort of our

people and nation into misliking of our ancient weapon the

longbow, wishing the utter extinguishing of that kind of weapon Marginal note: "This phrase to

draw on and deceive

may be

interpreted 'discharge afar

dotterels ["gulls" in the sense "dupes"].'

63

off,

John Smythe

Sir as unprofitable

and

down

I will set

of

none

effect for the

wars of these our days,

the perfections and imperfections both of the

musket, caliver, and longbow, attributing unto each one of them

by common experience and reason have sort of them in the field; that by comparing the perfections, imperfections, and effects of the soldiers and their weapons of fire with the perfections, imperfections, and effects of the archers and their bows all men of consideration and judgment, be they soldiers or men of peace, may judge which of those three sorts of weapons are of greatest effect for battles and great encounters and other actions in the field, and not in places fortified.^^ the true effects [that]

been and may be wrought with every

And

therefore, beginning with harquebuses,

called calivers: of

rels]

if

by many mis-

they be well ranforced, and the cannons [bar-

them not above a yard

bullets not too great, with stocks of

be very maniable weapons

and the bore and good form, I think them to

in length,

for such soldiers as are well practiced

and do know how to use them, and that they do work most effect in woods and where vines or shrubs do grow, and from behind old ruined walls, as also where there be trenches, deep ways, banks, hills, rocks, or hedges, or any other covert where they may lie close and find anything to serve them for rests to discharge their pieces from, and so, upon the sudden giving volley after volley, they are of great service, and chiefly for ambushes, being fields,

fair

weather overhead.

two or three ranks

And

of them, being placed almost close to

the front of a squadron of pikes and likewise

and back

of the

also in the plain

same squadron, are

of

good

upon the

flanks

effect to give their

volleys at a squadron, or divers squadrons of lances charging the pikes.

And

that they

must perform

all

together

upon

their right

knees from under the pikes, which must guard them against "Marginal note: "This kind of way by comparison hath been always men of judgment the best to find out the truth of all matters in question and doubt."

thought by

64

Certain Discourses Military the charge of the lances. But they must take heed that they do

not give their volley at the horsemen ten, or

till

they come within eight,

twelve paces, and not eight, ten, or twelve scores, as our

such men of war do fondly talk and teach; and in that sort they may work very good effect if their pieces be charged with full bullets or hailshot of

two squadrons

war

[small shot] as they ought to be. If

of pikers also should

come

to jo\ji

and charge the

one the other, certain numbers of harquebusiers, being reduced into sleeves, wings,

and troops upon the

squadron, are of good so long as there are

Harquebusiers

effect,

societies or

in the field to

field,

little

advanced and retired with some shot, are of good weapons and against mus-

cameradas [squadrons] of loose

effect for skirmishes against the like

keteers, so that they axes,

off,

break them.

being reduced into wings and

squares and troops in the

of a

giving their volleys not too far

no horsemen

also,

and corners

flanks

and that

in that

be backed with

pikes, halberds, or battle-

kind of action they do not discharge their

pieces above thirty, forty, or fifty yards, or threescore at the

most, and that with great order and discretion.

And

these are the

chief effects of that kind of weapon.

Now

and heavy and bullet they do work very good places and seasons, saving that they are not to

as for musketeers, with their long, ranforced,

pieces of great munition effect in the like

be employed as loose shot

in skirmishes.

proper and apt places for musketeers in the into sleeves, wings,

of

armed men

Howbeit, the very field

is

to

be reduced

broad squares, or troops, to flank a squadron

or to defend a strait

[i.e.,

a pass or valley]. For

those kind of soldiers, having their muskets long, ranforced, of great forks,

and

munition and bullet, clapping their pieces upon their

may

shoot with some certainty from off those rests to the

annoyance and mischief of well-armed

Howbeit

men be

they on horse-

back or on

foot.

by reason

that the soldiers, being in continual motions,

for the skirmish they

work

little effect,

and

troubled with heavy pieces of great length as also with their

65

John Smythe

Sir

forks hanging

so

much

upon

their fingers, cannot use their

muskets with

readiness and dexterity as the harquebusiers their

harquebuses, being a great deal more Hght and short and without forks.

men

such

And of

field, lusty

some

of our

war do permit them when they come new

to the

to use their pieces

and

strong,

(how

muskets with their

left

effect against the

arms

at

any point and blank, being it is

lame

and backs.

in their arms, shoulders,

their

the next

way

Two

to

in

make them

ranks of mus-

reduced before the front of a squadron of

keteers, also, being

and using

enemy by reason

strong soever they be) to bear their

continual motions. Besides that,

pikes, kneeling

rests, as

contrary to the use of that weapon,

is

because they perform no they are not able

without

upon

their right knees,

muskets as

and encovered with

skillful soldiers

pikes,

may work

should do,

the like effect or better against a squadron of lancers charging

than three ranks of harquebusiers can do. But they must take

heed that they give not

their volley of shot at the lances

any

greater distance off than fifteen or twenty yards, because they

shoot the more certainly and not

fail to light either

upon the

horses or men.

And now, having of weapons,

I

will

declared the chief effects of both those sorts

proceed

to the imperfections

and common

ac-

them both, as also of the better sort of such soldiers do handle and use those weapons, of what nation soever they

cidents of as be.

All harquebusiers in skirmishes or great encounters, or being

reduced into any form, do commonly discharge their pieces without taking any certain sight at point and blank, and out of their point

and blank they do neither

kill

nor hurt.

busiers, also, or musketeers, in taking their sights

do

If

harque-

fail

but the

length of a wheat corn in the height of their point and blank,

they work no effect at the marks that they shoot

they be very great.

And

at,

although

in case they take their sights at just

point and blank, yet by reason that their bullets are lower by

66

Certain Discourses Military four or five bores than the height of their pieces, the said bullets

do naturally mount and fly uncertainly and wide from the mark or marks that they are shot at, and the further in distance the more they fail. The harquebus and musket also, being discharged but seven or eight shots in haste, do grow hot and then do work small effect but danger to the soldiers that do occupy them. If

the powder, also, with the which they ar^ charged be not

well corned [granulated] and with sufficient quantity of peter,

and kept very

dry,

it

furreth the pieces

salt-

and carrieth the

and blank but a little way, and many times they go not off at all. The match also, if it be not of very good substance, well wrought, and very well twisted, and kept very dry,

bullets point

same may be hard and good, it giveth no fire to the touchpowder. Besides that, if the touchpowder be not dry, it taketh no fire, how good soever the coal [glowing tip] of the match be. The harquebusiers and musketeers, also, charging their pieces in any actions of the field, if in moving or traversing their grounds they do not look well to the keeping up of the mouths of their pieces, but that by any chance the ends of them do go anything downward, the bullets that are smaller whereby the

by four

coal of the

or five bores than the heights of the cannons of their

pieces do

fall to

the ground.

Whereupon

it

happeneth that many

harquebusiers and musketeers, thrusting nothing after their bullets to keep them close to the powder, do in vain discharge the powder without the bullets. Also, if harquebusiers or musketeers

do not continually keep their pieces clean, without moisture or rust,

and

also take great

heed that they do not overcharge them,

they either put their pieces in hazard of breaking or else themselves to

be overthrown with the recoiling of them. Or

busiers or musketeers in charging their pieces

if

harque-

do not charge them

with convenient and

full charges, and chiefly the harquebusiers, and that the powder be very good and dry, as also that they do with their scouring sticks thrust either paper or felt or some-

67

Sir

John Smythe

thing else between the

powder and the bullets, or at the least whereby the whole charges of powder being restrained may take fire and give the more force to the bullets after the bullets,

likewise restrained, they perform but small effect. For such

harquebusiers and musketeers tions of the field,

and the

bullets,

do not use

to

charging their pieces in ac-

as,

put anything between the powder

nor yet after the bullets to keep the powder and

and close together, do discharge much of the powder whole out of the mouths of their pieces unfired, unless the

bullets firm

powder be marvelous dry and good. For being smaller and lower, as pieces

by

is

bullets for the field,

aforesaid, than the heights of the

three or four bores, the

first

nons next unto the touchhole, taking

powder within fire,

the can-

doth drive out the

powder next unto the bullets unfired, because powder and bullets do lie loose unrestrained, by means whereof the bullets do neither work that effect in their distances of point and blank that otherwise they would do, nor bullets with the

that both the

yet in the force of their blows.

Besides

all

which defaults and

defects, neither the

nor the musket in wet weather in the All

field

harquebus

do work any

effect.

which so many imperfections of harquebusiers and mus-

keteers (as are before declared, with

many

others that

I

omit)

upon many great skirmishes and encounters that have been very hot and continued many hours with new supplies on every side it hath often happened that in dischargare the causes that

ing on both sides

many thousands

of bullets within three, four,

and nearer there hath not been on both sides slain and hurt with bullets thirty men, which greatly argueth the insufficiency of those kinds of weapons for battles and great encounters. So as it is to be noted that such of our men of war

or five scores

as

do give

so singular

of harquebusiers

do not know with

commendations and praises

and musketeers,

all their

weapons, and

imperfections and failings before declared,

many more, do show 68

as also to those

to the effects

that they

have had very

little

experi-

Certain Discourses Military ence of those weapons in the

do know

how

to

field,

nor yet that they themselves

handle and use them and therefore do talk

novices they wot not what. Moreover, concerning the

ciency of those weapons of there be any

number

fire, it is

farther to

like

insuffi-

be noted that

if

of horsemen, either lances or stradiots,"^"

where musketeers or harquebusiers are in action, and that they have no horsemen on their side to answer them, it doth then behoove the shot with all celerity to**reduce themselves in the field

under the guard of their squadrons of pikes. Or

if

number

the

of them be so great that the squadrons of pikes cannot encover

them, the overplus must retire themselves to some such grounds of advantages as the

horsemen may not be able

to

charge them. For in case they should abide in the plain

come field,

to

not

encovered with pikes nor guarded with any ground of advantage, a

thousand brave lances or stradiots were able

to

break

above three thousand of the best musketeers or harquebusiers of

any nation.

Now weapon

to

the perfections

and imperfections

of our ancient

the longbow, comparing the different effects and ad-

vantages of that

weapon with

The imperfections ing of the

bow

of the

the aforenamed

weapons

of

fire.

longbow do consist only in the breakwhich in times past ( when

or bowstring, for the

was great accompt made of archery) there was special care had that all livery or war bows, being of the wood of yew, were longer than now they use them and so very well backed and nocked that they seldom or never brake. Besides that, the there

archers did use to temper with rosin,

and

fire

fine tallow together, in

a convenient quantity of wax,

such sort

that,

rubbing their

bows with a very little thereof laid upon a woolen cloth, it did conserve them in all perfection against all weather of heat, frost, " The term was originally used of the Balkan light horsemen recruited by the Venetians in the early sixteenth century. The word here refers to horsemen even more lightly armed than ordinary light cavalry ("lances"). Given to servants.

69

Sir

and wet. And the

strings,

a kind of water glue to strings

John Smythe

made of very good hemp, with wet and moisture, and the same

being

resist

being by the archers themselves with

whipped, did also very seldom break. But

if

fine

thread well

any such

strings in

time of service did happen to break, the soldiers archers had

always in readiness a couple of strings more ready whipped and

bows to clap on in an instant. And this I have heard of divers yeomen that have served as soldiers archers in fitted to their

the

field.

And now, having greatest

before in this discourse declared

and most perfect

eflFects

of harquebusiers

all

the

and mus-

and but a part of the imperfecweapons of fire, because there are

keteers for services in the field tions of

them and

many more which

in their

for brevity's sake I

have omitted; and seeing

that I have last of all declared that the imperfections of the

do

consist only in the breaking of the

cause that

if

bow and

bow

bowstring, be-

archers be well chosen and sound of limbs their

weapons do not permit any such accidental imperfections and failings in them as the forenamed weapons of fire do in the solwhich hath already apdiers that do handle and use them peared and shall after in this discourse be made more manifest I will now proceed to the consideration and examining of three most important things in the which all ejBFects of musketeers, harquebusiers, and archers and their weapons do consist. And that is, whether musketeers or harquebusiers with their weapons of fire, or archers with their bows and sheaves of arrows, upon all occasions in the field be most ready with all dexterity and celerity to execute the effects of their weapons by discharging and giving volleys at their enemies. The second is whether the archers with their weapons or the other soldiers with their weapons of fire do fail least to shoot, discharge, and give their volleys. And the third is whether by reason and com-





mon

experience the bullets of weapons of

70

fire in

the field or the

Certain Discourses Military arrows of archers do annoy the enemies most, be they horsemen or footmen.

To

the

first I

think that there

the aforenamed

weapons

is

no

man

deny

that will

of

any experience

in

but that archers are

able to discharge four or five arrows apiece before the harque-

be ready

busiers shall



discharge one bullet

to

when

harquebusiers beginning to charge

The reason

to take their arrows to shoot.

harquebusiers are

one of three ways; the

and charges charges

mean

the

because good

is tifis:

charge their pieces with powder by

to

first

I

the archers do begin

which

first,

of their flasks;

best, as out of the

is

the second

is

by

mouths

certain covered

with powder, which harquebusiers do wear or

filled

carry divers ways; and the third

is

by cartages

[cartridges],

with the which they do charge their pieces both with powder

and

bullet all at

one time.

And

yet,

by which

of all these

soever or any other they do charge them, they must

good harquebusiers use with quantity of paper or after their bullets to

felt

intent that their bullets

may

ways

they be

their scouring sticks to thrust a

or something else before, but chiefly

keep them close to the powder, to the

upon no accidents may

least lie loose unrestrained

pieces

if

from the powder, as

fall out,

or at

also that their

carry the further point and blank and their bullets

give the greater blows.

touchpowder

into their

Which done, they must

presently put

pans and their matches into their cocks

which to perform requireth a good time. Whereas the archers in the field, continually having their bows bent, have no more to do but to draw their arrows out of their cases and sheaves, to nock them in their bows, to draw them to the heads and shoot, all which is performed almost in an instant. Now to the second. Archers have no accidents nor impediments to hinder them from the performance and execution of or serpentines,'^^ all

*^The hinged arm which brought the match down

when

the trigger

to the

priming pan

was squeezed. 71

Sir their dischargings

John Smijthe

and volleys whereby they should anyways

to discharge the same, unless their

bows

fail

or bowstrings should

Whereas harquebusiers have not only the same let case their pieces by overcharging or overheating or cracks

break.

do break, but

rifts

also

if

in

or

that through the negligence of the

harquebusiers the powder with the which they charge their

by any accident have received any wet

pieces

or moisture, or

that through the lack of the closeness of their flasks the air of

some moist weather hath penetrated and entered into the flasks and caused the powder to give and [become] dank, by means whereof, the harquebusiers giving their serpentines to the

fire

with their matches in

touchpowder, oftentimes their pieces do

not discharge, or sometimes the powder lieth fizzing in the

touchhole or piece until the harquebusiers have

and blank

[i.e.,

lost their

point

aim], and then peradventure in vain do the

off. The touchpowder in the touchboxes, also, if either by the negligence of the harquebusiers ( as aforesaid ) or by the

pieces go

fault of the touchboxes (through the moistness of the

weather)

powder hath given and become whereby the harquebusiers do not only fail of their dischargings but also become unprofitable till they have dried or changed the same. Harquebusiers and musketeers, also, in pour-

dank, oftentimes will take

the

no

fire;

ing touchpowder into their pans, the wind, if it be blow and disperse the same in such sort that they often

fail to

discharge their pieces.

busiers, in putting their to set

them

And

so likewise

great, will shall very if

harque-

matches into their serpentines, do

of a convenient length that thereby they

may

fail

strike

same too long, whereby the matches, if they be anything too lithe, do hang downward, and with the coming down and stroke of the cocks they fall double and short of the pans and powder; or if the same matches by any accident have received outwardly any wet or just in the

powder and

pans, but do set the

moisture, then the coals do burn inward, leaving a beard out-

ward, so as thereby although the ends thereof do 72

light in the

Certain Discourses Military midst of the pans and powder, yet the same do by not sparkling give no

By

fire to

the touchpowder.

which aforesaid means and accidents, with divers both musketeers and harquebusiers do fail to discharge

all

others,

which imperfections and other accidents bows are void; so as by all reason and experimost manifest that archers are four ^mes more ready

their pieces; of all

archers with their

ence

it is

to give their volleys of arrows than harquebusiers or musketeers

which unreadinesses and any battle, great enthe doth weather happen to rain, hail, or counter, or skirmish, snow, the aforenamed weapons of fire can work no eflFect, because the same doth not only wet the powder in their pans and touchholes, but also doth wet the match, put out or at least damp the fire, and doth mar the powder in their flasks and touchboxes, their volleys of bullets. Besides all failings before

mentioned,

if

in the time of

good provision and besides be

unless the soldiers have very

wonderful careful with their faltenbergs or mandilions cover and hail, rain,

preserve the same.^^

nor snow can

and working great

let or

efiFects

Whereas

hinder the archers from shooting

with their arrows. All which argueth

and proveth a singular advantage and excellency their weapons above weapons of fire.

Now

all

to en-

contrariwise, neither

of archers

and

harquebusiers and musketeers with their

peradventure some not skilled in the perfections and

imperfections of harquebusiers and musketeers will say that

they have seen the soldiers of those weapons of discharge with a great deal

mentioned. Whereunto

mendable

I

more

answer that althougii

for all harquebusiers

and musketeers

charge and discharge apace, with

fire

celerity than I

all

charge and

have before

it

be very com-

to

know how

to

other particularities be-

^ In Instructions, p. 188, Smythe explains that every harquebiisier should have "a faltenberg, commonly called a mandilion, of very good broadcloth that will not shrink, to encover and keep dry their flasks and touchboxes and the same handsomely made to their bodies." .

.

.

73

John Smythe

Sir

longing to weapons of

yet such harquebusiers or musket-

fire,

do use to charge and discharge so For by often experience, such

eers as

all others.

commonly charge

fast are the

worst of

their pieces with uncertain charges of

and do neither use with

do powder

soldiers for haste

their scouring sticks to thrust

paper nor

anything else betwixt their powder and bullets nor yet after their bullets to restrain

and keep

dischargings against the

close the same,

whereby

enemy might be the more

their

effectual.

Besides that, in their dischargings they take no kind of sight at point and blank, nor yet at the ends of their pieces, but do dis-

charge at a venture.

Whereby

it

cometh

to pass that such quick

and hasty harquebusiers do work no other powder, match, and their

own

mischiefs,

and

scare crows in a cornfield

with any weapons of

and heat

shot,

therefore, in troth, are (

more meet )

to

than

be employed against the enemy. last,

which

bullets of

is

whether by reason

weapons

of fire in the

the arrows of archers do annoy the enemies most, be

they horsemen or footmen. iterate

but spend

unless they reform themselves

fire to

And now to the third and and common experience the field or

effect

their pieces oftentimes to

and

set

down

I

think

it

superfluous again to re-

the different advantages

of harquebusiers, musketeers,

and

and

chief effects

archers, because I

have

al-

ready made them so manifest, as also that the reader hereafter shall see in

many

parts of this discourse divers reasons

and many field do

notable examples and experiences that archers in the

and excel all musketeers and harquebusiers in terrifying, wounding, and killing both horses and men. And therefore I will only in this place answer one objection which I have divers times heard alleged in commendation of the effects of weapons of fire and the disabling of the effects of archers, and

far exceed

that

is this.

There are many that have reported that the blows and harquebusiers are no less than

of the bullets of muskets

death to such as they light upon, whereas contrariwise the blows of arrows

74

do but only

gall or lightly

wound. Which

in troth

is

Certain Discourses Military greatly mistaken

common

by

experience

all it

such as do hold that opinion, for that by

hath been seen in

all

skirmishes and great

encounters that for every one that hath been slain dead in the

have been weapons of fire, although some of them have remained ever after maimed, and some not. Whereas by true experience, archers with their arrows do not only greatly wound but also sometime? kill both horses and men in such sort as they never depart out of the field alive, as it shall hereafter appear by divers ancient as also modern field

by the shot

of musketeers or harquebusiers there

four that have not died by the hurts of such

examples. Besides that,

I

and divers other gentlemen

of our

Edward the Sixth's have many times heard

nation yet living that were in France in King

time (and also divers times since)

French captains and gentlemen attribute

all

the former vic-

English against themselves and their ancestors the

tories of the

French more

to the eflFect of

our archers than to any extraordi-

nary valiancy of our nation, and therewithal further report and say that they did think that the English archers did use to

poison their arrowheads, because that of great numbers of the

French nation that many times had been wounded or hurt with arrows very few had escaped with their their

wounds did

so

lives by reason that impostume that they could not be cured.

In which their conceits they did greatly

err,

because in troth

those impostumations proceeded of nothing else but of the very rust of the

arrowheads that remained rankling within their

wounds. And therefore by the cient enemies

(

that

we have

great but also the small

found of

to

common

so often

wounds

experience of our an-

vanquished ) not only the ,

of our arrows

be more dangerous and hard

to

have been always

be cured than the

fire

any shot unpoisoned. Besides

being

all

which,

wounded

it is

to

be noted that horses

in the field,

or but lightly hurt with arrows, they, through

the great pain that upon every motion they do feel in their flesh, veins,

and sinews by the shaking of the arrows with 75

their

Sir

barbed heads hanging

and leaping

flinging,

in

squadron or

leave until

in

as

if

John Smythe them, do presently

fall

a-yerking,

they were mad, in such sort as be

it

do disorder one another and never they have thrown and cast their masters. Whereas in troop they

contrariwise, horses that are in their vital parts hurt with bullets, or

the bones of their legs, shoulders, or backs be broken, do

if

presently

fall

down

or,

otherwise, although they be stricken

clean through or that the bullets do

still

remain in them, they

after the first shrink at the entering of the bullet

career [make their charge] as though they hurt.

and the

And

all

this of the

others do

field.

And

also

had very

little

hurting of horses with bullets both

know

I

their

or no

myself

that have seen any actions performed in

the other, of the great disordering of horses with

the hurts of our English arrows,

and

do pass

I

have read

in divers histories

have heard reported by divers gentlemen of our nation

that have seen the same. But now, because I have divers times

heard many vain objections objected by some of our captains of the

Low

Countries against archers, to the disgracing and dis-

abling of them and their weapons in comparison of musketeers

and harquebusiers and help of Almighty

their

weapons

God answer )

as

many

of

fire, I

of

them

will (with the

as shall fall into

my memory,

and therefore will begin with one of their little fancies which they do allege against the longbow, and so proceed to their greater and greatest objections. Among many other their fancies, they do allege that the archers' bows, being by them used against the enemy in the heat of summer, will grow so weak that thereby they will lose their force and efiFects. Whereunto I answer that this objection is a new fancy and a very dream, contrary to all ancient and

modern experience

of English archers,

wood

whose bows, being made

do never so decay in strength neither by hot nor wet weather nor yet by often shooting in them but that they will with arrows wound and sometimes kill both men and horses a greater distance off than the shot and of that excellent

76

of yew,

Certain Discourses Military bullets of harquebusiers

and

caliverers, [and] are to

be employed

and used in the open fields by skillful conductors and leaders, by reason of the wonderful failings and uncertainties of those and all other weapons of fire maniable [portable], divers of the particularities

whereof

I

have before

in this discourse

made

manifest.

Also they do further allege that upon an invasion of foreign

dominions beyond the ers, as of

weapons

seas, the

found and provided where archery trariwise, all

is

as

is

not used, whereas, con-

kinds of munition belonging to weapons of

are easy to be found

Which

and^'furniture of arch-

bows, sheaves of arrows, and bowstrings, cannot be

much

as

if

and provided

fire

in all foreign dominions.

they should say that

if

an army of

five-

and-twenty or thirty thousand of our English nation, under

some sufficient general, were sent to invade France and, disembarking in Normandy and winning Newhaven [Le Havre] and Rouen, should straight march to Paris (which is no more than divers kings of England and their generals have done) where, after some encounters and skirmishes, the army coming to lack

powder and

shot, they

should with

facility for

money

provide the same in the heart of the enemy's country, where the towns in

which

is

all

which that provision is to be had are fortified, dream to be thought on. But

a very mockery and a

men

war peradventure will further allege that they might have the same provision by the way of convoy, either from Newhaven or Rouen, in case they were possessed of those towns. Whereunto it is to be answered that, first, the convoy had need to be very strong. Besides that, there is no man of any consideration and judgment but doth very well know that muskets, harquebuses, powder, match, and lead are as heavy, and a great deal more heavy, to be carried than- bows, sheaves of arrows, and bowstrings are. Besides that, by such their ignorant objections they do evidently show that they have some

of our such

of

not read nor heard, or else for lack of reason not believed, the

77

Sir

John Smtjthe

proceedings of the notable kings of England in their invasions

and other dominions. For if they had, they would not then doubt but that a king of England or his lieutenant general invading foreign dominions would upon such an enterprise carry

of France

all

munition belonging

sorts of

many

to archers to serve

them

for

and great encounters as well as King Edward the Henry the Fifth, and their lieutenant generals did,

battles

Third, and

whose armies did sometimes consist of nine or ten thousand, all archers, and not above four or five thousand armed men on horseback and on foot. Which princes and their lieutenants did never omit

(

according to their militia ) to carry great plenty of

sheaves of arrows, bows, and for their archers as for their

all

other things requisite as well

armed men, and

all

other

eiffects.

Besides that, by that their simple and fond objection they do

army royal For if they had, they then would very well no puissant army formed either to invade or

discover that they have very seldom or never seen an

march

know

in the field.

that there

is

defend, which doth consist of a well-ordered militia, that doth not in the public carriages of the

camp

ordinarily carry

all

kinds

weapons and armors oflFensive and defensive, with all other munitions and necessaries requisite for all purposes for the public employments and use of camp, town, and of munitions of

field.

Now

men of war do further upon fancy than upon any soldierlike reasons and experience, many vain and frivolous objections partly against the bows (as aforesaid) but chiefly against the archers that do use them, how good soever they be, saying that archers when they have lain some long time in camp in the field will become so decayed in strength either by sickness or otherwise that they will not be able to draw their bows and work that effect that archers should do, whereas, contrariwise, musketeers and harwhereas some of our aforesaid

allege, rather

quebusiers will give as great blows with their bullets out of their pieces

78

being decayed in strength by long lying in camp or

Certain Discourses Military

by sickness it is

as

if

they were whole: thereunto

men

that the small love that such

Low

of

I

war

answer that true as they are

have

them borne nothing but provand and lodging them in churches upon the bare stones and pavements as well in winter as in summer, with many other their abuses and disorders contrary to all discipline military, have made most of their soldiers urjit and unable to use any sort of weapons as soldiers should do in the field. Howbeit, in favor of archers, to convince their simple and ignorant opinions I say that if harquebusiers happen to be decayed in strength by sickness, or if by long lying in camp in the field they shall happen to have any ache or aches in their necks, to their soldiers in the

Countries, allowing

shoulders, arms, backs, thighs, legs, or feet, although that they

be otherwise heartwhole enough [they] rather

less,

shall

be

as

able in services in the field to perform the

little,

or

eflFect

of

harquebusiers than archers the effect of archers. For harquebusiers in such services

now

fellows,

lithe in all their joints

and

may

stoop to their pieces and traverse their

retiring

having discharged, giving place to their

sinews that they grounds,

must be

and then advancing again, giving

their fellows retiring

time again to charge, with such agility and dexterity that they

may be ready upon little

advantage of

every opportunity to stoop and take every

hillocks, banks, vines, trenches, shrubs, or

suchlike. Besides that, they

must have

their

any

arms and shoulders

very sound to carry their pieces firm in their dischargings at the

enemy, as also

which

effects

weak by

and charge again, if they be grown they have aches or cricks in any

to use their scouring sticks

they are noways able to perform

lying in the field, or

if

part of their limbs, as aforesaid.

Musketeers also

it

doth behoove to be strong and puissant of

body, without sickness, aches, or other impediments, and every

way sound of

body by

of

wind and

lying in the

limb. For field,

or

if

if

they be decayed in strength

they have any impediments of

cricks or aches in their necks, shoulders, arms, backs, thighs, or

79

John Smtjthe

Sir legs,

not possible that they should be able to use their

is

it

muskets

in the field to the

annoyance of

their enemies, their

pieces being so wonderful heavy, and they troubled with the

carrying and use of their rests and loaden with their other ordi-

nary and heavy furniture,

if they be anyways decayed, as aforeand therefore are become unprofitable for services in the field. Whereas archers, that are not troubled with so heavy weapons and furniture as the musketeers, nor bound by the

said,

effects of their agilities as if

weapons

to

any such nimbleness, stoop ings, and

harquebusiers are,

may

very well draw their bows

they be sound without aches from the girdle upward, what

aches soever they have from that part downward, so long as they are able to march as fast as armed

men

pikers,

because that

according to the ancient and true use of that weapon they are to

be used rather

for battles

and great encounters than

for light

skirmishes.

Armed men to

march

decayed

and halberdiers, will be very imable armed and with their weapons if they be strength of body by long lying in the camp or by also, pikers

in the field in

sickness, or

sides that,

if

they have any aches or cricks in their limbs. Be-

upon such

diseases they will be a great deal less

able to encounter with their enemies in the field

upon any

occasion of battle or great encounter and to use their pikes and other weapons as

which

rightly

armed men should do

considered,

their

in

such actions. All

unconsiderate speeches and

enablings of musketeers and harquebusiers and disabling of archers

upon the accidents and occasions aforesaid doth argue

their insufficiencies in matters military,

to

be men of war or old

because such as pretend

soldiers should not speak rashly

and

Frenchman sayeth) d la volee, but with consideration, reason, and judgment. For otherwise, how long soever they have served in wars, it may be rightly deemed that they have spent their times and employed themselves more to some other base (as the

80

Certain Discourses Military

and

vile

occupations than to the consideration and exercises of

matters mihtary.

Moreover, they object against archers that

men

age are

in this

not so mighty and strong of body as they have been in former

and therefore cannot shoot so strong and work with their arrows as their forefathers have done

ages,

past,

which

reason

is

is

as frivolous

this,

an objection as

may

that they

see

all

the

in times

And

rest.

by experience,

if

they

throughout England as also amongst other nations, as sons as

and and weaker. peradventure with more troth some may say

tall

or taller than

their fathers, or bigger

good

so

effects

the list,

many

stronger,

as they shall see lower, slenderer,

Now

England within these

subjects of

thirty or forty years

that the

have not

had so much exercise in archery as their forefathers in times past were wont to have, whereby it cometh to pass that archers in number are greatly decayed, which I confess to be very true. Howbeit, that hath chiefly proceeded through the great fault

and negligence lent statute

of divers sorts of magistrates,

and penal laws

"'i

who, having excel-

established in other kings' times

and maintenance of archery and that boys from young years should be taught the exercise and use of the bow that being come to man's state they might be the better able to serve their prince and country with that kind of weapon, have so neglected, or rather contemned, the due performance and execution of those laws that a great deal more through their for the increase

their

own

fault

than through the fault of the people

to pass that the

realm hath so few good archers.

negligence or contempt, whether

it

now come Which their

it is

hath proceeded of that they

have been carried into the fancies of liking the aforesaid weapons of

fire

rible fire,

because they

fill

men's ears and eyes with such

ter-

smoke, and noise, or else that they have been per-

suaded thereunto by some old newfangled See above,

p. xl,

and see

also pp.

xlii,

men

of

war

that do

xlv, xlvi.

81

John Smythe

Sir

neither understand the true

nor archery,

But

this I

I

wot

eflFects

of musketry, harquebusery,

not.

know, that

if

weapon

that

hereafter shall

come

to

be forgotten and extinguished through the negligence and ^ack of good execution of such good laws, whereas in times past we

were wont

weapon skill

and fight with our enemies with a them that they never had any use or

to give battle

so terrible unto

of but only to their mischief (and therefore of great ad-

vantage for us) and a weapon wherein our people and nation, of a singular gift of

God and

as

it

with good execution of laws, came

were by a natural inclination to be so perfect and excellent

we

without any public cost and charges either to king or realm, shall then

upon any occasion

of

war

driven to fight with them with their disadvantage, that

is,

be

ofiFensive or defensive

own weapons

to

our great

with the harquebus and musket, in the

which they had and have continual practice and exercise by reason that they are in the Continent, where every kingdom and state doth join one to another without any partition of sea and therefore are driven to keep continual garrisons and exercises of war. Whereas we, contrariwise, living in long peace without any such exercises military, upon the occasion of a war enroll new soldiers and go about them with those weapons that they never handled before when we should go to fight and give battle to

must levy and

(as aforesaid)

to train

and

exercise

the enemy's army, that

and exercised

Now

in those

is,

of old soldiers of long time trained

weapons.

these weapons, the longbows, which our such

war have

so

much condemned, being

in the

men

hands of such

of

sol-

weapons of singular and great encounters both against horsemen and footmen, and chiefly being so evil armed as all nations in these our days both on horseback and on foot diers archers as can well use them, are

advantage and

are.

Because the

both of 82

fair

and

effect for battles

bow

is

a

weapon wonderful ready

foul weather

(

in all seasons,

which muskets and harquebuses

Certain Discourses Military

wound, gall, and kill both horses and men if the arrows do light upon any disarmed parts of them. Besides that, the archers being good, they do direct their arrows in the shooting of them out of their bows with a great deal more certainty, being within eight, nine, ten, or eleven scores, than any harquebusiers or musketeers how good soever they be can do in a much nearer distance. By reason that musketeers and harquebusiers, failing in their points and blank, do neither kill nor are not), and doth

and blank, through the imperfections before declared, they do very seldom hit, whereas contrariwise the arrows do not only wound and sometimes kill in their points and blank but also in their descents and fall. For if hurt. Besides that, in their points

in their descents

their

they light not upon the enemy's faces, yet in

lower descents they light either upon their breasts,

codpieces, thighs, knees, or legs, fall

and

bellies,

in their lowest descent

and

even to the very nailing of their feet to the ground, which

with the terrible coming of the arrows in the eyes and sight both of

in them a wonderful fear and Whereas contrariwise, harquebusiers and musketeers with weapons of fire do noways terrify neither horses nor men

horsemen and footmen causeth

terror.

their

that are but four or five times noise, unless bullets.

And

the reason

is this,

are invisible, and therefore it

cometh

used

to their cracks,

by great chance they happen

to pass that

smoke, and

be stricken with

that the bullets being discharged

do noways

when

to

terrify the sight.

horses and

men

Whereof been in

that have

three or four skirmishes do see that they receive no hurt neither

by the

fire,

smoke, nor noise, and that in jriany thousands of

harquebus and musket shot there are not twenty hurt, they

grow

after to

be

far less in

of fire than of pikes, halberds, lances,

men

slain

nor

doubt of those weapons

and swords. Howbeit, the

volleys of archers' arrows flying together in the air as thick as hail

do not only

eyes,

terrify

and hearts both

and amaze

of horses

in

most

terrible sort the ears,

and men with the noise and sight do not leave in

of their coming, but they also in their descents

83

Sir

John Smythe

a whole squadron of horsemen nor footmen (although they be in

much

motion) so

wounded with

as

one

divers arrows,

man if

nor horse unstricken and

number

the

of the archers

be

answerable to the number of the squadron.

And otiiers,

the experience that both

I

and many

both noblemen, gentlemen, and great captains of

many

have served amongst, have had of the small

elfect

nations that of

for

therefore,

weapons

I

of fire in the field, with the reasons

before alleged, for

many

my

part

I will

and differences

never doubt to adventure

my

had them, amongst eight thousand archers complete, well chosen, and appointed, and therewithal provided and furnished with great store of sheaves of arrows as also with a good overplus of bows and bowstrings, against twenty thousands of the best harquebusiers and musketeers that are in life,

or

lives

if I

Christendom. For harquebusiers,

if

diis

I

know, as

they be led by

it

is

skillful

before declared, that conductors, are not to

give any volleys of shot above three or four scores

(

and yet that

too far) nor musketeers any volleys of bullets above eight,

ten,

or twelve scores at any squadrons of horsemen or footmen in

motion, and yet that too far unless their leaders do think rather to terrify their

enemies with smoke and noise than with any

hurt of the bullets. Whereas archers, reduced into their con-

venient forms, being in so great numbers, as aforesaid, do dim

and cover the earth with their volleys of arrows eight, nine, ten, and eleven scores distant from them; in such sort as no numbers of musketeers, harquethe light of the sun, darken the

air,

busiers, or argoletiers, nor yet squadrons of lances nor of foot-

men, being so

ill

armed

as in these days they are, shall

be found

able to abide the incredible terror of the shot of such infinite is no doubt but that archers with wound, kill, or hurt above an hundred men and horses for every one that shall be slain or hurt by the volleys of so great numbers of harquebusiers and musketeers as

numbers

of arrows.

For there

their volleys of arrows will

are before mentioned.

84

Certain Discourses Military

Now

men

war do further disable our work in a manner no effect archers, saying that they are to neither against horsemen nor footmen, and that archers are not whereas our such

of

able in the field to abide the terror of the shot of musketeers nor

harquebusiers, with trary to all reason

many

other vain and fond objections con-

and experience,

certainly

it is

not to be thought

strange in them, considering that as their ovenveening and pre-

sumption hath extended

to

show

their lack of skill in

many

other

matters military before mentioned which they pretended to have

most knowledge of (as namely in the mistaking

of the con-

veniency of divers sorts of weapons in their due times and places,

with

many

other very important matters before mentioned )

in these matters of our archery

it is

:

so

not to be marveled at that

they do so grossly err in their fond opinions conceived and alleged against the excellent effects of that weapon, of the which

they never had any experience, nor yet do

them; as that

it

saw

formed

did very evidently appear to

know how to order men of judgment

all

their disorderly placing of archers in the battles they

summer, 1588, where the Earl of Leicester, being lieutenant general of the army assembled for Tilbury this

at

last

the defense of the realm, commanded all such men of war as were the chief officers of the army under him to consider of some excellent order and forms of battle that should be pre-

sented within three or four days after in the presence and sight of the

Queen, her Council, and

nobility.

At which time some of

the chief officers of the camp, that of long time the

Low

had served

in

Countries, being there assembled to form three battles,

a vaward, battle, and rearward, with wings, sleeves, squares, and

and for that warning had been given them of the Queen's coming so long before, having consulted how to reduce them into the most strong and beautiful form that they could to have given battle if the enemy had been troops according to their best

there, they

of archers

with

and

many

their

skill,

terrible oaths

and cursings and bannings

bows, partly for the hatred they bare to that 85

John Smythe

Sir

weapon

—but chiefly

cause they

knew

(as I think

and

as

not where to place them

and much ado, placed

it



after

appeared) be-

in the end, after long

certain ranks of archers in the midst of

their squadrons of pikes,

behind the ensigns, and seven ranks of

upon the very back of the battle, and by the flanks of their three battles, of which sleeves some of them were of five in a rank and some three in a rank. And because they should be archers they placed behind

all

the rest they reduced into sleeves close

surely guarded with shot they reduced sleeves, or rather squad-

which some were of nine-and-twenty in a rank, other of fifteen in a rank, and the smallest sleeves of eleven in a rank, which to all men of any judgment in matters military might be a wonderful scorn and mockery. For in case that they should in that form have marched against the enemy to have given battle, they themselves, by their fond and unskillful placing of the archers, had taken away the whole effect of the volleys rons, of caliver shot, close to the flanks of the archers, of

sleeves of caliver shot

of their arrows.

For

it is

to

be understood that when any squad-

rons of pikers do approach with intent to give battle and join

with other squadrons of pikers or

men, they

and

front

all

to receive a

charge of horse-

upright their pikes and do close themselves by

Then the archers are to give their volleys enemy approaching within eight, nine, ten,

flanks.

arrows at the eleven scores.

And

to

perform the same they ought not

to

of

or

have

any other weapon placed before them that may anyways take away their sights to direct their arrows toward the enemies' faces. But as they were placed, their sights had not only been taken

away upon such an

with so

many

action with the

smoke

of the shot

and

ranks and ensigns closed in front and flanks as

were before them, but also the most of their volleys of arrows should have flown through the taffetas of the ensigns and have glanced or lighted upon the pikes, either cleaving them or beating them down. Besides that, to the archers' great disadvantage

they should have

86

lost a great part of their

ground

in giving

Certain Discourses Military their volleys of arrows at their

many

so

tance,

Which most

enemies by reason of the

and ignorant

gross

errors

by them committed

their reducing of archers contrary to all science military,

many

other their disorders which

and

their lack of skill

therefore

will

I

I

omit,

in

with

do manifestly show

anyways to control or find and renowne^ weapon. Now

insufficiency

most excellent

fault with that

dis-

ranks of other weapons being before them.

proceed to the ancient and orderly forming and

use of archers that hath been used of great antiquity by the

who God and marvelous eflFect of that most singular weapon have achieved so many and so wonderful victories notable kings and great captains of our English nation,

with the grace of

against both pagans

The ancient order skillful

and-twenty,

of reducing archers into

And

in flank.

As

form by our most

into herses, that

for example,

thirty, five-and-thirty, or

front, the flanks

most.

Christians.

and warlike ancestors was

and narrow

front

and

if

broad in were five-

is,

there

more or fewer archers

in

did consist but of seven or eight ranks at the

the reason

was

this: that if

they had placed any more

ranks than seven or eight, the hinder ranks of archers should

have

lost

a great deal of ground in the volleys of their arrows

and proportionate and rank and the ranks before them, as also that the sight of the hinder ranks should have been taken away by so many former ranks from directing their volleys of arrows toward their enemies' faces. And whereas the small skill

at their enemies, considering the convenient

distances betwixt rank

of our such

men

war at Tilbury did as it were lock up all the them of all use and effect of their arrows, our

of

archers, depriving

ancestors

weapon

had

so great experience of the wonderful effect of that

that they placed their herses of archers either before

the front of their

armed footmen

or else in wings

upon the

corners of their battles, and sometimes both in front and wings.

And of

them in the face of the men-at-arms other brave horsemen of foreign nations, who

in this sort they placed

France and

all

87

Sir in those days

our days are. of

were

And

John Smythe

far better

armed than any nations

our archery and arrows was such

thick as

in these

yet with this good order the wonderful effect

snow with a

terrible noise,

that, flying in the air as

much

like a

tempestuous

wind preceding a tempest, they did leave no disarmed place of horse or man unstricken and wounded, as may well appear by many battles and victories, and namely by the Battle of Crecy that King Edward the Third and Prince Edward his son won against King Philip of France, where the said King Philip had eight or ten thousand men-at-arms, and fifteen thousand Genoese crossbowers (which were no ways inferior for services in the field to the musketeers of this time), with so puissant an

army

also

on horseback and on

foot,

very well armed and ap-

pointed, of divers nations, that they were six at the least for

every one of the English. In which battle were slain eleven princes and twelve hundred knights, besides thirty thousand soldiers of all nations.

the shot of arrows

was

And

the wonderful effect and terror of

day such

that

as neither the

with his men-at-arms, nor yet any other of

French king

his great captains

with their brave and well-armed bands of horsemen of divers

and break the

nations,

were able

had no

pikes, stakes, banks, nor trenches to

to enter

being in the plain and open

fields,

archers, although they

guard them. But

the archers with their volleys

horsemen and footmen, wounding or both horses and men in such sort that the French king

of arrows did break both killing

himself, being in great peril,

arrows slain under

had

his horse

with the shot of

him.-^^

By which example and divers others that I will hereafter allege, it may be apparent to any man that is possessed with the grace of God and therefore of sound judgment that archers, being in great numbers and reduced into the form of herses or

double herses as wings

may

the

Smythe

88

to a battle or

more conveniently give cites in the

squadron of pikes, that they

their volleys of arrows,

need

margin "Froissart and the French chronicles."

Certain Discourses Military not to be guarded with pikes nor yet stakes (as

some

talk of

the Battle of Agincourt), but they themselves are most brave pikers.

For as a squadron of pikers well formed do with their

pikes in their hands

work great

effect in resisting a

charge of

lances or by encountering with another squadron of pikers, their

enemies, so the arrows of brave archers reduced into herses,

being delivered out of their bows, do become so terrible pikes in the eyes

and

sight of the horses, as also in lighting

upon

chanfrons, crinets, or steel pectorals or, being not barbed, their bare faces

and every disarmed

part, that the horses,

their

upon with

and unaccustomed noise and with the blows and wounding of the arrows, do fly back and athwart the one the other in such sort as no force of spurs can make them to the buzzing, striking,

go any further against

tlie

archers, but that they

overthrow one another. Besides

that, against

do disorder and

squadrons of armed

footmen, the volleys of arrows flying in the air and coming in

and sights as thick as hail, and lighting upon their and every other disarmed part, do so amaze them that they come to loose their ranks and disorder themselves before they can come to join with another squadron of armed men, their enemies, and also with their terror do wonderfully confuse and confound the greatest and bravest captains in their directions and commandments. As it may very well appear not only their eyes

faces

by the Battle of Crecy before mentioned, but also by the Battle of Poitiers, where certain years after the same Prince Edward that was at the Battle of Crecy with King Edward his father, having not in his whole army above eight thausand English and

Gascons

(

of the

which there were

six

thousand archers and two

thousand armed men) overthrew King John of France, that

who

was accompanied with a great and of other nations, as dukes, princes, earls, and other great captains, and had in his army above threescore thousand horsemen and footmen, of the which there were above ten thousand men-at-arms, and of horsemen of

valiant prince,

at that battle

part of the nobility of France

89

Sir all sorts

above

John Smtjthe

thirty thousand.

Where

a

little

before the battle,

the prince with his notable captains, considering the small

ber that he had to make head and

huge an

so

host, did take a

resist the

num-

French king with

ground of some strength and ad-

vantage for the guard of the flanks and back of his small army, and, placing a great part of his archers in front in the open place

where the French horsemen and footmen were the

battle,

archers

to enter

and give

with their wonderful volleys of arrows

(through the great goodness of God) did that day so wound, kill,

and mischief both horses and men that he overthrew King his whole army and took him and one of

John of France with his sons prisoners,

the

number

were

and

of earls, barons, knights,

of sixteen

slain the

Duke

and esquires

hundred or more. Besides

of Athens, with so

many

that,

to

there

earls, barons,

and esquires that they were numbered to be above seven hundred, and so many prisoners of all sorts taken by the English and Gascons that they far exceeded the number of the knights,

prince's army.

The

Battle, also, of Navaretta

Prince

Edward

in favor of

in Spain,

Don Pedro

el

fought by the same

Cruel against

Don

Henry of Castile may testify the wonderful eflFect of archers, where there were above a hundred thousand Spaniards, Frenchmen, Portuguese, Genoese crossbowers, and Moors, both horsemen and footmen, overthrown in that battle. The famous victory and Battle of Agincourt, also, of later years fought by King Henry the Fifth against the whole power of France, doth evidently show the most excellent effects and execution of archers, where with the grace of God and incredible volleys of arrows the French king's army was overthrown, which consisted of above forty thousand horsemen and footmen which there were ten thousand men-at-arms, all knights, esquires, and gentlemen, whereas King Henry's army did consist but of ten thousand archers, fifteen hundred lances, and two of the

The

90

Battle of Najera, 1367. See above, p. xviii.

Certain Discourses Military thousand footmen of other weapons. In which battle were

slain

Dukes of Lorraine, of Brabant, of Alen9on and Bar, with a great number of earls, barons, knights, and esquires. Besides that, there were taken prisoners the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, with many other earls, barons, and knights. The Battle of Herrings also ( so called by the French chronicles), fought in King Henry the Sixth's time i^ear unto a village the

in

France called Rouvray, not far from Orleans, doth evidently

show the great excellency of archery against all other sorts of weapons. In which battle Sir John Fastolfe, with other brave English captains, by the grace of God and terrible shot of the archers overthrew the Bastard of Orleans, the Lord High Constable of Scotland, the Count of Clermont, with many other captains of great accompt and their whole army of Frenchmen and Scots, in the which there were a great number of French harquebusiers and crossbowers, against which the archers wrought no [? small] effect. might also allege for the excellency of archers the most

I

wonderful victory

won by King Richard

Holy

the First in the

Land, many years before any of these battles before mentioned, where, being general of the Christian army, by the grace of

and wonderful

effect of his

God

English archers he in a most famous

battle overthrew that brave Saladin, Soldan of Egypt, with his

notable militia of Mamelukes (by

many

called Saracens)

and

the rest of his army, which did consist of an innumerable

all

num-

ber of horsemen and footmen Turks and Arabians.^^ But for brevity's sake

battle

I

will omit the particularities of that

and of many other great

most famous

victories that I could allege for

proof of the incredible effects of our English archers in battles.

And

I

will

now come to answer certain other moment than these that I have

tions of smaller

^

Fastolfe's

men were

escorting a convoy of salt

fish to

frivolous objec-

already by such the English forces

besieging Orleans in 1429.

The

victory

was

at Jaffa in 1192.

91

John Smythe

Sir

notable examples and experiences of great battles and victories

answered.

Some

of our such

ern experience no the plain

men

of war,

number

because by

common and mod-

of musketeers nor harquebusiers in

without succors of some other weapon or ground

fields,

of advantage, are able to abide the charge of half so

lances or stradiots in

number

many

as they are without being over-

dirown and broken, do therefore think and commonly report number of horsemen they will break a far

that with a very small

greater

number

of archers.

By which

their opinions

and reports

seemeth that as they are utterly ignorant and without any

it

experience of the all

efiFects

notable histories, or

of archers, so are they as ignorant of

else,

according to the

new

fashion, that

they do believe nothing but that which they themselves have

which in troth appeareth to be very little. For answer whereunto (according to the testimony of the French chronicles), I say that in King Henry the Sixth's time,

seen,

John, Lord of Bellay, being accompanied with two hundred lances at the least and taking his way to a town called Mans, met by chance with an English captain called Berry, that had to the number of fourscore archers, who, perceiving the French-

men, presently reduced to a

his

men

into a herse, turning tlieir backs

hedge because the lances might not charge them

only in front.

And

so,

in

back but

giving their volleys of arrows at the

French lances charging, did

so

wound and

kill their

horses that

they overthrew them and slew and took divers of them prisoners.

And

within a while after a French captain of the country of

Maine, called Guion du Going, departed from a town called Sable, accompanied with sixscore lances, to seek his adventure where he might find any Englishmen in the fields. He happened to meet with an English knight called Sir William Odle betwixt Mans and Alen9on, that had in his company sixteen or twenty archers on horseback. Who, perceiving so many French

92

Certain Discourses Military lances, alighted

on foot and, reducing themselves into form

in

highway where the lances could not charge them but in put their horses from them, and the French lances them, the volleys of arrows of those few archers charging wrought such notable effect against the French horsemen that they brake and overthrew them in such sort that there were a broad

front, they

divers of the French slain

And

in

and taken prisoners.^

our time King Henry the Eighth, being at the siege of

and a convoy of munitions and victuals being at from Guisnes toward Therouanne, all the French

Therouanne,"**^

that time to go

captains of Picardy and Vermandois, having intelligence thereof,

did assemble

all their

men-at-arms and lances of those provinces,

with some number of shot

also,

both harquebusiers and cross-

bowers, and attended the English convoy in ambush more than a league beyond the

town

of Ard,

toward Therouanne. Where,

encountering with the English light horsemen avant courriers

[advance guard], they did overthrow them, which being perceived by the English captains of the convoy, they presently

reduced their carriages into a convenient form, and placing convenient numbers of archers in the two open places of the carriages before

and behind and facing

all

other places betwixt

and carriages with archers where the French lances after a long fight and many charges by the men-at-arms of France and their shot given, the terrible effect of the volleys of arrows was such that a great number of their horses were wounded or slain, and one of their chief captains, carriages

might have any entrance,

called Monsieur

an arrow shot

there slain with of

de

Plessis^ lifting

in at the

many

good accompt,

in

up

his

sword

to strike,

was with

armhole through his gusset of mail and

other men-at-arms and French gentlemen

such sort that the French, which did far

exceed the English in number, were that day repulsed and over-

thrown by the excellency of archers. And ^ In 1513. Smythe

cites

at this action there

Martin du Bellay in the margin.

93

Sir

John Smythe

an old English gentleman yet

is

alive,

Caudwell, that was there present.

And

whose name

is

Master

these examples aforesaid

are suflBcient, I think, to convince and confound the vain opinions

and objections before mentioned.

Now

if

the effect of volleys of arrows be so terrible both

against horsemen and footmen armed, as

by

so

many

I

have before declared

reasons and examples, what, then, are the volleys of

arrows able to perform against musketeers and harquebusiers



manner altogether disarmed? whose weapons of make afraid younglings and novices of war with smoke and noise than with any often killing, hurting, or wounding them with bullets, whereof not only old that are in a

fire in

the field do rather terrify and

soldiers but horses also that are a little

used

to their fire, cracks,

and smoke are not anything amazed nor afraid. But three or four volleys of arrows lighting amongst any number of musketeers or harquebusiers (how old and brave soldiers soever they be ) will so amaze and terrify them that they shall fail to charge their pieces, to put touchpowder into their pans and their matches into

wound,

kill,

their serpentines. Besides that, they will either

or mischief

them

in

such sort as happy those that

with three or four arrows in their bodies, faces, arms, or throwing

down

of the terror tion

their

legs,

harquebuses and muskets, can escape out

and danger

of the volleys of arrows. For confirma-

whereof there be divers modern examples, with very honor-

able testimony of such as are yet living, very honorable by birth

and parentage, as also by titles of honor and worthiness. Of the which that noble gentleman Ambrose Earl of Warwick is one.^^ He accompanied the Duke of Northumberland his father ( then Earl of Warwick) a man of great valor and sufficiency for the governing and conducting of an army, who in the year 1548 was sent by King Edward the Sixth as his lieutenant general with ^' Marginal note: "Ambrose Earl of Warwick's experience of archers, penned with his own hand." Smythe copies this letter in toto on f. 66 recto of the "Answer" to Barwick. It is dated June 20, 1589.

94

Certain Discourses Military an army of horsemen and footmen to suppress the rebeUion of in Norfolk, who at that time lay encamped with a great

Kett

power of notorious and hardy rebels by the city of Norwich, upon a high hill called Mount Surrey. To the which city the Duke with his army being come, he with great order did encamp and lodge himself and his army on the other side of the city and river. And the next day he enter^ the town and brought in four-and-twenty fieldpieces, to the chief charge

whereof he appointed the Colonel Courpenick, an Almain and a great soldier, with his regiment of Almains, which

hundred, the most of them brave shot and

all

was twelve

old soldiers, with

and valiant captains of our own nathe same. But before they could thoroughly

divers other English bands tion for the

guard of

entrench themselves, those furious rebels, contrary to pectation, descended

arrows (being

all

down

their hill

all

ex-

with such a fury of shot of

bowmen, swords, and

bills)

that they gave

such a terror and fear to our people both strangers and English as they

were

fain to run

away with

slaughter of a great sort of soldiers.

make head

the loss of the ordnance and

And

before the

Duke could

them they had recovered eighteen fieldpieces and carried them up to their hill even with very force of men. And within two or three days after those gallants did not let to abide the battle against the Duke and his whole army in the plain field, where the battle was so manfully fought on both sides that it could be hardly judged by the best soldiers that there were which side was like to prevail. But in the end, God giving the victory, it was seen by that battle that arrows were against

a most noble weapon.

And whereas

the

Duke

at his first assem-

army had changed many archers into harquebusiers (because he had no opinion of the longbow), he after that victory and suppression of the rebels, upon the experience that he in those actions had of the danger and terror of arrows (his own horse being wounded under him at that bling and forming of his

^^The agrarian revolt of William Kett took place

in

1549, not 1548.

95

Sir

John Smythe

battle with three or four arrows,

many

then and

whereof he died), did both

times after openly protest his error before Count

Malatesta Baglione, an ancient and a noble soldier Italian, and other great captains Italians and Almains, saying that from that

time forward he would hold the

bow

be the only weapon of the world, and so did all the notable captains both EngHsh and strangers aflBrm the same. And this I have set down almost verbatim from the report of the aforesaid Ambrose Earl of Warwick that now

is,

who was

to

present at that action and had his

wounded under him with two or three arrows. same year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth

horse also

In the

and

same summer,

in the

Seal, that

was

Sir

also,

John Russell, knight, Lord Privy being sent by the King as

after Earl of Bedford,

his lieutenant general

with a great power both of horsemen and

footmen against the rebels of the west

parts,^^ accompanied with Lord Grey of Wilton, Sir William Herbert (after Earl of Pembroke ) the Lord of Hunsdon that now is, with many others both knights and esquires of great worship, and, coming to certain skirmishes and encounters with the rebels, the archers of the rebels did so behave themselves with their volleys of arrows against divers old bands harquebusiers Italians and Spaniards that they drave them from all their strengths, as from banks,

the

,

ditches, hedges,

mischief of

and other advantages

many

of those strangers.

of ground, to the great

And

of these great effects

Lord of Hunsdon aforesaid (who was there an eyewitness) very notably report. Besides that, many years past I have heard Captain Spinola,^^ an Italian, who was a very brave soldier and wounded with arrows in those services and actions, give singular comof archers against harquebusiers I have heard the

mendation of the archery of England. ^®

The western

pened ®°

rising against

Henry

VIII's religious innovations also hap-

in 1549.

Paolo Baptista Spinola, an Italian volunteer captain, served against the

West Country

96

rebels with a

company

of shot.

Certain Discourses Military

To

commendation

the like effect and singular

of archers I

have also heard the aforesaid Earl of Warwick divers times further report ^'^ that in the year 1562, he being at Nevs^haven in

Normandy

Queen

lieutenant general for the

that

now

is,

the

notable and great captain Chatillon, Admiral of France (being

then at the siege of Caen in Normandy and at^hat time favored by the Queen of England did send to the Earl for a succor of some English bands of the which he desired that the most might be archers. But the Earl, at that time having no archers on that side the sea, sent unto him a supply of six hundred brave harquebusiers with some armed men also, which he very thank)

fully received

,

but therewithal signified unto the Earl that he

had rather have had two hundred

archers,

and that he would

have performed greater service with that small number of bows than with

all

those brave harquebusiers.

sent from that great captain to the Earl Sir

And

by

this

message was

Sir Francis Somerset,

Nicholas Throckmorton, and Sir William Pelham.

And

shortly after, that notable colonel Almain, the Rhine-

who had served many years in France, accompanied many other brave captains both French and Almains, with great power both of horsemen and footmen coming down and

grave,^^

with a

encamping not

far

from Newhaven, there happened a great

skirmish betwixt certain English bands of

Newhaven and

the

French and Almain companies. This skirmish continued very hot, with many volleys of harquebus shot and new supplies on every side, but at the length the French and Ajmains, exceeding the English far in multitude, forced

them

to retire

with

dis-

order even to the very gates of Newhaven. During which action it

happened

that fourscore tall archers

(Hampshire men) did at bows and sheaves

that time land in the haven. They, taking their

®^As Smythe comments marginally, "This was also penned by Ambrose Warwick himself" (in the same letter of June 20, 1589).

Earl of

^^John Philip, Count of Salm.

Cathohc side

in the

wars of

He

played a prominent part on the

religion.

97

John Smythe

Sir

of arrows with their other furniture, did presently

out any tarriance through the town into the skirmish was. little

Upon whose coming,

march withwhere the

field

the English bands, that a

before were forced by the often charges and great multi-

tude of the shot of their enemies to retire even to the very town ditches

and

gates, taking

courage afresh, they and the

bowmen

entered again into skirmish with the Almains and French, where the fourscore archers did behave themselves so notably against the enemies with their volleys of arrows that with the brave

which they and the

valiant charges

gave upon their enemies archers) they forced

backs, in such sort

(

but chiefly with the excellency of the

them not only

as,

few

archers, as also

Rhinegrave had beforetime seen

he shortly sent unto

to retire

putting a great

sword, they became masters of the effect of those

rest of

and the English bands but to turn their

number

field.

upon

of

them

Upon which

to the

notable

divers others that the

in serving against the English,

after, upon the return of a message that had been him by the Earl of Warwick (Sir Edward Horsey

being the messenger), did most highly

commend

the notable

effects that he long before in divers services had seen performed by the English archers against both horsemen and footmen. And he said also that long before that time he knew by experience that great numbers of English archers were able to perform very great matters in the field, but that so small a number of

bowmen

as

were

their arrows to

in that last great conflict should

do so great mischief against

be able with

his old

bands of

Almains, French, and Gascons he would not have believed himself

had not seen

it.

And

if

he

therefore he did with great reason

and experience protest and acknowledge the longbows of England to be the most excellent weapons for the field that were used by any nation in Christendom and said that the Queen of England had great cause so to esteem and accompt of them.

And

to this effect I

have divers times heard the Earl of War-

wick himself very notably report. 98

Certain Discourses Military I

have

heard Sir James Croft, that honorable and most gentleman that hath served divers of our princes in

also

sufficient

many

great

and principal

effects

and charges military both

offices

England, France, Scotland,

and

which he himself hath seen by our archers

actions performed.

The

in divers

particularities whereof, as also his opin-

ion concerning the excellency of that weapon,

own

in

Ireland, declare very notable

I

remit to his

report.^^

Now

notwithstanding

all

amples of the excellent busiers,

our

such

men

these notable experiences and ex-

effects

of

of

archers

against

war have used

harque-

allege

to

that

neither the harquebuses were so good, nor yet the harquebusiers so skillful, in those days as it

may be answered

now

their caliverers are.

Whereunto

with great reason and experience of divers

ancient captains both Italians and Spaniards that I have (of the

which some are yet

buses which the Italians and Spaniards did use score years past

were

as

fifty

or three-

maniable and of as good form as

they are, but also that the harquebusiers were as perfect with that kind of

And

known

living) that not only the harque-

weapon

as they are

now

skillful

now and

in these our

numbers of great skirmishes that have been very effectually performed witli harquebus shot in the Emperor Charles's and the French kings' wars in Italy, France, the Low Countries, and Burgundy, as also in Barbary against the Turks and Moors, and in the wars of Germany betwixt the said Emperor and the Duke of Saxony days.

that hath manifestly appeared

by the

infinite

^

Sir James Croft died in September, 1590. He had fought at the siege Boulogne in 1544 and served in the Calais march in 1550. In Elizabeth's reign he became a Privy Councilor and Controller of the Queen's Household. In 1588 he was accused of treason (he claimed unjustly and

of

at Leicester's instigation).

His financial

claim on Smythe's sympathies.

He

difficulties

gave him yet another

thus possessed three of the qualifications

Smythe expected of an "honorable and most sufficient gentleman": service in the wars of Elizabeth's predecessors, where the bow was still supreme; good birth but restricted means; dislike of Leicester.

99

John Smythe

Sir

and other Rey states [Reichsstddte, imperial of Germany.

Which

and princes

cities]

opinions aforesaid misconceived and very ignorantly

alleged by our such

men

of

war

to the disabling of the harque-

busiers of other nations in times past

and enabling

their cali-

verers of this time, thereby to detract the excellent effects of our

longbows, doth further manifest their lack of sufficiency to judge of the exercises

and use

of those

weapons

of fire not only of

And

that hath appeared

times past but also of this present time.

Low

in divers of their services of the

certain of our old captains of

Countries

good experience

as I

(

have heard

affirm that

have

seen some of their unskillful services in those parts), and was also confirmed tains, officers,

of the

Low

by the feigned skirmish that some of their capand old bands of harquebusiers and musketeers

Countries of their

own

most disorderly perform before

where they discharged one

training did the last

my Lord

summer

Treasurer at Tilbury,

neck and, having

dis-

charged their pieces, did run out of their troops and stand

still

and charge

in another's

their pieces again, and, returning to give

scorn to behold them.

men and some

And

this

volleys,

and backs, disorderly that it was a

did discharge their pieces at their fellows' hams,

running together thick and threefold so

new

was the opinion

legs,

of

many

gentle-

old captains of good service and experience that

were there present and beheld the same, who concluded the insufficiency of our such men of war of the Low Countries by the lack of

skill,

soldiers,

imperfections,

and

insufficiencies of their trained

according to the old proverb in discipulis magister

videtur, "like masters like men."

Which

aforesaid action at Til-

bury doth not only make manifest that our such old harquebusiers are

now

as unskillful as the

Spaniards of two months' pay were if

that any foreign

enemy with such

many

new

soldiers

soldiers visonos

years past, but that

unskillful harquebusiers as

they were should assail a quarter of the like number of our archers, they should not

100

be able

to abide

two

volleys of ar-

Certain Discourses Military

rows without casting away their pieces and turning their backs.

And now, having

my

in this

discourse

made

manifest the ex-

by many reasons and examples ancient and modern, both against well-horsed and armed lances as also harquebusiers, which I think by all reason may suffice to convince and confound all the ignorant opinions and cellency of our longbows and archers

frivolous objections of our such all

men

of war, as also to induce

such as are of any right consideration and judgment to ac-

knowledge the since [?] that

and excellency

sufficiency it is

further evident

by

of that

weapon; and

foreign histories that

all

have made any mention of the differences of bows used by many nations, as also

by such

as

have traveled

in

many

parts of

rope, Africa, or Asia, that our English bows, arrows,

do exceed and excel

bows used by

other

all

all

Eu-

and archers

foreign nations

not only in substance and strength but also in the length and bigness of the arrows,

will

now

further

show the wonderful

hath been wrought by divers sorts of foreign bows,

effects that

Gothian, Parthian,

as

I

Arabian, Turkish,

and Tartarian

(all

which, as aforesaid, are inferior unto ours ) that by such notable

by them performed

effects

such as are of sound judgment,

all

not carried with toys, fancies, and

know

that

God

unto that weapon that of

may be

new

fashions,

may

very well

hath given such exceeding and excellent effects all

others

justly accounted, the chief

it

hath ever been, and yet

weapon

of battles

and con-

quests. I

think

it

is

most manifest by

all

historiographers that have

many and and notable captains have given

written of puissant and conquering nations which in divers ages

under

their great

themselves to enlarge their dominions or with force to possess the habitations of other foreign people that they have erected

some kind

of militia

and

discipline military to achieve

and per-

form the same. And as the best kinds of weapons in the hands of well-disciplinated, obedient,

and exercised

soldiers

cipal part of a militia to achieve victories, so I think

is

a prin-

it is

101

most

Sir

evident that of the

bow,

all

John Smythe

made weapon

those conquering nations have

chief choice

most excellent kind

for victories

as of the

of

and conquests.

And

although they have not used in their armies that weapon

alone, but other

weapons

also incorporated with them, yet

it is

most manifest that the greatest number of such mighty armies have consisted more of archers either on horseback or on foot than of any other sorts of weapons, and by their excellent chiefly

As

have been achieved most notable and wonderful

for example:

Were

eflFects

victories.

not divers emperors and great captains

Romans, with puissant armies many times invading the Parthians and Persians, sometimes overthrown and many times repulsed by them, and that chiefly by the excellency of their archers? Were not Crassus and Cassius with a mighty army which did consist of many legions of old soldiers Romans overthrown and vanquished in the plain arrows?

And was

fields

with the force of the Parthian

not Valerian the Emperor overthrown and

taken prisoner in a great battle by the Persians, and that chiefly

by the great effect of their arrows? Besides all which it is most evident by divers histories that neither the notable consuls of the ancient Romans, nor yet after them the emperors Romans with their conquering militia, were ever able to conquer the Parthians and Persians, defending themselves chiefly with that excellent weapon of archery on horseback. But now to speak of four mighty and conquering nations that of later years, but in divers ages, have vanquished and subdued by many histories and other septentrional nations, under their notable princes and great captains making war at divers times upon the emperor [s] Romans and invading Greece, did besiege the imperial city of Constantinople and did spoil the Panonias, now called Hungary and Austria, with Illyria, Dalmatia, and many other provinces. Also they invaded and wasted divers great parts of the world. It doth appear

that the Goths, Vandals, Alans,

102

Certain Discourses Military Italy,

sacked the most ancient and famous city of

number wounded and great

and

of other cities;

many

Rome

with a

divers notable battles

in

some emperors and their generals with their arrows. After which they passed through and spoiled France, invaded and conquered Spain, and killed

great captains and

carried their armies to the straits of Hercules,

now

called Gibral-

tar. Also the same Vandals and Alans passed the straits and invaded Africa and conquered in a manner all the Levant seacoasts of the same, now called Barbary. And it is most evident that

they did perform and achieve

and conquests more with the than with

And

not

that time

and

all

those their battles, victories,

effect of their archers

and bows

the rest of their weapons.

many

little

years after that the Arabians

spoken of), under their

his successors

bowmen on

all

halifas,

with

false

(

a nation before

prophet

numbers

infinite

Mahomet

of Arabian

horseback and some numbers of zagaias [assagais]

(which are double-headed lances) did invade the dominions of the empire of Constantinople.

they did conquer

all

And with

Mesopotamia,

Also they did win Jerusalem and inces,

many

weapons

chiefly

Armenia, and Persia.

other cities and prov-

and brought the Emperor Heraclius and some other

successors to be tributaries unto them. tles

those

Syria,

with their arrows they did

and many

And

wound and

of his

in divers great bat-

take

some emperors

of their generals prisoners.

Also they invaded Africa, conquered Egypt, and subdued

Barbary even to the very ocean over the

straits of

sea.

And

Gibraltar into Spain,

and Vandals possessors

all

shortly after, passing

and finding the Goths

and two kings Goths, Vitissa [Witiza] and Don Rodrigo [Roderic], brought from all their of the same, through the exacting

tyrannical government of their last

ancient exercises military and use of their bows, they did con-

quer the kingdom even nees],

to the very mountains Perineos [Pyreand achieved many other notable victories and conquests

103

John Smythe

Sir

in Italy, Greece, Sicily, Candia,

pelago, and

all

those chiefly

and other

islands of the Archi-

by the wonderful

effects of their

Arabian bows.

which notable conquests achieved by the Arabians under their halifas, and when they through long peace and some civil dissension were now grown into ambition, envy, and After

all

covetousness and to neglect their ancient discipline military

and use

of their bows, the Turks (a

a manner all

unknown ) coming

archers,

,

new

at the first

nation at that time in

but with

Mahomet, then King

under

of Persia,

their

thousand,

five

from beyond the mountains of Caucasus

to the aid of

brave captain Tang-

laropice Mu9aleto, did perform great services unto the Persians.

And by

after,

upon lack

of

pay and some other

injuries

unto them

the Persians offered, retiring themselves to the mountains,

they did most valiantly defend themselves until that

and great numbers

of archers

troops; scouts] Turks

invading the Persians in battle, they

all Persia.

kill

in a

manner

and

his successors halifas

all

and

wonderful

victories,

aids

had

after invading

Mahomet,

in certain

And

he and

effects of their

And

Armenia

the halifa of Baldac and did subdue

the dominions that

fore conquered in Asia. battles

new

— light-armed

came to join with them. At which time, and overthrowing and killing their king

conquered

they did vanquish and

and aljavas [algavas

all

his

that false prophet,

hundreds of years be-

those conquests, with

many

Turks achieved chiefly with the

bows, of which weapon their militia

did principally consist. After whose time the Soldans, his suc-

and Ottoman, the first emperor of the Turks, and his successors, did win many battles and victories against the emcessors,

perors of Constantinople, chiefly with the advantage of that

weapon.

And

it is

further apparent

by

divers histories that the Tartars,

inhabiting toward the north and northeast seas of Asia, being

reduced into a discipline military under divers of their princes and captains (as Hocata Cham [Ogotai Khan], Gabo Saballa, 104

,

Certain Discourses Military

and Haloon [PHulagu] ) did with their innumerable numbers of archers and aljavas on horseback not only subdue all the east parts of Asia, even to the very ocean seas, but also did in divers

ages invade the west parts of Asia, vanquishing and overthrow-

many

ing in

battles divers soldans with their great armies of

Turks, and spoiled and

made

tributary unto

thpm

Parthia, Persia,

Media, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Syria.

And tars,

last of all,

Tamberlane, that valiant emperor of the Tar-

invading Asia Minor and coming to battle with Bajazet,

emperor of the Turks, did overthrow and vanquish him and his mighty army and took him prisoner. Which battle and victory he achieved by reason that his army of Tartars did far exceed the Turks in numbers of archers. Which most excellent e£Fects of archers before mentioned was the very cause that moved Amurath (the second of that name), emperor of the Turks, within few years after to institute for the guard of his at that time

person that notable militia of the Janissaries on foot, who, being Christian men's children renied [reneged]

youth the exercise of the

bow

and taught from

their

as also of later years of the harque-

become most excellent in both kinds of weapons, so as when the Turk doth send any numbers of them under his

bus, do

bashaws

to the besieging of

take with them both their

any

cities or

bows and

towns, they

for services of the field.

use to

and their Howbeit, whenever the Turk in

harquebuses to use in trenches against places

bows

all

their harquebuses: their fortified,

person with an imperial army doth invade any prince or nation,

he hath always with him twelve or fourteen thousand Janissaries on foot with their bows and cemitories [scimitars] (without any harquebuses ) for his his person, so as

it is

last

and most assured refuge and guard

of

most evident that the bashaws, bellarbies

[beglerbegs] and senjaques [sanjakbegs] of the Turks (of the

many notable and excellent captains able and command great and mighty armies as all the west parts of Christendom have not so many nor the like )

which there be

so

to govern, conduct,

105

Sir

John Smythe

knowing all the effects of weapons of fire as well as the best men of war of Christendom do, by all reason military prefer their bows before their harquebuses for all battles and great encoun-

And even

ters in the field.

so likewise did

two other most puis-

sant and mighty empires of Asia and conquering nations, the

one of the Tartars and the other of the Persians, Parthians, and Medians under the Sophy, v/hich empires and nations, although

known and had the use of weapons of fire long before known in Europe, yet have they always and do still prefer their archers and bows on horseback for battles

they have

they were greatly

and

victories before their

And now briefly set

as I

weapons

have before

down many

of

fire.

in divers parts of these discourses

notable effects of our English archers

against both horsemen and footmen of

such and so

many

all sorts

of weapons, with

notable battles and victories achieved by our

( next unto God by the excellency of our ) and as I have last of all briefly declared the wonderful victories and conquests in divers ages achieved by four so notable nations, and that most of all by the notable effects of

English nation, chiefly

said archers;

bows

their

(

I

mean

the Goths, Vandals, and other such septen-

trional people, their

companions and fellows

the Arabians, the Turks, and Tartars); so the testimony of

Bible ®*

many

itself (if it

were

fire

were not

first

was not

first

to avoid prolixity)

artillery,

show and prove

powder,

and small

shot,

Germany as some do write and tell but they kingdom of Cathay and in use in divers parts

in

invented in the

in arms, as also

might further with

notable histories and partly by the very

Marginal note: "The invention of

pieces of

I

(

)

,

hundred years past. And that I have read and also heard reported in Spain by two ambassadors, the one of Venice and the other of Portugal." Cf. Camden, Remains (1614), p. 203, "Some have of Asia above eight

sailed a long course, as far as China, the farthest part of the world, to

fetch the invention of guns from thence, but "

The

we know

the Spanish proverb

was usually traced to fourteenth-century Germany at this time, but the Cathay theory (supported by Raleigh in his History of the World [1614] among others) suited Smythe's thesis that even races who knew of the gun preferred the bow. 'Long ways, long

106

lies.'

origin

Certain Discourses Military

and famous nations

that all the notable

and

of Europe, Africa,

Asia that have since the beginning of the world even until this present time achieved infinite victories and conquests have

achieved the same by the wonderful effects of bows,**^ as by the

weapon

of all others that

devise and

to

God hath put

men

into the hearts of

sometimes to defend themselves withal

use

and

against foreign nations that have unjustly assailed them,

sometimes

to

invade and by battles and victories to chasten and

punish other such nations as in former times had had the perfect use of the same; and yet after, in process of time, by the permission of

God

for their sins,

had neglected and forgotten the

use thereof, that thereby they might receive the punishment of

God by

the well-exercised hands in those

were

like nations that

pointed by

Him

either

more

weapons

in the favor of

as instruments with

blood

of other war-

God

to chasten

or else ap-

and punish

such transgressors. Divers of the which examples, because

have it

in

my proem

of these discourses briefly declared,

would be holden

for superfluous to rehearse

I

I

think

and digress

into

such innumerable examples of the excellency and marvelous

have been

effects that

in all ages

with that most miraculous weapon.

wrought by

And

infinite nations

therefore

I

will

reduce

myself and proceed to the proving and concluding that although skillful fire

harquebusiers and musketeers with their weapons of

be very excellent have

in their convenient

and due times and

places (as

I

declared )

yet for battles and victories in the field they are no-

,

ways comparable

And now of our such

in divers parts of this discourse particularly

to

our English archers and bows.

again to return to the answering of other objections

men

and examples by

of war. They, notwithstanding so

me

many

before alleged in due and just

reasons

commenda-

^ Marginal note: "Some, peradventure, will say that the Spaniards without longbows but with crossbows, harquebus shot, and other weapons have conquered a great part of the West Indies. Whereunto it is to be answered that those Indians were simple people that went naked and had no use of iron nor steel."

107

John Smythe

Sir

Hon

of archers,

have not been ashamed many times most fan-

tastically to report that

our arrows will not

wound men through

single buflF jerkins, nor scarce through their ordinary clothes.

Which

ignorant and fond speeches were more seemly to

come

out of the mouths of novices and younglings that never saw anything than from such

professing arms, ought to speak with

as,

and judgment. And therefore it is greatly of so great ignorance and small underand actions of war are grown to such an

consideration, reason, to

be pitied that men

standing in

affairs

overweening they do

in their

make

own

conceits that in their fond babblings

so light of those our

weapons which the great

captains of France and other nations in King

Edward

the Third's

time and other kings' times did by the experience of their dangers and mischiefs so greatly redoubt that they caused their footmen (although they were as well armed for the defense of their bodies and heads as footmen nowadays are ) to carry pavises of seven foot long, and a foot and a half or two foot broad, with little holes toward the upper end armed with steel for them to look through, which pavises did cover their faces and all other

disarmed parts even

arms

also,

down

to their toes.

because our arrows were so

their horses

and did wound them

in the eyes

as

is

that their men-at-

and

legs

and every

made them run athwart

bare and disarmed place, which

one the other,

And

terrible in the sights of

the

before declared, did oftentimes forsake their

horses and, reducing themselves into squadron,

came upon our

archers with their lances and swords, the beavers of their helmets

down and armed

cap-d-pie, as doth appear

counters mentioned

in Froissart

But because the wonderful

and other

effects

by

divers great en-

histories.

and mischief

further appear to be far different from the dreams

our such fantastical kings,

men

that

may

and reports of

many emperors, have been wounded and killed

of war,

and great captains

of arrows

I

will

now

of

with foreign archers and arrows inferior unto ours allege a few

108

Certain Discourses Military examples

to

avoid prolixity, beginning

first

with some testimony

out of the Bible.

Was

not Saul, the

first

King of the Jews and a valiant prince,

in his last battle fought with the Amalekites, afraid of the volleys

of their arrows

and himself wounded with an arrow? And was

not Joram, King of

Israel, slain

shot of an arrow that strake

heart?

And was

not

Ahab

him

also.

by Jehu

his successor

into the bocfy

King of

with the

and through the

Israel, in

a battle against

and wounded with an arrow that strake him into the body between the joints of his armor, of the which wound he that night died? And was not Josiah also, King of Jerusalem, in a battle that he fought against Necho, King of the Syrians overthrown

wounded with an arrow whereof he also died? Besides that, it is further manifest by many other notable

Egypt,

tories that

his-

Alexander the Great, that most mighty conqueror,

besieging the city of Gaza in Syria, was himself sore

wounded

through the habergeon into the shoulder with an arrow, in such

he was by that wound in great danger and his whole army thereat greatly amazed. Vespasian also, that famous and excellent emperor, was wounded himself with an arrow in a great encounter and conflict that he had against the Jews by the city of Jotapata in Judah. The Emperor Decius also was overthrown and slain in a battle against the Goths, and Decius Caesar his son was stricken dead with the shot of arrows. The Emperor Valens also was overthrown in a great battle by the Goths and himself sore wounded with an arrow. Don Alfonso also, King of Leon in Spain, and Don Sancho, King of Aragon, were (although at divers times and in divers places) wounded and slain by the Arabians and Moors with arrows. Manuel also, sort that

emperor of Constantinople, was overthrown

in a great battle

and himself wounded with arrows, notwithstanding his armor and target, in the which he had thirty arrows sticking. Orcan also, son unto Ottoman and second against the Soldan of Iconium

109

Sir

John Smythe

emperor of the Turks, was overthrown, wounded, and

slain

with

arrows in a marvelous great battle fought betwixt him, his Turks,

and the Tartars. And finally, Mahomet the second of that name, emperor of the Turks, that wonderful conqueror that did so prosper in all battles and besiegings of towns that he won the two empires of Constantinople and Trebizond and killed the Emperor Constantine Dragon [Dragazes] Paleologo, as also the emperor of Trebizond called Colojani [Calogiovanni], and besides conquered ten kingdoms of Christians and slew four kings, and all this chiefly by his notable militia of archers. Yet notwithstanding all those his great victories and conquests, in a great battle fought betwixt him and that famous voivode Juan Hunyadi Corvino, he was himself wounded with an arrow and his Turks thereat so wonderfully amazed that thereupon he and they were by the Christians vanquished and compelled with great disorder, dishonor, and loss of his people to retire to Constantinople. Which notable examples of wounding and killing of emperors, kings, and great captains by foreign archers and arrows inferior unto ours may very well show the overweening and lack of consideration and judgment of our such men of war that have sought by their vain and ignorant speeches and words to deface the force, violence, and wonderful effects of our English archers and arrows, contrary to infinite examples and notable histories in divers languages, and experiences of many conquering nations and most excellent captains both ancient and also of this age.

And now having in this my discourse endeavored myself by many reasons and examples to make manifest how our such men of war have mistaken the use and weapons out of their due times and

places, with divers others

their errors military contrary to the

modem

effects of divers sorts of

opinions and use

of divers foreign warlike nations; having also, according to first

tions

proposition, particularly set

down

my

the most of the perfec-

and imperfections of musketeers and harquebusiers and

no

of

Certain Discourses Military their

weapons, with the perfections and imperfections of archers

and their bows, with many reasons and examples also to show and prove that the ancient effects of our archers and arrows are noways decayed nor blemished by the effects of harquebusiers and musketeers but that they do in the field far exceed and excel the effects of all weapons of fire maniable; and further having

showed that no horsemen nor footmen are able1:o abide the terror and danger of the volleys of our arrows, with many examples of battles, victories, and conquests, of great encounters and skirmishes, of wounding and killing of mighty emperors, kings, and great captains with arrows: I now come to conclude that our

number

archers, being yet so excellent as they are, although in

not so

many

work

as great or greater effects in the field than they did in

as they

were

in times past,

former ages, considering that of Christendom, both

all

may, being well ordered,

nations of the occidental parts

horsemen and footmen, do now use

to

wear

fewer pieces of armor to cover and defend their bodies than they did a hundred, two hundred, or three hundred years past; in

which times our archers wrought so wonderful

effects,

not only

and other well-armed nations, but also against the shot and volleys of armed crossbowers, who, as they were very skillful with that weapon in those days, so were they noways inferior to the shot of musketeers and harqueagainst the men-at-arms of France

busiers of these our days.

Ill

A

brief

so

much used

comparison between

reiters,

carabins, or argoletiers,

our days, and crossbowers and archers on horseback, which were used by the in foreign parts in these

English and divers other nations

many

years past.

With mine

opinion also concerning which of those weapons are of greatest effect for services in the field

Divers of our English captains and gentlemen that have served

wars of the

in the disordered

some time

in the civil

Low

Countries, or peradventure

wars of France, do so praise and magnify

the shot of carabins or argoletiers (as they term them) and of reiters,

which are

on horseback

to

pistoletiers, that they will not admit any shot be comparable unto them, imitating therein

divers foreign nations that in these days

do use those weapons

on horseback. In which

do not mean

their opinions I

in these

any

west parts of

other.

to

touch

do not remember any nation Christendom that do use at this present

them with any blame, because Howbeit, when

I

I

come

to consider of such shot

on

horseback as hath been used in times past, which are the long-

bow and the crossbow, and that there be some principal gentlemen and captains of divers nations yet alive that have seen them used in the

field, as

namely, of our English that grave and most

experienced gentleman Sir James Croft, and the unreadiness, imperfections, and small

when

I

do compare

of the weapons and great effects

eflFects

of fire aforesaid with the readiness, perfections,

and longbows, I do, in mine opinion, greatly prefer those two ancient weapons on horseback before the said weapof crossbows

ons of

fire for all

112

services in the field.

And because

it

may appear

Certain Discourses Military unto such gentlemen as

how and

may peradventure

read

this

my

opinion

what sort I would have such archers and crossbe horsed, armed, and weaponed, I will first make mention thereof and after briefly proceed to the fortifying and proving of mine opinion by divers reasons. For all the crossbowers on horseback, under sufficient conbowers

in

to

ductors well skilled in that weapon,

I

wouM

crossbows of two pound and a half of the best gaffles

hanging

at their strong girdles after the

many, that they might on horseback bend

more

easily

and

they should have sort,

with crooked

manner

of Ger-

their crossbows the

readily, with four-and-twenty quarrels in a case

fitly set at their saddle pommels. I would have them mounted upon good cold geldings of mean size, themselves armed with good morions of the Spanish fashion upon their heads, with collars, light and short-waisted cuirasses and backs, with sleeves of mail or chained with mail. Or else that they should be armed with morions, light and easy brigandines, and sleeves chained with mail, with broad short swords by their sides of not above a yard in length, and short daggers. The

well and

archers on horseback under their captains or conductors skillful in archery I

geldings of

brimmed

would likewise have mounted upon good quiet

mean

size,

with deep

steel skulls in

very narrow-

hats, well stuffed for the easiness of their heads,

either jacks of mail, according to the ancient

were called

and

manner, when they

and easy brigandines, and well fitted to their bodies, their sleeves chained with mail,^^ with broad short swords and short daggers; their bows of good yew, long and well nocked and backed, and all their strings well whipped, with loricati sagittarii, or else light

or at the least eyelet-holed doublets very easy

sheaves of four-and-twenty arrows apiece, with shooting gloves ^Marginal note: "I thought it good to note upon this margent that I would wish that no archers neither on horseback nor on foot should wear any jacks or steel coats, as they call them, because they are too burdensome for archers to march withal. Besides that, they cannot draw their bows through the boisterousness and uneasiness of such armors."

113

Sir

manner of our archers in times both archers and crossbowers, I would have

and bracers all these,

John Smythe

after the

practiced that they might

know how

And

past. to

be well

to discharge their arrows

and quarrels galloping upon the hand and in all other motions of their horses, and the crossbowers to bend again with great readiness.

And

divers bands, being thus horsed, armed,

exercised, as also

reduced into

cient conductors

and other

little

bands of

ojfficers

weaponed, and

fifties

under

suffi-

those weapons,

skillful in

should in mine opinion be able to perform greater services in the field either against

named weapons

horsemen or footmen than any

of the fore-

on horseback, considering that both archers and crossbowers may with their arrows and quarrels very certainly wound or kill in their points and blanks either of fire

horsemen or footmen that are

in squadron or troop two or three and roving six, seven, or eight scores may greatly mischief and annoy the enemy. Whereas the argoletiers and pistoletiers are not to work any effect against squadrons or troops of horsemen or footmen above ten or fifteen yards off at the fur-

scores

off,

thest.

And

if it

discharge their

be enemy to enemy single, then they are not to pieces above three or four yards off unless they

will fail four times before they hit once, so uncertain are those

The judgment whereof (because this mine opinion may seem strange to such as do not know the imperfec-

weapons

of

fire.

tions of those

weapons

of fire

on horseback)

captains or conductors of those iards, or

weapons

French that have been used

perors or kings, and

if it

be of the

that

if

refer unto

to receive the

pistoletiers,

themselves. Besides whose judgments

I

any

either Italians, Span-

pay

of

em-

then to the reiters

by all reason it may appear

the shot of harquebusery on foot in their distances in the

as I have in my former discourse declared, must be a great deal more uncertain upon horseback, where by every motion and stirring of their horses (although they be very quiet) they shall in a manner as often

field

be so uncertain

then of necessity

114

it

Certain Discourses Military

any horses

hit barnacles [geese] flying in the air as hurt or kill

or

men

unless they be very thick

cartridges, or charges, their

powder beside

is

into the

to disperse the

it

with flanks,

so uncertain as they shall as often spill

and

the mouths of their pieces

And

chargings as charge the same.

powder

and wonderful near. Besides

charging of their pieces on horseback, be

that, the

also,

fail of their

putting their touch-

pans of their pieces, althougiy there be no wind

same, yet upon every motion of their horses they

are ready to pour the

powder beside

pieces be petronels, then

if

And

their pans.

their stones should

happen

their

if

to

break

strike just

whereby they should fail to upon the wheels, being firelocks, or upon the hammers

or steels,

if

or not to stand right in their cocks,

they be snaphaunces, or being of match,

matches be not good and

stiff

and well

if

their

set in their serpentines or

cocks, they also shall fail in their discharging, besides the

diffi-

culty that they shall find at one time to charge their pieces, to

have an eye

to their enemies,

and

also their scouring sticks as they tions of

weapons

of

fire,

with

to

govern their horses, using

ought to do. Which imperfec-

many more,

in the experience of

them war a great

all

old and skillful soldiers are the cause that the shot of

do

terrify

deal

and scare new

more with

soldiers

cracks, smoke,

and novices

of

and noise than with any often

hurting with the bullet. All which unreadinesses, disadvantages,

and imperfections

of argoletiers, carabins, pistoletiers, or reiters

considered with the readinesses, advantages, and perfections of archers

and crossbowers

nations of great antiquity,

by our ancestors

many

come

for all services in the field, I

conclude that crossbowers on horseback used by

many

to

foreign

and that archers on horseback used

years past as also at this present

by the

Turks, Tartars, Persians, Arabians, and other mighty nations, do far

exceed and excel

all

weapons

of fire

on horseback.

115

A72 exhortation to the magistrates

and gentlemen

These discourses which

I

of

England

have handled and

set

down, with many

reasons alleged, as also with very notable examples and opinions of great captains

and testimony

of

most approved

histories, con-

cerning the excellency of archers and divers other weapons in

due times and places, with many errors and abuses military by our such men of war practiced and in public places persuaded and taught, I have not taken in hand and performed with any intention or hope to reduce them from their erroneous opinions martial or to persuade them to give credit to anything by me alleged and proved; because they are grown to such a self-will and liking of their own opinions, or rather fancies military, that their overweening, willfulness, and presumption do extend so far that divers of the chief of them will give no credit their

to

any history alleged, nor

any experience nor example that

to

they hear by their elders reported, nor yet to anything by divers reasons proved, but only unto their things as they themselves have seen.

own fancies and such few Which doth most evidently

argue in them a wonderful arrogancy and obstinate barbarous-

and that they neither have nor ever will have any understanding in the science military. For it hath been always a

ness,

principle in the opinion of

all

reason and experience, that no

116

great captains, as also in

man

can attain

to

any

all

sufficiency

Certain Discourses Military

and excellency

and

in the art

principal means: that

is,

by three arms and of war

discipline military but

by seeing

actions of

performed, by conference with others to understand the reasons of things in action or already done,

men

and by the discourses

of

of experience and histories of things in times past performed

what doth it avail any nobleman or and courage Soever he hath, in case he had seen all the chief and best fortifications that are in Europe, as also many encampings of armies in camps formed,

and done. As gentleman,

for example,

how

excellent a wit

dislodgings, marchings in divers forms, with

mishes, and great encounters,

if

many

battles, skir-

and un-

he, neglecting to learn

derstand the causes of those things

which he hath

seen, hath

given himself to dicing, carding, making of love, and drunkenness?

Or if him

sessed

his pride, arrogancy,

that

and overweening have

he hath disdained

to

so pos-

hearken or confer with

been able by experience

to instruct and give by him seen? Which in truth are the very causes that there are so many captains and gentlemen of divers nations that have been in many camps and have seen divers armies and actions and yet do understand very little of the art and discipline military. Now therefore, those our men of war being such as I have before declared, notwithstanding there have been such won-

others that have

him

the reasons of things

derful opinions conceived here at

home

of their suflBciency that

they have been not only compared with the greatest captains of this

age but also have been thought to be the only

of Christendom, certainly

it is

such opinion should be conceived of in

men

of

war

be marveled at how any them. For they never served

greatly to

any imperial or royal wars of emperors, kings, nor formed

commonwealths within the continent

of Europe, Afrixia, nor

Asia where they might attain to any such knowledge in the art military,

Low

but only in the disordered and tumultuary wars of the

Countries under the States

(where the sovereign gov-

ernment and commandment hath consisted of a broken and 117

Sir

uncertain authority,

confusion more

all

John Smythe

things tending with great disorder and

to the spoil than to

or peradventure

service)

and

licentious

civil

any discipline or martial

some very

little

or nothing in the

wars of France. In both which wars, for the

and assured pay for the men of war as also of rewards for particular and extraordinary deserts and worthiness, it hath been impossible to establish and continue any formed lack of certain

and discipline military whereby either captains or soldiers should grow to any skill and sufficiency but rather to errors and

militia

ignorances, as

it

may very well appear by

discourses of that notable

and brave

None, where the imperfections and

the politic and military

soldier

Monsieur de

insufficiencies of

la

such as

have attained

to their chief skill in those wars are very manidown. To the particularities whereof ( because his book not only extant in French but also translated into English) I

festly set is

remit those that are disposed to see and consider. Besides

all

which, the wonderful disorders and lack of understanding of our such

men of war in

all their

proceedings and actions military

have been such, so many, and so great almost they have taken in hand in the in the

judgment of

all

Low

in all matters that

Country wars, that not only

the great captains Italians, Spaniards,

Burgundians, and other nations that have either known their services or served against them, but also in the opinions of

of the wiser sort of the States themselves, they to

be

men

although their

of

it

no understanding nor

some

have been judged

sufficiency in matters of war,

hath been given out and reported far otherwise to

advantage here at home amongst

us, altogether to their

marvelous and incredible commendations and praises. Where-

upon there hath been such credit given to their fond speeches and ignorant persuasions by the better sort of our nation that they have not only (since our nation began first to go over to serve as mercenary soldiers in the States) brought in great

numbers

Low

Countries under the

of disorders

and abuses

tary far diflFerent, or rather clean contrary, to the ancient

modern experience, 118

use,

and proceedings

mili-

and

of all warlike nations,

Certain Discourses Military but also in a great part have defaced and decayed the accompt, use, and exercise of our most excellent weapon the longbow,

which

in short time to come,

be not very speedily provided

if it

for by the execution of such penal statute laws as have been in times past ordained and established for the exercise and mainte-

nance of the same,

to

be forgotten and

if

through the ^legligence of the

better sort of our nation, imitating

that

to pass,

God

it

in a

and following the simple and

ignorant opinions of our such unskillful

come

manner

grow

Which

will

utterly extinguished.^^

men

of war,

it

should

doth in mine opinion argue nothing more than

hath withdrawn His hand and

all

right

judgment

in

matters military from us, and that in time to come, upon any great late,

war

either offensive or defensive,

we

shall,

when

it is

too

repent the same, greatly to the hazard and peril of our

prince, country,

and

nation.

The consideration whereof, for the great love that I have always borne, and do still according to my duty bear, to the crown and realm of England and English nation, was the first and principal cause that moved me to take these discourses in hand, to the intent to advise and persuade ( as much as in my power and small ability is ) the nobility, magistrates, and better sort of our nation with all care and diligence to revive and put in execution the ancient statutes provided and established for the increase and exercise

of the youth of

England

in archery.

That

as

God

of His great goodness hath blessed our nation with a wonderful

aptness and dexterity in that weapon,

nation that

I

versal world, so

suasions of a

more than any other

have seen, heard, or read of throughout the uni-

we may

few

not through the frivolous and vain per-

unskillful

and ignorant men

in these our days,

and especial goodness of Almighty God and singular gift that He hath endued us withal, but that we do with all care and diligence believe and imitate as unthankful, neglect that great

the great experience of our most worthy ancestors,

who

ages with the advantage of that most excellent

weapon have

®^

See above, pp.

xi

and

in divers

81.

119

Sir

achieved such and so

John Smythe

many wonderful and

miraculous victories

against divers nations, both Christians and pagans. As also that

we do

give credit to the greatest captains of our nation and of

divers other nations that have lived in our time (some of the

which, being yet alive and of principal sort and

calling,

have

seen the mighty works and wonderful effects of our English

and therefore with all right judgment, rejecting all new fancies and toys, that we do embrace and esteem that singuarchers),

weapon

to be the chief and principal and conquests. And now, to make an end, I do again

lar

of all others for battles,

victories,

ning of

my

(

as

I

did in the begin-

discourse) notify that mine intention hath noways

extended by anything in

my

discourses contained to touch the

reputation or honor of any noblemen nor gentlemen of noble or worshipful houses, nor yet any others of worthy minds that

have entered into those spoil or

Low

Country services rather

and honor than

reputation, knowledge,

for

greedy gain, but only such of our

ing and contemning

true honor

all

and

to

win

any hope or desire

men

of

war

as,

discipline military,

brought in amongst us a most shameful and detestable

of

neglect-

art

have

and

and drunkenness, turning all matters miliand gain, neglecting to love and to win the love of their soldiers under their governments and charges, making in a manner no accompt of them nor of their lives. In such sort as by their evil conduction, starving and consuming of discipline of carousing

tary to their

great

own

profit

numbers and many thousands

of our

most brave English

made by a far greater war upon the crown and realm of England and English nation than anyways upon the enemies of our country.

people, as also

their infinite other disorders, they have

Honor

et gloria in excelsis

Deo

omnipotenti, sempiterno, et

incomprehensihili

Amen. 120

I

!

I

If

I I

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