Historical Record of the Third or Prince of Wales' Regiment of Dragoon Guards: From Its Formation in 1685 to 1838. Cannon Richard
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Colonelcy was conferred on the Earl of Plymouth, by commission dated the 15th of July, 1685, and the Lieut. – Colonelcy on Hugh Sunderland, an officer of experience, who had been Major of the Royal Dragoons since 1683. The Fourth Horse were armed and equipped as Cuirassiers.9 The men wore hats with broad brims, bound with silver lace, turned up on one side and ornamented with green ribands; scarlet coats lined with green shalloon, and high boots made of jacked leather; they had also scarlet cloaks lined with green, and green horse-furniture embroidered with white, and ornamented with the King's cypher and crown. Their cuirasses were pistol-proof, and they had also iron headpieces called potts. Their weapons were a sword, a pair of pistols, and a short carbine; and, thus equipped, these loyal yeomen had a formidable and warlike appearance. In a few weeks after the regiment was formed, it marched into quarters in Buckinghamshire (viz., to Amersham, Aylesbury, and Marlow), and, having been instructed in the plain and simple exercises practised at that period, it was reviewed on the 20th of August by the King on Hounslow Heath, and again on the 22nd of that month.
After these reviews the Fourth Horse marched into winter quarters at several towns in Gloucestershire; and it is a curious particular in the annals of the regiment, that the first service it was called upon to perform was enforcing obedience to an Act of Parliament which prohibited the cultivation of tobacco. The increased consumption and high price of this article had induced several landholders to cultivate it on their farms, in violation of the law, particularly at Winchcomb and the villages in that neighbourhood. One troop was stationed for a short time at Winchcomb expressly for the purpose of preventing the cultivation of this herb; and when the men left that town the following paragraph appeared in the order for their march: 'Our further will and pleasure is, that you cause parties to be sent, once at least in every week, to our town of Winchcomb and places adjacent, who are hereby ordered to destroy all plants, seeds, and leaves of tobacco which they shall, upon the strictest search, find planted or growing contrary to the Act of Parliament.'10
During its stay in Gloucestershire, the first inspection of the regiment was made by Brigadier-General Sir John Lanier, one of the inspecting-generals of cavalry; and the establishment of the regiment, with the rates of pay of each rank, was fixed by a warrant under the sign manual, bearing date the 1st of January, 1686, from which the following is an extract: —
Immediately after the establishment was finally arranged, the Fourth Horse were ordered to march into quarters in the metropolis, where they arrived in February, 1686, to assist the Life Guards in the duties of the court; at the same time a detachment of one officer and six men proceeded to Liverpool to convey the specie collected by the officers of the revenue at that port from thence to London; which was probably a very necessary service, as the King, by doubling the strength of his regular army, had made a great increase in his expenditure.
During the summer of this year the regiment was encamped on Hounslow Heath, where it was several times reviewed by the King, and afterwards went into quarters at Cambridge, Huntingdon, and St. Ives.
At this period the following Officers were holding commissions in the regiment: —
In the summer of 1687 the regiment was again quartered for a short time in London, and it was subsequently encamped on Hounslow Heath, where a series of reviews and mock-battles were performed by the troops in presence of the court. The King spent much of his time on the Heath witnessing the exercise of the several corps, and endeavouring to ingratiate himself in the affections of his army, in order to render it subservient in the execution of his designs against the established religion and laws of the country.
On the 3rd of November, in this year, the Earl of Plymouth died, and the Colonelcy of the Fourth Horse was given to Brigadier-General Sir John Fenwick, who had for several years held the appointment of Lieut. – Colonel of the Second Troop, now Second Regiment, of Life Guards; he was also one of the inspecting generals of cavalry, and was known to be firmly attached to the King, and a zealous supporter of the measures of the court. Several officers resigned their commissions, and they were replaced by men whose principles were presumed to be favourable to papacy and absolute monarchy.
Although the nation was at peace, and arts and manufactures were prospering, yet the minds of the people were troubled, for they saw the King proceeding with rapid progress towards effecting the overthrow of the established religion and laws of the kingdom; while the nobility appeared resolved to make a stand against the arbitrary measures of the court. Thus, the Fourth Horse, when they had been only three years in the service of the crown, found themselves in a most perplexing situation; yet their conduct was so truly honourable, that every individual who has served in the corps may reflect with exultation on the fact that, throughout the whole period of its service, its reputation has been preserved untarnished. In the summer of 1688 it again erected its tents on Hounslow Heath; and, several Bishops having been imprisoned and brought to trial for not acquiescing in the King's measures, on the day they were acquitted, his Majesty, after reviewing the army on the Heath, dined in the Earl of Feversham's tent when, on a sudden, the soldiers began to shout and huzza; the King inquired the cause of the noise, and was answered – 'Nothing, your Majesty, but the soldiers shouting because the Bishops are acquitted.' The King answered, with evident displeasure, 'Call you that nothing?' and dismissed the troops to their quarters, resolving (according to the historians of that period) never to call them together again until he had remodelled them, by the dismissal of protestants and the introduction of papists. But events were ripe for execution; and the Prince of Orange was, in compliance with the solicitations of the English nobility, preparing an expedition for England to support the established religion and laws.
When the Fourth Horse left Hounslow Heath, they proceeded into quarters at Oxford and Woodstock. In the beginning of November they marched to Alresford; and when the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay, they were ordered to advance to Salisbury, where King James's army was assembled; before leaving Alresford, the men, in consequence of an order from the Secretary-at-War, placed their ARMOUR under the charge of the civil authorities of the town, from whence it was subsequently removed to the Tower of London.
King James arrived at Salisbury to command the forces in person, where he again discovered the reluctance of the troops to support the proceedings of the jesuitical faction by which he was governed; and, alarmed by the desertions which took place, he fled to London and ultimately to France. Several corps went over to the Prince of Orange; but the Fourth Horse preserved their fidelity to King James until that unhappy monarch forsook the throne; and when the Prince assumed the reins of government, His Highness ordered the regiment to march to Dorking and Ryegate, where it received a draught of 100 men and horses from the Marquis de Miremont's11 regiment of horse, a newly-raised corps which was ordered to be disbanded.
Sir John Fenwick, adhering to the interest of King James, resigned his commission; and the Colonelcy of the regiment was given to Lord Colchester, from the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Fourth Troop of Life Guards, who was one of the first officers that joined the Prince of Orange at Exeter, and took with him several men of his troop.
After the flight of the King, the Roman Catholic soldiers committed some irregularities; and in January, 1689, a squadron of the Fourth Horse, with a detachment of Sir George Hewyt's Horse (now Sixth Dragoon Guards), marched to Lewes and Chichester, where they caused three regiments of Irish Roman Catholics12 to lay down their arms, and afterwards escorted them to Portsmouth; from whence they were removed, under a strong guard, to the Isle of Wight, and were subsequently, sent to Hamburg, and disposed of in the service of the Emperor of Germany.
In the mean time the accession of King William and Queen Mary to the throne was opposed in Scotland, and Viscount Dundee was actively engaged in exciting the northern shires, particularly the Highlanders, to take arms in favour of King James. The Fourth Horse, after transferring thirty men and horses to the Blues (which regiment was ordered to proceed to Holland), marched for Scotland, and were placed under the command of
The cuirass was not peculiar to this regiment, there being, in the autumn of 1685, ten regiments of Cuirassiers in the English army, besides the Life Guards, who were also Cuirassiers.
War-Office Records.
The Marquis de Miremont was a French nobleman, and cousin to Louis Earl of Feversham.
The three regiments were Colonel John Butler's Dragoons, Colonel Anthony Hamilton's Foot Guards, and Colonel Roger McElligot's Regiment of Foot – 1500 men. —