A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



of these ragged troops deserted while at Rye, and orders were issued for 

 their arrest and punishment/ Again in 1597 when Sir Nicholas Parker 

 held a muster of three rapes, in the first muster only 160 trained men 

 appeared out of 600 ; the other rapes however were better ; the arms 

 were noted as poor, but the gentry were willing to supply deficiencies.' 

 Finally, the Lord Admiral, writing to Cecil in 1599, complained very 

 strongly of the lack of training and of numbers of the shire contingents, 

 especially instancing Sussex with a nominal muster of 4,000 and an 

 actual 2,000/ 



The ' personnel ' of the troops could not be expected to reach a 

 very high standard when the army was recruited by impressing all the 

 ' sturdy rogues and vagabonds ' to serve/ And even in the case of the 

 more regular levies the standard was lowered by the readiness with 

 which the commissioners allowed the person chosen to find unfit sub- 

 stitutes, or even, for a consideration, to escape altogether/ To be 

 steward to such an influential man as Lord Abergavenny was a sufficient 

 excuse to avoid serving as an officer,* and in 1595 the captain of Chi- 

 chester complained that ' the giving of liveries against the law ' interfered 

 with the effectiveness of the musters/ Thus when a special force was 

 brought together in February 1601, for the defence of the queen's 

 person, on the occasion of the endeavour of the Earl of Essex to effect 

 a ' coup d'etat,' and 100 horse and 500 of the trained bands were sent 

 for from Sussex, it was specially noted that as many as possible of the 

 soldiers should be independent men, masters not servants/ 



In spite of the crushing defeat of the Spanish Armada, danger of 

 invasion, or at least of plundering raids, continued to exist during the 

 last half of the reign of Elizabeth, and a descent of the Spaniards upon 

 Cornwall in 1595 caused considerable alarm. The officer in command 

 at Chichester pointed out to the council the decayed state of the walls 

 of that city, and urged their immediate repair.* At this time arrange- 

 ments were made for the mutual defence of the maritime counties, and 

 Sussex was appointed to send 4,000 men into Kent or Hampshire if 

 either were attacked ; the deputy lieutenants urged that they had only 

 arms for 2,000, but were told that doubtless more could be raised from 

 the inhabitants on emergency." 



The military history of the county during the reign of James I. 

 and down to the beginning of the Civil War calls for little notice," 

 but reference may be made to an early example of a cadet corps, if 

 the term may be used. When Charles I. was at Chichester in the 

 summer of 1627 he was pleased to observe the exercise of certain 

 boys in the use of arms, and ' on his gracious reception of their 



' Acts of P.C. xxii. 338. 3 Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vii. 206. 



3 Ibid. viii. 338. ■< Harl. MSS. 703, f. 132. 



5 Jets of P.C. xxvii. 198. Ibid. vii. 129. 



' Cecil. MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), v. 324. s Harl. MSS. 703, f. 120. 



B Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), v. 324. w ^as of P.C. xxv. 71, no. 

 " For orders and returns concerning musters and levies of soldiers from 1624 to 1631, see Suss. Arch. 

 Coll. xl. 1-36. 



