POLITICAL HISTORY 



When Essex returned in triumph at the end of September, he held a 

 review of all the London trained bands in Finsbury Fields. 



In May, 1643, g reat alarm was felt lest the king should march 

 against London, and trenches were hastily made on all the approaches 

 to the City, such as at Islington, in the fields near St. Pancras, and at 

 Mile End, at which men, and even women and children, worked day and 

 night. 808 There was another alarm in the campaign of 1644, when 

 Essex and Waller had separated and the king entered Buckinghamshire 

 with Waller hopelessly in the rear. A force was hastily collected, with 

 which Major-general Browne was ordered to defend the country 

 between London and the king. On 25 June Sir Gilbert Gerrard 

 reported four thousand men to be ready in Middlesex. 30 ' Two days 

 earlier his own regiment, which he had raised in the county, was 

 ordered to march to Hertford under Browne. 810 The rest of the force 

 was composed of men from the eastern counties of a non-military 

 character, but luckily for Browne's little force the king could not 

 shake off Waller and on 29 June fought at Cropredy Bridge. 



Middlesex supplied many men during that year for the Parlia- 

 mentary armies. In March sixty horse were sent into the field. 811 After 

 the second battle of Newbury all the forces of the county were drawn 

 to Staines to defend the western approaches to London. 812 During the 

 winter of 1644-5 Middlesex men were in garrison at Windsor Castle. 813 

 In March, 1645, 2,500 men were raised in Middlesex with London, 

 Westminster and Southwark, and in June an additional 800 to recruit 

 Fairfax's army. 314 A troop of forty horse were with Major-general 

 Browne at Abingdon in January, 1644 5, when he complained of fre- 

 quent desertions because of the straitness of their quarters, the scanti- 

 ness of victuals, and the lack of money ; 3U 200 more were sent to him 

 in June. 81 ' Four hundred foot joined Cromwell before Oxford, 317 and 

 in June the county forces marched under Colonel Massey to relieve 

 Taunton, and ' went forth with much cheerfulness.' When Fairfax's 

 army was at Reading during the summer of 1645 recruiting went on 

 apace in Middlesex. 



The county suffered not only from the continual drain of men 

 and money, but also from the billeting of troops. In January, 1 6434, 

 a petition was presented to Parliament from the inhabitants of Mid- 

 dlesex and other of the south and eastern counties, 318 against ' the in- 

 tolerable oppression and undoing grievance of Free Quarter ' which ' has 

 rendered us no better than mere conquered slaves ' of the soldiers, who 

 ' like so many Egyptian locusts feed so long upon us at free costs.' s19 

 In November, 1644, the gentlemen of Middlesex again petitioned, and 



308 Lords' Journ. v, 419 ; Perfect Diurnall, May, June, 1643. 



109 Col. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 274. l10 Ibid. 265. 



'" Ibid. 77. ' Ibid. 1644-5, P- 136. 



'"Ibid. 124, 134,327- '" Ibid. 359, 625. 



315 Ibid. 247. " Ibid. 555. " Ibid. 550. 



118 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, 3. 



319 Petition of the inhabitants of Middlesex,' &c., B.M. 



43 



