A HISTORY OF SURREY 



thirty-six ; then Wallington, which included Croydon, thirty-four 

 The archers, one-fifth of the force, numbered only eighty. In spite ot 

 the encouragement of the Government, by statutes enjoining practice, 

 the art of using the longbow, which as a military weapon could not be 

 mastered by the light of nature but necessitated long and careful train- 

 ing, had evidently decayed. Except on the Scotch border, England had 

 been comparatively peaceful for sixty years. The incentive of war, 

 continuously furnished from the days when Edward I. organized 

 English archery down to the end of the Wars of the Roses, was need- 

 ful to keep up archery in its perfection. There was no musketry in the 

 levies, although powder mills were in existence in Surrey.* The mus- 

 ket was not a military weapon in England till the Netherland wars, 

 forty years later. In 1548, notwithstanding the English victory at 

 Pinkie in the previous year, the Scots were active in expelling the 

 English garrisons left in their country, and were supported by the 

 French. In consequence of this, on 4 February 1548, musters were 

 ordered in Surrey," and on 2 April the beacons were commanded to 

 be put in order.' When Mary's war with France began Viscount 

 Montague, as Lord Lieutenant, gave orders on 3 May i 557,* for an array 

 of the county forces, and on the next day'' received directions to hold all 

 his men ready to march to the defence of Calais. The apprehensions 

 felt of a French attempt on Calais were dispelled by the victory of 

 St. Quentin in August, only however to be realized in the subsequent 

 January. The only letter in the Loseley papers which seems to bear 

 on levies for the rescue of the place is dated 8 January, the day after 

 the town capitulated." 



The Earl of Arundel had been appointed Lord Lieutenant on 25 

 March 1558,' and on 12 May he ordered WiUiam More to muster and 

 train men for the war in the Netherlands against the French.^ He was 

 reappointed by Elizabeth immediately after her accession, and received 

 her warrant' to raise and equip 100 able men, the queen evidently 

 thinking it well to have some small armed force round her. But there 

 was also a general muster and view of armour about that time. It is 

 referred to in a letter of 26 December 1558 from Richard Bydon (or 

 Bedon)^, who had been captain of musters in Mary's reign, to William 

 More,'" mentioning that the bishops and clergy ' have of late tyme pro- 

 cured to their possession a greate quantitie of armor and weapons,' and 

 that the Council were anxious to have a return of the weapons in the 

 hands of the clergy as well as of the laity. However poorly equipped 

 the regular levies of the county might have been, it is evident from the 

 inventory of arms taken from Sir Thomas Cawarden at the time of 



: ^^^;^; ^-- ii- article on ^ .^.dustries.' . Lesley MS. xii. z. 



raising levies the year before. ^^'^°"' =" ^^^^^^t of the Lord Lieutenant, had been employed in 



:S^'-'9- ^ » Ibid. xii. zo. 



• Ibid. 2 1 November 1588. 10 jj^j^j ;; ^r 



134 



