MILITARY HISTORY 



Wyatt's rising * that men of property sometimes had the means of arm- 

 ing a considerable number of followers, and the sixteen great pieces of 

 ordnance taken from him show how necessary it was for the queen to 

 regulate the making of cannon in the iron-founding districts of the 

 Weald. There was no good reason for a private person to have a train 

 of artillery, although fortunately he was not likely to have enough 

 powder to make it very dangerous. 



The insurrection of the northern earls, to Hberate Mary Stewart in 

 the autumn of 1569, alarmed the Government, and led to the calling 

 out of the Surrey musters. Already in that year, on i May, a review 

 of arms and men had been ordered," and on 24 November, William, Lord 

 Howard of Effingham, was commanded to hold the whole force of the 

 county ready to march at an hour's notice.* Several letters and orders 

 are preserved, showing that the county was in a stirring state of armed 

 expectancy for all the latter part of the year. One or two interesting 

 details appear. William Poyntz of Reigate was not to be a captain in 

 the Surrey forces, because he had no estate in the county. In the 

 revived militia of 1757 the officers were obliged to have property, or to 

 be heirs to property in the county. Another less respectable difficulty 

 appears in the case of Poyntz, namely, that he was a servant to Mr. 

 Thomas Hennage, a gentleman employed by the Government, ' who 

 would be sorry to lose his services.'* On 3 December Lord Howard 

 ordered that noblemen's servants should be exempt from service, to suit 

 their masters' convenience.' On 10 December Grindal, Bishop of Lon- 

 don, begged off his servant, Fynden of Mortlake, on the ground of the 

 inconvenience to himself.^ Even in 1588 the Earl of Huntingdon begged 

 off a servant, and in 1590 Walsingham himself made the same request.* 



The musters were held from year to year, and occasional orders 

 were given for the training of 150 ' able men.' Surrey was supposed to 

 be able to furnish 6,000 ' able men,' but only 1,800 ' armed men ' and 96 

 demi-lances.* On 22 April 1577, the Commissioners of Array, who had 

 expostulated against the number of men required in Surrey, were answered 

 by the Council that the number had been fixed in proportion to the 

 size of the county. It appears that the 150' able men ' called out were 

 to be trained to use the caliver, a lighter fire-arm than the musket, fired 

 without a rest."* It was not till 1580 that all the militia was again bid- 

 den to be in readiness for immediate service." Invasion was expected, 

 or thought possible ; ' the kynges of Spagne his Armada lythe at Jeb- 

 eraltera.' It was in the winter of 1579-80 that the beacons had been 

 fired by mistake, and the troops had actually been put in motion towards 



1 See F.C.H. Sutr. i. 375. 



» As was done in 1576 and 1588 : Loseley MS. vii. 9 B and 31 October 1588. 



3 Loseley MS. xii. 33. * Ibid. vi. 6. 



° Ibid. vi. 19. ° Ibid. vi. 20. 



7 Ibid. viii. 14. Tiiis was just before Grindal's translation to York. Perhaps there his servants 

 could not be let off so easily, when Leonard Dacre was in rebellion in the following year. 



8 Ibid. viii. 56, vi. 57. ^ Ibid. vi. 8, xii. 40. 



i» Ibid. vi. 23. Calivers could be bought for 13/. 4a'. and morions for 5/. each. 

 >i Ibid. xii. 42, iv. 84. 



135 



