Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/302

296 same date there is a bill for supplying Col. Montagu's regiment, raised in Cambridgeshire, with red coats faced with white. The regiments raised in Essex were dressed in red coats lined with blue. Another regiment had red coats faced with blue. Finally, Manchester's own men had green coats faced with red. It is evident, then, that by 1644 red coats must have been the prevailing wear in the army of the Eastern Association, although they were not universal.

On the formation of the New Model in 1645 the whole of Fairfax's army was, from the first, dressed in red. The newspaper called Perfect Passages, published 7 May, 1645, says: "The men are Redcoats all, the whole army only are distinguished by several facings of their coats." As Fairfax's own colours were blue, his regiment wore blue facings. From the contract made in October, 1649, for the clothing of the army in Ireland, we learn that the coats were of "Venice colour red," and the breeches "of grey or other good colour."

Throughout the Protectorate the same colour was used. The troops sent by Cromwell to Flanders in 1657 were equipped with new red coats on leaving England; and in November, 1658, Protector Richard gave all the foot soldiers about London "new red coats trimmed with black" to wear at his father's funeral. In the literature of the Commonwealth and Protectorate "redcoat" and "soldier" are used as synonymous terms. Cf. 'The Red-Coat's Catechism,' 4to, 1659.

Miss is somewhat belated in her effort "to explode the myth that William of Orange first devised, or adopted, red as the British warrior's official hue." If she had referred to the 'N.E.D.'—the R parts appeared some few years ago—she would have found under 'Redcoat': "In the Civil War commonly applied to the Parliamentary troops or some regiments of them, though each side had red-coated soldiers." The first quotation given for "redcoat"=soldier is so early as 1520.

White coats for soldiers were certainly in use much earlier than the Civil War. I am under the impression that illuminated MSS. show Edward III.'s soldiers in France wearing white coats with a red St. George's Cross "before and behind." This was the uniform of the royal troops in Henry VIII.'s reign, and numerous allusions to it are to be found—e.g., 'Letters and Papers of Henry VIII..' vol. xi., No. 1086, the white coats of the royal troops; vol. xii. pt. i., No. 306 red crosses upon the breast and back. I suppose the uniform was derived from the banner of St. George.

Is it possible that in Charles I.'s army the ordinary levies wore the old white uniform, while the troops raised by particular gentlemen usually wore red? Both the instances given by Miss in her interesting paper occur in the case of picked bodies of men, and to them may be added the following from the Duchess of Newcastle's 'Life of William, Duke of Newcastle,' bk. iii. pt. i.:

Obviously, the rest of the Duke's forces were red, or "White-Coats" would not have been a distinctive title.

To the interesting notes of Miss L. L may be added the following explicit statements as to the colour of the coats worn by the soldiers of the Parliament, each excerpted from the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I.

Writing on 13 Sept., 1642, to a friend in London, Nehemiah Wharton, an officer in the Parliamentary army, told how "a countryman" had brought him news of a "base priest" some six miles distant, and added: "The countryman I clothed with a soldier's red coat, gave him arms, and made him my guide." But in the same letter Wharton referred to the "base blue-coats of Colonel Cholmly's regiment," which is proof that all the soldiers were not clad alike.

On 19 March, 1644/5, the Committee of both Kingdoms addressed some instructions to the Committee of Essex relative to the recruiting of a thousand soldiers, command-