Page:VCH Surrey 1.djvu/462

 A HISTORY OF SURREY Netherlands, it appears that the county was not actually ready to provide the number of armed men shown in these musters without great difficulty. It was an easier matter to bring them together to the musters in peace time than to equip them to march against an anticipated invader, when even the amateur soldiers who organized and commanded them understood that it was useless to send men without sufficient warlike stores. The Council was throughout dissatisfied with the force of cavalry. On September 30, 1585, just after formal war had begun, Lord Howard was directed to take steps to increase the numbers and the efficiency of the demi-lances and cavalry. 1 It is certainly somewhat surprising that the number of demi-lances furnished should be so little in excess of the number of knights whom knight service was supposed to produce in the county in the thirteenth century. Population and wealth must certainly have increased in 350 years. In the year of great peril, on March 30, 1588, Lord Howard was busy trying to make levies of horsemen. 3 But he met with discouraging answers when he might have expected support. The Bishop of Winchester wrote on June 19, regretting that he could not provide horsemen. 3 Yet the bishop was undeniably wealthy, as times went,* in spite of certain losses to the see, and by act of Parliament should have had ' great horses ' in his park at Farnham. He was also unde- niably and of necessity a strong supporter of the queen. It is fair to add that the clergy had provided 100 men at the instigation of the bishop. The arms of recusants had been seized before, May 8, 1585," to eke out supplies of weapons. There is no record of their horses being seized in Surrey till 1597, but it is unlikely that they were spared before. The general impression conveyed by the frequent orders and ex- hortations which were directed to the local authorities in 1588 is that of zeal there was plenty, and of men not a few, but of real preparation and training very little. The attempt to organize any large force of cavalry seems, wisely perhaps, to have been abandoned altogether. Of infantry 2,000 were to be provided, armed in the following proportions : 400 ' shot,' 400 pikes, 600 bows, 600 bills. But 2,000 really well- armed men were not forthcoming. On June 27, 1588, when the Spanish fleet was well upon its way from Lisbon, 6 the Council called for i, 800 men from Surrey ; that is all that they expected to get of the 2,000. These 1,800 were despatched to the mustering places with bows, as has been mentioned, substituted for 'shot' in the case of 300 men. On July 23 the whole county force was warned to be 1 Loseley MSS. date cited. * Ibid, date cited. 3 Ibid. xi. 1 8, date cited. 4 The value of the see when Wolsey died was 4,095 i6s. $J. per annum. There is a return in Loseley papers under 22 Hen. VIII. to this effect. There is another, of November 28, 1568, show- ing that in the past year the clear annual value of the whole bishopric was 2,380 is. d., and the expenses of the bishop's household for the same time 1,488 I is. ld. 5 Loseley MSS., date cited, v. p. ii. 36. The seizure perhaps throws light upon the provision of light horses by the recusants for the Netherlands expedition later in the year (see above). 6 Ibid. June 27, 1588, xii. 69. The Armada sailed June I from Lisbon, but put into Ferrol owing to bad weather. It sailed again July 1 1. 390