Her Majesty's Army

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Excerpt from Her Majesty's Army: A Descriptive Account of the Various Regiments Now Comprising the Queen's Forces, From Their First Establishment to the Present Time But the body-guard of Henry, the eighth of his name, must be composed of men of superior rank, and forthwith a troop was composed "of the cadets of noble families" and styled the King's "Pensioners and Speares." The original ordinance for their creation smacks not a little of the pedagogue. The King, it set out, "of his great nobleness, wisdom and prudence, considered that in his realm of England be. many young gentlemen of noble Blood which have non exercise in the Feate of Armes, in handling and renting of the spere, and other faits of Werre on horseback, like as in other Reames and eountreys be dayley practised and used to the greate honour and laude of them that so doth": his Highness therefore appointed "a Retynue daily of ecrtaine Speres called men of Armes, to be chosen of gentlemen that be eomen and cxtraete of Noble Blood." At first the eorps - fifty in number - were a perfect mass of splendid accoutrement: an old chronicler says that "themselves, their horses, and their servants, were trapped and apparelled in cloth of gold and silver and goldsmith's work, " and states that they did not last very long. When we learn on good authority that the cloth of gold cost something over £5 a yard, the statement becomes the more easily credible. But if the corps of Gentlemen Pensioners terminated its existence, it was but a ease of suspended animation, for a few years afterwards it is again strongly on evidence. Minute details respecting its constitution were promulgated, and in an old picture of the famous meeting on the Field of the Cloth of Gold the Gentlemen Pensioners are to be seen in bravo array, armed with the battle-axe which they adopted in 1539. At the close of their founder's reign the uniforms were of red and yellow damask - the orthodox royal colours according to some authorities. Edward VI. seems to have been particularly partial to the corps. In the account of a great review held before his youthful Majesty, we read that "first came the King's trumpeters, then the Lord Bray in gilt harness, Captain of the Pensioners, and a great banner of the King's Arms. Then all the Pensioners in complete harness and great array in while and black, five and five in a rank, after them their servants (about a hundred in number) in which and black." Particularly did the young sovereign commend the horses, which he describes as "all fair and great, the worst worth at least twenty pounds, none under fourteen hands and a half... most of them with their guides going before them" - a precaution generally adopted with these magnificent chevaux entiers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.