Author: Richard Cannon

Publisher: LONGMAN, ORME, AND CO

Published:

Total Pages: 55

ISBN-13:

The Regiment, which forms the subject of the following memoir, is one of the seventeen corps, now in the British army, which derive their origin from the commotions in England during the first year of the reign of King James II. The origin of these commotions may be traced to the pernicious councils adopted by King Charles I., which were followed by a flame of puritanical zeal and of democratical fury and outrage in the country, which deprived the monarch of life, and forced the royal family to reside for several years in exile on the continent, where King Charles II. and his brother, James Duke of York, imbibed the doctrines of the Church of Rome. After the Restoration, in 1660, the King concealed his religion from his Protestant subjects; but the Duke of York openly avowed the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, which rendered him exceedingly unpopular. King Charles II. having no legitimate issue, his eldest illegitimate son, James Duke of Monmouth, an officer of some merit, who had espoused the Protestant cause with great warmth, and had become very popular, aspired to the throne. In a few months after the accession of James II., this nobleman arrived from Holland (11th June, 1685) with a band of armed followers, and erecting his standard in the west of England, called upon the people to aid him in gaining the sovereign power. Although a deep feeling of anxiety was general in the kingdom at this period, yet the King had declared his determination to support the Protestant religion, as by law established, and his designs against the constitution had not been manifested; hence loyalty to the sovereign, a principle so genial to the innate feelings of the British people, prevailed over every other consideration. A number of Mendip miners and other disaffected persons joined the Duke of Monmouth; but men of all ranks arrayed themselves under the banners of royalty. To officers and soldiers imbued with a laudable esprit de corps, the particulars relating to the origin and services of their regiment are of intense interest, and the circumstances which gave rise to the formation of their corps are of themselves an era. To encourage such feelings is one of the objects of the present undertaking, and, although the general reader may think the narrative tedious, the officers and men of the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards will feel gratified at learning by whom, and where, each troop, of which their regiment was originally composed, was raised. This information has been procured from public documents, in which it is recorded that, in the midst of the hostile preparations which the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion occasioned in every part of the kingdom, a troop of horse was raised by James Earl of Arran, eldest son of William Duke of Hamilton, a nobleman distinguished alike for loyalty and attachment to the Protestant religion; a second troop was raised, in the vicinity of London, by Captain John Parker, Lieutenant of the Horse Grenadier Guards attached to the King's Own troop of Life Guards (now First Regiment of Life Guards); a third at Lichfield, by William Baggott, Esq.; a fourth at Grantham, by Thomas Harrington, Esq.; a fifth at Durham, by John Fetherstonhalgh, Esq.; and the sixth at Morpeth, by William Ogle, Esq.; and that, after the decisive battle of Sedgemoor had destroyed the hopes of the invader, these six troops were ordered to march to the south of England, and were incorporated into a regiment of Cuirassiers, which is now the Fourth or Royal Irish Regiment of Dragoon Guards. The Colonelcy was conferred on the Earl of Arran, by commission, dated the 28th of July, 1685; the Lieutenant-Colonelcy on Captain Charles Nedby, from the Queen's regiment of horse; and the commission of Major on Captain John Parker. To be continue in this ebook...