Colonel Charles Fleetwood’s Regiment of Horse

Later Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper’s Regiment of Horse

New Model Army regiment of horse serving in the First, Second and Third Civil Wars and in Scotland

• April: Formed from Colonel Charles Fleetwood's Regiment of Horse of Manchester’s Army
• June: Battle of Naseby
• June: Siege of Leicester
• July: Skirmish at Crewkerne
• July: Battle of Langport
• August: Accept surrender of Shaftesbury clubmen
• August to September: Siege of Bristol
• September: Siege of Devizes
• September to October: Siege of Winchester
• October: Siege of Basing House
• December: Quartered at Islip

• March: Captures fugitives after the Battle of Stow on the Wold
• April: Siege of Woodstock
• May to June: Siege of Oxford

• Quartered in East Anglia
• April: Suppress rising in Norwich (3 troops)
• May: Suppress rising at Bury St Edmunds (3 troops)
• May: Taking of Dartford
• June: Battle of Maidstone?
• June: Garrison of Yarmouth (2 troops)
• June to August: garrison of Lynn (1 troop)
• June to August: Siege of Colchester (5 troops led by Maj. Coleman)

• Quartered in East Anglia

• September: Battle of Dunbar

• August: Return to England
• September: Battle of Worcester

• Quartered in East Anglia
• July: Fleetwood appointed commander in Ireland

• October: Sent to Scotland

• Quartered at Banff, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Dundee, Falkland, Dunfermline, Aberdeen and Cupar

• Serving in Scotland

• Return to England

• In garrison at London

• January: Fleetwood replaced by Ashley Cooper
• February: Quartered at Basingstoke, Bath, Bristol and Salisbury
• November: Disbanded at Salisbury

A history of the regiment is given in The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army by Sir Charles Firth and Godfrey Davies, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1940.

The regiment was formed from Fleetwood’s Regiment of Horse of Manchester’s army and was said to be composed chiefly of Independents; Look on Col. Fleetwoods regiment with his Major Harreson, what a cluster of preaching offecers and troopers ther is. After the Battle of Naseby, Langport and the siege of Bristol the regiment returned east, besieging remaining Royalist strongholds. Quartered at Islip, they prevented the Oxford horse from breaking out to join with Lord Astley. Not involved directly in the Battle of Stow on the Wold, they nonetheless captured many fugitives.

In the Second Civil War they served in East Anglia then joined Fairfax. In 1650-51 the regiment accompanied Cromwell in his invasion of Scotland and victory at Worcester. They returned to Scotland in 1655-7. At the restoration they were initially in London but were ordered to the West Country by Monck and were disbanded in November 1660.

In the Eastern Association Colonel Fleetwood's cornet was blue with a blue and yellow fringe, it showed an arm wielding a sword emerging from a cloud and the motto on a scroll GOD IS MY STRENGTH¹⁾. Whether Fleetwood kept the same design in the New Model Army is uncertain.

Charles Fleetwood (c 1618-1692) was at the Inns of Court at the outbreak of the First Civil War and joined The Earl of Essex’s Lifeguard troop. By 1643 he was a captain of horse, was wounded at First Newbury and in 1644 was made colonel of horse in the Earl of Manchester’s army of the Eastern Association. In 1649 he was governor of the Isle of Wight, then in 1650 was appointed Lieutenant General of the Horse for Cromwell's Scottish campaign. Fleetwood married Bridget, Cromwell's daughter, in 1652 and was commander-in-chief in Ireland, appointed Lord-Deputy in 1654 but recalled in 1655. He was Major General of Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and East Anglia. After Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658, he supported Richard Cromwell for a while but soon challenged his authority, thus dissolving the Protectorate. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief in June 1659, but was replaced by a commission of seven members more acceptable to Parliament. Fleetwood supported Lambert and was again appointed Commander-in-Chief, effectively leading the ruling junta but opposed on all sides he acquiesced to the recall of Parliament on the 6th of December 1659. After the Restoration he was barred from public office and retired peacefully to Stoke Newington.

Appointed Colonel in 1660, Ashley-Cooper (1621-1683) is better known as the First Earl of Shaftesbury, a prominent statesman and politician during the Interregnum and Restoration. Despite being only 19 he represented Tewkesbury in the Short Parliament. After some vacillation he raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse for the Royalists, and was appointed a Royalist commissioner for the surrender of Dorchester, coming into dispute with Prince Maurice whose men plundered the town contrary to the terms of surrender. Appointed temporary governor of Weymouth and Portland, the position of High Sherriff of Dorset was promised to him. Despite this he defected to the Parliamentarians where he led a brigade of Dorset troops during 1644 at the siege of Wareham, storm of Abbotsbury House, taking of Shaftesbury and the relief of Taunton. In 1645 he resigned from the Parliamentarian army at the Self-Denying Ordinance. Patently a skilled politician, he continued in government throughout the Commonwealth and Protectorate, and was one of the seven commissioners appointed to reorganise the army in 1660. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer under Charles II and member of the ‘Cabal’ ministry. He went on to further high office and was instrumental in formation of the Whig party. Fearing that Charles II and James II would impose Catholicism he formented various Protestant rebellions but had to flee abroad and died in Amsterdam.

Hezekiah Haynes served as major to the regiment and was Major General for East Anglia.

More detailed lists of officers for April and May 1645, December 1646, May and August 1647 and May 1649 are shown in Reconstructing the New Model Army. Volume 1, Regimental Lists April 1645 to May 1649 by Malcolm Wanklyn, Helion & Co. 2015. ISBN 978-1-910777-10-7.

From Anglia Rediviva²⁾

• Colonel: Charles Fleetwood
• Major: Thomas Harrison
• Captain: William Coleman (Major by 1648)
• Captain: Thomas Selby, replaced by Capt. Laughton by Dec 1646
• Captain: Richard Sankey
• Captain: Thomas Howard

The Lord Deputy Charles Fleetwood's Regiment of Horse³⁾

• Colonel's troop at Kelso “of which 6 are” the Bog of Geeth
• Major Hezekiah Haynes' troop at Jedburgh
• Captain Joseph Blissett's troop at Peebles & Selkirk
• Thomas Izond's troop, the one half at Dumfalin & Falkland, the other half at Burntiland
• Griffith Lloyd's troop at Dumfries
• Thomas Else's troop, the one half at Cooper-in-Firfe, the other half at Enstruther

• 1645: Established at six troops