Earl of Manchester’s Regiment of Foot

Parliamentarian regiment of foot of the commander of the Eastern Association

• August: Raised in Essex
• September: Manchester requests drums, colours, halberds, partizans and clothes from the Essex committee
• September: Siege of King’s Lynn?
• October to November: Siege of Bolingbroke Castle?
• October: Siege of Lincoln?

• May: Siege of Lincoln
• May to July: Siege of York
• 2nd July: Battle of Marston Moor
• July: Siege of York
• October: Second Battle of Newbury
• November: Standoff at Donnington

• March: Ordered to reinforce Brereton, but order rescinded
• March: Disbanded, men drafted into Sir Thomas Fairfax’s Regiment of Foot, the General's Regiment of the New Model Army

There are references to Manchester's foot ordering green coats lined in red (2100 in October 1643) and red coats lined in green. Whether one is an error, they wore different colours at different times, or part of the regiment were red-coated and part green-coated is unclear ¹⁾. Spring proposes that, since it was a double-sized regiment, one 'battalion' wore green lined red and the other red lined green²⁾.

Manchester requested drums, colours, halberds, partizans and clothes in 1643. Capt Walden also requested a partisan, halberds, ensign, and drums, pikes and corslets, muskets, rests and bandoliers and swords for both officers and soldiers. Whether the regiment actually received armour for their pikemen and musket rests for their musketeers is unknown.

Unfortunately there are no known contemporary descriptions of the flags of Manchester's regiment. The Earl of Manchester's Regiment of Foote of the Sealed Knot re-enactment society use a conjectural blue flag differenced by white lozenges, inspired by Manchester's coat of arms.

A list of the regiment’s officers is shown in Laurence Spring’s Regiments of the Eastern Association³⁾

Edward Montagu, Earl of Manchester

• The regiment appears to have been 'double' consisting of as many as 20 companies
• May 1644: 1628 men
• May 1644: 1572 men
• June 1644: 1045 men
• July 1644: 1120 men
• January 1645: 1039 men

The Earl of Manchester's Foot are re-enacted by The Earl of Manchester's Regiment of Foote of the Sealed Knot.