Henry Tillier’s Regiment of Foote

Continuing on with my Royalist English Civil War army, this time with the green-uniformed Henry Tillier’s Regiment of Foote. These are Renegade Miniatures, 28mm, based for the game Field of Glory: Renaissance. The flag is from Flags of War.

The first game will be held over Labor Day weekend, so that gives me just a couple more weeks to have everything ready. The two hardest are now finished, Rupert’s and Tilliers. Now I need 4 units of cavalry, and that will bring me to the 400 points in units I need to play.

I mixed in the history of Henry Tillier and his regiment from Henry Tillier’s Regiment website, a reenactment group of The Sealed Knot .

Henry Tillier was from a French Huguenot family who were refugees from the persecution of the French Catholics. He became an officer in the army of Charles I that was raised to fight in Ireland in 1642. There he rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel in the regiment of Sir Fulk Huncks.

In 1643 he was promoted to Colonel and given his own regiment, raised from troops of the Dublin Garrison. With his regiment he crossed to Wales in 1644 and joined the King’s forces in the Shrewsbury Garrison. Soon after Prince Rupert began organizing his northern army, making Shrewsbury the rallying point for his troops and Tillier’s Regiment the nucleus of this new force. It was at this time the regiment was issued their distinctive green coats and standards.

In late February 1644, Prince Rupert set off from Chester, via Shrewsbury to break the Parliamentary siege of Newark. During the successful action of 21st March Henry Tillier was commander of foot, Rupert having promoted him to Sergeant Major General. The combined strength of Tillier’s and Broughton’s regiments was a thousand men. After some skilful manoeuvring Rupert relieved the Royalist garrison and by early April the regiment was back in Shrewsbury.

Tillier’s regiment were certainly part of the six thousand foot which left Shrewsbury on 16th May 1644. Marching with Prince Rupert to revive the flagging Royalist fortunes in Lancashire. On 25th May Bolton was stormed, the Royalist forces including Tillier’s claimed to have inflicted 1200 casualties and captured 600 Parliamentarians for the loss of 300 of their own men. The campaign was a great success and included the famous relief of Lathom house. The culmination of the campaign was the siege and capture of Liverpool on the 12th June 1644.

“If York be lost I shall esteem my crown little less…” Propelled by these words, contained in the now famous letter from Charles I, Rupert marched to the relief of York on 21st June 1644, taking Tillier’s and Broughton’s regiments with him. During the ensuing battle of Marston Moor, Tillier’s formed part of Lord Eythin’s Brigade, possibly providing some of the commanded shot despatched in support of the horse. Certainly Tillier’s fought with some distinction, “Newcastle’s whitecoats and a regiment of greencoats fought bravely, the whitecoats making an incredible last stand at White Syke close”.

Those men of Tillier’s who escaped death made their way back to Wales and were quartered at Welshpool. Henry Tillier himself was not with them, he had been captured on the field of Marston Moor.

Having recovered some of their strength, and now commanded by the Lt Colonel, Edmund Hammond, Tillier’s were part of the 2000 foot lead by Lord Byron to the relief of Montgomery Castle. In action on the 18th June against Brereton’s Parliamentarians, the regiment of a Colonel Ellis broke, taking the majority of the Royalist army with them. Those who escaped successfully were largely the veterans of Ireland. Tillier’s regiment were subsequently rallied and returned to Shrewsbury. Thus ended the 1644 campaign season, Tilliers must have been grateful for the chance to rest and recuperate.

The war restarted with a vengeance on 22nd February 1645. While Tillier’s regiment were on a foraging expedition the Shrewsbury garrison was surprised and captured by Colonel Thomas Mytton. Thirteen Irish troops were hanged the next day, only the English troops being allowed to march out. Chester was now the last major Royalist garrison in the North West and this is where the remnants of Tillier’s gathered.

Now, too depleted to form any reasonable strength, Tillier’s were combined with three other green coated regiments. Known collectively as the Shrewsbury foot and joined by their commander, Henry Tillier, freed from Leicester on 31st May 1645.

The 500 men of the Shrewsbury foot in conjunction with the 500 men of Rupert’s bluecoats formed Lisle’s tercio on the day of the battle of Naseby. After much fierce fighting the Shrewsbury foot collapsed only after a final charge by Thomas Fairfax. As the parliamentarians fought their way into the very heart of the formation Fairfax himself killed an ensign carrying a green Lt Colonel’s colour.

That was the end of Sergeant Major General Henry Tillier’s regiment of foote.