Table of Contents

Sir Robert Pye’s Regiment of Horse

Active1645 to 1661
CountryEngland
AllegianceParliamentarian
ConflictsFirst Civil War
Third Civil War
Glencairn’s Rising
Restoration
TypeHorse
ColonelSir Robert Pye
Matthew Tomlinson
George Monck
Area Raised
Flag Colour
Flag Design
Field ArmiesNMA 1645-6
Cromwell 1650-51
Monck 1653-61

Later Colonel Matthew Tomlinson’s, then George Monck’s Regiment of Horse

New Model Army regiment of horse serving in the First and Third Civil Wars then in Scotland under Monck

Service History

1645

1646

1647

1648

1649

1650

1651

1652

1653

1654

1655

1656

1657

1658

1659

1660

1661

Notes

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 Sir Robert Pye’s Regiment of Horse but as this was under strength, Margery’s troop of Cromwell’s regiment was added and likely two more troops from other units. Pye’s regiment were part of Cromwell’s victorious right wing at Naseby, but Pye may not have been present having been captured at Leicester, though soon exchanged. The regiment served at the siege of Bristol and on Fairfax’s Western Campaign, then at the siege of Faringdon in Oxfordshire.

In 1647 the regiment mutinied and Pye resigned, replace by Tomlinson. At the start of the Second Civil War the regiment was quartered in the South-West with Sir Hardress Waller’s forces and played no major role. In 1650 they were ordered to Scotland to reinforce Cromwell but arrived after Dunbar and in 1651 fought at Worcester.

The regiment were sent to Scotland in 1653, serving with Generals Monck and Morgan and helping to put down Glencairn’s rising in 1654. Monck took command of the regiment and it remained in Scotland throughout the 1650s. In 1660, as Monck’s own regiment of horse, they were instrumental in achieving the Restoration, advancing on London at the head of Monck’s army. The regiment were disbanded by the end of January 1661, though Monck subsequently recommended Captain Paddon of the regiment for command of horse raised for the Portugal expedition in 1662.

Flags and Equipment

In February 1659, all were armed with sword and pistol and every second man had a carbine.

Notable Officers

Sir Robert Pye

Sir Robert Pye

Colonel Matthew Tomlinson

Matthew Tomlinson

General George Monck

George Monck

Trooper Miles Sindercombe

Miles Sindercombe(d. 1657) Originally a quartermaster in Reynold’s regiment he had been one of the ringleaders of the 1649 Leveller mutiny but escaped and re-enlisted as a trooper in Tomlinson’s regiment. Part of ‘Overton’s plot’ in 1654, he escaped arrest by Monck, and spent two years plotting to assassinate Cromwell. Caught attempting arson at the chapel in Whitehall using an incendiary machine he was condemned to death but cheated the hangman by taking poison, dying in the Tower in February 1657.

Officer Lists

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.

May 1645 and December 1646

From Anglia Rediviva1)

1656

The Lord General George Monk's Regiment of Horse2)

Strength

See Also

1) Sprigge, Joshua, Anglia Rediviva, London 1647
2) Worcester College Oxford, Clarke Manuscripts