John Talbot's Regiment of Foote

The regiment was raised in the west as part of Lord Horton's army but by 1644 this army had shrunk through campaign losses (action and disease) and further reduced through garrison duties and to a larger extent desertion which by the winter of 1643/4 was epidemic. Hopton's army was so weak by the start of the 1644 campaign that his army was recalled to Oxford and folded into the Kings army which was in dire need of the foot supplied. Such was the straights of Horton's army that the whole of the foot only supplied one of the three Tertia of this army. It was wise to keep all the regiments under one commander though this was Sir Bernard Astley and not Hopton, though Astley had commanded all the foot in Horton's army. This was a fairly large regiment at this point consisting of 9 companies of Anglo-Irish. to be clear this does not mean that the regiment had a large percentage of native Irish in it's ranks. Most of the Irish were in fact English soldiers sent to Ireland to defeat the rebellion a few years before, or English Settlers (sometimes second or third generation) but did have some native Irish and it is probable than many of the officers and a fair number of the troops were Catholics. Parliament had used a great deal of propaganda against such troops insisting that these were native Irish stoking up the hatred fear and thirst for revenge so that many English men were killed in cold blood after being captured as were many of the camp followers. Most true Irish were serving in the midlands and above  were few were to survive the war.

 

 

Talbot's wore a yellow coat and carried white colours. I have represented them in a dull yellow coat and seven stands of figures to represent one of the larger regiments at this time.

 

I can not be sure but it's possible THIS John Talbot could be the 10th Earl of Shrewsbury a Roman Catholic who for his support of the King had his estates sequestered and compounded by Parliament for being a Papist and Delinquent but I can not be sure. If I could find my Officers of the Royalist Army books I would be able to confirm.

I have made this one one of the larger regiments with an extra stand of pikes and also armoured just to make them a bit more fun. You won't see many more yellow regiments as yellow just was not that popular.