Capture of a Moorish Standard by the English Horse, at Tangier, in 1664. Now 1st Royal Dragoons.
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On the 13th of March the English horsemen had a sharp encounter with some of the enemy's best cavalry; and on the 27th, the Earl of Teviot led them against a horde of Moorish lancers and foot who were concealed in ambush, and the barbarians were routed and pursued among the woods and broken grounds with great slaughter. The English horsemen, however, suffered severely on the 4th of May in the same year, when the governor, having been deceived by a false report, advanced too far into the country, and was surprised by a numerous band of Moors in ambush. A fearful slaughter followed, and the Earl of Teviot was numbered among the slain.
1665
1666
Frequent encounters took place in the subsequent years between detached parties of British and Moors, and in this desultory warfare the English horsemen preserved their high character. Hostilities were occasionally terminated, and renewed after short intervals of peace; and during the period of seventeen years the garrison resisted, with firmness and success, every attempt of the Moors against the city.
1679
1680
In 1679 a numerous army of Moors appeared before Tangier, and destroyed two forts situate at a distance from the town. They afterwards withdrew, but re-appeared in the spring of 1680, with augmented numbers, and swarms of expert Moorish lancers, on light and swift horses, hovered round the fortress and confined the Christians within narrow limits. King Charles II. sent a battalion of foot guards and sixteen companies of Dumbarton's (now first royal) regiment, to reinforce the garrison, and issued commissions for raising a regiment of foot (now the fourth, or the King's own) and six troops of Horse in England: at the same time arrangements were made for procuring the service of three troops of Spanish cavalry.
The six troops of English horse were raised by Major-General the Earl of Ossory, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Lanier,[10] Captains Robert Pulteney, John Coy,[11] Charles Nedby, and Thomas Langston:[12] the three last-named officers having been captains in the Duke of Monmouth's regiment of horse, which was disbanded only a few months before, their troops were speedily completed with disciplined men who had served in that regiment; and the demand for cavalry at Tangier being urgent, they were furnished with horses and equipment from the life guards,[13] and arrived at Tangier in the early part of September: at the same time the three troops of Spanish horse arrived from Gibraltar.