This ancient and renowned city had been successively in the power of the Phœnicians, Romans, Vandals, Saracens, Portuguese, and Spaniards, and it had been the scene of armed contentions and sanguinary wars, in remote ages as well as in modern times. It had formerly been celebrated as one of the most splendid cities in that quarter of the world, but had fallen from its ancient power and magnificence; and when it came into the possession of the British crown, fragments of ruins were all that remained to indicate its former grandeur. It had been much strengthened and improved by the English after their possession of it; detached forts had been constructed, and large sums of money had been granted by the parliament for improving the harbour and enlarging the defences. Much opposition had, however, been met with from the native chiefs, who availed themselves of all the means within their power for exterminating the Christian occupants of this part of Africa. The garrison had already resisted many attempts of its daring and inveterate enemies, particularly in the time of Gaylan, the usurper of Fez; but in 1680 the city was besieged by an immense force, and the Moors had the advantage of having several European renegades in their army, by whom they had been taught the art of mining and of carrying on approaches under ground. Not only the national honour and the credit of His Majesty's arms were concerned in the preservation of this fortress, but, in the event of its capture by the Moors, the Levant trade was likely to suffer some interruption from its harbour becoming the resort of pirates.
King Charles II., therefore, sent thither a battalion of foot guards and sixteen companies of Dumbarton's regiment, (now first royals,) and issued, in July, 1680, warrants for raising six independent troops of horse and a regiment of foot, to augment the garrison, and to enable it to chase from under the walls the native forces by which it was menaced.
The first troop of horse was raised by Major-General the Earl of Ossory, who was nominated governor of His Majesty's possessions in Africa; and the others by Lieut.-Colonel Sir John Lanier, and Captains Robert Pulteney, John Coy, Charles Nedby, and Thomas Langston.
The regiment of foot was ordered to consist of sixteen companies of sixty-five private men each, besides officers and non-commissioned officers; and the colonelcy was conferred on Charles Fitz-Charles, Earl of Plymouth, a daring aspirant to military fame, who had already distinguished himself against the Moors in the character of a volunteer, and was serving at Tangier at the time the regiment was raised.
The royal authority for raising this regiment was given on the 13th of July, 1680, and the sixteen companies of which it was composed, were raised by the following officers; Lieut.-Colonel Piercy Kirke,[6] Major Charles Trelawny, and Captains Zachariah Tiffin, Henry Trelawny, Edward Hastings, Charles Fox, Edward Griffin, John Strode, Edward Saville, Roger Pope, Walter Fitzgerard, John Grimes, Robert Ansley, Arthur Cheffors, and John Southcote, and the captain-lieutenant of the colonel's company. Eight companies were raised in London and in its vicinity under the immediate superintendence of Lieut.-Colonel Kirke, and had their general rendezvous in Clerkenwell; and the other eight companies were raised in the west of England, with their general rendezvous at Plymouth, under the superintendence of Major Trelawny.
The corps thus raised obtained the title of the Second Tangier Regiment,[7] and after serving the British crown in various parts of the world, through the eventful period of one hundred and fifty-eight years, it continues a distinguished corps, and bears the designation of the Fourth, or the King's Own, Regiment of Foot. Although the particulars of its origin and formation have been distinctly given, yet it was in some measure connected with another corps, of whose services a few words are introduced into this record.
On the breaking out of the war between England and Holland in the early part of 1672, a regiment of foot was raised, of which James Duke of Monmouth was appointed colonel. This regiment was sent to France, and taken into the pay of Louis XIV.; it served during the campaigns of 1672 and 1673, under the Duke of Monmouth, in the Netherlands, and during the four succeeding years it served with the French army in Alsace and on the Rhine, together with Douglas's or Dumbarton's regiment, now first royals, Churchill's, and Hamilton's. In these campaigns Monmouth's regiment distinguished itself on several occasions under Marshals Turenne, De Crequi, and Luxemburg. In 1678 it was ordered to return to England, and after the peace of Nimeguen it was disbanded.
When the Earl of Plymouth's regiment was raised, many of the officers of Monmouth's late regiment were appointed to commissions in this new corps, through whose influence many of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers, who had served in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, were induced to enter the same regiment. By these means, and by the aid of a few men from the Holland regiment, now third foot, or the buff's, the Earl of Plymouth's, or Second Tangier Regiment, was completed in numbers, equipped,[8] instructed in the simple exercises practised at the time, and ready to embark for foreign service in less than four months after the order for its being raised was issued.
The service for which these forces were raised being urgent, three of the troops of cavalry (Langston's, Nedby's, and Coy's) were provided with horses from the life guards and royal regiment of horse guards, and sailed as soon as possible; the Earl of Plymouth's regiment also embarked with all possible expedition, and sailed in November.
In the mean time the garrison of Tangier had overpowered the Moorish army in a sharp action under the walls, and a truce had been agreed upon for six months; and when information of this event arrived in England, the other three troops of horse (viz. Ossory's, Lanier's, and Pulteney's) were disbanded.