Description:Following the Armada, there was much speculation about how military tactics could be improved in the event of another foreign assault. Indeed, some accounts were critical of the methods which were employed in the battles of the Armada.
Amongst the Sutherland Papers is a treaty written by Captain Milworth which suggests that the battle tactics used by English forces in the Armada were outdated. Milworth suggests that ‘longe times of peace & rest’ meant that the tactics used were ‘dangerous and unperfect’.
Milworth is particularly critical of the 'unperfect' old methods of defending coastal towns. He writes ‘our olde manor & custome in runninge confusedlye to the seaside’ can only result in ‘great danger hurt & slaughter’.
Milworth suggests that ‘our enemyes haue taken advantage & increase of knowledge by their late troubles’. In contrast, English forces ‘are declined and gone backward for want of use and practise’.
Milworth offers advice directly concerning the defence of towns in coastal areas of England in a section entitled ‘Certayne orders meete to be observed vppon anye forreyn Invasion: for those shiers that lye vppon the sea costes'.
He suggests that the men leading the armed forces ‘must be men of…experience, discretion temperancye & judgement’. He also argues that horsemen and footmen ought ‘to be trayned & exercised into all manner of sortes & formes aswell frivolous as necessarye, to the intent to make them the more perfect howe to give and receave a charge.'
Milworth advocated better training for troops, his conclusion stating ‘I woulde wishe our nation to be well exercised & trayned’.
The documents amongst Sir John Leveson’s papers indicate that there was great emphasis in the late sixteenth century on improving military tactics, reflecting the fear of foreign invasion which overshadowed political and military strategy at this time.