Been talking about this and I found a couple of quotes from GM Trevelyan's England under Queen Anne Blenheim.
' In the English regiments of 1702 they numbered one to every 5 musketeers. The tallest man were selected for the service, and given half-a-crown every time they could break a pike on the parade-ground ''to induce a brisk and smart motion in charging.'' Two years later pikes had disappeared.
February 9 1704 Lord Portmore writes to the Duke of Somerset about troops destined for Portugal.
'I have the honour of receiving an order from your Grace directing the gatekeeper to deliver 450 firelocks, in lien of the like number of pikes which some of the regiments which come from Holland have, as they say, left behind, by his Grace, the Duke of Marlborough 's allowance.'
' In the English regiments of 1702 they numbered one to every 5 musketeers. The tallest man were selected for the service, and given half-a-crown every time they could break a pike on the parade-ground ''to induce a brisk and smart motion in charging.'' Two years later pikes had disappeared.
February 9 1704 Lord Portmore writes to the Duke of Somerset about troops destined for Portugal.
'I have the honour of receiving an order from your Grace directing the gatekeeper to deliver 450 firelocks, in lien of the like number of pikes which some of the regiments which come from Holland have, as they say, left behind, by his Grace, the Duke of Marlborough 's allowance.'
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