The Queen's Regiment of Foot The Old Tangier Regt. "Kirke's Lambs"

Kirke's Lambs (The Queen's Foot or Old Tangier Regiment) The regiment wore red coats faced green, green (or possibly blue) waistcoats, green breeches, white stockings, white buttons and lace. Drawing Copyright © B. Levick 2001-2008. With permission by the artist.

The British regiment "Kirke's Lambs" (The Queen's or 2nd Regt. of foot, also known as the Old Tangier Regt., or the Queens Royal Regiment (West Surrey)). This regiment had a fearsome reputation, both for extreme bravery and extreme brutality, and saw action in Tangiers and during the Monmouth Rebellion and Battle of Sedgemoor as well as service in other places such as Ireland, Flanders and Spain. It consisted mainly of musketeers, although a few pikemen and grenadiers would also have been present in the regiment.
The Regiment was originally founded in 1661 and its descendant (The Queen's Royal Regiment) is still around today. This Regiment became the senior English Infantry Regiment of the Line, taking precedence after the Royal Scots (1st Foot).

The Regiment was generally known as "Kirke's Lambs" after 1685, but whether this is an ironical tribute to the atrocities with which they are credited after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion or because of their regimental crest of a Paschal [Passover] lamb, or because of a remark by Col. Kirke where he referred to his men as his 'Lambs' shortly after the Battle of Sedgemoor, is unclear. The Paschal Lamb was confirmed as the Ancient Badge (in other words, it had previously been displayed) of the Regiment in 1751 but it's origins are uncertain. It was a common religious symbol of St. John the Baptist, and one of the two churches on Tangier was dedicated to this saint, and Queen Catherine also had a personal devotion to St. John. It may be that the lamb became the unofficial symbol of the regiment whilst in Tangier. Although some historians have claimed that it derived from the Arms of the house of Braganza, and that it was displayed by 1684, there is absolutely no evidence of this. The earliest instance of the Lamb on display is on the Grenadiers' caps of 1715 (and here it is a plain lamb, not a paschal one). However, one source says that during its battles against the Moors in Tangier the Earl of Peterborough made his troops wave large flags to indicate they were Christians, and he supposedly chose the Paschal Lamb for this purpose. There is only one reference to the regiment being called the 'Lambs' before 1686 - in the Dictionary of National Biographies, which is usually taken as an accurate record, the entry for Colonel Kirke refers to the Regiment as Kirke's Lambs whilst stationed in Tangier.

	Matchlock of the type used by the regiment
	Flintlock of the type used by the regiment

Col. Percy Kirke (The Elder)

Percy Kirke was a professional soldier, who had served under Turenne, and with John Churchill (later the Duke of Marlborough), the Duke of Monmouth and the legendary D'Artagnan, Captain of the famous French Musketeers at Maastricht in 1673. With the help of the Duke of York (the future James II) he was commissioned "Ensign in a new raised company in the Admiral's Reg." (the yellow-coated regiment from which the Royal Marines originated), Sr.Chichester Wrey, Col., Tho. Bromley, Capt., commission signed in Whitehall, July 7, 1666. Kirke rose through the ranks, becoming Lt.-Colonel in his brother-in-law's regiment of horse, the Earl of Oxford's Troop in the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues). From here, in 1680 he was promoted to Colonel of the Tangier Regiment of foot.

Kirke was reputedly a drunken brute who commanded a drunken regiment, but this reputation might be somewhat exaggerated. Samuel Pepys was on Tangiers at this time, and although he was no prude the deepest impression he leaves on the reader of his Journal is disgust at the gross indecency and lurching loutishness of Kirke and his men. The endless dirty stories of the Governor's table-talk passed from the distasteful to the unendurable. In Pepys's view Kirke's manners and morals were reflected in the cruelty and corruption of his administration. There were ugly stories of soldiers beaten to death with no pretence of legality: of Jewish refugees returned to the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition because they could not raise the bribes that Kirke demanded: of rape and robbery and bullying of the citizens and their wives. Kirke personified what Pepys called "the bestiality of this place". 

During the truce which followed the siege of Tangier in 1680, Kirke made friends with the Emperor of Morocco, Ismail, who would rule his country for 55 years. "He would excel all mankind in barbarity and murder, inventing every day a new pastime of cruelty" wrote an Embassy official.   He would kill a slave to test the edge of a new weapon, spear a dozen negroes or strangle a woman or two from his harem as a divertissement, and even the lives of his sons were not safe from his cruelty. Despite his hatred of all foreigners, Ismail took a liking to Kirke and swore "there never would be Bullet shot against Tangier, so long as Kirke was in it".  They exchanged gifts, the Emperor sending Kirke 12 cows and a Christian woman in return for some Irish greyhounds. Ismail confirmed his vow that if none but Kirke and his wife (Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the fourth Earl of Suffolk) should be left alone in Tangier, he would not betray Kirke.

Pepys, who disliked Kirke intensely, recorded in colourful, if exaggerated, detail all the gossip and scandal associated with him.  He thought he was the most foul mouthed man he had ever met, as he and his officers publicly boasted of their amorous affairs and how they defamed every woman who yielded to their invitations:

The Governor, Kirke, is said to have got his wife's sister with child and, while he is with his whores at his bathing house, his wife, whom he keeps in by awe, sends for her gallants and plays the jade by herself at home.

Those foolish things called wives are grown unfashionable and the keeping of a miss the principle character of a fashionable, well-bred gentleman.

He was also one of the leading conspirators in the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 (along with such other notables as John Churchill, Prince George of Denmark, the Earl of Oxford and others), leading his regiment (The Queen's) and another Tangier unit, Trelawney's Foot into William's Camp. In 1689, Kirke, now a general, led his regiment and two others and lifted the siege of Londonderry after forcing the boom across the Lough Foyle, and on to the Boyne (1690). He ended his career (and life) as a General in the the Flanders campaign, dying at Breda in 1691.