Civil Strife in the Midlands 1642-1651 Book Review

I have promised myself that I will try to blog about all the historical books I read this year, something I got out of the habit of over the last couple of years. I have owned this book for years, it was published in 1974 but uses a lot of first hand snippets that have become favoured more recently and as such has one foot in modern day writing. Indeed this could have been written more recently than it's actual date.

For anyone interested in the English Civil War (first) then this book is worth picking up, especially if you live in the UK with a price tag of £1 on Amazon, plus postage of course. Those who are looking for ideas for a skirmish game then this again will be a source of information. Some of which would transfer to other periods so has some use outside wargaming the ECW.

The main point behind the book is that the Midlands suffered more during the First Civil War and was more important to all sides than any other area. My view has always been that it's ironic that the first Civil War started and ended in Nottinghamshire but overall the war passed us buy in this area for the most point. This book goes someway to redress such a view but the truth is that it actually had less effect than the author claims. Sure both sides did march and fight their way through the Midlands but most of the actual battles that actually happened in the Midlands were on the midlands boarders rather more central (ignoring Naseby). I would argue that the North has a much better claim to most effected region, especially when you consider the time the Scottish field army spent in that area before coming south. 

However few books sell with tag lines of "not the most important, but things did happen here" OK not really fair as quite a bit happened in the Midlands and my main grip is the lack of detail R E Sherwood put into such activities but this is not a book about battles but social upheaval. I am not sure Sherwood actually had a good understanding of the periods weapons, tactics and battles and seemed to take too many sources at face value even giving many of the pamphlets the benefit of the doubt which is risky indeed.

So a book that took too long to get round to reading and a little disappointing but I am still happy I have read it and as mentioned at the price it goes for on Amazon it's worth getting for the reasons mentioned above.

Sir Henry Bards and Sir John Boyes Regiments of Foote

Whilst painting up Lee's foot regiments I also painted up a couple of my own for my Oxford army, all figures are Baccus. The first being Sir Henry Bards who were originally a northern regiment under the command of Colonel Thomas Pinchbeck. The regiment was large enough that half the regiment was detached became Lord Percy's regiment after it arrived in Oxford in 1643. Pinchbeck was then killed at First Newbury at which point the regiment was given to Sir Henry Bard. 

The first engagement for the renamed regiment was Cheriton Woods which was a disaster and a week later it numbered but 176 mem. It has to be assumed that fresh recruitment was done in the south as it featured in the battle of Cropredy Bridge, the Lostwithiel campaign and again at the 2nd Battle of Newbury.

Losses again forced further recruitment and the melding of the Queens Lifeguard into the ranks but it obviously was still under strength as it formed the garrison of Campden House. Also you can only contemplate the morale and make up of the regiment that had started as a northern regiment and had spent so long away from home and had a large percentage of southern troops added to it's strength. 

Whilst on garrison duty the regiment was issued firelocks and it's possible it became musket only though that is not known. Originally dressed in grey coats it has been recorded as wearing red coats though it's also possible it wore both at the same time as the Queens Lifeguard wore red and in the later years supply became a greater problem and replacement coats would have been low on the list of priorities if their red coats were still serviceable.

Like many other Royalist foot regiments it was destroyed at Naseby where it's thought all it's standards were captured.

Sir John Boyes Regiment of foot was raised in time to fight at the battle of Edgehill and was brought to Oxford and became part of the standing army. They were unusual in that they wore black coats which only a few regiments on either side wore. It's doubtful they remained so clad beyond mid to late 1643 and a mix of coats fading in colour, being replaced with easier to source grey or red coats and even the mixed colours of replacement troops recruited from the area having to wear their own coats whatever the colour.

We now have enough infantry for a minor battle, though Lee still needs some cavalry and guns at the least and a few dragoons would not kill him. Next up then will be said guns and cavalry with a few command bases just to keep things sweet.

Civil War:The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660 Book Review

As The title suggests this is not just a book covering the English Civil War but also the Bishops War and the following wars up to the restoration of the monarchy with Charles II. In fact it goes further with a short section running up to 1690 and the fall of Charles II

The book has just over 800 pages of written word with the rest of the 888 pages dedicated to index and bibliography. Indeed the list of books used is very expansive and probably less than the whole truth. Today's insistence on listed as many books as humanly possible is really off putting to me, especially as the list does not seem to match up to the references. 

Royle's style is relatively easy to follow and whilst this book does not roar along (over 800 pages of close printed text is never going to be a quick read) however it's engaging and for the most part an interesting read. It may be a bit much for anyone who does not have an active interest in the period but for those who do it is likely to have some details you may not already know and possibly a few you might question his view.

Given the page count you can expect most subjects to get good coverage, this is true for most events but others get quite little attention and some times I was left wanting him to go deeper into the subject. What you don't get is a great deal of social history or any real feel for what it was like for the common troops etc. This for me was not an issue as so many books these days are written with this as the main focus and I am more interested in the larger picture when it's the whole war theme. 

What I was a little disappointed in given the size of the book was the restricted detail of the battles. Given the thickness of the book I would have expected more detail. I know there are books catering for single battles but it left me thinking Royale may not have a good understanding of such subjects, a worrying weakness in his work if so. However he makes up for it in other parts of the book where he is more detailed and clear in his writing. Political and Religious subjects get full measure and how each group effected the others was well written. Also the sections covering Ireland was far more in depth than the typical book. 

I suspect the author is both Scottish and slanted towards Parliament from his interpretation of the events and his portrayal of some of the leading personalities within the book. From his feeling that Charles I was so divorced from reality to his indulgence of Cromwell when Cromwell deserved a greater censure.  Though this is nothing new as so many histories are towards one side or the other.

The only real issue I had with the book was the almost slavish reliance in Lucy Huthingson's published account of her husbands involvement in the Civil War and later events. He seems to take what she has written as gospel even though it was clearly written to place him in a good light (difficult as he was a Regicide and died whilst imprisoned) and drips venom on anyone she felt did not see events in the way she did or had any part against her husband. Hutchinson is quoted far more times than any other source, something that should not be considered anything but a worrying sign of over reliance on a dodgy source.

Apart from that rather glaring concern I think the book is well worth getting if you want a book that covers the whole period and helps you understand the wider picture without being too partisan to one cause or the other. Unfortunately it's not on Kindle as that would be the best method of reading as it's quite a heavy book.

Sir Robert Howard's Dragoons

Sir Robert Howard's Dragoons was never a large regiment consisting of just two troops one commanded by Captain Richard Catesby from Warwickshire and a possible relative to the Gunpowder Plotter whilst the other troop was commanded by Captain Lewknor. The only known recorded engagement for this regiment was the storming of Bristol in 1643 when they were attached to Washington's Regiment but it's a fair bet that they were also involved in the Cropredy. Most Royalist Dragoon Regiments were lacking in men and or mounts so it is not really an issue to base a regiment for the wargames table on such a small regiment as most were just as bad with some even worse!

Over the next month or so I will be painting up a number of Royalist Oxford Army Regiments and I will start here with those poor old boys the Dragoons.

Here we have the mounted 15mm figures, only four as these are for FoG:R and most of the figures will be dismounted. so four bases will have a single mounted figure to show they are indeed Dragoons. However I don't have that problem in 6mm

Here we have one of the two bases of my dismounted dragoons, I got carried away. This is not really a problem as I can change the turnbacks colour on one base and I have yet another dragoon regiment.

Here we have the 15mm dismounted boys in felt hats. Of course in reality very few felt hats were in England at the time and these were rather expensive. However I do feel that some version of brimmed hat would have been worn, possibly leather? To many contemporary images show a brimmed hat exen on some common soldiers. 

Here are the even more historically inaccurate Lobster Pot  helmets. Yes they were worn but they would not have been worn by 50% of a dragoon regiment, only by some of the officers, cornets and maybe the odd rich volunteer though these normally were in the cavalry and a few fought in the infantry. The 15mm are Museum Miniatures and are larger than the typical MM figure which in the case of the mounted is a bit of a shame as the horses are just too large for Dragoons to have a hope of keeping them. They would be mounted on nags IF they were lucky enough to get any at all.

 The flags are pure conjecture as is the green facing. Howard's Dragoons were thought to have worn red which is a good guess given they are part of the Oxford army where red and blue were the main uniform colours throughout the late campaigns.  These are also the first troops I have based up by using Lee's basing system (nothing new as many do it this way) but new to me.

Rebased and Ready

As mentioned in a previous post I have been putting in a fair bit of effort into rebasing my ECW. I now have finished all the Foote regiments and made a start on the cavalry. Just five Regiments of Horse done so far and no guns or dragoons. The bases arrived so I can get these done when I get into doing more basing.

Four Regiments of New Model Foote and part of the original Essex starter army I bought, which was the first proper wargameing figures I bought for myself. Two regiments require new Standards.

Close up of two of the Regiments along with my single Scottish Foote Regiment. These need a Standard as well. The original army came with many of the musket wearing Lobster Pot helmets and all have musket rests, both major errors, such was the knowledge and inaccurate state of play then.

I enjoyed setting them up for photographs, though I look forward to trying out the FoG:R rules a little more. I expect them to flop in regard to ECW which could mean a total write up of a set of rules. I like the idea of a card driven set something like Maurice even though I do not own those rules.

More units either requiring Standards attaching or repainting due to extended Georges. All the figures in the foreground were figures that I have bought pre-painted and for the most part will be the ones that will be sold to buy castings to paint up for a new army.

Close up of my favourite pre-painted unit and the one most likely to remain after selling up the old stuff. Until the rebasing it has always has a high gloss finish. Looks much better with that taken away.

I will be seeing Lee on Saturday and I am sure we will discuss the ECW/TYW project at some point and equally sure we will not come to a conclusion LOL. 10mm is still a possibility but I would have to paint up a few units before committing to such a project.

Colonel Anthony Byerly's Regiment of Foote

The White Coats or Newcastle's Lambs are well known in ECW circles, mostly for how they died at White Skye Close almost to a man. This being very unusual in battles as most Regiments would surrender if their army was defeated and only when routed and pursued would casualties be great. But many wargamers of the period believe that the white coats were a single regiment when in fact a fair part of Newcastle's regiments were clothed in either white or undyed wool. (often plundered cloth taken from the cloth making region of the north that was strongly Parliamentarian in stance). So the Regiment depicted here is one of many. The Standards of Col. Anthony Byerly held a red cross with a blue background which in some cases were replicated in silk on the coat sleeves (shoulder) of the men. This lead to the belief that the regiment was Catholic led or had a high number of Catholic recruits though this is unlikely. The regiment was raised in January 1644 and got for themselves the nickname "Byerley's Bulldogs", wiki has it incorrectly - as do others, that this was a Horse Regiment. initially it was raised to act as a garrison unit of the Col's home of Middridge Grange in the area of Bishop Aukland, County Durham so was probably relatively small. Later in the year it joined Newcastle's Army in the defence of York and the disaster of Marston Moor which it survived but was disbanded soon after as the whole of the north fell under Parliament's sway.

It's possible that the background colour for the Standards would have been yellow, not the white as I painted it. It's far less likely that the pikes were painted white either, that is my personal licence. Despite the Bulldogs reference I would use this unit on the tabletop as average as I doubt they would have seen enough combat to prepare them for any major action never mind Marston Moor.

Pimping A Blog and then a ECW Regiment

First up the blog. Really I don't see this so much as pimping as bringing it to the attention of anyone who is in to board wargames rather than figure gaming, or like me both!. Yockbo's Boardgame Blog already has a fair following of 58 peeps and over 61,000 hits so it's no fledgling. What I like about Stephen's blog is that he plays a very varied group of wargames and euro's, mostly wargames. He also plays ASL and other game series so you can get a real feel for some of the games he plays. Stephen comes across as a very experienced player and as he has several different regular opponents you get to see different styles played out. We get a little under a post a week from him on average, though these tend to be on the long side with lots of pictures. Basically a full Battle Report (After Action to us ASL bods). I have to admit I have tried to copy some of the style of Yockbo's so I guess I am a fan (hope he don't sue me now LOL).

Trying to keep up the Standards.

I also have been pimping up a old ECW Regiment. After all the blather about The George only being allowed to run the full depth of a standard of Royal Lifeguards I noticed a very old regiment I had rebased was missing it's standard and the two I had in my box both had the full George. Clearly I dare not stick that bugger to the base, you lot would lynch me! So instead I have repainted it first using a new blue I had just bought (Vallejo Andrea Blue 841).

I still of course have the best part of two armies to base up for a practise game of FoG:R, right now though those Macedonian boys are pulling at me. As can be seen by the progress, hoping to have them done by early next week.

Rebased and Ready for Battle

Old Essex in the rear and the newer Matchlocks to the front.

As some of you know I bought Field of Glory Renaissance recently and having read the rules and army lists had a few reservations on how the units will look under the rules. The only way to really tell was to rebase some of them and see. The next problem is how the rules will portray the English Civil War and a lesser extent the Thirty Years War. I am not convinced the rules will have enough character to work for the ECW though possibly will for the bigger TYW. The first obstacle though is looks. I rebased 5 regiments of foote to the rules, which in reality means I not only took them off bases of poor standard of finish and rebased MOST of the figures into the regiments. I say most as FoG:R use three musket to a base and 4 pike. Given the old system's I have played tend to have 2:1 ratio of musket to pike (though less for some regiments) it means that automatically I have musket left over. But also add that most of my regiments are 30 figure regiments I can be left over with about 10 figures. Anyone who has already checked out the pic's may well notice six regiments are shown, this is due to two Matchlock Miniatures regiments supplied a number of spare figures which I added a few spares to and painted up a fresh regiment. I have to admit that the main fears over how the regiments will look has been diminished as they will pass fair enough I still have not totally moved away from the idea of going with 10mm and just adding a lot more figures to the bases to give that pike block look. I may well be buying figures to try this at Triples so both Lee and myself can come to a decision.

Whatever the choice I will continue to base up the 15mm to FoG:R at least to the point we can try out the rules. I easily have the foote, artillery and dragoons to make up the starter armies and I feel that the cavalry (especially the Royalist and early Parliament) should be two figures per base so will be able to do these as well. Then onto the Commanded Musket, these will come from the spares I have from stripping the Regiments which ironically is where they would have come from. The only issue I have is that all the lists for the ECW give Commanded Muskets and plenty of them. This is as inaccurate as you can come. Sure they were used but very rare and not on many a battlefield, they have made an exception a rule.

Old Essex Up Close.

The old Essex Miniatures are probably serving out the days what ever the final decision on what scale we will go with. Two of the three have helmets (Lobster Pots) for the musket and they are a little dwarfish. Expect these being put on E-Bay once I have rebased the lot and have decided on rules. Either way they will be sacrificed for new lead which may well be Matchlock but I have an open mind.

Newcastle's Whitecoats.

The newly painted regiment. Every Royalist army seems to have to have Newcastle's Whitecoats in them. The only problem is that they tend to have THIS regiment. This is in fact Newcastle's own Regiment of Whitecoats.

Col. Byerly's Regiment of Foote

But what most do not paint up is any of the OTHER regiments that were named Newcastle's Whitecoats. I present to you Col. Anthony Byerly's Foote. A known Papist and raised in the County of Durham.

Kings Lifeguard of Foote.

I give you my old Regiment, The Kings Lifeguard of Foote. The standard has had better days, though it looked fairly poor on being folded to give the wind effect so many years ago and is the main reason I now paint my own as per the two above. Now all I need to do is crack out another six foote regiments, the horse for both sides and ...... I think give me a few months and we will have our first game, good job all I need to do is rebase them all. Oh that is unless I see some nice command figures and must look up some of those horse handlers from Essex and......

It's Not A Flag It's A Bloody Standard!

Just started to re-base my old ECW figures for FoG:R to give them a try and see what they look like. Jury is still out. I can live with how they look as Regiments of foote. It is leaving me with left over figures as I have to alter the composition but this will allow the making up of Commanded Musket. Not that I really feel this is correct but you take these things with Army Lists etc. One thing though is that FoG:R is not ECW, it will not give a true representation of the war, maybe it's fine for TYW but I don't know a great deal about the period outside of the UK.

I have been able with the repainting of a few uniforms and total painting of seven spares been able to generate another Regiment (it will be one of the Whitecoat regiments of Newcastle's) so this will give me 6 Regiments already based for FoG:R and I have another 8 to do as well as all the horse and dragoons. I needed to go digging in the box for a couple of missing pikes and a Standard that had been displaced in storage. I pulled out the pike but found two loose Standards, both have the same error. Can you spot it?

The only Regiments allowed to have a full length Jack are Royal Bodyguard Regiments, such as the Kings Lifeguard and of course the Queens. All other Regiments must halt the progress of the Jack at the halfway point down the Standard. Neither of these two Standards belong to a Royal Lifeguard so will require re-painting. I already have the Kings Lifeguard. Another fault is the lack of any devices to represent company or motto's etc. This will be done in the next few days or weekish depending how the mood takes me. The new Whitecoats will be varnished and based before the weekend and again I need to paint up a Standard for them as well so it's off to do a bit of research.

Oliver Cromwell, Amazing Facts. April Fool

Everything below is true except the Circumcision and converting to Judaism. Shame no one took the rise LOL

In a way you could think 17th Century England meets Da Vinci Code. Cromwell still to this day elicits strong reactions from many people. But what is not really known about him is that he was far less radical than popular opinion would have it and a lot of his great works have been either ignored or made to be the work of others. For instance whilst Cromwell did not forge the New Model Army he was the one who made it a Continental success. The New Model was required to keep order in The Three Kingdoms (Wales was not seen as a Nation) but still saw action in several European Countries. Also not known by many was that our overseas colonies were not a Napoleonic idea but troops were sent out to Jamaica during the Protective. The Royal Navy? Well say thank you Oliver as he made it a priority to out build both the Spanish and the Dutch and through commanders such as Blake was to win important battles that made England master of the waves and something we never let go . With Charles II gaining the thrown he simply took over the navy, renamed the flagship to something more Regal and away he went.

But all this cost money and after the Civil Wars had stripped the land of men and trade the country was struggling. It is firmly believed that Cromwell invited Jews back into England on a purely financial basis. This has a strong argument but does not fully stack up. First of all he was a sucker for Liberty of Conscience and whilst he eventually violently put down the army revolts he only did so once the discussions went from religious to political. Under Cromwell Catholics had more freedom of Religion than under Charles I, so long as they kept their meetings to the household. Cromwell for all this was seen as a zealot, great Victories such as Dunbar he put down to the Glory of God, but it seems he protested to much!

Paxton Hood in his book Oliver Cromwell mentions in his 1st Edition that Cromwell was very close to Judaism and visited their elders more than necessary. Now what is interesting about this was it was removed in the 2nd edition and then on. Several seditious pamphlets were released during the civil wars and after defaming Cromwell and not a few equated him to the devil. But late in his reign a couple linked him to Judaism either directly such as "Cromwell, the Devil and his unholy Jewish Alliance Uncovered". But you just can't trust 17th Century pamphlets as stand alone evidence. It is also clear that Cromwell was in fact a very devout Christian right up to the day he fell from his horse. This brought on another bought of Malaria (picked up in Ireland). By this point Cromwell was a broken man, subject to fits of depression and knowing the Protective was doomed to failure he even picked his successor to be his weak son Richard Cromwell knowing this would speed up the decline and bring about the Restoration. But he did something else as well. He converted his faith and became a Jew. This was very secret (obviously) and all involved had a vested interest in keeping this secret. When Cromwell was exhumed to be hung drawn and quartered he was found to be circumcised and was not in the usual shroud but dressed as that of a Jew. Whilst this was fantastic propaganda for the fledgling King he was forced to suppress the revelation as he was more cash strapped that the Protective and the Jews keen not to be linked any closer to Cromwell were prepared to pay handsomely to keep the secret. And so it has been more or less ever since. The truth has come to light at times but each time it gets light it is driven back in the dark. Even now it seems that Cromwell's conversion is not for open discussion.

Sent To Coventry

OK here is a little help for anyone not from the UK who probably do not know what the title means. Being 'Sent to Coventry' means to have people not talking to you. For years I assumed that just meant the people of fair Coventry were just ignorant gits. If your hoping the picture above is a clue then no it's nothing to do with the Blitz, that's just the nicest image I could find of Coventry and as far as I know it's totally unfounded that the Mayor of Coventry did not send a thank you note to Goering during the war. I can tell you though that during the recent riots that £500,000 worth of improvements was done by the mob. But Sent To Coventry predates all of these events, and by a fair margin and yes of course it's yet another ECW tit bit.

Coventry was a smallish cloth making town that had a strong Puritan community. Not only this but it was in the heart of a Parliamentary stronghold. Being a cloth making town it was to supply Parliament with uniforms for it's armies and at all times was 100% behind Parliament as a town. In fact such was it's support of Parliament that Royalist Officer and Gentlemen prisoners were sent to Coventry under licence. Such was the ardour of the townsfolk that these Royalist prisoners found that hardly a person would ever talk to them, hence if you are to be ignored or given the silent treatment you are sent to Coventry.

Coldstream Guards and The ECW

The Coldstream Guards is the second oldest Regiment of the British Army and was founded in February 1645 and is well known for it's ceremonial duties at Buckingham Palace. This is rather ironic given it's beginnings.

The clue was in the date the regiment was formed, February 1645 was the formation of the New Model Army and the beginning of the Redcoats. Originally this was just one of the twelve foote regiments of the NMA and fought at Naseby which lead to the Kings surrender and eventual execution. From here the Regiment served in the subjection of Ireland and then in 1650 George Monck was given command and was used in the campaign against Scotland. Monck was soon to become known for his ruthless methods, both in keeping the Scotts under the cosh but also within his own Regiment. By 1660 Cromwell was dead and Richard his son (Tumbledown Dick) had failed to maintain order and Charles Fleetwood had reinstated Parliament. Monck and many others felt that the only way to bring lasting order to England was the reinstatement of the Monarchy, which Monck entered into secret negotiations with Charles. Monck had been sent back to Scotland to block Charles Stuart King of Scotland (Later King Charles II) from progressing into England by the Lord Protector. Monck choose a spot with a large stream running in front of his positions, the stream was known as Coldstream.

Monck had no intention of stopping Charles progress as he had gained assurances for the Country and himself. Charles knew he needed support within the Protectorate to gain the Thrown and Country so Monck went from enemy to Master of the Kings Horse and raised to a Duke. The Regiment was originally called The Coldstreamers but when they were raised to Guard status they changed their name again. Monck died in 1670 after serving the new King faithfully for 10 years which is the year the Coldstreamers became the Coldstream Guard.

An artists impression of the Coldstreamers laying down it's arms in 1661 and swearing allegiance to the new King of England. This image post dates the period probably by 100 - 150 years based on the dress of the musket. In reality the trousers would have been more baggy. Also note the pike have different coloured trousers on, this was not the norm, but possibly correct if dressed for the occasion though I suspect not. I also question the colours as I do not know of a green background with red cross but do not know if the original colours were replaced with the Protective.

The New Model Army and The First Redcoats.

The New Model Army was formed in February 1645 and for the most part troops and officers came from the various armies within Parliaments forces. Whilst press gangs were not used in the first place when a shortage of troops willing to fight in a National Army (rather than an association based on an area) impressment was introduced. The idea of a National Army was to achieve two aims, to allow it to take the fight to Royalist forces where ever they were gathered rather than only fight within a set area and usually for a set period but also to make it a professional army. For the first and only time until modern day, ability came before rank in commanding within the army. For this to work the Self Denying Ordinance was brought in, this disallowed Members of Parliament command within the Army. This was to remove high ranking and incompetent Gentry from positions that otherwise they would retain and thus continue the cycle of failed campaigns and missed opportunities. Cromwell was famously allowed to take a position within the army and became Commander of the Horse. Ireton his Son in Law also was allowed to serve despite being a Member of the Commons (two other Members of Parliament were also allowed to serve as local commanders on rolling three month commissions). Whilst Parliament found it fairly easy to form the basis of the army, paying and clothing it was another matter indeed. Parliament was skint, having to pay for the Scottish Army was draining the coffers and equipping a new army was causing a great deal of difficulty. Just then a great storm forced a Vatican ship into a Parliament controlled harbour. It's cargo included enough Red Cloth to clothe the whole army which Parliament seized along with the ship. The colour was obviously red and for a time was called Venetian Red (though it is doubtful it is the same colour as today's Venetian Red).

Whilst the New Model Army was disbanded after the restoration in 1660 the tradition of the Infantry wearing Red was kept. So the Iconic Redcoats of Waterloo have more than a passing nod at the Army that was key to the overthrow of the Monarchy.

The Cavalier!

I just Googled Cavalier image aiming for a pic of a dashing fellow to use in this post. Well I should not have been surprised that the first image I came across was not so easy to mistake for our Errol, but I was so smitten I have had to go with it. The word has over time been twisted from it's original meaning and become almost a compliment. In the post below I mention the use of the word as a troop type, well it started a long way away from that in it's first use.

The original word is a bastardisation of a Spanish word and meant a heavy drinking, womanising waste of space. This fit the image Parliament wanted the rest of England to believe the followers of Charles I King of England were. In short it was both propaganda and an insult. As mentioned yesterday, this was countered by Royalist circles introducing the term Roundhead when talking or writing about Parliaments leaders. Whilst Roundhead fell out of use soon after the Restoration the Court and hence the rest of Britain continued to use the term Cavalier as a badge of Honour. The breed of Dog favoured by the now dead King Charles I was named King Charles Cavalier Spaniel hence the cute pic. More recently a car (1970's) in the UK was rather aptly named the Cavalier (cornered like crap and in the rain well crapper) and was sporty and the desired car of every boy racer who could not afford a real car.

OK a bit of a reach for ECW related post but I am trying to pad out till the bomb shell post (and trying to link them all LOL).

ECW Riot, with a twist

Demonstrations were not at all uncommon in 17th Century England. In fact the term Roundhead was originally coined in response to Students and Apprentices who wore their heir cropped close to the head giving a far more rounded shape to the head in comparison to the norm that of wearing your hair long. The term was used by Royalists as an insult to supporters of Parliament.

Full blown riots were less the norm at the start of the ECW but as the war wore on more and more demonstrations started to turn ugly and Parliament had to struggle between quelling anti Parliament demonstrations and the fear of turning the City against them by not allowing the people to have their say. Lord Essex summed it up best when he famously stated (roughly) "If we beat the King a Dozen Times, He still be King, but he beat us but once and we will be hung as traitors" well words to that effect anyway.

So in an attempt to keep the ECW theme somewhat in the twilight zone I give you a double whammy. First of all the riot that happened on 8th August 1643 (14 days before the first anniversary of the start of the war) was by women. It seems girl power did not start with the Spice Girls! The demonstration was sparked by Parliaments rejection the day before of the latest Peace Proposals. Women with white ribbons in their hats blocked up the approaches to Parliament crying out for peace and down with Pym and Say. The following day they gathered at Palace Yard, but in even greater numbers and presented a petition for peace them banged on the door to Parliament demanding Pym, Say and other Roundheads to be handed over so they could be thrown in the Thames. After an hour the guards tried to clear a passage and when this failed they loaded their muskets with powder and wadding (no bullet) and fired as a warning. The women thinking the guards had no bullet to fire became bolder and violent, tearing up cobbles and other objects carrying them in their skirts and started to pelt the soldiers. After suffering this for some time these troops finally loaded with ball and fired into the crowd. They still seemed to have scruples as the only killed were two men, one of which was egging on the women. Rather than bring the women to submission it emboldened them and more missiles were thrown and chants of "That Dog Pym" were added to the threats and demands. A troop of Wallers Horse arrived but this just aggravated the women more. Shouts of Waller's Dogs were soon followed by the women attacking the troopers. At first these men flayed about them with the flat of their swords but with the women still attempting to drag them off their mounts they started to use the edge. Quickly women started to be injured, some through cuts whilst others by being ridden down. This was enough to start to disperse the crowd but unfortunately not before a women who was passing on an errand was shot and killed. At least one other women died from wounds. The innocent passer by was shot by one of the troopers who was later arrested and charged with murder. Whammy two. His successful defence against the charge of murder? At the range the shot was fired, if he had aimed at the women he would have missed so hitting her had to be an accident!

ECW Musket Balls

Whilst in the Sealed Knot we put on a muster at Newbury and as we often did we found ourselves down at the pub. I got talking to one of the locals who was really interested in the Civil War but was obviously disappointed with the distinct lack of knowledge of the average Knotter. So he was rather happy that I not only knew something of the period but actively wanted to chat about it. By the end of the night not only were both of us as tight as a drum but he was my new best friend! He was more than just interested in the Civil War he was keenly interested in the two Battles of Newbury and had visited the battle sights a good number of times. Would I be interested in a tour of one of them before the battle the following morning? Yes but it would have to be early and I would have to bring my hangover with me.

So next day EARLY saw me and this guy (I have forgot his name) walking around part of the battlefield and after he has given me the this happened here and that there for some time a twinkle came in his eye and out of his backpack he pulled a short spade, handing it to me he instructed me to dig. The photo's are the musket balls I dug out of the bank. Seems their is hundreds of the things in that area, so much that they are no value to the local historians or museums as they have so many already. For me it made my year and these balls remain one of my most savoured treasures.

I have taken the above pic for scale, these are 15mm Magister figures. The balls are various sizes, note the damage to some of them? Possible corrosion or possibly hit something on their way to the bank. These balls all but certainly missed their mark given that they were in the bank in the first place. Just one is almost perfect with a clear mold line round it. Also some of the dents would probably been from being chewed to make a better fit, though in these cases it seems the smaller balls are most pitted.

You wanted your ball to be as close a fit as possible to the muskets barrel as possible. If it was much smaller it would rattle down the barrel and be far less accurate. Consider at Marsten Moor that many pikes had their heads shot off through the enemy firing too high. This of course was early in the conflict and it was possible that the men firing the muskets were far less intent on killing their fellow man. Only later did it become a truly uncivil war. Oh and yes it's a great hangover cure.

OK I have decided to keep with the ECW theme a little and try to post some little bits that most won't know and I have a real shocker that was covered up for Religious harmony. To this day it has been covered up almost exclusively, but that as they say is for another day.

If you talk about rifled barrels you often think of Green Jacketed British Riflemen. If your of the fairer sex it may well be Shaun Bean in his tight britches. Whilst I am not claiming that my example is the first use nor is it likely to be the one most people (read many people) think of but I think it's the most interesting!!!

Prince Rupert received a brace of pistols and was showing them to his Uncle. Being a bit of a show off he took aim at the Metal Cockerel atop of Colchester Cathedral (I think I remember this right) and fired. The bullet hit his mark and his Uncle declared it the most lucky shot and wagered he could not do the same again. Rupert took up his second pistol and again hit his mark. The King was so impressed he not only paid the bet but bought a pair of pistols for himself.

These pistols had a screw on barrel that had to be taken off to load it. The bullet (a lead ball) was larger than the hole at the end of the barrel but at the other end it was wider. The barrel tapered down to the exit and also had groves cut into the barrel that spiralled around the inside of the barrel. The combination of the rifling and the reduced size of the barrel both span the ball and added to the exit speed. This combination meant that the ball would both travel further but also straighter. The draw backs were the cost of a set of these pistols and the time it would take to reload. These were more fashion items that weapons for the battlefield. Still it pre-dated the 37L ATG of the Germans which used exactly the same principle.

The Sealed Knot, A Historical Mystery And A Need To Pee

OK I just know I have your interest now. But what has all these things got in common? Well for those who don't know, The Sealed Knot is one of two English Civil War reenactment societies based in the UK. They were formed by Brigadier Peter Young to promote one of his books (Edgehill I think) and from promotion work to charity work was a little bit of a long journey but lots of beer was spilt and blood drunk between. Er, or maybe the other way round! Anyways, the SK grew to become rather large and amongst it's membership was a number of part time historian's, you know the type, the ones the real historians loath with a vengeance (well some do for sure, paging Mr Newman). Well you won't have noticed but many sets of Back and Breast are missing a single Tasset (leg armour that hangs from the Brest plate as shown above). This means a lot of Back and Brests in Stately Homes tend to be missing Tassets. As many soldiers would discard their tassets as soon as they could on campaign this is no surprise. The issue is that it was almost always the right tasset that was missing and mostly from Garrisoned sets. The Professional Historians had yet to figure out why but it was at one of many musters that the mystery was solved. As SK members started to buy armour it became like mini arms race. My Regiment (The Kings Lifeguard) soon found that having the whole front rank in armour put the fear on anyone tasked with taking us on. We were the biggest Regiment in the Knot and were known at the time for being tough to fight. Anyway I digress, imagine the scene. It is Sunday morning, some of us will have made it to our tents sometime between midnight and dawn, some of us may well have had a drink or two. You tend to form up at least an hour before you march onto the battlefield and the public eye. So maybe just maybe you want a pee? So imagine the scene, 20-40 men in B&B with tassets on all pissing for all we were worth. Every one of us had lifted up our left tasset so that we could get to our friend and point him at, well bushes mostly! I always had a horrible image of dropping the tasset as they almost joined down the middle!!!!!! Anyway, why is this relevant? Even with a slight wind, that right tasset got somewhat splashed. Pee is corrosive you know and repeated leaks would have a steady effect. Why Garrison troops? These not only fail to discard their tassets (and are often forced to wear them, more so the less likely they were to be attacked) but these guys often stood round for hours and often relieved themselves at their posts.

As a quick note, my tassets shown above could also give rise to a second and possibly more correct reason for the ruin of a tasset. Mine was stored with the rusty one under the none rusty one, both in the same good condition. It is clear to see the result. I question this though as a greater mix of odd tassets would be rusted rather than almost always the right one.

At a later point I will do another post on my observations of wearing Armour.

Down On The Farm

Had these sheep, goat and dogs for a very long time (as well as the cows and pigs still waiting) and after painting shall we say more challenging projects I decided to take it easy with these guys. Finished them about a week or so ago. They are for my ECW project, I thought at the time it would be funny to have them dotted around in the background, way back before it was the norm to have diorama style battlefields. The pic is not a great one (yes I have done the last lot can you tell?) but the sheep have more than a hint of yellow to their wool whilst the lamb's are a nice white.

Whilst on the subject of ECW, I am hopeful of getting a game using Forlorn Hope 2 in the coming month or two. Hope these are the answer to the rules search. I have a New Model Army fully done (though old and really needs fresh blood) and a Royalist Army still mustering. Matt has Parliament which I used to battle under Tercio Rules (5th edition?). I recently painted up a Regiment of Dragoons (see early post) and have one regiment of foot waiting painting, maybe get that on the table soon.

Talking of painting table. For a bit of a mix I have 12 Companions about a third of the way through being painted in 15mm and to keep with the cavalry theme have 8 regiments of 6mm French Napoleon's on the go. Six are Baccus and the other two are left over Irregular. Two of the Baccus are Hussar's whilst the rest are Dragoons. I still have four Irregular regiments of Cuirassiers waiting to paint with about the same of Baccus. No question that the Baccus have the better detail and look forward to posting pictures of the final comparison but at this point only the horses are painted so you will have to wait.

Waiting, that's a good one. Bought something else off e-bay the other day, but in this case it was for me. Two Heroic's and Ross wagons that I thought would add a little colour to the battlefield. Arrived two days ago and are sitting on the side of the painting table, these will fit into the que somewhere. As will the Reading haul. Lee is planning on dropping them off mid-next week so will wait happily for the chance to paw at this lot. Triples seems so far away.

Also waiting for Tuesday to turn up, I have a game planned with Barry, this time it's Romans V Dacian but we will be starting nice and early so will get the full game in. Well I say that but Monday I have my first Vivisection, supposed to be rather unpleasant which I do not understand as it's just Blood Donating without the biscuit.

But what I'm really waiting for (and very impatiently) is a trip to London on Saturday to meet up with a couple of ASL buddies, one I have met many many times but it's always a pleasure as he just radiates good will and fun, yep that's Dave. The other guy just happens to be an Australian not even visiting the UK, rather he is at a conference in Paris and is stopping buy for a chat!!! Never met the guy before but we have crossed swords on the battlefield so many times. Rob is an incredible bloke who I have EVER yet to hear moan about his dice, yep unbelievable!

And to think this post started with sheep.

Wave Goodbye and Say Hello

No I have not suddenly got into 90's Pop, but it sums up my experience last night. At Derby it suddenly occur ed to me that I could exchange my old Back & Breast for gaming vouchers and what better place to do it than at a wargames con. Seeing as we had a Reenactment Society right in front of us I got talking to them and a price was agreed if they liked the look of the armour. I sent the photo's and sure enough the deal was made.

It turns out that two of the controlling members live in the Mansfield Area and better still attend the local Wargames Club in Mansfield (not far from me). My first club was the Mansfield Club but after a while we just drifted back to our playing in isolation as a group of about 6 players which suited us (no late start, early finish as we saw it then). So I was a little unsure what I would find but on entering the club I found it a mix of slick looking games and others that still require paint jobs of the many of the figures! The Heresy of it all. Actually the snob gamer in me shouts no you can't play with unpainted figures but the bigger part of me remembers the days I was building my first armies and to be able to play I had to use unpainted figures. What was important was that the guys were having fun and a very relaxed mood was in play.

So what games were in play? A gunfight skirmish between two Indian forces that was the first scenario in a campaign using the Games Workshop rules, this was over quickly (they told me they often play 2-3 games in an evening), a Fantasy game that had lots of large creatures in it but mostly unpainted. A second Fantasy game but this one was all humanoid with no beasts in site and very well painted. A very large 15mm battle involving Turks and Battle Wagons on hexgrid terrain which looked very busy and the four playing it were having lots of fun. Last up was a 28mm Naps game with very nice looking figures and great terrain but again a good number of yet to be painted figures.

What came across the Most was the peaceful easy going nature of the games, no shouting no moaning about dice, rules even the weather was passed over. OK I lied about the weather. It's a friendly group too as I looked over the games I was chattered with and I am sure I will go back and join them. Whatever I play it seems the scale is wrong or they don't seem to play it at the moment but already I have a couple of guys saying they are happy to give mine a go so lots of wriggle room. Rather a small club by most standards but that is what probably gives it the comfortable feel.

Last shot of the armour, one Tasset has a fair amount of surface rust that will just wire brush off and it's good to go (Tassets don't tend to be worn for anything but displays, major threat to your own health if worn on the field). Goodbye dear heart, I hope you like your new master.