Is Cake Allowed?

-

Whilst happy to celebrate my Parliamentarian heritage and leaning (my great × lots uncle became General Treasurer of Lancashire for Parliament in 1643), if Parliament* was against cake I may well have to become a turncoat and rally to the King's aide.


* it being that time of year, it is only right and proper to debunk the commonly held fact that Cromwell banned Christmas. The Puritans who held the majority effectively banned Christmas as a) they believed it to be wasteful and a sin, and b) as an attempt to persuade the Scots Presbyterians that only by supporting Parliament could they achieve their goal of religious tolerance. Parliament banned Christmas, not Cromwell.


If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

So You Want To Know About Scots Armies?

-
Image
As the Scots fought on both sides, and regularly changed allegiance it makes sense to just write one Scottish reading list. Regular readers (hello all 12 of you) may have noticed a bit of a shift to matters north of the wall. You'd be correct, and can expect quite a bit of Scottish content over the next few months. The 'regularly changed allegiance' bit of that sentence seems rather flippant, but in reality the Scots were looking after number 1. They wanted to protect the rights of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and would support whomsoever they thought would guarantee those rights. We mustn't overlook those Scottish lords who appear to have harnessed the chaos of the wars to settle old scores, consolidate and extend their lands, and generally feather their own nests. Our starting point has to be Professor Furgol's "A Regimental History of the Covenanting Armies 1639-1651" (John Donald Publishers) .  Long out of print, copies do surface from time to t...
Read more

So You Want to Know About Royalist Armies?

-
Image
Finally! I hear some of you say. A Royalist Army reading list. Well, there's a problem. The Royalist Armies are nowhere near as well documented as the various Parliamentarian Armies.  Why is this the case? There are, potentially, several reasons. Parliament, at every level, consisted of committees who needed minutes, account books and audit trails. Parliament 'won' the Wars, so these records were transferred to what would eventually become The National Archives as State Papers. The records of the various Royalist Armies don't generally exist in The National Archives. Records tend to exist in the archives of the families of Royalist supporters, and are usually specific to the units that the family raised and equipped.  There may well be 'unknown' military records waiting to be discovered, but these records are not centrally held, and in many cases access is difficult or completely off limits.  Any researcher wanting to collate an "Old Robin's Foot" ...
Read more

Solemn League Artillery (Again)

-
Image
Regular readers (hello all eight of you), will have seen me complain that I had underrepresented the Solemn League artillery train, so I added a paltry minion and limber to beef up their artillery train. A handful of frame guns and a minion doesn't really cut it, does it? So I have added a brace of  sakers. Sakers and crews from PP; limbers from Museum Miniatures, with a PP horseholder who has had a headswap. Custom casualty markers from Warbases This time I went for Cd'A wood for the gun carriages, with my now trusty mix of Foundry blackened barrel shades for the metalwork (light for the wheel tyres and dark for everything else). If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .
Read more

(Even More) Baggage Train

-
Image
Regular readers (hello all seven of you, maybe even eight now) will have seen my claims that my baggage train was finished and that there would be no more expansions. In fact you will have seen me claim this a number of times. Cutting a very long and tedious story short, space appeared in my baggage train boxes. Oh noes, I hear you cry, what is to be done. Fortunately the now vacant space was just the right size for a small cart... Not wishing to upset the karmic apple cart by having empty space I ordered two barrel carts from Museum Miniatures. As always, the drover that came with the pack was discarded and replaced by a PP horseholder.  In the interests of prettification the Royalist incarnation has a Naismith marching musketeer on its base; Parliament's has a Steel Fist flautist (from command pack 3). The complete Parliamentarian baggage train... ...maybe I have overdone it. A little. (The Royalists have a similar sized train too.) If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the othe...
Read more

The Scots Army and its Flags at Preston and Dunbar

-
Image
Today's post takes a look at a very exciting release from Partizan, that focuses on the flags of the Scottish Covenanters.  Regular readers may well spot a plethora of Scottish related posts over the rest of 2025 - guess where the ECWtravelogue is going on holiday this year... For transparency please note, whilst I do occasionally get sent books to review, I bought this volume with my own money. Nor do I get any commission for recommending any reading materials... which is a real shame... First some background... The Covenanting Armies continually changed its allegiances during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms to support whichever 'side' they thought would further their cause. This book focuses upon the period 1648-1650, where they threw their support behind Charles I, as Engagers, then behind Charles II after the Treaty of Breda. The Engagers had negotiated with the imprisoned Charles I who promised the Covenanters his support of the Presbyterian cause; this effectively star...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B ...
Read more

Warwick Castle

-
Image
I'm of an age where it is de rigeur to be curmudgeonly about anything and everything, lamenting about how much better it was in the 1970s (it really wasn't, trust me). So you will no doubt be expecting me to rant and rail about the theme park presentation of Warwick Castle. Sorry to disappoint. I really like how the castle is presented, with only a few gripes, most notably the hidden speakers blasting out the sounds of merry olde England™ everywhere.  Warwick Castle is old, and I mean proper old. Having its roots in a AngloSaxon burh built upon Æthelflæd's instruction in the early C10th. William the Conqueror would build a motte and bailey castle upon the site in the C11th, the stone castle starting to appear from the C12th. So why does the ECW travelogue take a visit to the theme park castle? It certainly wasn't to sample the delights of Zog's kingdom adventures or the Horrible Histories maze. Caesar's Tower Fulke Greville was granted the ramshackle ruins in 1...
Read more

Sir George Vaughan’s Regiment of Horse

-
Image
What's this? More Horse? I hear my regular readers exclaim (hello all eight of you). I know I said that there would be no more Horse, but a reorganisation of 'the boxes' threw up some emptiness; fearful that such expanses of box wasteland would cause cataclysmic chaos theory consequences, I thought I'd better fill it. So one more Horse a side it is. So here, for your delectation, is Sir George Vaughan’s Regiment of Horse. Raised in Wiltshire. They fought at Lansdown; were probably at Roundway Down; stormed Bristol; the siege of Gloucester; First Newbury; possibly at the siege of Wardour Castle; were able to field two troops at Cheriton; Cropredy Bridge; Lostwithiel; Caradon Down; Second Newbury; before rounding the First Civil War off (and their existence) at the relief of Donnington Castle. Vaughan, himself, was wounded at Lansdown. he was captured at Hereford in 1645. As a result, he would be imprisoned at Southwark, and fined £2,609 for his "delinquency".  ...
Read more

Houses of Interest: Norfolk

-
Image
The 'hostilities' bit of the Civil Wars pretty much passed the County of Norfolk by: not a great deal of fighting happened here. Norfolk's role was primarily as a recruiting ground, and bank roller of the Eastern Association.  That's not to say that 'nothing' happened here, or that the county was solely for Parliament's cause. Norwich's defences were bolstered, and a small garrison was established. Conesford, St Giles, Pockthorpe and St Augustine’s Gates were all blocked as part of these precautions. The gates have long been demolished but a number of markers exist documenting their locations. The best way to locate the walls, and gates is by downloading the walls trail leaflet here . Norwich Cathedral was damaged by an anti-Papist mob, and was later used as barracks.  Not all of Norfolk was for the Parliamentarian cause. In March 1643, Oliver Cromwell was sent to King's Lynn to investigate rumours of a Royalist conspiracy. These rumours were unfo...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot. For all of my coat colour articles see: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question aro...
Read more