Plague Physicians

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Earlier this year Peter Pig released a pack of plague physicians. Here's my take on them, teamed up with a 'dead cart' from their Wars of the Roses range.





And here is a real plague mask on display at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.







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Holly Holy Day 2020, Battle of Nantwich

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A photo gallery (painting inspiration) from the Holly Holy Day Celebrations at Nantwich, 25th January 2020. Which coincidental, fell on the 376th anniversary of the battle.

The march down Welsh Row to the war memorial.





Having laid a commemorative wreath, the armies march onto Mill Island for the re-enactment



Let battle commence.









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London Trained Bands - Red Regiment

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Trained Bands were a militia of part time soldiers; they were formally founded in 1571 under Elizabeth I, although their history dates back much further. Each County had a trained band, but in London there were a number of regiments. Initially there were north, south, east and west regiments; by 1638 four had become six regiments (now called red, white, blue, green, yellow and orange regiments), by the time of the First Civil War there were these six regiments and three suburban regiments (Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster). Each regiment drew it's men from a particular district of the city. In 1643 they were expanded again by the formation of the auxiliaries, giving a total of eighteen regiments.


We know quite a lot about the London Trained Bands (henceforth LTB) thanks to the Royalist spy William Levett


The Red Regiment mustered it's men from Aldgate, Tower and Billingsgate. The red regiment was the senior regiment of the LTB. 'Red Regiment' refers to their fl…
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Sir John Meldrum's Regiment of Horse

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Sir John Meldrum's Regiment of Horse does not have spectacular or even notable battle honours, so why does it get it's own blog post? Regular readers will know that I have been having a bit of an existentialist crisis with the makeup of my two main armies. We know that generally armies had equal numbers of horse and foot, but rather than having 200 horse and 200 foot I prefer to field equal numbers of units. This karmic balance was shattered for a variety of reasons and my regiments of foot became rather top heavy.


So here are the first of twelve regiments of 'death by brown paint' horse - six each for Parliament and the King.

Meldrum's horse were formed in 1643 and served in the midlands and the north. Battle honours include Gainsborough, possibly the relief of Gloucester, First Newbury, and were besieged in Hull. After 1643 they fought at Nottingham, Ormskirk and possibly the siege of Scarborough.

Pretty much straight out of the box Piggies, just a couple of head…
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Portland Collection - the Harley Gallery

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What can I say about the Portland Collection at the Harley Gallery, on the Welbeck Abbey estate, near Worksop?


Firstly, I must point out that photography is not allowed. At all.  Not even sneaky ones without flash, so you'll just have to take my word for what's there.

The Harley Gallery is located in what has to be one of the nicest gallery buildings I have been to.

A large airy gallery space houses portraits of Charles II as a boy, and William Cavendish first Duke of Newcastle by van Dyck.  Other Civil War era portraits include Sir William Farmor by  William Dobson; 'Mad Madge' the Duchess of Newcastle, and Sir Edward Harley both by Sir Peter Lely.

Elsewhere there is a Newark siege coin, a number of Charles I medallions and Charles's toothpick and case. Highlight of the entire gallery has to be a drop pearl earring  worn by Charles in pretty much every one of his portraits (from the age of sixteen). A close second is the chalice that he drank from on the day of hi…
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Flags and Colours Part 2: Evidence

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Updated: Seven more cornets located!

Part two of the KeepYourPowderDry guide to Civil War flags and colours looks at evidence - surviving flags, and contemporary records.

Surviving Flags

There is a watchett (blue green) piles wavy ensign in the collection at the National Army Museum  (not on display), which very little is known about. One source claims it predates the Civil Wars (early 1630s), whereas NAM currently believe it dates from 1688 and belonged to Prince William of Orange (before he became King William III)


Picture courtesy of the National Army Museum
Of course, the ensign belonging to Sir John Gell's Regiment of Foot takes pride of place in the refurbished NAM. 
I have read that when the museum was conserving Gell's flag, and the museum was undergoing major refurbishment, that it was planned to alternate display of the two flags in the NAM collection. 
Antony House in Plymouth, have a yellow ensign on display with black lion devices (possibly belonging to Alexander Car…
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Earl of Stamford’s Regiment of Horse

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The Earl of Stamford's Regiment of Horse was a short lived regiment that existed in 1643 and served in Gloucester.

They may have had a skirmish at Burford, but definitely fought at the siege of Siege of Sudeley Castle and the battle of Highnam.


Their cornet is interesting; an old Military Modelling article from the 70s, on ECW flags, gave the cornet as blue with white horizontal stripes (from the Earl's coat of arms); however, the rather succinctly titled 'BL MS Additional [Sloanee] 5247' gives the field colour as solid blue. As BL MS Additional [Sloanee] 5247 was a contemporaneous pattern book of cavalry cornets I have plumped for the solid blue field.



Just a couple of headswaps in this unit, and one of the mounted casualties.
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The Battle of Nantwich, 25th January 1644

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1643, Charles had signed a Cessation with the Irish and recalled soldiers from Ireland to reinforce his armies. Several regiments were sent to Cheshire where a  new army was being raised. Lord Byron took command of that army in December of that year, and immediately started an offensive against the Parliamentarian forces in the County.

These troops returned to England with a sense of brutality, not seen before in the conflict. One incident in particular shocked the population, no doubt adding fuel to the Parliamentarian fire. When a group of Royalists plundered the village of Barthomley, villagers took refuge in the tower of St Bertoline's Church. The Royalists made a fire at the base of the tower to smoke them out, which forced them to surrender. The Royalists stripped and executed twelve of the villagers and wounded eight others.

Alan Garner's novel "Red Shift" uses this incident for one of the three stories within a story.





Sir William Brereton, the Parliamentarian …
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Another Year On

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Who'd have thunk it? I have managed another year of awful painting and dreadful prose.

Blog continues to go from strength to strength. In the first year it managed 15,600 hits, this year it's nudging 27,600. Must be doing something right, or there has been nothing on the telly globally for the last twelve months.


The KeepYourPowderDry blogiversary party: regular readers will note that the Saturday Boy
has not been invited, after he embarrassed himself last year
Most successful blog post of this year is 'Sealed Knot - ECWS: re-enactors on 450 hits: and the most successful of all time is "What Colours To Use" with over 800 hits. Most popular search term that ends up with a visit here is, not unsurprisingly 'Peter Pig' although 'ECW travelogue' is fast catching up. Strangely 'podiatrist Tyldesley' has secured rather a lot of blog visitors too.

A number of older posts have been updated; for example the London galleries post now has details of th…
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Earl of Essex’s Regiment of Horse, Major Gunter’s troop

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Major Gunter's troop of the Earl of Essex's regiment of horse was the senior fighting troop of the regiment. The most senior troop was the Earl's Lifeguard and were originally equipped as cuirassiers; they are often referred to as Sir Phillip Stapleton's troop, as he was the commander in the field.


Major Gunter served in the regiment until he fell at Chalgrove Field in June 1643.

Essex's regiment as a whole, took part at Edgehill, Turnham Green, Chalgrove Field, Aldbourne Chase, First Newbury, Aldermaston, Padworth, Lostwithiel, Second Newbury, Donnington and Kidlington. In 1645 they joined the New Model Army as Colonel Richard Grave's Regiment.

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Daventry - Naseby 375

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As 2020 is the year in which the 375th anniversary of the Battle of Naseby is celebrated, it is fair to assume that there might be a few Naseby 375 ECW Travelogue entries... the first visits Daventry, an unassuming market town in Northamptonshire. Keep an eye on the Sealed Knot's event list as I have an inkling they might be organising something special.


Can't say I have ever been to Daventry before...

There are a number of buildings on the High Street and Market Square that were here when the King's Army was billeted here The Old Grammar School, with a 1600 date stone, located next to Daventry Museum Daventry Museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibition "Commemorating the Battle of Naseby: 375 years. Daventry’s place in the Conflict", which is on until the 24th April. be warned, the museum has slightly esoteric opening hours (Tuesday - Friday mornings, first Saturday in the month).

In pride of place as you enter the exhibition room you'll see the ECW Batt…
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