Cropredy 375

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Rather than cluttering up my ECW Travelogue guide to Cropredy Bridge, I decided to post a second entry which is purely devoted to my snaps from the Sealed Knot's Cropredy 375 event.

The Living History camp...




 
The battle...
 











 













 











 

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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


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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.


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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.

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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.

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Just a couple of headswaps in this unit, and one of the mounted casualties.
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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
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Who'd have thunk it? I have managed another year of awful painting and dreadful prose.

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The KeepYourPowderDry blogiversary party: regular readers will note that the Saturday Boy
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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.

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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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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).

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Once I had discovered that a relative was a captain in the Parliamentarian Holland's regiment, I had to represent it. This of course had the knock on effect of causing imbalance in my armies. So the King required a new regiment of foot to level this imbalance. So I give you Sir Bernard Astley's Regiment of Foot.



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