The Restless Republic - Radio 4

-

 For those of you with an occasional ear on Radio 4, this week's Book of The Week may be of interest...



The Restless Republic - Britain Without A Crown by Anna Keay is being serialised this week. Five 15 minute programmes serialise the story of 'the extraordinary decade that followed the execution of Charles I in 1649'.

All episodes will be available for five weeks via BBC Sounds. You can find the BBC Radio page for the programme here.


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

Assault Parties (take 3)

-
Image
On one of the rare occasions that I visit Facebook I was perusing the Victory Without Quarter page, and saw some beautiful 28mm storming party figures. In amongst the pictures were three figures carrying a ladder. Obviously a storming party needs ladders, but I don't have any! An idea germinated... Could I make a ladder party? Where any figures suitable to chopped and changed into what I wanted. I've got some ladders tucked into a corner of my Château Hougomont model, might have some spares somewhere. A rummage through my spares box found some standard bearers from PP pack 17 'foot command advancing' and a lowland pikeman from pack 82 'Scots pike 45' open hand'. Both have potential.  The 'raw materials' Couldn't find any ladders, they were from Magister Militum, who have now shut up shop. So no more available from that source, PP make a pack, but I didn't really want to spend the best part of £10 on just a pack of ladders (the £4.50 post and ...
Read more

Houses of Interest: Cumbria

-
Image
Firstly, apologies to members of the Westmoreland and Cumberland separatist movements. For ease of writing, I am using the modern term 'Cumbria' rather than the historical counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland. The opening salvo to the spiritual homeland of sticky toffee pudding entry, concerns Sizergh Castle. The Castle is cared for by the National Trust, so expect a cafe, overpriced fudge, stunning gardens and the tartan blanket picnic brigade in attendance. Originally built as a peel tower in the fourteenth or fifteenth century the building has been extensively modified over the years. Home of the Strickland family, recusant Catholics, they were supporters of the King. Sir Robert was commissioned Colonel in 1638 of a North Riding of Yorkshire Trained Band for service in the Bishops' Wars. In 1640 he would be commissioned to raise both a Regiment of Foot, and a Regiment of Horse for the King. Sir Robert Strickland It is thought that both these regiments were present at ...
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

Kitchen Matters

-
Image
One can not simply spend one's life visiting sites associated with the wars, or painting little men. You do have to eat, now and again... Now even the most die hard seventeenth century afficiando can take their passion into the kitchen with them! Stuck for a recipe? Try Mrs Cromwell's Cookbook , available from the Cromwell Museum  online shop, or in person from the museum itself: although this book was not written by her (it was actually written after Oliver Cromwell had died as a way to make fun of her) the recipes are good examples of food that they might have eaten while they were alive. Maybe I should have ironed it for the pictures... Once you have dined upon your 'Cromwellian' feast I'm afraid there is the washing up to do. And what better to complete the task than a World Turned Upside Down tea towel? Also available from the Cromwell Museum or in person from the shop at the National Civil War Centre. Other seventeenth century themed tea towels are availabl...
Read more

The Farndon Massacre

-
Image
A somewhat dark and dour postcript to the Battle of Naseby. War is a dreadful thing, amongst all of the horrific things that human inflicts upon other human in the name of 'war' there are some events that stand out as atrocities:   o ne such atrocity took place in the aftermath of the battle of Naseby.  There are many atrocities attributed to one side or the other during the Civil Wars, but when you look into most of these atrocities, hard evidence can be hard to find to support the hyperbole of the pamphleteers. An oft recycled pamphlet image of an atrocity: originally used for an event in the south west, then Leicester, then York . The events that befell the Royalist baggage train after Naseby are fairly unique in that both sides report pretty much the same story, and a 1660 Petition to Charles II supports the story. Naseby is  all but lost and panicking Royalist troops start fleeing north towards Market Harborough, and the baggage train flees too. Anyone who has ever w...
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

Clubmen

-
Image
I make no bones about this, this is just an excuse to take and publish lots of pictures of my armies.  So here's my small force of clubmen. Consisting of: six stands 24 clubmen (144 total) two command stands, 4 figures each (8 total) 'rank and file' have been created from just three poses, so lots and lots of headswaps   If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .
Read more

The Battle of Preston 17th-19th August 1648

-
Image
1648, Parliament has Charles imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle, but secretly the King plots to reclaim his throne by force. He signs a treaty with many of the Scots Covenanters (who now become Engagers) to invade England and join forces with Royalist sympathisers. It must be noted that the Scottish Kirk did not sanction the Engagement with the King, so the Engager Army was short of many of the most talented and experienced soldiers from the Army of the Covenant. Cattermole's 'Battle of Preston and Walton', Harris Museum May 1648, the Engagers rise up and invade England. Royalist risings take place in Kent, Essex and more importantly for the Engagers - Cumberland. A mainly Scottish joint Engager-Royalist army marches south, whilst the New Model Army marches to confront them. Cromwell's forces mustered the New Model Army and the Northern Association in Yorkshire and marched down the Ribble Valley to meet the Engagers and Royalists at Preston. The two sides me...
Read more

Warlord Pike and Shotte Epic Battles: the infantry sprue

-
Image
Firstly a big thank you to Warlord Games who sent me a sprue of their new Pike and Shotte Epic Battles infantry. (You can see how I got on with the cavalry sprue here. ) I will try and look at these figures from three different angles: the first impression of someone completely new to the period, the button counter’s standpoint, and then from a seasoned wargamer’s point of view. In all cases I'm looking at these through Wars of the Three Kingdoms spectacles. (Wars of the Three Kingdoms is a more accurate name for the conflicts that were fought in the British Isles in the mid seventeenth century. The English Civil War was just one of these conflicts.) The obligatory next to a ruler picture (the ruler is lined up with the soles of their footwear) The 'new to the period' view This one sprue provides enough figures for one unit (a Regiment of Foot or RoF). Figures look very detailed, moulding is clean and crisp with no flash and only minimal mould lines. The pikes look a bit d...
Read more

Naseby - a Visitor's Guide

-
Image
Updated. As the Naseby Battlefield Project appear to want to steer you towards a guided tour of the battlefield, here's the information that you need for a self-guided tour. Back in the day when this blog was knee high to a grasshopper I wrote an entry about visiting Naseby, with a picture of the obelisk and a few postcodes for some of the landmarks on the battlefield. I also vowed to return. I have (several times). So here is a more definitive (and up to date) visitor's guide to Naseby battlefield. In my previous blog entry I suggested using a Battlefield Trail Guide from The Naseby Battlefield Project website , but this has disappeared from their website ; so, here is my guide to the locations. There were audio clips for each location (again via the Battlefield Project website) but these appear to have disappeared too. The information boards are being updated, most sites have shiny new information boards in situ; some still have QR codes for the audio guide (don't tr...
Read more