Keep Your Powder Dry

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" ...

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...

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...

Those of you who have tried to visit either the BCW Project or Regimental Wiki will notice that it is 'down'. >>>>>>>>> Update May 2025: www.BCW-Project.org.uk is now live. There's just a blog entry explaining what's going on, for now! >>>>>>>>> Update April 2025: Those of you wondering what is happening with the site data, well real life has been throwing some massive spanners in the works, so progress on restoring the site has been, to be honest, none existent. Fear not, work on restoring the site has started, and will commence in earnest soon. Unfortunately GoDaddy have parked the BCW-project.org URL and are effectively holding it for ransom. So when the site returns it will be at a slightly different address  BCW-project.org.uk We will be asking for help with the funding of the website - so if you have missed the website, it would be a very nice way of remembering the founder of the site, the late Dave Plant, by...

Be still my beating heart. A book on the supply of clothing and equipment that relies heavily, and quotes, contemporary documents.  Somehow, this book really ticks my boxes. Who'd have thunk it? What do you want to be when you grow up? Someone who gets excited at the mention of the Tangye Collection manuscripts, and any hint of SP28 (Commonwealth Exchequer Papers) has those close by reaching for the smelling salts. That last sentence wouldn't have been on the shortlist, or even the longlist. Authors writing about the New Model Army supply chain tend to limit their attention to what are known as the Mungeam Contracts, a 'sample' of the London Museum's* Tangye Collection which were transcribed and are easily accessible. As Dr Abram points out in his introduction, there is so much more source material. But enough of my peccadilloes... Dr Abram's latest tome homes in on the supply of the Army, Newly Modelled. Not just clothing, armour, weaponry, horses, horse furni...

Irish flags... a conundrum. I knew that a number of flags were recorded, but without any reference to allocation to particular regiments. I also remember reading one internet reference that stated that each flag had two different sides. But I'd never come across the source material supporting this claim, or even a secondary source that described/illustrated the flags thus. Until now... But first a little bit of flag nomenclature (which if you want to impress people you can call vexillology). If you cut a flag down its middle and spread it out on a table, positioning the pole sleeve in the middle, the left hand side is the 'reverse' and the right hand side is the front of the flag, or 'obverse'. Regular readers, hello all twenty of you, will have realised that clothing issue 'floats my boat', I'm not really very good on flags. Most of my flag knowledge is gleaned from secondary sources, and the handful of more readily accessible primary sources.  The sour...

So what were the Associations, and give me a reading list... During the Wars, Parliament devolved local government to local Associations of counties where it held sway. These local Associations raised money, provided supplies and men for Parliament's great field army, which was under the command of the Earl of Essex. Each Association also raised its own army, which was responsible for garrisoning towns, protecting the borders of their Association, and they were also called upon to augment Essex's force. Some also went about their own campaigning. The Association Armies were*: The Midlands Association,  covering predominantly Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire. A slightly complicated affair, there were briefly two Midland Association armies. Initially commanded by Lord Brooke, then Sir John Gell took command after Brooke's death at Lichfield. Cheshire is a little different (it still is a little different, I can say that having been born in the county...

The second instalment in what could be a very one sided, short lived series. But first we need to talk about the term 'New Model Army'. 'Tis nought but a Victorian affectation (courtesy Thomas Carlyle in 1845). The New Model Army was not called that in the C17th, you know... when it actually existed. It was technically, just 'the army', but was described as 'the army, newly modelled' or the '' newly modelled' army' so as to distinguish it from Parliament's previous field army (the Earl of Essex's Army), and the fact that they had a new structure.  Now we can move on. Although I will type NMA, as it is much quicker. My 1940 edition ex-Nottingham Reference Library copies. Wondering why it says Firth and Davies as authors? Godfrey Davies assisted and checked Firth's research  When looking at the NMA our first port of call has to be with the venerable Sir Charles H Firth. His 1902 two volume work "Regimental History of Cromwell...

The start of a new 'series' of posts helping those who want to build a specific army that fought during the Wars of The Three Kingdoms. Consider them recommended reading... The Earl of Essex commanded Parliament's main field army - Parliament also had regional armies (the Associations) who were responsible for protecting their 'area', they could also be called upon to support Essex when on campaign near their area. Thanks to scrupulous records being kept and more importantly, surviving (!); not to mention some diligent researchers, who have spent many hours in archive rooms and libraries, we have the most complete record of any of the armies that took to the fields. A good place to start would be with a commentary of Essex's campaigns. You'll be needing "Hey For Old Robin" by Scott and Turton (Helion Books). Now that your interest is growing, you will want to know all about the Regiments of Foot that made up Essex's army. That'll be the re...

The weather is rubbish: it doesn't feel right painting in the summer, but it is much too cold and wet to go on a big ECWtravelogue day out... so expect rather a lot of book related posts of the coming weeks. Helion curate a number of regular conferences linked to their extensive book series. I was lucky to attend the most recent Century of the Soldier conference as a guest of series editor Charles Singleton. The lectures given by the speakers are collated and published  by Helion with the subtitle of "Proceedings of the... Helion and Company 'Century of the Soldier' Conference". I must be clear and point out that Helion sent me this copy for review. So, what is this? A nice souvenir for everyone who attended? Or the 'handouts' for everyone who couldn't be bothered taking notes? If you didn't attend, is it worth splashing the cash? Clearly, at a very facetious level it is both a nice souvenir, and the 'handouts' from the lectures, for those ...

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...