Keep Your Powder Dry

The very last of my Royalist Regiments of Foot - that's a total of seventeen pike and shot, and three commanded shot (650 men in case you were wondering). But we've heard that before, so we'll settle on 'last' for the moment . Although... I have just learned that Sir Beville Grenville's Regiment of Foot had blue and white painted pikes and musket rests...  Allen, Alan, or Alen? Apseley or Apsely? All used, so take your pick: I'm going with Allen Apsley (as that is what is carved upon his tomb in the south ambulatory of Westminster Abbey). Raised in 1643 in Devon, the Regiment served in the West Country and with the King's Oxford Army throughout the First Civil War. Sir Allen was born on 28th August 1616, the eldest son of Sir Allen (1567-1630), Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and his third wife Lucy (St John). Apparently Sir Allen Snr was so well loved by the Tower's inmates (often lending them money) that many didn't wish to leave their accom...

When you think of a 'lifeguard' you think of a group of soldiers whose job it is to protect an individual. So the two King's Lifeguard units are a little bit of a misnomer. The Lifeguard of Foot were effectively just the King's Regiment of Foot, The same can sort of be said about the Lifeguard of Horse.  For actual protecting the King duties you need to look at the Gentlemen Pensioners. The Gentlemen Pensioners still exist as the  Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms .  The King's Lifeguard of Horse should not be confused with the Gentlemen Pensioners, they were completely separate units.  The King’s Lifeguard Regiment of Horse, served with the Oxford Army throughout the First Civil War and were led by the King's cousin Lord Bernard Stuart . Raised in Yorkshire in 1642, they were in the thick of the War from the very start being present at the Siege of Hull; Edgehill; the siege of Gloucester; First Newbury; Cropredy Bridge; Lostwithiel; Second  Newbury; the re...

Way back in the midst of time I posted some converted figures which would be used as assault parties - some harquebusiers on foot (converted from foot officers) and some figures from the storming party pack from PP. At the time of writing I mentioned that I had some unaltered figures from the storming party somewhere. Well they are back, and they are no longer unadulterated. The storming party pack contains 3 petard teams and two grenado throwers. The unadulterated figures from the pack But what is a petard, and what is a grenado? A petard was a small explosive device attached to doors and gateways which hopefully blew the door/gate up thereby allowing the attackers to breach defences. Fun fact: petard comes from the old French word for fart.  Usually carried on a stretcher type device these bombs were propped up against doors, wedged into position and lit. The brave souls who had carried the petard (technically called petardiers) then have to run away very quickly. (There is a pet...

Three more Royalist commanders, these were part of the package of figures that were listed as in absentia for a goodly while. First up Sir Ralph, Lord Hopton . My first use of my new russetted armour paint recipe. I hope that you have noticed that I've tried to give him the correct colour hair (according to his portraits), otherwise all that effort will be for nought. Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that we have already met Sir Ralph here on KeepYourPowderDry before: his story epitomises the notion of 'England tore asunder' as his opponent in battle was invariably his good friend Sir William Waller.  As a 21 year old Hopton undertook the C17th equivalent of a gap year, but instead of travelling to 'find himself' his goal was to 'learn languages'. Finding himself caught up in the Thirty Years War he joined a volunteer English force fighting for Frederick of the Palatinate (whose sons Rupert and Maurice we know quite well). He, and his good frien...

An interesting regiment this one, changing allegiance on a number of occasions, and regularly being disbanded and raised anew.  The Marquis of Huntly appears to be loyal to himself and himself alone: which ever side was furthering his cause (or whoever was fighting against his personal enemies) would benefit from his sword.  Whilst they were Huntly's Regiment they were that in name only - they were trained and commanded in the field by Lieutenant Colonel William Johnston. Raised originally to fight in the First Bishop's War in 1639 they would fight at Trot o’Turriff; the battle of Megray Hill; and Brig o’Dee. Huntly managed to get himself imprisoned in April 1639 attempting to broker a peace deal with the Earl of Montrose; he was released from prison and he and his regiment played no part in the Second Bishops' War. They were raised again in 1644 this time fighting for the King and were present at the taking of Aberdeen; and the storming of Montrose (the town not the Marq...

Here's the final unit of highlanders from the current batch of figures for the Army of Montrose. More will follow, eventually. When I recovered from the psychological trauma of having to paint tartan. The Lochaber Highlanders were a subset of Cameron Highlanders, traditionally fiercely loyal to the crown they are perhaps best known for their modern association with the  Lochaber axe which their valley lends it's name to: the Lochaber axe is a traditional Scottish halberd that may or may not originate from Lochaber. The Lochaber men's loyalty to the Stuarts would be the last acts of the suppression of the Jacobite 1745 Rising. We don't know much about the Lochabermen as an entity in their own right (their exploits with the 1745 Rising are quite well documented) as they were raised by their Clan Chief Allan Cameron of Lochiel and their exploits are possibly subsumed into the general Clan Cameron history.  They are believed to have fought at Tippermuir and Inverlochy, wher...

Captain Thomas Sandford (sometimes Sanford) most probably raised his independent Company of Firelocks in Shropshire, for service in Ireland.  Thomas was described as a 'colourful character': which seems fairly accurate, as evidenced by his correspondence. One of his letters, addressed to the garrison at Hawarden, began: "Behold the messenger of death, Sanford and his firelocks, who neither use to give, nor take quarter" He had previously been a quartermaster serving with the Earl of Northumberland's Regiment of Foot during the First Bishops' War.  When originally raised the company had a strength of about 60 men. They arrived in Dublin in 1642 and served under Ormonde, where they helped lead the assault on the Confederate forces at Kilrush. Of the men who went to Ireland 50 men returned to Chester in 1643. Once back in England they fought for the King at Hawarden* and Beeston Castles.  At Beeston legend has it that Sandford and eight of his men famously scaled...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that I am always on the lookout for suitable commanders to augment my armies.  This time my attention turned to Naismith whose figures match nicely heightwise with PP. Naismith horses are a little 'esoteric' so they were ditched and replacement PP horses sourced. All these figures come from just two packs - the Montrose character pack (EC14 Montrose, Leslie and Dundee), and the EC06 mounted Scots officer pack. Those tempted to purchase from Naismith should check the status of the company on internet forums, as service can be sporadic at times. As of 03/01/2021 the Naismith-Roundway website has gone, and the domain is available to purchase. I fear that these ranges may now have disappeared. Update April 2021: sadly, it does indeed look like Naismith have disappeared. However a limited stock of Naismith ECW can be found in stock at KeepWargaming (no limbers I'm afraid, as I've just bought the last packs). They do have the per...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will recognise the name Sir Gervase Lucas, we've already 'met' his Regiment of Horse . Just as his Regiment of Horse were based at Belvoir* Castle, so were his Regiment of Foot. Being based at the Castle, they didn't get out much: they fought in and around the castle; venturing out to fight at Cotes Bridge; Newark; were besieged at Belvoir Castle; they left Belvoir Castle to reinforce Lichfield and were certainly present when Lichfield fell, although it isn't certain if they were besieged in the Close. Sir Gervase had helped escort King Charles from the battlefield at Naseby to safety, and after the Civil Wars would be rewarded by Charles II by being made Governor of Bombay, with a salary of £2 a day (and an initial sweetener of £1500). Sadly he didn't get to enjoy this job for long, as he died within a year of taking it up. No known coat colours are recorded, so pure conjecture gave them blue coats. A handful of headswaps, mo...

 Having been asked the tricksy question,  What is it: The English Civil War, The British Civil Wars or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms? Pictures from Holly Holy Day 2020, Nantwich's annual celebration of the battle I will attempt to answer it... but first, some definitions.  British , means belonging to the archipelago known as the British Isles, a geographical term (Great Britain is the name of the largest island in the archipelago). Britain is not the name of a country, it is the name of an island on which there are two countries and a principality. The term is, understandably, unpopular in Eire. Three Kingdoms - Charles was concurrently king of England, Scotland and Ireland. The kingdoms were separate countries, the Act of Union creating the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland hadn't happened yet. But what about Wales? (long story made short): Wales had been subsumed by England in the thirteenth century and politically when the word England was used, it included Wale...

Who'd have thunk it, another year of KeepYourPowderDry? Due to Covid restrictions there was no party this year, so here's a pic from a previous works do - a goats and goblins theme (the accounts department do like their fancy dress). Regular readers will notice that the Saturday boy wasn't invited as his mum wouldn't let him out after the state he'd left the downstairs loo in , after the last works 'do'. First off there are quite a few people I need to say thank you to: everyone who has visited and read my posts, I still find it bemusing that so many people are interested in my nonsense; also, those of you who have taken the time to write kind words about the blog; a special thank you to all the fellow bloggers who link to this site from their own blogs. This year has seen KeepYourPowderDry pass an enormous milestone - visitor numbers have just eased past 126,000 hits! Which is really quite staggering when I didn't really expect anyone to read what I...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will no doubt have been wondering why some 'wargamer favourites' haven't made an appearance on this blog yet - the King's Lifeguard, Hesilrigge's lobsters and so on... Well wait and wonder no more. I will spare you the long boring story why they have only just made it to the the painting table over three years after they were originally purchased. Here they are now, and expect a return to Royalist and Parliamentarian units for the next few months. Don't be confused by the the grand title of this Regiment of Foot - they were just that, a regular Regiment of Foot. The actual lifeguarding bit is down to the Gentlemen Pensioners (not to be confused with the King's Lifeguard of Horse, who were a different unit altogether, although WargamerFacts™ insists that the two cavalry units are one and the same). In the the modern British Army this Regiment would have the words "King's..." or "King's Own..." at...

I can put off painting tartan for only so long, so time to grasp the nettle and get down to it. So here are the next clan of marauding men from the Highlands. Led by their Clan Chief, Sir Lachlan Maclean 1st Baron Morven, they fought at Inverlochy; Auldearn; and Kilsyth. They were present at the loss of Mull (Leslie came to the Island with a strong force of horse and foot in search of eight Irishmen, who were sheltering on Mull: seven were caught and executed, the eighth fleeing)   and the defence of Duart Castle. Sir Lachlan died in 1650 and the Chiefdom passed to his son Sir Hector Maclean. Hector was commissioned as colonel of foot of a Regiment to be raised from Argyll and Bute highlanders; they joined the army at Stirling in 1651 and fought at Inverkeithing. The Clan lost 500 men at Inverkeithing, as well as Sir Hector. It was during this battle that seven brothers died protecting their Clan Chief. Each brother crying "Another for Hector" as they stepped forward...