Keep Your Powder Dry

I suppose it was inevitable. Parliamentarian Army ✓, Royalist Army ✓, Army of the Solemn League and Covenant ✓, Montrose's Royalist Army ✓, all completed. Irish Confederate is missing. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms is a catch all term that covers a whole host of conflicts that took place (mostly) in the area of the geographical British Isles in the 1640s and 50s. The Irish component was the Eleven Years War, or the Irish Confederacy War. But first, what precipitated the Irish to rise up against the Crown?  From the mid 1550s, through to 1620 Irish owned land was confiscated by the English crown, and given to primarily English settlers. The Crown saw the plantations as a means of controlling, anglicising and 'civilising' Ireland. The plantation of Ulster started in 1610 saw a large scale influx of Protestant settlers from northern England, and Scotland. Events that would shape and scar British and Irish history for the next 400 years. By 1640 reports of anti-Catholic rhetor...

Despite having a career that dabbles in and out of the shallows of academia, I was put off from attending 'Civil War' lectures because I don't own a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches or a beard that has bits of last night's dinner lurking in it. But enough of this inappropriate, and frankly mean caricaturing. I was invited to attend Helion's Century of the Soldier Conference held in Worcester in April 2023, thank you Charles for the invite. Must confess that I didn't really know what I was letting myself in for. This year's theme was 'Novelty and Change' and included a number of influential researchers and writers. I was particularly interested in hearing Dr Padraig Lenihan's "Countermarches, Caracoles and Charges: Firearms Against Shock in Ireland 1641-3", most probably because I have an Irish Confederate army in the planning stage.  I was very wrong in the slight apprehension I felt about attending. Wow. What a brilliant day. I ...

  Arnescote Rockingham Castle needs no introduction to fans of By The Sword Divided. Ancestral home of the Lacey  Watson family and their descendants. Rockingham's very familiar gatehouse  Rockingham was garrisoned for the King when war broke out, but was taken by Lord Grey of Groby in 1643.  Its outer walls and keep being sleighted in 1646.  You can understand why the castle was built on this outcrop The Castle's owner, Royalist supporter Sir Lewis Watson was tried in Oxford in 1644, being accused of inviting Parliament's men into the castle. He would eventually clear his name and be made the 1st Lord Rockingham. Arnescote/Rockingham must surely be on every Civil War aficionado's 'to visit list'. Open to the public, this private residence can be visited on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday afternoons during the summer months (check their website for details before setting off as the castle is also a wedding venue and can be closed on days when it 'should'...

And now, to steal a phrase from Monty Python, for something completely different... Portrait of Henry, Duke of Gloucester at Royal Guild of Saint-Sebastian It is spring 1656, Charles II along with his brothers Henry, Duke of Gloucester and James, Duke of York arrive in Brugge. Charles had fled England in 1651 after his defeat at Worcester, he originally lived near Paris, then moved to Cologne, before ending up in Brugge. The time that Charles spent in Brugge recently hit the headlines when Belgian fishermen tested the right to fish in British waters post Brexit: Charles had granted 50 Flemish fishermen from Brugge “eternal rights” to English fishing waters, as a way of thanking the city for its hospitality. the time keeping apparatus on top of Huis Bouchoute Charles was originally housed in Huis Bouchoute , which is now more famous for its role in the standardisation of Belgian timekeeping. Grand Hotel Casselbergh is more widely known as Charles's residence whilst in Brugge. This u...

The somewhat inappropriately titled #ECWtravelogue ventured across the Irish Sea in search of a decent pint of Guinness. Or rather #3 son did, I have visited all these places before - long before the ECWtravelogue existed. Any mention of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and Ireland, is going to have to tread very carefully. Cromwell's actions, and the actions of the New Model Army, understandably raise strong emotions. The Irish component of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms is known as either the 11 Years War, the Irish Confederate Wars or the Irish Uprising. Ireland had risen against English rule in 1641, and Charles sent a force to quash the rebellion. The advent of Civil War in England meant that those troops sent to Ireland were withdrawn to England, supposedly to support the Crown. A combination of the King's attention switching, and the withdrawal of the majority of English forces meant that the Irish Confederacy pretty much took control of the island of Ireland. Fast forwar...

Just as Montrose's army has had some more command figures, so have the Covenanters. These are from Peter Pig Scots generals pack 40. All three have had headswaps. Sir Alexander Hamilton Hamilton was the Covenanter general of artillery until 1649 when he died. Known to friend and foe as 'dear Sandy' he fought for both Denmark and Sweden. It is believed that he may have refined the Swedish leather gun, but he is best known for inventing the 'Dear Sandy Stoups' - four light bronze barrels mounted upon a frame. John Campbell, 1st Earl of Loudoun Loudoun was more of a politician than a soldier, despite being the colonel of regiments of foot and horse. A leading light in the Covenanter cause, he was one of the commissioners sent to London to negotiate with the King after the First Bishops War. Appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland in 1641, in a vain attempt by Charles to win Loudoun's loyalty; his loyalty was with the Solemn League. He would venture south again: to ne...

Whilst perusing the Keep Wargaming (no relation) Naismith ECW listings I noticed pack EC11 mounted highlander with sword and pistol. An idea germinated that they could become highland commanders. But that would involve painting tartan again.  Undeterred I ordered them, and as usual mounted them on Peter Pig horses (tl:dr Naismith horses are 'esoteric' to say the least, their artillery limber horses are brilliant) . The pose was a bit unique and I decided that they would look a little odd all in the same pose. Only one figure would remain as cast, the other two would have more animation in their sword arm. Swords were cut and arms gently eased into position. The first figure went fine, the second... clearly a bit too adventurous and his arm snapped off. His arm was pinned back into place and greenstuff repairs carried out. Both had new swords fashioned from staples, and greenstuff hilts helped strengthen everything up. The first adjustment, the original figure, and the second sw...

 Just as my Royalist command got a bit of a spruce up, so has my Parliament command. A gentle reminder that these figures are true 15mm sized; the names given but figure manufacturers and sculptors is 'nominal' at best, as they are too small to look definitively like portraits of the people that they are supposed to represent. Whilst some of the Steel Fist character figures do have more than a passing resemblance to portraiture, they can represent whomsoever you jolly well want them to be - very few will have any idea, and the few that do, probably don't have a magnifier with them. These figures are tiny. With this in mind, I have picked my Fantasy Football League team of Parliamentarian command figures... This time, additional figures coming from Steel Fist's ECWH 21 pack: Parliamentarian Commanders. As a number of the characters in the pack are already represented in my Parliamentarian army, a little repurposing will be required.  My 'senior commanders' are ba...

I've never run a business that makes actual things to sell to real people; but if I did I would want 'samples' to be of the best quality, so that reviewers and buyers would know exactly what the finished, production item would be like. I assume that this is how the very successful Warlord Games runs their business. So, I was pleasantly surprised when Warlord got in touch about my Pike and Shotte Epic Battles cavalry sprue review . It is fair to say that there has been quite a bit of controversy concerning my review. Nobody picking me up on what my comments were, but about the pictures. I have had rather too many colourfully worded responses claiming that I am trying to disrupt the P&S Epic release, that I want it to fail etc etc Paul from Warlord contacted me: "...your post (shows) what I consider to be substandard castings that we should not be sending out" and he offered to rectify the issue. A fair comment, and of course I warmly invite them to show off the...