The King's Lifeguard Regiment of Foot

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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 the start of their title.


One of the first regiments raised for the King in 1642 in York (the warrant authorising their raising is held by the National Army Museum and can be viewed online), their numbers were bolstered by men from Lincolnshire and Derbyshire before being formally commissioned in Nottingham. They marched to Shrewsbury and more men joined their ranks, this time from Cheshire.


The regiment are noted as 'red' at Edgehill, most probably referring to flag colour. Thomas Bushell was thanked for "cloathing our liefe Guard and three regiments more, with suites, stockings, shoes, and mounteers when wee were readie to march in the ffield" by his majesty. They were noted dressed in red coats and montero caps in 1643 and 1644. Another clothing issue in September 1644 these appear to have been red coats as they are noted in red coats and montero caps in October 1644.


So with all these references to montero caps, lots of headswaps needed to be done. I've chosen to give them mostly monteros, with a small number of hats and monmouth caps thrown in for variety. I've also gone for the full red look, which did make painting much quicker, but I'm not sold on the all red look; this regiment looks fine, but I'm not going to repeat the whole suit of one colour thing again. There are three shades of red coats but can't really tell any discernible difference now they have been washed.

A stalwart of the King's Oxford Army in between fighting they were garrisoned in Oxford: they fought at Edgehill; the siege of Banbury; were present at the standoff at Turnham Green; stormed Cirencester; a skirmish at Little Dean; Ripple Field; a skirmish at Dorchester-on-Thames; Caversham Bridge; the siege of Gloucester; First Newbury; present at the Aldbourne Chase muster; Cropredy Bridge; Lostwithiel; Second Newbury; the relief of Donnington Castle; the storm of Leicester; Naseby, the regiment was captured and the men marched to London; those officers who escaped started recruiting the Regiment again and were besieged in Hereford; they fought at Stow on the Wold and were once again captured.

The Regiment is re-enacted by the Sealed Knot's King's Lifeguard of Foote



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