Keep Your Powder Dry

Molyneux, sometimes Molineux, was Viscount Molyneux of Maryborough in the Irish peerage. Richard inherited his title aged 6, when his father died. Molyneux attended the commission of array on Preston Moor, and assisted at the seizure of the magazine at Preston. On the outbreak of the war he raised two regiments, one of horse and one of foot, composed chiefly of Roman Catholics. They formed part of the Lancashire forces under the command of the Earl of Derby. Present at the siege of Manchester; the siege of Brampton Bryan; Chipping Campden; stormed Crewe Hall; the siege and battle of Nantwich; they marched north with Rupert to relieve York fighting at Stockport, Bolton and Liverpool on route, before fighting at Marston Moor. After Marston they would fight at Ormskirk and possibly Montgomery. Molyneux would finish the First Civil War in command of Prince Maurice's Lifeguard of Horse. Molyneux continued to support the Royalist cause after the King's surrender, but was not involved...

Socially distanced, after work cheese and wine, definitely not a party (note everyone wearing masks). Saturday boy showing himself up again 🙄 I am somewhat surprised to still be writing this nonsense after four whole years - who'd have thunk I'd have this much to blather on about? And who would have thought that the number of regular readers has reached the dizzying heights of 'possibly seven' - a number that other bloggers can only dream of. So I am told. Well somebody must be reading this as the page number thing keeps ticking over. Unless it is my mum, constantly clicking away, or some hackers in some far off distant land hoping to bring down great instruments of state (sorry you've got the wrong website, you want sites that end gov.uk) I'd like to thank everyone who has supported the blog via Buy Me a Coffee, it really is very greatly appreciated. Your contributions pay for the domain, and help towards parking fees, house entrance fees and some fuel; it doe...

Not a 'new' Regiment, but another in the series of 'briefly mentioned, I'd better go into a bit more detail'. So here are fifteen minutes of fame for Colonel Sir Edward Widdrington's Regiment of Horse. Sir Edward Widdrington was born in 1614, son of Roger Widdrington of  Cartington Castle in Northumbria. A Roman Catholic, he was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1635. Sir Edward  raised 200 horse for service to the King, and Newcastle's Northern Army. They were repulsed from Bradford; fought at Seacroft Moor; stormed Wakefield; were possibly besieged in Scarborough Castle; fought at Marston Moor (where Edward commanded a brigade of horse). What happened to the Regiment after Marston Moor is uncertain.  Not helped by some confusion between Sir Edward, and his cousin Lord, Sir William Widdrington. I was hoping that John Barratt's "A Rabble of Gentility, The Royalist Northern Horse 1644-45" , and Reid's " Cavalier Army Lists" migh...

Fret no more regular readers (who I am led to believe now number almost seven): a return to the normal Monday posting sees yet more Scots cavalry... Alexander Leslie was an accomplished soldier having first fought for the Netherlands, then Sweden in the Thirty Years War. Gustavus Adolphus thought so highly of Leslie's skills he knighted him and made him lieutenant general. He would return to Scotland in 1638, in response to the crisis brought about by the introduction of the Laudian prayer book, and the signing of the National Covenant. Leslie/Leven had in effect two Regiments of Horse - his Life Guard and his 'normal' Horse. This post looks at the 'normal' Horse, and tries to make sense of their somewhat complicated timeline. Leslie was commander in chief of the Scots Army for both Bishops Wars. For the second war he commanded the Fife Horse who were raised in Kirkcaldy and Cupar. They didn't really get up to much apart from crossing the border, occupying Newca...

Apologies for a not-Monday posting! So here without further ado is Major General Sir John Brown of Fordell's Regiment of Horse Sir John Brown learnt his soldiering on the continent, and was commissioned as one of the first three cavalry troop commanders of the Solemn League and Covenant (he would later receive a commission to be lieutenant colonel of Leslie's Horse). In May 1645, Brown was commissioned colonel of his own Regiment, which was to be made up of four troops. This was quickly amended by the Committee with the Army who raised the Regiment's strength to eight troops.  The newly formed Regiment would be quartered in Cumbernauld. In October 1645 the Royalist Northern Horse were retreating from Yorkshire, and attempting to head north to join up with Montrose's Army. Brown's Horse met the Northern Horse at Annan Moor. Brown's men routed the Royalist reserve line (commanded by Langdale) which in turn led the front line (commanded by Digby) to flee. Brown...

This week a bit of a book review. Which is a bit odd, because it is two books. Steve Archibald published his first volume with Redcrest Books (part of Amazon) a couple of years ago. The first volume covers English and Scottish Foot Regiments. His second volume covers Cavalry Cornets and Guidons. Both books are well researched: anyone familiar with the source material will be able to see that the author has gone back to primary source material to check the designs rather than simply rehash the Military Modelling flag articles from 79/80. You'd be surprised how many other authors and flag manufacturers have used the MM articles as their source material. The giveaway that the author went back to original source material Many flags were only described, rather than illustrated, in source material - so they are only an artist's interpretation. Publishers of flag books take note: this is how to do a flag book - full colour illustrations! The Foot volume starts by explaining the differ...

Due to continual 'ah, but I need to represent this unit' type scenarios I came to the conclusion that I needed some more artillery for my armies. This coincided with the demise of Naismith-Roundway and I thought I wouldn't be able to get matching limbers.  Thankfully, I discovered KeepWargaming who have a dwindling stock of Naismith figures. I quickly purchased all of the limbers in their stock room.  (So expect similar artillery posts about the Covenanters and the Royalists.) So here are my final planned Parliamentarian figures: two minions, crews and limbers. Figures from PP, the gun is listed as light gun. I must confess that I wasn't totally happy with my cannons. Historically the metalwork was most probably black, but it just looked much too flat. So I decided to paint these differently. I decided to use Foundry blackened barrel. I have two shades of the paint, the lighter version being used for the wheel tyres (my thinking being that the paint would be more worn)...

Hold your horses partner, as the denizens of the former colonies might say. Sashes? If you mean the fancy silk thing worn by officers in C17th portraiture then you are in the right place, but they weren't called sashes. Thems were called scarves. Now we've got correct nomenclature out of the way we can move on. Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes 1641, by Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt You will often see portraits of Charles, his sons, and his nephews wearing blue  sashes  scarves. Only these aren't sashes, or even scarves. These are ribands, signifying that they are members of The Order of the Garter. The Order underwent a bit of a renaissance during Charles' reign, and also his eldest son's, no doubt as a means for raising revenue. Charles wearing the Order of the Garter riband, Sir Edward Walker wearing a rose scarf and a riband signifying that he is Garter King of Arms  But first let's start with who wore scarves and how they wore them.   One only has to look at portr...

I quite fancied a coach, no other reason that it would look nice on the battlefield.  No doubt Robert Morley as the Earl of Manchester had a hand in this 'need'. A little bit of research (i.e. Google) showed two options available. Magister Militum and Essex both having a C17th gentleman's carriage in their listings. But no picture on the Essex website. A little more Googling brought up a review: the writer* ditched the Magister Militum offering as it was too complex and fiddly to build. So I ordered the Essex one on the strength of it (and my experience of having had a run in with MM Scots frame guns, which are really fiddly to assemble, which went in the bin). The coach arrived promptly, along with a restock of brown paint... must be more harquebusiers in the offing. The coach body comes in three parts: two sides and a roof. Attached to the body are the springs - take very great care not to damage them!  Unfortunately the two halves needed considerable greenstuff action to...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Wargamer Facts ™ . Here's the latest Wargamer Fact ™ to go under the KeepYourPowderDry investigative microscope. By default this post has become part of my coat colours series. You can find the rest of the posts here: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 2  Royalist 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 Scarves   Having seen the phrase "the London Auxiliaries may have received blue coats" many times I decided to look into the source of this information. Just as another  wargamer fact™ asserts that the London Trained Band wore red coats*, this "blue coats" fact™  would   seem to be on equally shaky ground. 1939 Player's Cigarettes card: Trained Bands of London But first, who were the London Trained Bands ...

The third of three Covenanter regiments of foot to get their time in the spotlight.   John Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford-Lindsay would serve as a Colonel in both of the Bishops' Wars; however, he did not share sole colonelcy of these regiments. He would not take sole colonelcy of a regiment of foot until he was commissioned in 1643 in both the Ulster Army, and the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant. It is assumed that most of the men, for the Ulster regiment, came from Fife. It is thought that the regiment may have taken part in expeditions led by Munro in 1643. Lindsay would return to Scotland in 1644 to join his 'other' regiment.  The Solemn League regiment was raised in 1643 in the Fife presbyteries of Cupar and St Andrews: they were commanded initially by Thomas Moffat, whilst Lindsay was in Ulster. There appears to have been a considerable amount of exchanges of officers between he two regiments during this time.  The regiment marched south with Leven's Army ta...

Another regiment that appeared only fleetingly: a Covenanter Regiment of Foot raised for the Bishops' Wars, then seeing service in England, Scotland and in the Second Civil War Originally raised in 1638 in Peeblesshire, they were involved in the capture of Dalkeith House, before they joined Leslie’s army at Duns Law. They were disbanded following the Treaty of Birks in June 1639. John, Master of Yester, received his commission late August 1643 to raise the regiment anew in Linlithgow and Tweeddale presbyteries. He selected a professional soldier, William Johnston, as his lieutenant colonel. The Master of Yester would spend most of 1642-3 accompanying the Royalist army in England. The regiment marched south into England and engaged in their first combat by storming the fort at South Shields. They would serve at the siege of York and Marston Moor, where they were brigaded with the Stirlingshire Foot in the Scottish second line. After Marston Moor they marched to Leeds. They would ret...