Keep Your Powder Dry

There were more Royalist commanders, so only a matter of time before there were more Parliamentarian command figures. First up Sir William Waller , an unadulterated figure, Sir William has a spare regiment of foot flag  on his base. Pure bunkum, as a found/captured ensign would be paraded rather than just left on the floor. Normally Maverick flags need sealing with a PVA/water mix but I didn't think I'd be able to get the close folds that I wanted. Trimmed very carefully with a new X-Acto blade I cut the flag so that I had the side I wanted and just enough to wrap around the flagstaff (a spare pike I had lying around), I superglued the flag in position, and once dry I washed the flag with a 75/25 mix of PVA and water, left it to dry for a few minutes then made the folds. Frequent adjustment was required whilst it dried, then any loose strands of fabric were trimmed once it was thoroughly dry. Waller's history is entwinned with that of his good friend, and opponent Sir Ralph...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will be familiar with Sir Arthur  and know all about how he earned a spot in the Horrible Histories 'stupid deaths' hall of fame. His Regiment of Horse were raised in Oxfordshire and the North in 1642 after the Battle of Edgehill; they took part initially garrisoned Reading; they took part in a skirmish at Henley-on-Thames; the siege of Reading; a raid on West Wycombe; a skirmish at Padbury; they stormed Bristol; the siege of Gloucester; a skirmish at Aldbourne Chase; First Newbury; before they garrisoned Oxford. In September 1644 field command of the Regiment passed to Lieutenant Colonel George Boncle who led the men at the relief of Basing House; the storm of Leicester; and Naseby. George was captured at Naseby and his brother Sebastian Boncle took over command. The Regiment continued but their service is not clear; possibly remaining as part of the Oxford garrison. This is the last of my planned Royalist Regiments of Horse, giving a gran...

 A regiment of horse from the King's Oxford Army, that took an absolute hammering at Cirencester in September 1643: Cirencester had been taken by Essex in 1642, before Rupert recaptured the town in February 1643. Essex would again retake the town for Parliament in September 1643. Crispe's Regiment lost a number of cornets with white fields and black and white fringes at Cirencester; they are recorded in a muster in April 1644 as being four Troops but only having one cornet (in theory colours could not be flown by a troop or company that had lost their colours until they had captured a colour from the enemy). I've represented them carrying the cornet of Sgt Major Christopher Wormsley's Troop. Crispe was the son of a London Alderman, and at the outbreak of war he was an important Royalist agent in London, before he fled the capital to Oxford when an intercepted letter revealed that £3700 was owed to him ‘for secrett service done for his Majestie'. Commissioned to rais...

This Lieutenant General Thomas Hammond must not be confused with Lieutenant General George Hammond, commander of Stargate Command. Hammond's firelocks were the artillery guard of the Eastern Association, not a galaxy traveling special forces unit that was part of Stargate Command. Believed to have been raised at the same time as the artillery train of the Eastern Association, they were most likely present wherever the Eastern Association fought: more specifically they were possibly present at Lincoln, and were certainly at the Siege of York and Marston Moor before continuing the fight at Second Newbury. In 1645 they joined the New Model Army as the Artillery Guard of Firelocks. In their new guise they fought at Oxford, Naseby, Leicester and Bristol. They are described as wearing tawny coloured coats pre NMA, then tawny orange coloured coats lined with white when they were the firelock guard of the NMA. Hammond was paid for two colours in April 1645, but we don't know what the...

 Another stalwart regiment of King's 'cavaliers'. An extensive roll call of battles bookending the First Civil War: Powick Bridge; Edgehill; the storm of Cirencester; taking of Evesham; skirmish at Little Dean; skirmish at Upton Bridge; Ripple Field; Caversham Bridge;  skirmish at Chewton Mendip; skirmish at Glastonbury and Somerton; skirmish at Bradford on Avon; Lansdown; Roundway Down; storm of Bristol; siege of Barnstaple; siege of Exeter; First Newbury; siege of Plymouth; Cheriton; Tipton Green; Cropredy Bridge; Lostwithiel; Second Newbury; the relief of Donnington; the relief of Chester; the relief of Beeston Castle; stormed  Evesham; storm of Leicester; Naseby; storm of Huntingdon; Rowton Heath; skirmish at Tutbury; finishing the First Civil War at Stow on the Wold. Pretty much only Marston Moor missing from the First Civil War Greatest Hits album... Maurice was of course Rupert's younger brother; aged sixteen, Maurice's military career began in the Prince of ...