Sergeant-Major-General Henry Tillier’s Regiment of Foot

-

The first of the bonus regiments of foot. Regular readers (hello all eight of you) will have spotted some halberdiers and command figures feature in the Which Figures Part 2 post and wondered what became of them...

I shall start with what we know about Tillier's, hopefully dispelling a few wargamer facts™ in the process.

Raised in Ireland from Dublin garrison detachments of Ormond’s army in 1643, they returned to England in February 1644. Don't be confused about the 'raised in Dublin' bit, these men were in the main English or Welsh.

They would skirmish at Market Drayton; fight at Newark; possibly take Longford House and Tong Castle; march north with Rupert and storm Stockport, Bolton, take Liverpool, before fighting at Marston Moor where by all accounts they took very heavy losses. The Regiment was practically raised anew and would go on to the siege of Montgomery Castle, and battle of Montgomery. They stormed Leicester; fought at Naseby, again taking heavy losses. Replacement troops were recruited in Wales before a number of garrison duties in South Wales and Bristol where they were besieged. They would see the end of the war out in the garrison of Oxford.

If you would like to know more about Henry himself see here.

Noted in Symonds diary as wearing green coats. 

My inspiration for which shade of green coats to give them a SK reenactor - which easily translated to Cd'A Russian Brown

Now the question of their regimental colours. 

When in garrison at Oxford they were described thus:

And besides there is come in of late a company of Major-Generall Tylliars, they have no Ensigne flags, instead whereof every Company carrieth (upon the head of a pike) about a yard of Green Taffata.

Young postulates that Tillier's were the  possible owners of the green colours captured at Marston Moor (green field, cross of St George canton, white cross devices). More recent research/hypotheses are suggestive that these may have belonged to Tyldesley's. 

A green lieutenant colonel's colour captured at Naseby was illustrated by Turmile; although it is 'unidentified' it most probably belonged to one of three Regiments of Foot (Tillier's, Broughton's or Page's). 

The 'yard of green taffata' carried at Oxford, suggests a green field for ensigns.

A number of commercial flag manufacturers list Tillier's with green and white gyronny flags in their inventory. There is no evidence for this: pure conjecture based upon the belief that the regiments that served in Ireland might all have had ensigns that follow the gyronny system*. Unfortunately what was originally conjecture appears to have been copied, and over time 'conjecture' has become wargamer fact™.

I have played it safe by equipping them with a lieutenant colonel's ensign with a green field.

Close up of two of the Steel Fist figures - the halberdier at the back and the officer in buff coat

Figures are nearly all from PP, with a pair of Steel Fist halberdiers and an officer.


That takes my running total to eighteen Royalist Regiments of Foot (and three more commanded shot). You'd think I might have got the hang of painting them by now...

...just in case you were wondering what 714 foot figures looks like...

* Secretary of War, Richard Fanshaw, writing in 1640, describes the colours used on ensigns for ten regiments of foot that served in Ireland, but not their designs. It is believed that the Irish regiments that went on to become Apsley's, Gerard's and the Duke of York's had ensigns that followed the gyronny system. Only the full system of Apsley's is known, which follow the gyronny system; both Gerard's and the DoY's require a good helping of conjecture to give them a set of ensigns that follow the system.

And before somebody jumps down my throat: I have absolutely no problem with the use of conjecture to fill in the gaps. What does irk me is how what was once upon a time a reasonable piece of conjecture has become, over time, 'fact' and the word 'conjectural' long forgotten.


If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.



Popular posts from this blog

Newark's Defences - a town under siege

-
Image
The ECWtravelogue has visited Newark many times. The King, Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Rupert all visited; it is home to the National Civil War Centre ; and is the location of possibly the best preserved Civil War earthwork - The Queen's Sconce . So why does it deserve another blog entry? In a word: Clampe's Plan ( but that's two! ). Clampe drew a plan of the Royalist defences of Newark and the Parliamentarian, and Scots siege lines. There's also another, slightly different, later version of the map: Buck's Map, which is held in the Royal Collection and can be viewed online here . The Queen's Sconce survived, did anything else? Clampe's Plan  I've seen photographs of other earthworks in Newark, but no locations for them. A little sleuthery comparing Nottingham's register of ancient monuments, and Historic England's records has resulted in an extensive list of sites. Unfortunately, the locations are so complex that they don't fit my normal
Read more

Trees

-
Image
It has been said of wargamers that they spend all their time painstakingly painting figures and then ignore the terrain. A trend that I feel is changing for the better with printed game mats and 'teddy bear fur'.   Today's post looks at trees: more specifically, Woodland Scenics deciduous Realistic Tree Kits. 2"-3" trees, light green foliage, PP and SF figures for comparison Warning: great trees, messy process. The trees come in several different sizes. Packaging varies, sample kits consisting of armatures and foliage are available, or alternatively elements can be bought separately. They all 'work' the same regardless of 'version'. 2"-3" on the left, 3"-5" on the right I've gone for the 2"-3" armatures and 3" - 5" armatures. Armatures are tree trunk brown plastic and look very uninspiring when you first encounter them., as they are 2 dimensional. But do not be put off, the 2D branches can be bent and the
Read more

Houses of Interest: West Yorkshire

-
Image
For more Yorkshire 'related stuff' you can find North Yorkshire here ,  South Yorkshire here ,   East Riding here . See also the Rupert Travelogue  entry for Yorkshire, and the entry for Adwalton Moor Oakwell Hall    was the inspiration for Charlotte Brontë's Fieldhead in "Shirley". More recently it has been used a number of times as a film set, including "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Located close to the M62 and the Leeds branch of purgatory on Earth (aka Ikea), this Tudor manor house is beautifully maintained by Kirklees Borough Council. The hall is presented as a seventeenth century home. I really like this approach, as so often historic houses have different rooms decorated for different eras, so it is really nice to see a house presented from one era in it's entirety. Oakwell was in the ownership of the Batt family, who supported the King; John Batt was a captain and most probably fought at Adwalton Moor. The retreating Parli
Read more

My Kingdom For A Horse (1991)

-
Image
Civil War films are, to say the least, thin on the ground. So, forgive me for scraping the bottom of the barrel. My Kingdom For A Horse was a BBC made for TV play written by John Godber. The protagonist, 31 year old, still living with his parents, history teacher Steve is played by Sean Bean.  Steve and his best friend Pud, are pikemen in the Sealed Knot. Unfortunately for Steve, his head of department is also a member of the Sealed Knot, even more unfortunately he's the 'muster master general'. With the backdrop of the Sealed Knot, Airfix 54mm ECW miniatures, and frequent references to Marston Moor, Cromwell, and the New Model Army, the dour Steve plods through life in a dilapidated Yorkshire secondary school. No spoilers, but everyone who has ever taught in a secondary school will do an internal cheer when Steve has a showdown with the school bully. There's some seriously big hair, floppy fringes, brown suits, a school held up by ACRO props (nothing changed there then
Read more

Comments. Again (!)

-
Image
Sorry regular readers, once again comments and the contact form have temporarily been turned off. Why? Someone on Twitter has got their knickers in a twist about an information panel at Newark Castle.  Why has she done that? Because the information board features an image of a man of African descent.  The man pictured is an actor, portraying a man called John Americanus, who fought for the King at Newark. John's role in the defence of Newark is well documented. And yes, John was of African descent. The National Civil War Centre created a Civil War Trail around the town, information panels are located at points of interest. These panels feature QR codes which accessed features on a now defunct smartphone app. Each location also featured an eye witness account - stories from real people who witnessed the events in Newark. Each information panel has a photographic representation of the person whose story was told in the app. The Castle's eyewitness account was John Americanus. Unf
Read more

Houses of Interest: Staffordshire

-
Image
The  ECW Travelogue turns its attention on Staffordshire. For some reason, rather than starting the entry at the bit of Staffs that is 'next door' to  Château KeepYourPowderDry I started with the corner of Staffs that was furthest away. The first entries look at the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. Of course any post about Staffordshire requires, by law, pictures of Staffordshire slipware - this one by Thomas Toft; Potteries Museum, Hanley First up is Moseley Old Hall  on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, and is cared for by the National Trust. Moseley bills itself as "the home that saved a king" - considering the number of close calls that Charles had during his escape, this isn't really the unique selling point that you might expect it to be. I do wonder how many other houses, along the Monarch's Way could also make that claim? Built about 1600, the National Trust have recreated a seventeenth century garden on the estate. A rather s
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot. For all of my coat colour articles see: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian 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 London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question around a coat colour I have t
Read more

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Pa
Read more

Lurkio ECW Range

-
Image
Always on the look out for new toys, I spotted Lurkio have started releasing their new ECW range after a bit of a hiatus. Thank you to Lurkio for kindly sending me some figures for review. My favourite figure from the samples I was sent, not quite sure what has happened to his face though I'll be very straight here, these might not be to everybody's taste. Why? They are headless (yay!) and the pikemen are open handed (double yay!). Whilst that makes me very happy, I know that many baulk at the idea of having to assemble teeny bits on figures, and see any assembly on anything smaller than 28mm figures a complete no-no.  The return of the scale-o-matic, horizontal lines are at 5mm spacing For those of you new to this 'sticking things together' game it isn't a problem, in fact it is pretty straightforward*. I find putting a big blob of superglue onto a palette, then use a cocktail stick as a glue spreader, the best way to get superglue into the precise area that you wa
Read more

Pikes

-
Image
I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike".  I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike". Oh damn! Pikemen figures come in two varieties, with cast on pikes, and open handed. Having previously owned 6mm ECW pikemen armed with pikes which quickly turn to overcooked spaghetti, I went the open handed pikemen route.  For those of you who choose this path, open handed pikemen raises two questions: how long should a pike be?, and where can I buy pikes from?  All this gives me an excuse to have a closer look at the 'queen of weapons'. How long should a pike be? You'd think that this question would be fairly easy to answer, it is in fact more than a little problematical. Pikes were between 15' and 18' in length, which should be quite easy to scale down, or so you would think. Sir James Turner  (Pallas Armata p.176) and General Monck (Observations p.26) both stated that the proper length for a pike should be 18'.The 1639 Direction
Read more