The English Civil Wars @earlofmanchesters - Tumblr Blog

Posts

While others pray, the sergeant keeps watch - weapons aren't allowed in church but the soldiers' spiritual welfare is paramount in the Eastern Association army, so Sergeant Langhorne guards the small stockpile of weapons as his men listen to their chaplain. This great photo was taken outside All Saints Parish Church in Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire, during the Sealed Knot's 50th anniversary weekend. . 📷 Michael Parkes https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3otQZHKmM/?igshid=198gqlsslruy7

The wasteland of defeat - locals, having heard the sounds of battle, scavenge for valuables amongst the dead littering the battlefield while a young musketeer looks on forlornly. Contemporary accounts mention battlefield casualties stripped of their clothes, boots, and money by both enemy soldiers and opportunistic observers. . Many part of England's rural economy was in poor shape when the English Civil War began and, as it progressed and armies became more aggressive in requisitioning food and materials, local 'clubmen' movements began to spring up that sought to defend their livelihoods from marauding soldiers and to ward off armies from passing through or seizing goods and men. They claimed allegiance to neither side and attempts by both Royalist and Parliamentarian to merge these impromptu militias into their forces usually ended badly. While they often created a real problem for requisition of supplies and recruitment, their resistance usually folded when put up against veteran forces. . 📷 Steve Liddle https://www.instagram.com/p/CAzuiQUHfL2/?igshid=1f0f6oyhhjrgp

An officer watches his men drilling during an event at @templenewsamhouse. The tawny orange sash, the metal 'gorget' around his neck and the halberd are all signs of his rank - he is a non-commissioned infantry officer, probably a sergeant. The metal 'lobster pot' helmet is often seen on cavalrymen, its 'tail' protects the back of the neck from sword blows while the front bars protect the neck and face. . 📷 David Gee https://www.instagram.com/p/CAwAK-tn921/?igshid=59omhfmivj6w

The 'tuck' sword was a kind of short sword popular during the English Civil War. Short, strong and easy to use, the tuck was used as a backup weapon and allowed those without training to quickly and effectively learn how to fight with a sword. . But pikeman and musketeers would often be issued with a tuck, though not every soldier would have had one. This type of sword was mass-produced and they were not always the best quality - the blades were scarcely able to hold an edge and officers complained that troops usually found them more useful for chopping firewood. . They also required the users to break ranks to use them - the length of the weapon was kept short as the soldier needed to be able to draw the sword from the scabbard with one hand, while still controlling their primary weapon - pike or musket - with the other. But they were useful in certain circumstances and were an important stage in the development of swords. . 📷 Michael Parkes https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtOqK0neOt/?igshid=bew1tp8gv1o7

Today we should be nursing bruised limbs and soothing sunburnt skin after another great weekend reenacting with our pals. That we couldn't do that has meant the last few days have been spent feeling quite glum, plus ... y'know ... [gestures at world]. We always loved and appreciated our friends in our regiment, but the past few weeks have really brought it home how much we miss everyone. . Fancy joining us when all this is over? Message us now at [email protected] - just £10 will get you a weekend of free camping with all of your reenactment kit provided! 📷 @johnbeardy https://www.instagram.com/p/CAoKPLbHYIs/?igshid=16uf01kn0ar1k

"Something for the weekend, sir?" Our barber surgeon, Master Hardwick, provides both a close shave AND medical advice. People understandably focus on the gorier aspects of the barber-surgeon's trade, but at a time when so many people in #lockdown are unable to get a haircut, perhaps it's time to laud the tonsorial history of the humble barber. . The term 'barber' comes from the Latin for 'beard' but, thanks to the scarcity and high prices of doctors, by the 17th Century barber-surgeons not only offered hairdressing and shaving, but also performed surgery, bloodletting and leeching, fire cupping, enemas, and the extraction of teeth. A regular shave and haircut were a big part of day-to-day life for men, regardless of their social status, so barbers worked for rich and poor alike. The powerful Barber’s Company guild, formed in 1462, merged with the surgeon’s guild in 1540 and both helped ensure quality of service, by employing inspectors to verify the skill of the barber, as well as compete with other craftsmen, by negotiating contracts. . Fitting out a barber shop in the 17th Century was actually extremely expensive and required quite a considerable outlay to get it up and running. Razors and scissors needed constant stropping and sharpening – a job likely to have been done by an apprentice. Waters and powders needed to be continually replenished, whilst shop fittings needed cleaning and repairing with the stress of daily use. To establish even a fairly modest business, therefore, needed money. In 1674, Edward Wheeler’s Salisbury barbershop contained three basins, some chafers and ‘barbers instruments’ valued at a total of ten shillings. Basins and chafing dishes were both requisites for warming and holding water for shaving. In Newark, Nottinghamshire, barber Thomas Claredge’s shop contained glass cases and furniture, a large number of hones, brushes and basins, wash balls and a quantity of shop linens. There were more basic premises, like that of the Chippenham barber Thomas Holly in 1697, were clearly very basic, with an entry for ‘the shoppe’ listing just ‘2 chaires 1 lookeing glasse [and] 1 stool’, valued at five shillings. . 📷 Paul Fairclough https://www.instagram.com/p/CAjLenInddB/?igshid=luqlo60m687g

#lockdown

A fantastic shot of the moment the black powder ignites in the pan of a matchlock musket. . Originally invented by Chinese alchemists in the 9th century, gunpowder (also known as 'black powder') was made by mixing sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). When inserted into a musket and ignited with lit match cord, they react violently together to form nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases, along with potassium sulfide. Compressed inside a narrow gun barrel, these rapidly expanding gases create huge amounts of pressure and force a lead musketball out at speeds up to 400 metres per second. . 📷 by Ruth Lochrie https://www.instagram.com/p/CAgq15Znpl-/?igshid=1348x0zwy9u3j

"Puritans, spew forth the venom of your dull inventions. A toad swells with thick troubled poison; you swell with poisonous perturbations; your malice hath not a clear dram of any inspired disposition." - The Unfortunate Traveller, Thomas Nashe (1594) . A great portrayal by our friends at @past_pleasures_ltd of a clergyman attending King Charles. He is likely to be an 'Arminianist', staunchly opposed to 'Puritan' preachers whom he no doubt blamed for helping spark the civil wars. . 'Puritan', like so many of the names we use to describe people in the 17th Century, was actually an insult. These 'Godly', as they would have referred to themselves, believed that the work of the 16th Century Reformation - which saw the English church break from Roman Catholicism - was not yet done. Some wanted the English church to be more like the Calvinists churches of northern Europe, while others wanted merely the last vesitages of Catholicism - alter rails, crucifixes, decoration - removed from churches. Their critics mocked them as 'Puritans', but the term was so broadly applied as to now be almost meaningless. Puritans did not dress differently and were not the homogeneous black-clothed killjoys of popular imagination - they came from all strata of society. . At the dawn of the century these critics were, by and large, adherents to the church as it had been under Elizabeth I - her settlement had tried to accommodate radicals, moderates, and conservatives under a single national church. However, as the 17th Century progressed and the Stuarts came to the throne, this coalition began to fall apart. Although James I/VI worked hard to keep Puritans on board, many came to see his unwillingness to support the Protestant cause in Europe and willingness to form an alliance with Spain as signs of secret Catholic sympathies. Meanwhile, Puritan-minded peers and politicians began to grow in power, in opposition to Royal favorites such as the Duke of Buckingham. These divisions would eventually contribute to the causes of the Civil Wars of the 1630s, 1640s, 1650s, and 1680s. . 📷 David Fisher https://www.instagram.com/p/CAd9zLdH_OB/?igshid=bscfb2q3t7ut

We may portray a Parliamentarian regiment, but we are willing to (temporarily) swap sides when the occasion requires it - one such event was a march through Oxford to the @ashmoleanmuseum in 2017, when our troops became Royalists for the day in order to escort King Charles! . Notions of loyalty and honour in the 1640s add immense layers of complexity to the modern binary perception of 'Roundheads and Cavaliers' during the English Civil War. The conflict divided families and communities, but loyalties could change and develop over time and according to circumstances. In the early days of the war, captured soldiers were often offered freedom upon giving an assurance that they would not take up arms again, their word was expected to be their bond. But as the war progressed, these assurances would no longer be enough, and mistrust and suspicion often led to brutality on both sides. 'Turncoats' were common amongst both Parliamentarians and Royalists, with some commanders offering their services for free to their opponents, while others might expect to be richly rewarded for swapping sides. Those who were discovered to be conspiring with the enemy were dealt with extremely harshly. . 📷 David Fisher https://www.instagram.com/p/CAbZe5YnT64/?igshid=a473obv90j3

Missing the #football? The authorities in 17th Century England wouldn't have rued the cancellation of the season brought on by the #coronavirus - they certainly weren't fans! . Football as we know it began in the 19th Century, but 'folk football' had been played for centuries in England - a rough-and-tumble ill-defined game with an animal bladder or ball of rags thrown or kicked by any number of players per side. It was seen as an excuse for violence and in 1608, authorities in Manchester complained: "With the ffotebale...[there] hath beene greate disorder in our towne of Manchester we are told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons ..." That same year, the word "football" was used disapprovingly by William Shakespeare in King Lear: "Nor tripped neither, you base football player". James I's Book of Sports (1618) however, listed football as one of the activities Christians should indulge in on Sunday afternoons after worship, enraging Puritans who believed Sundays were for church and praying only. They had some success in suppressing "disorderly" sports including football after the English Civil War - players were fined or sentenced to public humiliation in the pillory. The Mayor of York fined 11 players 20 shillings each when their game resulted in a smashed church window in the winter of 1659-60. The prosecution triggered a violent protest and resulted in over 100 armed men breaking into the Mayor's house; the ringleader was later fined 10 pounds or 400 shillings. Football became even more popular following the Restoration in 1660. . 📷 Carl Pedley https://www.instagram.com/p/CAWMSk_nRlC/?igshid=1kipl8geqnejq

#football #coronavirus

Parliamentarian skirmishers harrass the edges of the enemy force, hoping to slow them down and weaken their morale. . Skirmishers are light infantry who were deployed ahead, to the sides, or behind an army to protect larger bodies of friendly troops from the enemy. They are usually deployed in a spread-out, irregular formation called a 'skirmish line' and would be engage the enemy in order to delay their movement, disrupt their attack, or weaken their morale. . English Civil War commanders often used skirmish lines to harrass an enemy and they could easily slow down a larger force, especially one that was inexperienced or in unfamiliar territory. At the Battle of Worcester in 1651, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood commanded a new force drawn from the militias of the southern counties. As it advanced north towards Worcester, Fleetwood's army was persistently attacked by Royalist skirmishers who slowed its approach almost to a crawl - it took almost nine hours for them to reach their first objective, so long that Oliver Cromwell feared Fleetwood's advance had stalled completely. . 📷 Michael Johnson https://www.instagram.com/p/CATqcVfnYY7/?igshid=lqswmlfbs7gk

"There is scarce a cottage in most of the southern parts of England but has its proportionable garden, so great a delight do most of men take in it" - English agriculturalist John Worlidge, 1677 . In 17th Century England, virtually every house would have had a kitchen garden where both culinary and medicinal plants would be grown. In some cases – like onion or garlic – they would serve both purposes. Recipes for herbal treatments passed down through generations began to be compiled into handy compendiums in England such as Gerard's Herbal (1597), Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1653), Gervase Markham's The English Housewife (1615), and The Gentlewoman's Companion by Hannah Woolley (1673). These texts helped people prepare medicines for their families and neighbors, but even if they could not afford a book many households would use simple family recipe books, often called 'receipt books', to which they would add their own contributions. . Food was thought to have curative effects and different foods were ascribed properties similar to the traditional 'four humours'. They could be hot and dry (mustard, onions, or garlic), cold and wet (fish, lamb, cucumbers), or cold and dry (beef, legumes, or bread). The idea was to counteract the abundance of one humour by consuming a diet that included foods with the opposite properties. . #herbs #cooking #food #garden #gardening #gardens #gardenlife #gardenlove #nationaltrust #plants #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily https://www.instagram.com/p/CAOdyupnVJC/?igshid=17c6zyko15e48

“it is a wonder that men selected and packed off to war in this way . . . should ever have stood their ground at first musket fire.” - Stephen J. Stearns, 'Conscription and English Society in the 1620s' . The historical record focuses much more on men who were forced to fight in the wars of the 17th Century than those who volunteered willingly, and so the view of military service in the Civil Wars is usually a negative one. This seems obvious in view of the account of the desperation that could drive one man to cut his own throat or another to cut off his own toe to avoid service. Men seized by recruiting partiesn for both sides were herded together and imprisoned before being marched off for minimal basic training and almost certain injury or death — the time-lapse between recruitment and action could be as little as three days. Desertion was a constant problem for armies relying on impressment, particularly Parliament's "newly modelled" army, which was perennially short of both men and pay. Stories of almost half the impressed men who fought at Naseby fleeing the field or deserting soon after paint a vivid picture of unwilling recruits, unprepared for action. This image is sharply contradicted by reports from European sources, who noted English hardiness in war, and praises English and Scottish armies for their courage and resilience. As always, every soldier had his own story and this moment in history between the 'patronage' armies of the medieval period and the professional armies of the late 17th Century onwards reveals so much about the many and varied reasons why men would march to war. . 📷 ABN Photography . #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily #musketeers #musket #recruitment #recruiting #recruit https://www.instagram.com/p/CAL5vc2HXhQ/?igshid=1vf1ku7x6nmuh

The midst of battle! There's nothing like being caught up in the middle of a reenactment battle - and we're missing it pretty badly right now! May is normally when the season really gets going and the recent sunny weather has made us pine for hot clothes and cold beers in warm fields! We're already thinking to next year when, hopefully, life will be getting back to normal and we can see our friends again. If you're interested in joining up in preparation for a great new experience, check out our website by clicking on the link in our bio! . 📷 Craig Wilkinson . #hobby #fun #battle #giveitago #trysomethingnew #activities #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily https://www.instagram.com/p/CAJSMrwHboH/?igshid=essbgvnm6z5s

Contrary to popular notions of set piece clashes filled with dashing cavalry charges and tens of thousands of soldiers, sieges were every bit as important as battles in the English Civil Wars - and that's where cannons came in handy! . Both sides possessed their own ‘siege trains’ of varying sizes – slow-moving convoys of cannons, their crews, impressed ‘pioneers’, and siege experts that would travel separately to the main army and would be called upon to lay siege to an enemy fortification while the larger force moved on. These trains could include a wide variety of different guns, from ‘cannon royal’ to ‘culverins’, 63-15 pounders, and mortars of various sizes. . Sieges could be a costly business, both in terms of resources and manpower. In his 1671 treatise Observations, George Monk – who had fought on both sides in the English Civil War – wrote “Every Commander knows that mans flesh is the best fortification that belongs to a Town; and where a Town is well manned, the best way of taking it is by Starving; and when a town is weakly manned, the best of taking it is by Battery and Assaults, or by Approaches, Mining, Battery, and Assaults” . Find out more at https://earlofmanchesters.co.uk/siege-warfare-in-the-english-civil-wars/ . 📷 @johnbeardy . #siege #cannon #guns #cannons #castles #flare #fire #smoke #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily https://www.instagram.com/p/CAGuTW2H8Ke/?igshid=1wjzb3u324ndy

A Royalist cornet, a cavalry trooper who carried the regimental 'guidon' or flag, turns their stead to begin the charge into battle. At least at the beginning of the conflict, horses used during the English Civil War were more likely to be quality steads than the heavy cart-horses of popular perception. . In the 17th Century, good horsemanship virtually defined being a gentleman. The gentlemanly trade in fine breeds such as Arabians, Barbs, Turcomans and Ginetes incidentally also improved the performance of the cavalry on the battlefield, even between enemies. Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Marquess of Newcastle William Cavendish, future adversaries on the battlefields of Yorkshire, shared a keen interest in horse breeding and regularly sent each other fine studs for breeding. . So when civil war broke out in England in 1642 both sides could draw on a plentiful pool of serviceable horses, improved with foreign stock. On 6 June 1642 Parliament issued the ‘Propositions’, asking people to contribute money and plate, or to equip and maintain the cavalry with horses and arms. By the end of September the commissioners had received 3,014 horses, mainly from London and eight counties lying in the Home Counties, East Anglia and the South Midlands. With added pressure the number had more than doubled (6,704 horses) by 6 July 1643. Contributions included very expensive horses such as the four bay stallions, valued at £120, that Sir Thomas Martin sent in on 2 January 1642/3. Although horses earmarked for ordinary troopers were priced much lower, the county lists indicate that the country possessed thousands of serviceable horses in 1642. Later in June 1642 the Royalists, through the Engagement, instigated a similar scheme. 63 64 Forty-four lords and officials signed an agreement, whereby they promised to maintain 2,015 horses for three months. . 📷 ARW Photography https://www.instagram.com/p/CABdqo4HqYv/?igshid=2blq0be4xids

In the 1600s, a number of writers and preachers complained vociferously about the terrible practice of “sermon-gadding,” and the problems it was causing their parish churches. . Sermon-gadding was the practice of attending sermons in parishes other than one’s own. Diaries, sermon notes, and printed sermons suggest that there was significant variety in preaching, especially in a large city like London, and that laymen and women went to those sermons they enjoyed, or found uplifting. This created almost a ‘free market’ in sermons, and while it may not have been as disruptive as is sometimes suggested, it infuriated many preachers - parishioners should stay in their own parishes! This business of going about and visiting different churches, or leaving one’s assigned parish to hear a minister reputed to have entertaining sermons was considered disruptive, disrespectful, and a threat to public order. . One such 'gadder', who especially enjoyed eyeing the women who flocked to charismatic preachers, listened to up to 30 sermons a month and even managed to attend 17 in a single day! . 📷 @johnbeardy https://www.instagram.com/p/B__FxNtnuUw/?igshid=wo1qttobqynl

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

The English Civil Wars