Monday, March 18

Lord Fielding’s Regiment of Horse..

The man himself.. picture courtesy Wiki..
The first cavalry joins the ranks...  while sorting through the Marlburian lead pile for officers suitable to be used for the English Civil War project, I happened to notice that I had a couple of bags of cuirassiers left over - my reader may remember I was using Peter Pig cavalry as the source for the pot helmeted cuirassiers used by Bavaria and Austria..  aha! Quoth I, "waste not, want not", and so they were out together under-coated, and have become my first cavalry in the project..

For no other reason than that they were in the OOB list near the top, these have been designated as Lord Fielding's Regiment, a Parliamentary cavalry unit at Edgehill.

Not a lot of detail on the regiment, but a certain amount on their colonel (picture of him top left).

As ever my first point of call was the BCW wiki page for the regiment [clicky] that reveals there was no known coat colour for the regiment, or a known standard, except for one carried by a single troop under Sir Samuel Luke who served with the regiment until 1643. Given that the figures I had did not include command this isn't an issue - the lack of coat colour is an opportunity, and given I had done red's, blue's, tawny's, and white's already, I went with a particularly lovely green (it's a Vallejo colour and really pops out)

Fielding was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (same as his father who by the by fought on the other side at Edgehill - this war divided families very painfully...)


He served in the House of Lords as Baron Fielding in March 1629, and after military service in the Netherlands, Charles sent him to Venice as ambassador 1634 - he ended up being there for 5 years.

When the English Civil War broke out Fielding declared for Parliament - the only one of his family to do so (I'd love to know why - given his presence in the House of Lords and the role Charles gave him in Venice you would have thought he might be inclined to join the King??)



He became Earl of Denbigh in April 1643, and was made commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary army in Warwickshire and the neighbouring counties, and lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire.



According to Scott, Turton and von Arni ("Edgehill: The Battle Reinterpreted") the regiment fielded 360 men in six troops on the day - they served on the right wing of the Parliamentary army (so on the wing not facing Rupert), in the second row - behind Balfour's and the Lord General's. It was not an optimal flank for cavalry (poor terrain..  hedges and marshy ground) and Parliament had massed most of theirs on the other wing facing Rupert - these were the only three regiments of cavalry on the right wing..



Their position in reserve was not to save them - while Balfour's and the Lord General's were withdrawn behind the Parliamentary foot, Fielding's were left in place and then swept away by Wilmot's Royalist horse in the opening moves of the battle..

8 figures - Peter Pig - painted March 2019..  next up sir Henry Cholmley's Regiment of Foot, and I think an army review of progress so far

19 comments:

  1. A very nice looking unit - I especially like the horses.

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    1. My thanks General... I'm kind of unusual in that I quite like painting horses funnily enough...

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  2. Very nicely done Steve, and 'mine' will certainly match them well :)

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    1. Lee - I can only hope mine don't pale into the background.. LOL!

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  3. Very nice Steve, I do like that shade of green.

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    1. Ray - it's a right eye popper - I'll try and remember to get its name next time i'm in the loft-waffe

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  4. Coincidentally I have started to paint some of these PP figures and will continue although the finished articles will not come near to yours Steve.

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    1. Jim - they are chock full of character, and vigour... a bit of careful lighting and paintshop skullduggery does wonders hiding the paint brush butchery I inflict... :o)

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  5. Making great use of spares! What's not to like. I do enjoy reading the background of your units. He must have had a really poor time as ambassador perhaps?

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    1. David - thanks... yes, I did wonder whether it was a wholehearted support.. certainly the other bits and pieces I read showed that he wasn't a die hard Roundhead, and was considered a Royalist from 1647 onwards.. more here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Feilding,_2nd_Earl_of_Denbigh

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  6. Erm... Seem rather uniform for a early troop, the later ironclads had more money for the Col. to supply, and by then they charged in close order, knee behind knee.

    My Regt. John Hampdens Regt. of Foote was trailing far behind the main army, supporting the siege trail when Ruperts disjointed rabble arrived at Kinton village

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    1. John - you're typing well for your age.. I reckon you must be getting on for 390.. :o) are you a Sealed Knot'er by any chance??

      Take your point on the uniformity - and if I have learned anything it is that there wasn't much - but I would say there's also an argument that for the period I'm seeking to portray, freshly raised units might have had a degree more uniformity then, than they woyld have had even 6 months to a year later...

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  7. 2nd observation: No drill book would be daft enough to bring the the musket block to open order, where 1st & 2nd rank 'Present to fire'. If I was in 1st rank after firing I would about-face, and club the RH man to his knee's and then head for the officer.
    Lastly head for the water carrier before the rest of the 1st rank to easy the burns to my face and jacket, there is whole sections in "Barriffes" of how to peel off the to the rear and make ready (takes 5 ranks to reload)
    Swedish salvo (common) called front rank kneel, 2nd closeup/stoop to L, 3rd rank closeup/stand to R of kneeling man.
    The pan flash ignites jet of flame horizonal aprox. 1.5' - - Muzzle ball of fire aprox. 3', part burnt B.P. grains embed into your face (IE: drop brim of hat on LH side + front down for your own flash in the pan (my own black hat is stained brown at front)

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