Friday, March 26

Sir William Pennyman’s Regiment of Foote

The brushes are flying!

Welcome to another Royalist regiment of foot for the English Civil War project - these guys represent 'Sir William Pennyman’s Regiment of Foote', perhaps one of the first regiments of foot raised for the Royalist cause..

They trace their origins to a regiment first formed from the Yorkshire Trained Bands in 1638/39 and intended for service against the Scots. 

Although this didn't come to anything, and they returned home before any fighting, my reading would indicate they weren't wholly disbanded, and this was the regiment that Pennyman took with him when he joined the King and his court in York in 1642. 

William's cousin/half brother, Sir James Pennyman, was the regiments Lieutenant Colonel (their de facto field commander) as Pennyman (a rich man as we shall see below,) had also raised a troop of horse and took command of that.

They were then present at Nottingham at the raising of the Royal Standard, and approximately 600 strong before leaving for Edgehill via Shrewsbury. At Edgehill they were in Belasyse's Brigade [clicky] in the second line of the Royalist infantry...

Courtesy/copyright "All The Kings Armies" by Reid

..after Edgehill (and a reading of the link to Belasyse's regiment will refresh you on their role at the battle) where the regiment was commanded in the field by Sir James, Sir William being in command of the aforementioned troop of horse, they were at the capture of Marlborough (later in the year, 1642). 

Alternative basing alignment ...  what do you think?


Traditional alignment

Regrettably, Sir William (who had only just been given the post of governor of Oxford) died of the plague the next year but James took the Colonelcy, and under him they fought at Newbury and the next year at Copredy Bridge (1644) before being moved into the west country where they fought in the Lostwithiel campaign (1644). Sir James then retired (I'd love to know why, but can't find anything), and under a new Colonel (Sir Richard Page) they were present at the storming of Leicester (1645) and  Naseby (1645) where Page was captured and the regiment all but destroyed.  

..love those bandoliers/Apostles

..and what of Sir William?? Well he was born in 1607, and was the illegitimate son of William Pennyman a Clerk in Chancery. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and then Inner Temple (so he was trained in the law). He was recommended by Strafford (and he repaid his debt by later voting against Strafford's attainder), and became a JP, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire and a member of the Council of the North. Pennyman who as we saw was a lawyer, held an office in the arbitrary court of Star Chamber which was worth a full £2000 p.a. (something like a half a million sterling in today's money - based on RPI)

He was also hideously rich as a result of owning the rights on alum mining (a mineral compound vital to paper making and other things) on the estates his father had bought a third share of in 1616 (Marske, Yorkshire - Redcar/Cleveland area).

Pennyman then married Ann Atherton, granddaughter of Katherine Conyers and heiress to the remaining two thirds of the estate, on which he built Marske Hall in 1625. They had no children and she was to die the year after him in 1644.

He was created a Baronet by Charles on 6 May 1628. He served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1635-1636 before becoming Deputy Lieutenant later. He was Member of Parliament for Richmond 1640-1642 in both the Short Parliament and Long Parliament but was barred from sitting in 1642. 

..and the figures - they are from my early buy-in on the new Steel Fist range [clicky] - they are lovely figures, almost painted themselves, and spoilt only by the fact that I had to fit my own pikes - I hate doing that! They are slightly smaller in size and heft than my usual Peter Pig choice, but have bags of character...  uniform choice is contrary to most painted examples you see on the web, but there are little or no sources on what the regiments on either side wore at Edgehill, and the only thing we have on this regiment of any certainty, is that they probably got an issue of either red or blue uniforms in Oxford the year after the battle, so I chose red just... because...  😀   Similarly, the flag reference is from considerably later in the war, but I thought it looked good so went with it..  

Sources: 

Friday, March 19

Earl of Carnarvon’s Regiment of Horse

Some Royalist cavalry reinforcements for the ECW project - not sure how it happened but I noticed that the two forces had got out of kilter, so this regiment brings us back to parity..
 
So - these guys represent the Earl of Carnarvon’s Regiment of Horse, a Royalist regiment of horse serving with the Oxford Army and in the West Country - after Carnarvon's death (see below), they became Colonel Richard Neville’s Regiment of Horse.
 
The regiment dates its formation to August 1642 where they first moved to Newark, and were then present at the raising of the Royal standard in Nottingham. They went on to fight at what most people accept is the first armed clash of the civil war(s) at Southam in August, and then Edgehill (where they were 4 or 5 troops strong) - further information on their subsequent service can be found in the BCW Wiki link below.
 
The regiment was raised by Robert Dormer, the only son of a wealthy Catholic family who had inherited a large fortune while he was still a minor. He had became a ward of Philip Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, and he went on to marry his daughter, Anna Sophia, in 1625. 
 


After travelling in Europe and as far afield as Turkey and the Middle East, Dormer was created Viscount Ascott and Earl of Carnarvon (also spelt Caernarvon) in 1628. By all accounts he was a bit of a sportsman and was also known for his gambling, but he also served as a gentleman volunteer in the navy (!) during 1637 and commanded a cavalry regiment in the 2nd Bishops War (the biography also says he served in the regiment of his father in law in the 1st war) so he was not without military experience.
 
van Dyke's painting of
Dormer in about 1630

Anyway - defying the wishes of his father-in-law (the aforementioned Lord Pembroke) he declared for the King at the outbreak of the war - Pembroke  declared for Parliament (citing religious differences with Charles) so yet another example of how this war divided families..  it must have been difficult for his wife - husband and father as enemies.
 
They regiment at Edgehill was in Lord Wilmot's brigade on the left wing, where they numbered about four or five troops and were approximately 200 strong (according to Young, and also Scott/Turton/von Arni). 
 
After the successful charge and rout of the Parliamentary foot and horse on that wing, Sir Charles Lucas (the regiments Lieutenant Colonel) managed to rally about 200 horse from the three regiments of horse that had started the day, and before they legged it off after the Parliamentary baggage. The intent was that these would attack the flank and rear of the Parliamentary foot in the centre but in the event they got caught up in an orgy of flag/ensign taking from routing Parliamentary regiments (probably Essex's among others) and the attack failed to make any significant effect..

In February 1643, Carnarvon served under Prince Rupert at the storming and capture of Cirencester then went with the Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice in the cavalry force that joined Sir Ralph Hopton's Cornish army advancing from the west. Carnarvon gained a reputation as a courageous and gallant cavalry officer in the south-western campaign of 1643 where he served as the Marquis of Hertford's lieutenant-general of the horse. 
 

 
He was wounded at the battle of Lansdown, but during the subsequent withdrawal he joined Prince Maurice and Lord Hertford to break out of Devizes with some of the horse, and bring reinforcements from Oxford. 
 
Added in a casualty figure I had in the box..
 
Carnarvon went on to serve at Roundway Down as a volunteer in Lord Byron's Regiment, his advice to Lord Wilmot regarding Sir William Waller's tactics helped to secure the Royalist victory (basically he told them to focus on Haselrige as his was the strongest unit). 
 
After the fall of Bristol, Carnarvon led a force of 2,000 horse and dragoons into Dorset. In early August 1643, Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland surrendered to him on generous terms. When Prince Maurice arrived with the bulk of the Royalist western army, however, the terms Carnarvon had agreed were not honoured and the towns were plundered. Carnarvon resigned his command in protest and joined the King's army at the siege of Gloucester. 
 

 


He remained with the King during the subsequent pursuit of the Earl of Essex's army but was mortally wounded at the first battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643. He was carried to an inn at Newbury, where King Charles is said to have sat with him until all hope of life was gone. 
 
Yet another giant from history, that not many people have heard of - a brave and honourable man, indeed...   fascinating..

Peter Pig..  15mm..  painted March 2021
 
Sources:
  • http://wiki.bcw-project.org/royalist/horse-regiments/earl-of-caernarvon
  • http://bcw-project.org/biography/robert-dormer-earl-of-carnarvon
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dormer,_1st_Earl_of_Carnarvon 
  • https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Dormer,_Robert_(d.1643)

Friday, March 12

Storage upgrade

Can't promise much excitement this week, but my inner geek was fully satisfied, and hey, that's the way the hobby rolls.. sometimes you're re-fighting Borodino on a 36 foot table, with professionally painted Foundry and Front Rank figures, and sometimes you're just getting curiously excited about plastic boxes...  
 
For as long as I can remember I have used either, first, cut down printer paper boxes, or slightly later, box files to store my figures in and then out of nowhere I was gifted a couple of the clip lid "Really Useful" boxes in the 4 litre size...  
 
Love them, I can see the contents better (and after all that is the reason we spend so much time painting them), they stack better, and they are not so deep as the current storage, so I can get more of them in a shelf space...

Quick trip to the web and I find that due to Covid, people have been spending their time organising their storage, and a lot of places I would normally use are sold out, but either way first purchase later and the posty delivered a humungous cardboard box with six of them in and I could start transferring...

An hour creating some labels and we went from box file to this..



...and from this...


..to this...

As soon as I can see them back in stock I'll order the next batch of six and complete the job on the top shelf..

DG and I are also playing out one of the scenario's on the DBN home page. Plancenoit [clicky] models the French defence against the Prussian attack..  it's fun - I'm playing the French, DG the Prussians, and I would say that this is a hard nut for the Prussians to crack.. had a play with the slideshow widget and this is the game to date...

For ref.. FA (artillery); M (muskets); LC (Light cavalry); LI (light infantry), the linky above has the full terrain descriptions and OOB's

Friday, March 5

Wargamer's Newsletter - "Rules for Wargames in the 1880 Period Including Colonial Wars"

 
Another slice of wargaming history from that selection of rules I managed to obtain a few weeks ago.. complete with typed text and hand drawn diagrams.. but in summary...
  • like the ECW rules these are also a game for friends but, although they have no date, I get the idea that these may be a slightly later period..  a far more coherent set of rules overall, and very much in the vein of those from "Wargames"
  • Interestingly - when I began to read them - I noticed that the pages had been stapled together for time immemorial in the wrong sequence..  there's no page numbers so I guess you wouldn't know!
  • No basing is mentioned - so I suspect that as there is casualty removal, and as the rules allow for individual outcomes (eg. morale outcomes and 'overwhelming numbers' outcomes allow for figures to have individual results)
  • No specific figure scale, but he stipulates 20+2 for infantry regiments, and 13+2 for cavalry (the pluses being officers)
  • No move sequence...  but it seems to be moving then firing (some types can move and fire), and IGOUGO based on comments in the melee section ("general moving first") - so one side moves and fires (and their opponents takes any morale checks required), and then the other side does the same.. any shaken or routing units need to be tested before they can do any normal move/fire.
  • Infantry firing is per group of 5 in two ranks so units of 20 make sense, artillery firing uses the burst pattern shown on the front of "Advanced wargames" so that would date the rules to 1969 or just after.. he gives a "plus one" to infantry firing from hard cover which is interesting... oh, and saving throws are allowed.. 
  • The morale rules are detailed...  interestingly there is a morale check when other units around it are breaking..  shades of WRG?
  • I like the overwhelming numbers mechanism not sure I've seen that before - very good
  • Melee is also very detailed and puts the lie to my understanding of the move sequence since the rules allow/insist the other side fire in the movement to contact. So maybe each side can fire in both "phases"? I read the rules twice but still have no clear idea what triggers a surrender test..
  • The rules for ambushes in the Colonial Wars section are just glorious....
Click on any of the following for a bigger view...