ECW Interlude (3)

I've jumped ahead of the queue a bit to post some pics of my second ECW foot regiment, the Earl of Northampton's regiment (Royalist). There were two regiments that bore Northampton's name, one of foot and one of horse. At the start of the war, the Earl of Northampton was Spencer Compton, the second ascendant to the earldom.


The foot regiment was raised in Oxfordshire partly by the second son of the Earl, William Compton. After the battle of Edgehill on 27th October 1642, the regiment was garrisoned in Banbury Castle. The castle was besieged by Parliament from July to 25 October 1644, at which point the siege was raised by William's older brother James, by that time the new Earl of Northampton. The 20-year old William received a knightood for his defence of Banbury Castle. The regiment eventually surrendered itself to Parliament in May 1646 after a second siege of Banbury. William was apparently one of the founder members of the original Sealed Knot, a covert organisation founded in 1652 with the aim of restoring the Stuart monarchy.


The regiment of horse was raised in 1642 in Oxfordshire and surrounding areas by the Spencer Compton. The Earl was a veteran of the Thirty Years' War, in which he served with Prince Rupert under the Prince of Orange, and a friend of the King. He commanded this horse regiment until he was killed at Hopton Heath in March 1643. Apparently his horse fell after tripping in rabbit warrens and the Earl found himself surrounded by roundheads. He refused to surrender, allegedly saying "I scorn to take quarter from such base rogues and rebells as yourselves!" His reward for such spirited eloquence was to have his head cleaved by a halberd. That's Roundheads for you....


I chose this regiment for the simple reason that I liked the combination of green coats and red trousers. This uniform was taken from the Sealed Knot's recreated regiment, and I have no idea how accurate it is. I decided at the outset of this project that I was not going to worry unduly about accuracy - I just want a collection of regiments that look pretty and have a modicum of connection to real historical units. I mixed up the colours of the trousers a bit, but the coats were painted in just two combinations of dark green, so the look is fairly uniform. The flags are generic ones from GMB which are closest to those shown on the relevant page of the Sealed Knot's site. The figures are the usual mix of Renegade and Bicorne, mainly the latter.


There is the prospect of a game at some stage in August and so I'm trying to squeeze in as much ECW stuff as I can at the moment. Hopefully at the weekend I will finish off my two command stands and come to a decision about basing the artillery (painted but unbased now since early June). I'm also hard at work on Prince Rupert's regiment of foot, and I need to get cracking on some horse too. I'll post some more Carlist War figures at the weekend and will also try to do a report of the recent big game with the Perries.


24 figures. Painted June/July 2009. Flags by GMB.