For the Cause?
I suppose the question has to be asked. What is the son of an Irishman, a practising Roman Catholic (I'll get it right one day...) and an admirer of the current monarchy doing re-enacting the English Civil War as a Roundhead? I mean, they hated the Irish, despised "Popery" and wound up chopping the King's head off and turning the country into a republic.
Blame Trevor, my friend, and Peter, my CO. Peter, you see, had been trying to get Trevor along to musters. Trevor is a beer monster and enjoyed the beer tent with the real ales but wasn't too hot on the history side and wanted someone to go along who he could talk to and who had a chance of knowing what he was on about. I was persuaded to go along on the strength of being a wargamer and Trevor's mate. I had been dabbling with the idea of re-enacting for a while, but hadn't really settled on a period. I quite liked the idea of the Dark Ages (I have certain views and ideas on who "King" Arthur really was and what he was doing) or perhaps something more modern, though I was put off the World War 2 societies by the lads who seem to get a kick out of wearing Waffen SS uniforms. About 15 years ago someone suggested I joined the Sealed Knot (as a Roundhead again, strangely enough) but at the time I lacked both time and finances.
Anyway, now I am fairly secure financially, and have some spare time in the summer weekends I thought, yes, I'll go with Trevor and see what this ECWS is like.
We went to Kirby Hall.
It was a baptism (literally). I suppose it should have put me off, but didn't. A few things helped. First, the old scout training came up trumps and I wasn't daft enough to stick my tent up in a hollow, so I didn't wake up in a puddle. Second, the lads and lasses in the NTB were a very friendly bunch and I took an immediate liking to them. Third, despite everything, we got on to the battlefield. This was very important. By midday we were feeling very disconsolate as it looked like everything was going to be called off. The car parks were flooded so none of the public could come in. The beer tent was flooded (what idiot decided to put it at the bottom of the hill?) so there was no point going in there. The sconce was flooded, impeding any attacks across it (I do realise that this is the general idea of a fortification, but we were only re-enacting and were supposed to eventually take it). The ground was slippery too, making the idea of fighting somewhat hazardous. In the event the fight was kept within strict limits but was still pretty impressive to a total newcomer like me. Oh, we lost the battle.
I really got the bug at Topsham. This was a small event organised by Hopton's Regiment. We were the relief force despatched by Parliament to try and break the Royalist siege of Exeter in 1643. The scenario for both days was the same- we marched on to the field, attacked the Royalist camp, discovered they had cavalry (we didn't) and got defeated. Actually, annihilated is a more accurate word as on the Sunday nobody escaped, though a few outran the Horse on Saturday. Despite the fact that numbers, from our point of view, were poor and the number of people coming to watch was less than overwhelming the whole event was very enjoyable. We entertained the crowd, died gloriously, watched England beat Germany at Euro 2000 and drank lots of real ale at £1-60 a pint. I was starting to believe the ECWS was a mobile beer festival with a battle attached.
It wasn't all sweetness and light. I had an altercation with a Cavalier who tried to reduce my pike to matchwood, but when I complained about this on the ECWS website I got a good response from others in the Regiment concerned. Anyway, my revenge would come at Wallingford...
Next was Horsenden Hill. This was a very small event as we put on a couple of 1 hour displays at a county fair, so we weren't the main attraction, just a space filler. Roughly 30 re-enactors were there, including women, children and a very tiny baby.
This time the scenario revolved around a group of refugees from the Battle of Brentford fleeing through Middlesex who were set upon by a group of bandits/deserters. I was one of this disreputable body (type casting) and we proceeded to rob and molest the refugees, though in my case I was beaten up by a girl on the Saturday and a woman on the Sunday. Up rolled the Sheriff of Greenford (the nearest town) and his local militia. We fought them off while the women and children made good their escape. The sheriff returned with musketeers and we were persuaded to surrender, took part in some drill and rebelled again before being wiped out by the forces of law and order.
We hammed it up, acting tough towards the crowd but cowardly towards the militia. There were a number of comical moments, intentional ones such as the firing squad shooting our last survivor and hitting both of his guards too plus unintentional ones such as when a Blewe Auxiliary halbardier (female) gruffly demanded to know what sort of man I was and I, quick as a flash, yelled back, "More of one than you'll ever be." Our melee faltered while my opponent almost burst out laughing and had to control herself.
Once again, the event was good fun and as an added bonus I slept in a real bed instead of a tent as my parents live a few miles from the site. Bliss.
And so to Wallingford. How different from Horsenden Hill could you get? A "Major", my first one as I really don't count Kirby Hall as one. Also, I would finally get to be on the winning side. The Saturday was good. I spent far too much money buying items of kit from the traders present, though this does mean I now own most of the kit I need and no longer have to borrow from the Regiment. The battle was fun too, even though we were scheduled to lose on the first day. We had a good contest with a Royalist brigade which was willing to play with us.
On the Sunday morning I was asked for my autograph. No, really. A girl asked me to sign her book as I was wandering through town in my new kit. She seemed quite impressed by my message too, I heard her tell her mother it was a really good one. I even got mentioned at Mass that morning. The priest stood up to deliver the Homily, saw me at the back and a Royalist nearer the front (not that I think he knew we were on opposite sides) and said he'd better get on with the sermon as there were warriors present.
Sunday afternoon was a bit of a let down, though there were two high spots. We found ourselves opposite a brigade which was determined to obey the King's Army commander who had unilaterally decreed that pikes would be fought at point, where both blocks push their pikes through the other unit (without pushing them through anybody, rather steering the shafts into the spaces between the files) and then lean against eachother, rather than the traditional push. This reduces pike battles to insipid affairs. Not that I'm a fan of the old method of pointing the pikes up in the air and charging into eachother. This just looks stupid, since if you aren't going to use the pike why carry it? We in the Norfolke Trayned Bande prefer a compromise where both sides advance pointing pikes at eachother. As we meet we raise the pike points slightly above head height and continue to close. Then we push. This results in a realistic appearance to the fight and a real contest between the pike blocks. Sadly our opponents on Sunday wouldn't go along with this. The high spots included capturing a cannon which had been a little slow to retreat with the rest of the army. The second was when my friends in the Horse found themselves facing a wall of our pikes and we were advancing. As their options were retreat or be kebabed they wisely withdrew in some disorder. Shortly after this the Royalists surrendered and I was finally a winner.
So, here I am, a new member of the society with a handful of events under my belt. Am I enjoying it? Yes. The social life is good and I'm getting to visit parts of the country I wouldn't normally go to. Could it be better? Yes again. There are problems with the way we re-enact battles. I have tried all three methods of pike fighting, the push, the point and the NTB compromise. I much prefer the compromise and I think a lot of other people do too. We need to convince the rest of the society to follow us down this path. Battles could be presented much better than they are now. The public could be entertained in much more imaginative ways.
I'm adopting that as my cause- better battles, more fun and greater entertainment. In the next article I'll discuss some ideas on how to fulfil it.