The Loose Association of Wargamers

I find myself in need of just one more unit of Horse for my ECW English Royalist army.

To date, the figures in my previous 5 cavalier mounted units are shown in a variety of hats, clothes, boots & a range of colours. No two figures look alike.

My motivation is to show the individualism of the Royalists as opposed to more regimented Parliamentarian approaches.
I know this is probably a bit simplistic. However, in armies that generally aren't uniform (pun intended), it provides a degree of differentiation.

So, for unit #6, I'm thinking the Queen's Life Guard of Horse. These troops were largely raised by Q. Henrietta in her native France & presumably were a) mercenaries & b) largely Frenchmen.

My assumptions as follows: as to appearances, as more professional military than the average amateur Cavalier, they should be more uniform.
They should also be more "state of the art" helmets, breastplates, one armoured gauntlet, buff coats. The helmet, BTW should be a Zischagge type rather than an English "lobster" to give a faintly foreign feel. In a unit of 12 figures, I think the commander *could* be dressed in more classic cavalier fashion - floppy hat, lace & ribbons etc? I can get these figures.

Is my thinking way off? BTW AFAIK there is nothing definite in the records on this subject.

donald

According to Stuart Reid's account in the Partizan Press booklets on Royalist regiments, the regiment consisted of Lancashire Royalists and also French volunteers, so sadly I suspect it was about as mongrel a unit as any other Royalist unit! But at least we know what the unit's standards probably were; see this link (2 and 3 under The Royalist Horse): https://www.devereuxs.org.uk/standards- ... -civil-war

As it is your army, though, then of course you can do as you like and make them a nicely uniform lot if you so wish. I don't think anyone can reasonably complain...

Cheers,

David.

Thanks, David. I believe I have read that although the Royalists *might* have recruited heavily from the Continent, they didn't because the popular opinion was very much against using foreigners, particularly in homogenous units.

So I can well accept Stuart Reid's view. Raised in France, Queen H.'s Life Guard was probably an anomaly in being heavily French before it arrived in England but as we all know, the vicissitudes of war would have quickly eaten into that Gallic majority with local recruits filling the ranks. Lancashire Lads seem a fine replacement to the original French Fellows.

However, every wargame unit is but a portrait of the unit in a very finite time span. I think my QLGR will show them as they stepped off the boat, singing the Marseilles (wasn't written yet), dreaming of the Eiffel Tower (not built) & cursing Macron under their breath ( ...etc).

'Historical Authenticity' is my middle name.


donald

Not to mention the local snail population making itself scarce.....

I think it's worth making the unit a bit more "spick and span" (sorry, that should of course be "frog and span") just to mark it out as a "lifeguard" - how they managed to swim in all that clobber, never mind rescue panicking, out-of-their-depth tourists, is beyond me, though.

ochoin wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2024 5:41 am Thanks, David. I believe I have read that although the Royalists *might* have recruited heavily from the Continent, they didn't because the popular opinion was very much against using foreigners, particularly in homogenous units.

So I can well accept Stuart Reid's view. Raised in France, Queen H.'s Life Guard was probably an anomaly in being heavily French before it arrived in England but as we all know, the vicissitudes of war would have quickly eaten into that Gallic majority with local recruits filling the ranks. Lancashire Lads seem a fine replacement to the original French Fellows.

However, every wargame unit is but a portrait of the unit in a very finite time span. I think my QLGR will show them as they stepped off the boat, singing the Marseilles (wasn't written yet), dreaming of the Eiffel Tower (not built) & cursing Macron under their breath ( ...etc).

'Historical Authenticity' is my middle name.


donald

Sounds perfectly reasonable! These are being created for next year's big game, presumably? Should be impressive.

Cheers,

David.