Colonel Leveson’s Posse – Part 3 of 3

Regiment of Horse engages Regiment of Foot

The manuscript know as the British Museum Harleian Ms 911 provides us with a snapshot of ‘The Royalist Horse “before Leicester” - 30th May 1645’. It lists the men and numbers of the seven regiments of horse that made up Colonel Thomas Howard’s Brigade.

Colonel Thomas Howard’s Regiment of Horse - 80 men
Colonel Samuel Sandy, Governor of Worcester - 150 men
Colonel Thomas Leveson, Governor of Dudley Castle - 150 men
Colonel Richard Bagot, Governor of Lichfield - 200 men
Sir Robert Byron’s Regiment of Horse - 100 men
Sir Henry Bard, Governor of Campden House
Commanded by Lt Col Walker - 100 men
Colonel Robert Worthen (also spelt as Werdon/Warden)
previously known as Colonel's Morrowes Horse - 100 men

Total 880

Of obvious interest here is the mention of Colonel Leveson’s Regiment of Horse. Unusually for the ECW I have been able to supply my three boxes of Warlord Games cavalry (36 figures) with at least two historically appropriate cornets/flags for the Colonel’s regiment. Flags were normally recorded (sketched or painted) after being captured. However an officer in the Royalist army, a certain Captain Richard Symonds of the King's Lifeguard of Horse, made notes of numerous heraldic flags and cornets he saw on Royalist banners whilst on his travels. Symonds noted that,
“Col. Leveson’s Regiment of Horse had three cornets belonging to Dudley Castle.”
He goes on to describe the cornets as:

"Sable, an ostrich Or, holding in its mouth a sword proper, 
standing on a scroll the motto ‘Hoc Nutrior’"

"Vert, with a charge somewhat like a sun in splendour"

"A scroll with the letters SA.-SA."

At a recent show my brother managed to spot a set from Venner's Emporium that features one of these recorded cornets, the one with the sword swallowing golden ostrich. My brother had also recently purchased an ex-library book, Blandford Colour Series: Military Flags of the World 1618-1900 by Terence Wise and Guido Rosignoli. This book illustrates the `sun in splendour` on a green (vert) background standard and describes the other two standards (the ostrich and the ‘S.A-S.A’ scroll). Using a standard CAD package I’ve been able to draw a version of this flag which I hope looks suitable. I also tried to paint the appropriate trumpeter's flag to match the standard.

In the next few posts I will go into more detail with regard to the models themselves.

Sources:

'An Illustrated Chronicle of the Castle and Barony of Dudley 1070 - 1757'. Author: John Hemingway. ISBN 978-0-9553438-0-3. Highly recommended if you can find a copy. Available from the Friends of Dudley Castle (a link to their website is on the home page). The book contains numerous interesting accounts of Dudley castle and its inhabitants including events during the first siege in 1644, from which Leveson was absent.

Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646. Author: Ronald Hutton. ISBN: 978-0-415-30540-2

Roman Catholic Royalists Offiers in the North Midlands 1642-1646.1 - Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, Fall 2003 Vol. 6, Issue 2. Author: Martyn Bennett, Nottingham Trent University

“Tinker’ Fox and the Politics of Garrison Warfare in the West Midlands, 1643-50. Author: Andrew Hopper, University of York

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.