The car's packed, we've got a full tank of petrol and a hefty supply of waterproofs - it must be an Easter Bank Holiday at Basing house! The annual Sealed Knot event at Basing, Hampshire usually re-enacts the three major sieges that occurred there over the course of the English Civil War. This year is, of course, a little bit different - it's the 350th anniversary year of the first siege of Basing House in 1643. So what was the significance of Basing House? Well it was mainly

When I joined the regiment in 1998, there were four regional companies making up the regiment as a whole. For various reasons they were not of equal size, and eventually the regiment was reorganised and the companies ceased to exist except in memory and in the colours that we use on the field. However, for history’s sake, here are some short notes on the officers they were based on. The Headquarters company was based in London, where the 1971 regiment was formed, and was know

Charles I is having a moment. With the current exhibition Charles I: King and Collector running at the Royal Academy in London coupled with Leanda de Lisles’ new book White King – Charles I – Traitor, Murderer, Martyr a much overdue reappraisal of one of most maligned monarchs is now underway. It’s quite hard now to picture the world in which Charles I and his court lived. Tiny fragments survive in London such as the Banqueting House in Whitehall, the Queen’s House at Greenwi

I am, as you may have gathered from previous postings, a massive Civil War and Sealed Knot geek. I've been a member of the Sealed Knot since I could walk, since I could talk, and certainly long before I could make any sense of what was going on around me. And all throughout that time, I've heard stories of 'the Brig'. Most of these stories are hand me-downs, some (sadly less and less) were from people who had actually met the great man, all of them were hilarious. I am talkin

The early days of the Sealed Knot have taken on a kind of legendary air within the modern society. It seems unreal, certainly unlikely, that so many people could come together in such a short time to celebrate history in so unique a way. From the origins in February 1968, when Brigadier Peter Young hosted a garden party in cavalier fancy dress, to 1970, 1000 members had joined the Royalist Army (I believe that there was short wait until the Parliament Army split off to manage