Mustering the army of Oxford(ish)

[Chilledenuff]

I doe truely and sincercly acknowledge, professe, testifie and declare in my conscience before God and the world, That our Soveraigne Lord King CHARLES, is lawfull King of this Realme, and of all other His Majesties Dominions and Countreyes

This is where I shall post musings on my fledgling army.. based heavily on the Order of Battle for the first battle of Newbury. I'm trying to fill the details of this list with relevant coat colours and standards (if I can find them!) I'll put such details in brackets next to the regiment in question laid out in coat colour followed by Regimental Colours, eg: The King's Lifeguard (Red, Red). If any of you clever chaps on this forum can help fill in the blanks I would be very grateful!

the Order of Battle (for the goodly followers of His Majesty) was as follows:

The Royalist Army

Commander-in-chief: King Charles the First
Lieutenant-General: Patrick Ruthven, Earl of Forth
General of the Horse: Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Sergeant-Major-General of Foot: Sir Jacob Astley
Master of the Ordnance: Henry, Lord Percy (nominal)
Lieutenant of the Ordnance: Sir John Heydon

Under the command of the fine gentlemen listed above were 6000 Infantry, 8000 cavalry (this is why I have so many Paul!) and the following artillery pieces:
two demi-cannons, two culverins, two 12-pounders, five 6-pounders, one saker, two mynions, four 3-pounders, two bases.

Foote:

John Belasyse's Tertia
Lord General's (Earl of Forth's) regiment (Red,Colours: ?)
Colonel John Belasyse's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Earl Rivers' regiment (Black with whitee facings,Colours: ?)
Sir Jacob Astley's regiment (Red,Colours:Blue Field, White Cinquefoil devices)
Colonel John Bolles' regiment (?,Colours:?)
Colonel Henry Lunsford's regiment (Blue,Colours: ?) NB: These became Rupert’s foote


Sir Gilbert Gerard's Tertia
Sir Gilbert Gerard's regiment (Blue,Colours: ?)
Sir Richard Herbert's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Lord Molyneux's regiment (Red,Colours: Blue Field, Gold Cross devices(SK)
Sir Ralph Dutton's regiment (White,Colours: ?)
Colonel John Owen's regiment (red,Colours:Red and white Gyonnery)
Sir Edward Fitton's regiment (?,Colours:Blue Field, White Wavy Pile devices)
Sir Charles Lloyd's regiment (Red,Colours:?)
Sir Edward Stradling's regiment (?,Colours:Blue Field, White Cinquefoils)


Sir Nicholas Byron's Tertia (incomplete list)
The King's Lifeguard (Red,Colours: Red)
Prince of Wales' regiment (blue,Colours: ?)
Colonel Charles Gerard's regiment (blue,Colours: Blue & Yellow Gyonnery + Gold wreath devices)
Sir Lewis Dyve's regiment (Blue Coats; Colours: Yellow Field, Red ball devices)
Colonel Thomas Blagge's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Colonel William Eure's regiment (blue?,Colours: ?)

Sir WIlliam Vavsour's Tertia (incomplete list)
Lord Herbert's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Sir William Vavasour's regiment (yellow,Colours: ?)
Sir Samuel Sandys' regiment (?,Colours:?)


Cavalry

There is no record of which cavalry regiment served in each of the two brigades at first Newbury although Sir John Byron's and Sir Thomas Aston's regiments fought in the centre. The majority of the cavalry was under Prince Rupert on the left flank. Regiments known to have fought at Newbury are:

The King's Lifeguard (two troops) (Red,Colours: Red)
Prince Rupert's Lifeguard (one troop) (red,Colours:spangly)
Prince Rupert's regiment of horse (blue,Colours: spangly)
The Queen's regiment (Red, Colours:Blue with Gold Fleur-de-Lys & Crown)
Prince Maurice's regiment (red,Colours: ?)
The Earl of Carnarvon's (Lucas Cary) regiment (Carnarvon killed) (?,Colours:?)
Lord Wilmot's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Sir Charles Lucas's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Lord Andover's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Sir Arthur Aston's regiment (red with red facings,Colours: ?)
Colonel Samuel Sandys' regiment (?,Colours:?)
Colonel William Eure's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Colonel Thomas Morgan's regiment (Morgan killed) (?,Colours:?)
Lord Chandos' regiment (?,Colours:?)
Earl of Northampton's (Spencer Compton) regiment (?,Colours:?)
Lord Digby's regiment (?,Colours:?)
Sir John Byron's regiment (Blue,Colours: ?)
Sir Thomas Aston's regiment (?,Colours:?)


Now, I know I'll never collect or paint that lot! But this is a good place for me to list them all and add colours (because I can access this from work and home) as I find them. I can then pick and choose relatively historically accurate schemes for my toys (you see my cunning plan there?).

Your king is both your cause, your quarrel and your captain. The foe is in sight. The best encouragement I can give you is this, that come life or death, your king will bear you company and ever keep this field, this place and this days service in his grateful remembrances

[edit: John Owens regiment updated, many regiments updated thanks to steve and westwaller!]
further to the above I've read somewhere that if a regiment had lost its colours in a prior battle, they had to earn the right to get replacements Working that out could be a whole different kettle of fish!

[grant]

Great idea - funny thing is, I have the same list thing in my laptop as I organize my ECW in anticipation of the Greatest Rulebook of the 21st Century

[mikeland]

My 2 armies are based roughly around first Newbury.

For the Royalsits my foote regiments are:

Sir Ralph Dutton's
King's Lifeguard

I chose these because I could change the Ensigns, and have them as Newcastles white coats and Lord Molyneaux's Regiment (who I think were red coats) to get a good pasting at Martson Moor

But I haven't found out the Flag colour for Dutton's (I gave Molyneaux a blue one with a cross device.. cant remember why now)

I gave my royalist redcoats a slightly more orange hue and the Parliment one a more deep red, just to add variety.

I want to do another couple of foote regiments, one for each side based around the NMA set and another box of plastics (mix em up a bit to give some variation).

[mikeland]

Great idea - ... as I organize my ECW in anticipation of the Greatest Rulebook of the 21st Century

Glad to know there is at least one person as excited about this book as me!

[Chilledenuff]

Great idea - ... as I organize my ECW in anticipation of the Greatest Rulebook of the 21st Century

Glad to know there is at least one person as excited about this book as me!

Guess who's stall will be my first stop at Salute?

[westwaller]

@chilledenuff- It all looks good so far, although it is very doubtful any regiments would have worn black coats (Earl Rivers) as this was a very expensive to dye. John Owens wore red (I think). Most of the Oxford army would have worn either red or blue coats,breeches and monteroes by July 1643, as supplied by Thomas Bushell.

[Correus]

SWEET - I may have to steal this!!!

[Chilledenuff]

@chilledenuff- It all looks good so far, although it is very doubtful any regiments would have worn black coats (Earl Rivers) as this was a very expensive to dye. John Owens wore red (I think). Most of the Oxford army would have worn either red or blue coats,breeches and monteroes by July 1643, as supplied by Thomas Bushell.

I thought the black was odd too. However, it would look cool... aesthetics vs accuracy!!
Thanks for the info reference the the main colours though. i read somewhere an account saying the Oxford army wore red and blue, wasn't sure which regiments though

[mikeland]

I did read somewhere about the whole Oxford army being re fitted in Blue or Red/Orange prior to 1st Newbury... But I can't remember where I read it.... Back to the books.

[SteveMorgan]

@Chilledenuff. Getting that lot on a tabletop would be impressive indeed
One of the things I started looking into when writing the Pike & Shotte book was a coat/colours guide. We managed to get bunch in the book, but I have collected a huge (and ever expanding) list of infantry and cavalry regiment details (I really do need to get a life) by trawling through my book collections and also go to local libraries etc.
I think I can fill a few gaps....not the cavalry as the explanations on the colours would take forever, but the foot are pretty straightforward.

Earl Rivers Black is based on the colours given by the Sealed Knot....this was not based on hard facts, but conjecture. It has now become the default colour in the absence of any evidence, so I'd go with that Following the same logic, the colours are a black field (no devices listed, so colonels colour and lt.colonels colour are plain black and black with St.George cross canton respectively)

The other gaps in the foot regiments I have to hand right now are....

Jacob Astley's - colours: Blue Field, White Cinquefoil devices
Lord Molyneux's: Red Coats. Colours; Blue Field, Gold Cross devices (again SK)
John Owen's: colours; Red and white Gyonnery
Sir Edward Fitton's: Colours; Blue Field, White Wavy Pile devices
Charles Lloyd: Red Coats
Sir Edward Stradling: Colours; Blue Field, White Cinquefoils
Charles Gerrard's: Colours; Blue & Yellow Gyonnery + Gold wreath devices
Lewis Dyve's: Blue Coats; Colours: Yellow Field, Red ball devices

Hope this helps

All the Best
Steve