The Battle of Edgehill - The end of the season
Last weekend a few of us attended the Battle of Edgehill at Kineton Rugby Club, marking the end of another fantastic
season of camping, fighting and drinking. Dispite the rather wet weather eveyone that attended enjoyed it, and it was a great weekend for meeting new people due to blocking in with other regiments, because of this our pike commander (Simon) decided to pack in amoungst the boys. He even had to lend his helmet to another member of our regiment half way through because he broke his.
The musket block had a cracking weekend fighting against Henry Tillier's of Hoptons tercio, except for the soggy guns on the Saturday. Whilst the pikeblock had a far better day on the Sunday when the numbers were more in their favour.
The evenings brought us huddling up in the warmth of the club house, munching on hog roast and sampling the ales of the beer festival. Then once enough ale had been consumed dancing around to the band.
The 23rd of October 1642 marked the first major clash in the English Civil War, Edgehill is fought every year on the weekend nearest this date slightly futher than a stones throw away from the actual battle field site. It, in effect, resulted in a bloody draw (approx 1,000 dead and 2-3,000 injured) but with the Royalists gaining the advantage due to the Earl of Essex having to retreat Northwards to the security of the Parlimentarian garison in Warwick failing to block their path to London. The musketeers in the reenactment echoed the formation of the battle, with one pair close to the crowd line and the other hugging the tree line at the other side representing the musteteers fighting on the flanks.
