What is it we do?

and

How do I join?

Let's take the second part of that question first. How does one join? The easy answer is to email me immediately with your home address and I will send you all the details that you need know without making you commit yourselves. I will also give you details of the next available muster and what you will need to go and meet your prospective 'team mates' Email me here to get the ball rolling. One more thing, camping is the normal method of 'accommodation'. There is a page about camping here that gives you all the details you'll need to know about what to bring.

Now to the nitty gritty of what we actually do. We (Lord Hopton's Regiment*) are one of six Royalist regiments that regularly take to the field of battle under the umbrella which encompasses both the Kings Army and the Roundhead Association and which form the English Civil War Society. Before we go any further you should understand that we don't fight for real, or for money, nor do we rape, pillage or sack towns. What we try to ensure however is that the public which pay to watch our events unfold are convinced that we are fighting for real, that the Civil Wars of Britain 355 years were a terrible and bloody period in our English history, it turned father against son, split families all over the region and decimated villages, towns and castles the length and breadth of the country. So Yes! We make it look realistic, but rarely are people hurt and never intentionally, we are at the end of the days battle, the best of mates.

*We call ourselves Regiments obviously to distinguish ourselves from each other, but we are not anywhere near regimental strength. Please don't feel that you will be joining a 'regiment' with 500 soldiers in it and that you will be left in the lurch all alone, not knowing anybody. We normally field about 60 people made up from Pikemen, Musketeers, Baggage Trayne, Artillery and the Officers. You will join a much smaller group of people than you first imagine, that way you will integrate easily into the regiment/society. Just for the record though, occasionally Lord Hoptons Regiment joins up with two other regiments namely Sir William Pennyman's and Sir Thomas Lunsford's to form 'The Oxford Company'.

Major Musters; are large displays where about 1000 re-enactors act out a battle or siege. They are generally held on the Bank Holidays during the summer months and on occasion some in between time as well. A major muster is a two day event (Sun/Mon if Bank Holiday). Every morning that we are 'mustered' we drill, as we have to practise the scenarios that will take place during the actual battle. As stated before 'battles' are not free-for-alls they are carefully controlled events in which the battle is fought to a close as decided by the army hierarchy.

Skirmishes; vary rather greatly in size and can involve between 30 to 500 soldiers. With skirmishes we normally re-enact smaller military engagements.

Living History; events are generally performed at an historical building in order to facilitate our presentation. We 'decorate' these buildings with reproduction artefacts from the seventeenth century and try our best to bring to life the situation in which we find ourselves. We populate the site with the regimental members as requested by the site sponsor, and play out scenes of seventeenth century life for the public. Very often skirmishes are interwoven with Living History giving the paying public the best of both our worlds.

Parades and Banquets; On the last Sunday in January the entire Kings Army hold a parade and ceremony at Whitehall in London to mark the execution of Charles I. We also have one or two other parades through out the year, not all of them annually but one that is, is the Cheriton march in Hampshire during the early spring to commemorate the battle which took place in 1644.

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