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The Sealed Knot is a British historical association and charity, with many members from outside the United Kingdom, dedicated to costumed reenactment of battles and events surrounding the English Civil War.
The Sealed Knot takes its name from the original Sealed Knot, a secret association aimed at the restoration of the monarchy, [1] although the modern incarnation has none of the political affiliations of its namesake. Apart from reenactment, it is also involved in research into the history of the Civil War, and education (at the school or college level) about the same.
The Sealed Knot was founded by Brigadier Peter Young, who was a military historian and a Second World War veteran. The idea of the Sealed Knot re-enactment group started at a dinner party with a small group of friends on 28 February 1968 following the publication of "Edgehill 1642 – the Campaign and the Battle". Within a few months it had 200 members and today has a membership of several thousand, making it the largest re-enactment society in Europe. The group is a registered charity, and has its own coat of arms.
With its large membership and high profile the Sealed Knot is the largest and best known of all the many re-enactment and historical groups and societies in the UK. [2] [3] Its official journal, Orders of the Day, is published every three months and sent to all members. It contains information about forthcoming events.
The Sealed Knot comprises a number of regiments split into Parliamentarian, Royalist and Scots armies. The group was responsible for the first commemoration in 1971 of the Battle of Nantwich (which originally took place in 1644) and in 1973 the Sealed Knot staged the first re-enactment of the battle, which has now become an annual event at the end of January and is known as "Holly Holy Day". [4]
The Sealed Knot is made up of smaller groups, each run semi-autonomously, and known to their members as "regiments", their names and identities closely linked to regiments that took part in the English Civil War. Each of these regiments falls under one of the armies of the society: the Royalist Army, the Army of Parliament and the Army of Ireland and Scotland. The other sections are those who deal with pyrotechnics, the medical service, the living history group and Friends of the Knot. [5] There are two different types of regiment – "foote" are infantry with pikemen and musketeers, while "horse" are regiments of cavalry. The Thomas Rainsborough Company took part in the opening ceremony for a plaque commemorating the burial of Thomas Rainsborough in Wapping on 12 May 2013.
Parliament The Army of Parliament is divided into four Brigades, each made up of regiments, bands and dragoones. In addition there are three units that report directly to the Lord General: Sir William Waller’s Lifeguard of Horse, Okey’s Dragoons, and the trayne of Artillery. The Lord General heads the Army. He is assisted by his Staff, who range from the Chief of Staff to humble runners. The following list shows the regiments in each brigade:
CITTIE OF LONDON BRIGADE: The Blew Regiment of the Cittie of London Trayned Bandes,
The Earl of Essex Hys Regiment of Foote,
Colonel Roberts Hammond's Regiment of Foote,
Colonel Samuel Jones' Regiment of Foote,
Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes,
Sir Arthur Heselrigge's Independent company,
OLIVER CROMWELL'S: Colonel John Birch's Regiment of Foote,
Sergeant Major General Phillip Skippon's Regiment of Foote,
Colonel John Pickering’s Regiment of Foote,
Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne's Regiment of Foote,
SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX'S: Sir John Gell’s Regiment of Foote,
Colonel John Hutchinson's Regiment of Foote,
Earl of Manchester's Regiment of Foote,
Lord Saye & Sele's Regiment of Foote,
SIR WILLIAM WALLER'S: Colonel Thomas Ballard’s Regiment of Foote,
Sergeant Major General James Carr’s Regiment of Foote,
Lord John Robarte’s Regiment of Foote,
Earl of Stamford's Regiment of Foote
The Sealed Knot is parodied as "The Peeled Nuts" in the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchett. It has also been parodied in Chris Morris' On The Hour, where it is referred to as "The Soiled Nut". Half Man Half Biscuit's song "Uffington Wassail" on their 2000 album Trouble over Bridgwater challenges the Society to re-enact "Luton Town – Millwall, nineteen eighty-five", a notorious incident of football hooliganism involving rival supporters.
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. The defeat ended any real hope of royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.
The English Civil War Society was founded in 1980 and is the umbrella organisation for the King's Army and the Roundhead Association. The purpose of the Society is to raise awareness of the conflict between King Charles I of England and his supporters and their opponents in Parliament and Scotland. The society does this by staging re-enactments of civil war battles and other types of living history and educational displays across the UK. The re-enactment societies are concerned with technical details about regiments, their weapons and their clothing and way of life as well as mock battles using authentic pikes, muskets and cannon.
The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms in that members were liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being limited to a single area or garrison. To establish a professional officer corps, the army's leaders were prohibited from having seats in either the House of Lords or House of Commons. This was to encourage their separation from the political or religious factions among the Parliamentarians.
The Battle of Edgehill was a pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642.
The Battle of Nantwich was fought on 25 January 1644 in Cheshire during the First English Civil War. In the battle, Sir Thomas Fairfax in command of a Parliamentarian relief force defeated Lord Byron and the Royalists.
The Battle of Cropredy Bridge was fought on Saturday 29 June 1644 near Banbury, Oxfordshire during the First English Civil War. In the engagement, Sir William Waller and the Parliamentarian army failed to capture King Charles.
Sir John Boys is best known as the Royalist Governor of Donnington Castle in Berkshire during the English Civil War.
The Second Battle of Newbury was a battle of the First English Civil War fought on 27 October 1644, in Speen, adjoining Newbury in Berkshire. The battle was fought close to the site of the First Battle of Newbury, which took place in late September the previous year.
The Battle of Cheriton of 29 March 1644 was an important Parliamentarian victory during the First English Civil War. Sir William Waller's "Army of the Southern Association" defeated a Royalist force jointly commanded by the Earl of Forth and Sir Ralph Hopton. Defeat ended Royalist hopes of retaking South East England and forced them onto the defensive for the rest of 1644.
This is the order of battle of the armies which fought on 2 July 1644 at the Battle of Marston Moor.
Thomas Rainsborough, or Rainborowe, 6 July 1610 to 29 October 1648, was an English religious and political radical who served in the Parliamentarian navy and New Model Army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. One of the few contemporaries whose personal charisma and popularity rivalled that of Oliver Cromwell, he has also been described as "a soldier of impressive professional competence and peerless courage".
The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the Second English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Royalist army on its way through East Anglia to raise support for the King, was attacked by Lord-General Thomas Fairfax at the head of a Parliamentary force. The Parliamentarians' initial attack forced the Royalist army to retreat behind the town's walls, but they were unable to bring about victory, so they settled down to a siege. Despite the horrors of the siege, the Royalists resisted for eleven weeks and only surrendered following the defeat of the Royalist army in the North of England at the Battle of Preston (1648).
The Eastern Association of counties was an administrative organisation set up by Parliament in the early years of the First English Civil War. Its main function was to finance and support an army which became a mainstay of the Parliamentarian military effort until early 1645. In January 1644 committeemen of the Eastern Association gathered at the Bury Conference to discuss their concerns as regards the proposed New Model Army. However in the following months many of its units were incorporated into this new military formation.
The 5th Dragoon Guards was a British army cavalry regiment, officially raised in January 1686 as Shrewsbury's Regiment of Horse or the Earl of Shrewsbury's Horse.
The Storming of Bolton, sometimes referred to as the "Bolton massacre", was an event in the First English Civil War which happened on 28 May 1644. The strongly Parliamentarian town was stormed and captured by Royalist forces under Prince Rupert. It was alleged that up to 1,600 of Bolton's defenders and inhabitants were slaughtered during and after the fighting. The "massacre at Bolton" became a staple of Parliamentarian propaganda.
Sir Edward Villiers was an English Royalist soldier and courtier. Part of the powerful Villiers family, he was a friend of Edward Hyde, chief advisor to Charles I and Charles II from 1641 to 1668.
The following units and commanders fought in the Battle of Naseby during the First English Civil War.
The unsuccessful second siege of Hull by the Royalist Earl of Newcastle in 1643 was a victory for Parliament at the high point of the Royalist campaign in the First English Civil War. It led to the abandonment of the Earl of Newcastle's campaign in Lincolnshire and the re-establishment of Parliament's presence in Yorkshire.
Booth's Uprising, also known as Booth's Rebellion or the Cheshire Rising of 1659, was an unsuccessful attempt in August 1659 to restore Charles II of England. Centred on North West England and led by George Booth, it took place during the political turmoil that followed the resignation of Richard Cromwell as head of The Protectorate.
Colonel John Pickering was a member of the landed gentry from Northamptonshire who served with the Parliamentarian army in the First English Civil War. Like his elder brother Sir Gilbert Pickering, a close ally of Oliver Cromwell, he was a religious Independent, known for his devout faith and radical views. Appointed colonel of an infantry regiment in the New Model Army, he died of fever at Ottery St Mary on 24 November 1645.
Records of the Sealed Knot; 1968 - 2014 https://mss-cat.nottingham.ac.uk/Calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SK
