Bard

Dear Dave,

A WHOLE ARTICLE 0N BARD! Must be a ploy to hold my interest and other members of the Regiment to subscribe.

It would appear that Stuart follows Clarendon's view of Bard as the epitome of the Victorian idea of a cavalier, dashing, courageous to the point of recklessness, controversial young, etc. with all the luck of the Devil. He a1so evoked a strong 1oyalty that bordered on hero worship. Yes, Clarendon couldn't stand Bard!

The defeat at Cheriton is usually decribed to Bard, saying he should not have committed his men against Orders - he was unlucky and lost, Grenville at Lansdowns was lucky and managed to hold on until supported at that fine 1ine dividing success and failure. And it is not only in wargames that a bad dice puts your troops into uncontrolled advance! The fact the regiment managed to stay together and was considered worth some new recruits must mean something.

The colour shown is different from the one we fly in the Sealed Knot. There were actually two versions, a late and early one. Which is the one depicted??

Hope the above is interesting,
Liz Hammer.

Sedascue

Dear Sir,

In issue 1 Harry Denton wrote a biography of George Sedascue. May I take this opportunity to add to his notes.

His name was not Sedascue and, in spite being referred to as a German in his Naturalisation bill in 1656, he was actually a Pole called Johannes Sedowski.

The suffix "-ski" indicate he came from landed family with estates in Poland, probably a protestant who fled persecution by the Catholic majority.

Possibly a supporter of the King of Sweden, it is interesting that be should wait until late '56 to apply for naturalisation. In that year the Poles had risen up against tbe Swedes and turned on fel1ow, but Protestant, Poles, driving many into exile.

Under tbe sympathetic auspices of the Protectorate, in which Cromwell himself espoused the cause of the Protestant Poles, a man with 'Sedascue's' record of military service with the Parliament, had little trouble being inserted into a Bill of Naturalisation before tbe House of Commons. And thus did Johannes Sadowski become George Sedascue, an Englishman.

Foreign troops, and officers, in the 'English' Civil War is an interest of mine--anyone found anything startling? -- Dave Ryan).

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com