Monday, 30 November 2009
Der grimmig Tod mit seinem Pfeil
the grim dead aims his arrow at your life
life dwindles away like smoke in the wind
no flesh can escape
your goods and chattels can't come with you
Nobody can foretell how long you will live
If dead knocks on your door, go have to unlock it
He takes with him the young and the old
even the king marches in his queue
Maybe today's your last day
virtue you shall ensue
and hope for many years to come
He who made made this song and sang it
often gazed at death
Now he lies in his deep grave
you're going to follow ... today or tomorrow
Instrumental version and German lyrics here
Friday, 27 November 2009
17th century Eastern European Reenactment in the USA
They also organise tours involving reenactment in Poland so plenty to get your teeth into if you have an interest in this sort of thing. Discussion group here.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Kalmar Nyckel
Wikipedia article
Website here
New World (2005)
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Wiesloch 1632
Monday, 23 November 2009
Storming of Basing House
Read warden Alan Turton's piece on the siege for the full story.
Nowadays it is a ruin - having been levelled after the assault but it has become the place to visit for Civil War enthusiasts with lots of interesting stuff to see and enjoy from the museum to the tunnels. Apparently new changes are afoot at Basing and it is closed until the summer of 2010 but the project has a blog with all manner of interesting developments including the recent archaeological finds at the site such as a musket rest top and much more. Image from the excellent Basing House website showing the scale of the building that once was the finest house in England.
Watch an episode of Time Team when they visited the Ruins for a dig.
1632
Wiki on the novel with links to ebooks and a fansite
The Ultimate Y2K Glitch....
1632 In the year 1632 in northern Germany a reasonable person might conclude that things couldn't get much worse. There was no food. Disease was rampant. For over a decade religious war had ravaged the land and the people. Catholic and Protestant armies marched and countermarched across the northern plains, laying waste the cities and slaughtering everywhere. In many rural areas population plummeted toward zero. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.
2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia. The mines are working, the buck are plentiful (it's deer season) and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire membership of the local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.
THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....
When the dust settles, Mike leads a small group of armed miners to find out what's going on. Out past the edge of town Grantville's asphalt road is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell; a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter Iying screaming in muck at the center of a ring of attentive men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot.
At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of The Thirty Years War.
Saturday, 21 November 2009
English Civil War drum calls
Thw sword of the common soldier
Steel on Sand blog
White Mountain 1620
I've often wondered whether this look could be recreated in 3D on the tabletop as they kind of look like they're on a table...presumably you'd have to use 2mm blocks.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Sir Horace Vere's Regiment?
Ruffs
Mars 17th century
Gustav II Adolfs Fotfänika i Göteborg
Hans Ulrich Franck
Tilly's infantry
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Soldatentanz
Eduard Wagner - 'European weapons and warfare 1618-48'
In My Younger Days
Funnily enough I knew there was a Czech TYW scene even around then which was no easy thing before the internet and the Velvet Revolution - my parents had gone on an early package holiday to Bratislava and witnessed a combat display in the castle and duly took photographs as they knew I'd be interested. The group was called 'Historical Fencing' or so they told me.
Walter Butler
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Bethlen Gábor Hagyományőrség Altblau Regiment Tatai Patara BGHE
The Age of Bethlen Gabor
Terra Heroica 2009 Kamieniec Podolski
Siege of Stettin
The City of Stettin under Siege by the Great Elector Frederick William in the Winter of 1677/78 (c. 1680) More images here
General Sir Edward Cecil
Read Life and Times of General Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, Colonel of ... By Charles Dalton (limited preview here)
Sir Charles Morgan - Welshman on the Elbe
Mackay's Regiment
A narrative of the principal services of the Regiment, from its formation in 1626, to the battle of Nordlingen, in 1634 ; and of its subsequent incorporation with the Corps now
known as The Royal Scots or First Regiment of Foot of the British Army is online at page 128
There are some interesting titbits like the fact that there was an English regiment under a General Morgan in the Danish service. I found a reference to him in 1627 as a brave old officer of great experience, who, with four English regiments, was then encamped on the
banks of the Wasser. (source)
Cyrano de Bergerac
French in the 30 Years War
I have been looking to see if there are any French groups recreating the 30 Years War but haven't found any. If anybody out there knows of any or is interested in starting one...there are some images of the Garde Francaises on Stephane's blog- to start with that might be a good unit.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Potop - the Deluge 1974 - battle scene
Kamieniec Podolski 1672
Another depiction of the murder of Wallenstein
Can't read the key but it's an interesting picture. Just had this transcription from Norbert
the nakme of teh pic is: The murder of Wallensteins Officers, drawing by feather, anonymous
the notes on this, as far as i can make out:
a,b,c,d reads as Obristen.. whis means Colonel´s ... maybe "Colonel butlers" soldiers or dragoons e , f illegible g Tertzsky which is Trcka, one of Wallensteins subordinates and relatives i Rittmeister... which is a title for an officer
Scots and Irish in the Thirty Years War
Irish
Also there are a number of Irish officers involved in the death of Wallenstein and therefore in the Imperialist army. An Irish Captain Walter Devereux, a Walter Butler, and a fellow named Newman were present. Was there an Irish dragoon regiment in Wallenstein's army? Anyone have any ideas or information on this subject?
Four Musketeers Siege of La Rochelle
Wallenstein parade
Anglo-French war 1627-29
This war is mostly famous in Britain for the Siege of La Rochelle (surrendering in the colour pic) as featured in the Four Musketeers movie. From an English perspective there was a sizeable contingent under the Duke of Buckingham in this war...also some Irish reinforcements numbering 3,000 apparently - something else in the general era of the Thirty Years War to think about.
Battle of Lutzen
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Thirty Years War battle - 28mm
Friday, 13 November 2009
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Sebastiaan Vrancx's depiction of soldiers
A feast of images for 30 Years' War fans
Spanish Army in 1641(colour version!)
Freikorps 15mm Thirty Years War/ECW
Spanish Army in 1641
Best Thirty Years War picture ever!
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Sir Horace Vere's Regiment - England's 30 Years War unit
According to the wiki
Sir Horace was a professional soldier, even-tempered, brave and popular. The Earl of Essex was one of his lieutenants, and the Earls of Warwick, Peterborough, and Bedford served under him, as did the royalist soldiers Lords Grandison, Byron, and Goring. A large number of Englishmen who were afterwards distinguished soldiers served under Vere in the trenches at Den Bosch. Among them were: Thomas Fairfax and Philip Skippon, the future organisers of the New Model Army; Jacob Astley, Thomas Glemham, the future royalist generals; Sir John Borlase, and Henry Hexham, the historian of the Dutch wars. Fairfax, Skippon, and George Monck, particularly, were his pupils in the art of war.[1]
Detail from Callot's Siege of Breda 1632
Deepeeka helmets
Spanish tercio in Italy
I'm not being that successful in finding 30YW groups...there was/is one in the UK - Confederation of the Thirty Years War but the webpage is down. Anyone know of any discussion forums for this period?
Blasthof Blog
Monday, 9 November 2009
Firearms and equipment of the Thirty Years War
Wallenstein
Alatriste
I know my Pappenheimers
Searching Pappenheim yields all manner of repro swords and burgonets.
Abb. 2: Der Kürassierharnisch, ein so genannter Pappenheimer, vom Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts: Heute unvorstellbar, dass die Kavallerie der Kürassiere in diesen 25 kg schweren Rüstungen kämpfen konnte. Wehe, wenn ein weniger kostbar gepanzerter Soldat verwundet war! An Krankenpflege war in den seltensten Fällen zu denken.
Fotos: Jürgen Gebhardt
Museum of the Thirty Years War
More Bila Hora
Jacques Callot
They are full of detail easily ignored such as the strip of cloth seen here on the tip of the pike that prevented rain and blood running down the pike shaft.
30 Years War in 1/32
Since the appearance of a Call to Arms' Hazlerigg's Lobsters (see pic) - ideal for conversion into Pappenheimers - the idea of doing this period in this medium is tempting. But apart from a Call to Arms ECW what else is there? Replicants do a pretty good range of ECW 1/32 including pikemen and musketeers dismounted harquebusiers and personalities - ideal for this sort of thing - maybe not a full scale battle but for skirmishes ideal - you can get them from here.