help with a reader's query

Dear Ralphus, 

I am taking the liberty of contacting you with a question, encouraged by you excellent blog, yet understand if this is a bit off topic. But - given you should have the time and interest, I ask; 

Do you have any idea about the uniform worn by the horsemen in this picture? Or any other comments on the image? I have bought the painting at an auction in Denmark, and it is signed 'Mevlen'. One possibility is the Flemish painter Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632-1690). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Frans_van_der_Meulen

Knowing AF Meulen's affiliation with Louis XIV, I am trying to figure out the uniforms of the horsemen in order to place the scene more precisely in history. Now, he did paint extensively on battle scenes, but also things like this, of encounters (and ambushes) in the woods and on roads. (I am not quite sure what the men on the ground are representing, though, but there seems to be a story being reflected). 

Any comments or ideas are welcome - from my initial research I realise that French uniforms weren't fully standardised before the end of the 17th century. From other images the furthest I could get was that they resembled the attire of French musketeers a bit, yet there are no guns carried, as far as I can see. The red trousers with the ornaments do look like something someone with a higher standing might be wearing (officers, members of court??), but maybe the cavalry as such had a fairly high standing?

Best regards, 

Tormod

Blog Etiquette and Protocols - Please!

Dear Readers;

I know that I am more pedantic about this than my cohorts here at The Wars of Louis Quatorze (my family says anal). We have, at last count, 216 "known" followers of this blog, and some unknown quantity of casual readers or those who remain "anonymous" to us. We generally impose no "rules" upon our followers or readers, as to try would be a bit silly. But please, in the interest of making new acquaintances and forming new friendships, sign your comments. I realize that Google Blogger allows for "anonymous" comments, in part so that those without user accounts may still comment. But just as a courtesy, as you would in normal face-to-face conversation, please at least sign your comment with some type of name so that we may come to know you.

If you don't wish to sign as "John Q. Public", then at least John, Johnny, Joe, JQ Public, or something. I sign all of my posts (and usually my comments as well) with my given name of Bill, even though my Blogger identity and nom de plume on the internet is Sir William the Aged. I usually withhold my actual last name (although many know it) for professional reasons, as I do computer-based consulting and these folks sometimes run searches as part of their background checks. Another blogger, known primarily as Der Alte Fritz, has usually followed the same practice for much the same reasons; but he will usually answer to "Jim".

So, enough anal ranting. Let's all get to know one another and exchange proper greetings. Hello, my name is Bill, what's yours?

Bill

A Bit Of A Departure...

In a bit of a departure from our usual fare here on "Wars of Louis Quatorze", I hope our readers will indulge me a slight diversion. Both Ralphus and I are major fans of the 1950's to 60's Chicago Blues genre, and this past week we lost a legend.

Hubert Sumlin is a name that many, if not most, outside of the Blues world do not know. However, read any in-depth interview or biography of the guitarists that you may be more familiar with and you will often find Hubert's name mentioned. He has been named as a major influence by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and many, many others. His signature guitar riffs have been "borrowed" by guitar players from James Burton and Steve Cropper in the late 50's to all of those named above in the late 60's and early 70's, and are still being "borrowed" by many of today's top guitarists. Hubert attained his fame as a guitarist playing alongside the legendary Howlin' Wolf until Wolf's death in 1976. He did periodically get "fired" by Wolf after a blow-up, and played with Muddy Waters for a brief time. He also did session work at Chess Records and has recorded with many of the pioneers of "Modern Blues" as well as with a multitude of members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I won't try and do Hubert's entire biography here, it has already been done on many other sites, even the Wikipedia version is pretty good. Hubert was born in the Mississippi Delta on November 16, 1931 and passed away this past Sunday, December 4, 2011, at the age of 80. He will be missed by many in the music, and specifically the Blues, community. I will miss him. I was fortunate enough to see the Howlin' Wolf Band in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in 1970 and again in New Orleans in about 1972. I was also fortunate to see Hubert at Eric Clapton's first Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas in 2004, and he could still play with the best, and did. Anyone out there who has seen the DVD's of any of Eric's 3 Crossroads Festivals, or the DVD "10 Days on the Road" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Double Trouble, will have seen Hubert play. His distinctive finger-picking style and infectious smile always stand out on the stage.


RIP Hubert, you will be missed and remembered by many. I thank our readers for their indulgence, and will now return you to regular programming.

Bill

A Merry (or Happy) Christmas to All!

Depending on where you are, may I wish one and all either a Happy Christmas or a Merry one. May your stockings be filled with treats and some old toy soldiers, like these from Irregular Miniatures 42mm Traditional Toy Soldier range, grace your tree.

While there are certainly advantages to the newer, super-detailed products that we now have available (and frequently review here), there is a unique charm to the old "little tin men" that will never fade completely. At least I hope it doesn't.

May each of you and your loved ones, each in your own way, have a wonderful Holiday Season and accept the best wishes of your humble scribe, Sir William the Aged. The New year promises already to be filled with more delightful artwork, interesting tidbits of history, and more (hopefully in-depth) figure reviews. I owe you all a couple now that I haven't quite completed, for which I humbly apologize.

Sincerely yours,

Bill

Another Passing to Note, and a Reference

By now many of our reader's will have heard that noted wargames author, editor and rules writer Terry Wise passed away on August 17th. Our thoughts go out to Terry's Family. Many of us will remember being influenced either by Terry's writings in Military Modelling's "Observation Post" column, or in "Battle for Wargamer's", or his book "Introduction to Battlegaming", or his many sets of rules published by his own company, Athena. Bon chance Mr. Wise, and may you join that august group of elders already in that Great Gaming Room above for hours of enjoyment!

Now, for a timely "plug": If you haven't already heard of John Curry Events or the "History of Wargaming Project", then you need to follow the link above to check it out. John began a project a few years ago to "resurrect" as many of the seminal books, rules and printed guides for wargaming as possible and reprint them. In some cases, the original authors are still very much with us and have added new introductions or comments; in others he has dealt with the estates of the original authors and gained the rights for the re-prints.

Two of his first efforts were "Charge! Or How to Play Wargames" by Brig. Peter Young and Lt. Col. Lawford, and "The Wargame" by Charles Grant. Both of these books were published and printed by Ken Trotman with John's involvement, and are available through either On Military Matters in the US or through Caliver Books in the UK. John has also published, through his own company, most of the books and rules by such authors as Don Featherstone, Charlie Wesencraft, Paddy Griffith, Tony Bath, Terry Wise, Fred Jane, Fletcher Pratt, Phil Barker and George Gush, which either are available or soon will be directly from John's site.

Two of John's recent coups have been to arrange for a re-print of WRG's 6th Edition Ancients Rules combined with Phil Barker's classic "Purple Primer" (originally published as part of the Airfix "Guides" series) which are available for order now, and a re-print of George Gush's WRG 2nd Edition Renaissance Rules (1420-1700) with lists and amendments (still working with George as of this writing). All well worth checking out if you still enjoy these rules and books, or if you simply want to complete a collection of the "masters" of our hobby.

Bill

An Auspicious Day In History

Dear Readers,

On this day in history:

1777 The Americans defeated the British at the Battle of Bennington
1780 The British defeated the Americans at the battle of Camden

One win, one loss, for either side.

1958 Madonna is born
1977 Elvis dies

Again, one win and one loss, depending on one's tastes.

1888 T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) is born

Big win (Peter O'Toole thought so too)

And on this day in history, along with many others through the years, both high and low, Sir William the Aged entered this World, probably already talking (at least if you believe my Family!).

Yet to determine if this was a win, a loss or a draw, time will tell I'm sure.

At any rate, Thank You for checking in from time-to-time and for sharing my Birthday with me. I'll try and think of something a bit more interesting to post in the next few days.

Bill

100 and Counting – The State of the Blog

True to my word, at 1800 hours local time yesterday, midnight GMT, I unearthed a well-aged bottle of Di Serrano’s finest elixir, poured a generous snifter, lit a good cigar and raised my glass to all here. I especially toasted Ralphus, who created this little corner of the "ether" that several of us call “home”.

In my comments following Ralphus’ post on Follower number 99, I mentioned the stature and pursuits of some of our Followers, and I hope that was not misconstrued. Between Ralphus, Fraxinus, Corporal Trim and myself, I don’t know that any of us enjoy any special qualifications or stature, I know that I don’t. We are simply enthusiasts dedicated to a particular period or era, and we write for fellow enthusiasts. That some of our Followers happen to be noted historians and authors, or equally-dedicated enthusiasts specializing in specific nationalities or armies, is simply what we Americans would call “The Icing on the Cake”.

Many times one of us will author a post, or pose a question in a post, and one of You, our dedicated Followers and readers, will contribute to the discussion, offer new sources we were not previously aware of, or plant the “seed” of another post or research project. This is but one of the reasons that I personally value the inclusion of people like Curt Johnson (Dur Ecu), Daniel Schorr (the Northern Wars web site), Stéphane Thion (Timur), our good friends Motorway in the Netherlands (Anno Domini 1672 blog), Uwe in Bavaria (History in 1/72nd blog), and Guiseppe and Auguste in Italy (La Grande Guerra del Nord blog). It is exactly because of my own limitations. These individuals are “specialists” and have patiently answered questions that I’ve had, sent unsolicited material to Ralphus and myself, and keep us “honest” in what we offer to our readers. However, that does not slight any other Follower or reader, and I believe that many more of you are probably capable of contributing to these interactive discussions and would love to see even more feedback than we already receive, and we do receive quite a bit.

In one of my last comments I compared our little community to a Victorian-era salle. For those not familiar with this tradition, in late 19th Century England and on the Continent, it was extremely popular for groups of like-minded, genteel Ladies and Gentlemen to gather in the home of one of the group and engage in discussion, debate, public oration, reading of both poetry and literature, and comparison of fine wines, port and cheeses. Indeed, it was out of one of these salle’s that Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley’s “Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus” first saw the light of day. That this blog attracts such a high-caliber of participants is to be celebrated and saluted. Please, invite your friends, share your thoughts with us, let us know where your interests lie. If one of the four principal authors cannot answer your questions, I am confident that one of our Followers can point us all in the proper direction.

saluté

Bill

Sir William the Aged

Number 100 Has Arrived!

Welcome to reader and follower "Donogh" , who joined us today, officially number 100. I hope you will all join me at midnight GMT in raising a pint in salute and we might consider making Donogh the Elector of some smallish Germanic Stadt or Bishopric. A fellow named Fred did quite well in that role a few years beyond our time frame.

Bill

Apologies For My Recent Absence

My apologies to the Gentlemen of the Mess for my recent absence from these pages. I am afraid that I allowed myself to get temporarily overloaded, a fact I shall be addressing and changing shortly.

I am involved in not one, but two playtesting groups at the moment and both have possible import for the readers of this blog (at least the gamers among you). One involves taking an established set of later 18th century brigade-level rules and "backdating" them to do earlier linear warfare (at the moment only as far as the AWI, but more is possible). This looks promising as a possible set for the 9 Years War and the WSS. I am but one of several players worldwide participating in this playtest and, once I get properly started, should be able to minimize my time. The second involves a very successful US set of Ancients rules that has already been successfully modified and demonstrated for the ECW. It allows single-player play at the corps-level or multi-player play at the brigade-level. I am working with the author and a select group (including the chaps who successfully modified it for Italian Wars and ECW), to modify it and "tweak it" further to allow it's use for the period from 1640 to 1680, in other words, from a French perspective, from Rocroi to the Dutch Wars.

I'm not at liberty at this time to name either set of rules, but they are both recognizable. In the modification of the Ancients/ECW set, when they are ready, experienced gamers will recognize bits of gaming philosophy and theory borrowed from Gush, Wise and Millward among others, but in a novel way that produces a very pleasing multi-player game that can be resolved in 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I think many will be pleased with the outcome.

I am still continuing the 15mm figure review and have been lax with it lately, partly due to obtaining all the required samples (and figuring out who's "in" and who's "out"), and partly to forgetting some family commitments that conflicted with both my painting and my aforementioned playtesting efforts.

I am also continuing work on the "Resource Guide" and have received Dan Schorr's "select" bibliography. I should receive Curt Johnson's when his own family commitments free up after August, but I still haven't received anything on reenactment sites from some of the folks I was counting on.

And finally, should I feel the need to place blame for this scheduling fiasco anywhere, well, yesterday I celebrated the anniversary of my birth, so "Sir William the Aged" is now more "Aged". I celebrated in typical style, with presents received, good wishes from some close friends and family, and a "private" celebration with that noted elixir that the monks of Saranno, Italy, began producing centuries ago in 1525 (or two young lovers, depending on which legend you believe). It made me feel quite "religious" in it's own way!

By the way, for any prospective spouses and/or parents out there, have at least one Son, as they are consistently the ones who seem to remember that this is the appropriate present for a man of age and refined tastes. No doubt the same is true for aficionado's of fine Scotch's and Bourbon's as well. At least the Wife remembered to gift me with Spinal Tap's new release, "Back From The Dead", complete with "pop-up" vignette of the lads and their famous mini-Stonehenge set. And, like any true child of the 50's, I shared my religious experience with the spirit of the monks (or lovers) by watching the new "director's cut" of Woodstock on it's 40th anniversary, a gift from my two Daughters to accompany the original VHS copy and the original "enhanced" DVD I already had.

And no, I was not there 40 years ago, though not by my fault. I was caught "red-handed" by the parents sneaking out the window with my backpack and map, apparently (and probably quite stupidly in retrospect) prepared to navigate my way from Texas to upstate New York no less (never tell a 17-year old girlfriend your plans, they can't keep secrets)! However, I did manage to hike from Texas to Atlanta, Georgia, the following year for a similar event and survived, but more on that at a later date.

Bill

An Old Site, A New Blog, and Great "Eye Candy"

Image borrowed from "Phil's War Cabinet", just a taste of what's behind the curtain.

For those that already know of him, Phil Olley is something of an inspiration to many gamers and modelers. For those that aren't familiar with Phil, or his efforts, he has a web site called "Phil's War Cabinet" here that is a "must see" at least once a week for many of us. His collection of period buildings, hand-made terrain, and absolutely glorious figures qualify as "eye candy" of the highest order. In addition to his own armies (which include many "private" figures sculpted by the talented John Ray), Phil is the current "keeper and curator" of Tony Bath's old collection of flat Ancients figures and Stuart Asquith's collection of old plastic Spencer-Smith miniatures. Phil founded the League of Augsberg Group and is a regular gaming partner of such luminaries as Angus Konstam, Barry Hilton, Stuart Asquith and Charles S. Grant (in fact. many of the games between Phil and Mr. Grant featured prominently in Mr. Grant's recent books "The Wargames Companion" and "The Raid on St. Michel" as well as in the various "Tabletop Teasers" articles in "Battlegames" magazine).

Well, it seems that Phil has decided to take a "leave of absence" from his regular pursuit of the early to mid 18th century and delve into the Thirty Years War, with an accompanying blog, "The Breitenfeld Blog", to be found here. Phil's initial plan is to focus a little before our period of interest, specifically on the period 1629-1634; from the point just before the arrival of Gustavus' Swedes up to the Battle of Lutzen. However, knowing Phil's love of all things French, I would not be surprised to see this interest expand after he fills out his initial rosters.

I am gratified, as I hope Ralphus is, that Phil has decided to include our humble blog under his list of "Online Resources and Sites of Interest", as well as the home page of the Early Modern Warfare Society (the Xenophon Group), here, which includes the excellent articles on the French of the Thirty Years War (and somewhat beyond) by "Louis Quatorze" friend and frequent contributor to my own posts, Curt Johnson.

I hope our readers will join me in welcoming Phil to the blogging community and follow his efforts. I know I will, if only to see what painting ideas I can "borrow" and what marvelous new character figures John Ray sculpts for him.

Bill

A Tedious and Unpleasant Task

I have delayed doing this post, and debated its merit with myself and others before doing so. But "doing so" I finally am.

During the duration of my brief tenure assisting Ralphus, I have noticed a disquieting trend of comments being written by a "gentleman" with the unusual surname of "Anonymous" who also fails to sign his comments as most "Anonymous" bloggers courteously do. While I both invite and accept criticism of my posts, it is hoped that said criticism will come in the form of useful new sources that contradict my own findings, will support contradictory statements or criticism's with at least some form of authority or source, and will attempt to enrich all of our collective knowledge. For whatever reason, this individual (or perhaps I have a "fan club" all using the cloak of anonymity) feels the need to use phrases like "complete rubbish, shows a superficial knowledge of the period", "How do you know that every drummer in every French infantry regiment carried his drum this way all of the time?", and questioning Ralphus' decision to ask for assistance with this blog.

As I've already stated, I actually welcome constructive criticism and debate. To put to rest any doubts that may linger, no, I am not an "expert" on all things pertaining to the late 17th century, Louis XIV or any of his various opponents. What I am is an enthusiastic individual, very long-winded at times (comes from ruining a literature and journalism background by earning a living doing technical writing and "legalistic" product advisories), who volunteered when Ralphus asked, and who is self-employed and has the time to do research and try and develop articles that you might find of interest.

I am not a Sandhurst or West Point lecturer, I am not multi-lingual, and I don't even have a decent university library with a 17th century history section convenient to me. However, I have, in my brief tenure here, made acquaintances of several people who do meet these "qualifications (including some recognized published authors), all of whom have been very gracious and offered me new sources, both online and physical, and who have assisted me in researching articles. I have tried to credit these individuals whenever and wherever possible as I am very grateful for their acceptance and assistance. I have also received far more positive comments on my efforts than negative, so I probably shouldn't really complain. I have even inspired at least one individual to follow-up one of my articles with his own research and a post on his own blog, surely an ego-boost and gratifying experience for anyone putting their efforts "out there".

And, while perhaps "dogmatic in my criticism" and having only a "superficial knowledge of the period", I am still the individual who acquired, at personal expense, not only the required sample figures but enough for 16 complete battalions so that when I did my figure reviews they would be based on the "real world" experience of having acquired an order that wasn't hand-selected for a "sock puppet" and having cleaned, primed and painted them with every intention of using them, good or bad. Just my ink-washed samples against a common reference grid have already influenced at least two buying decisions that I'm aware of.

My only aspirations in contributing to this blog are to inspire discussion and further research, possibly provide some new material that hasn't seen the "light of day" previously, and ultimately, to entertain and to assist Ralphus in diversifying the content somewhat. At the end of the day, only you, the readers and faithful "followers" of this blog, can decide if I have accomplished any of my goals. I would like for Mr. (or perhaps Ms.) Anonymous to contact me offline via my e-mail when they feel that I have strayed and participate in a two-way discussion that might just benefit both of us. I actually encourage any of our readers to contact me offline for discussion, my e-mail is available on my profile and I do answer them.

So, I will end this tedious and (once again) long-winded post with apologies for distracting from the historical, artistic and gaming discussions that is this blog's true purpose. Rest assured though, I will continue my efforts until Ralphus asks me to cease them.

Bill