The Campaign reminds me of a weekend we did re-enacting ECW at Ratley village near to Edgehill Bill.
It was called the "Squires dilemma and involved the local squire at the Hall who was the Royalist supporter trying to raise a Militia.
At the other end of the Village, a contingent of Recruiters from the Parliament i.e. our Regiment arrived trying to raise troops for our cause.
This involved quite a few visits to the local Inn, where we had redactors doing their thing.
Sure enough the recruiting party soon got sucked into a few drinks with the locals, games at the tables etc, assignations with the local bawds etc. Meanwhile a large group of our members were holding a market on the Village Green, cutting corn in the meadow, blacksmithing and even dry stone walling et al.
We established a small soldiers’ camp at the other end of the village on the Saturday morning. Towards dinner time the Squire emerged and had a serious debate with our senior officer just outside the Inn. The recruiting party then marched into the market and started enlisting the locals. On the following day after the church service and a few more ales at the pub during which a local gentleman arrived to accuse one of our officers of dallying with his wife. He then drew his sword and our Officer shot him with his pistol.
After that it all kicked off. Our troops marched down to the village green now the market had gone, met the Squires Militia and had a jolly good ding dong.
One of the best weekends I have had in the 17th century.
Rob.
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