Grand Alliance 15mm -Second Contingent

 

My first two English battalions here Kirke’s and Trelawney’s.  Both fought at Sedgemoor for King James.  In terms of experience Kirke’s certainly had the edge having been involved in near continuous fighting in Tangier. 

 

To reflect this, I will be rating Kirke’s as veteran and Trelawney’s men as trained.  Both units are mainly equipped with matchlock muskets and pikes.

 

Then there is the lad himself, Piercy Kirke.  He ended up as a Lieutenant General.  With the exception of Marlborough, he was probably the most successful of the turncoats from the English Army.  William, Prince of Orange subsequently King William, never trusted any of them.  With good reason probably. Marlborough happily funded the Jacobite Cause post William’s accession.  He was, after all, brother-in-law to King James.  Should you ever feel exasperated with your relatives ponder on King James and his.  You will feel better for the comparison.

I don’t know if Kirke was similarly inclined.  Perhaps not, unlike Angus, Douglas, Lanier and Mackay he did not end up dead on the field of battle at Steenkirke. Fellow conspirators all. Maybe he was simply more careful.  Barry Hilton, steeped in the period, calls him “enigmatic”.  That will have to do.

We can say that Kirke was a colourful character.  Macauley said of him.

“a military adventurer whose vices had been developed by the worst of all schools, Tangier.... Within the ramparts of his fortress, he was a despotic prince. The only check on his tyranny was the fear of being called to account by a distant and a careless government. He might therefore safely proceed to the most audacious excesses of rapacity, licentiousness, and cruelty. He lived with boundless dissoluteness, and procured by extortion the means of indulgence."

Then again, Macauley happily purveyed multitudinous falsehoods whenever it suited him.  I’m making Piercy Kirke a Brigadier in my games and a capable one at that.

The Dutch Foot Guards next. Undoubtedly, one of the best foot units in Europe they saw a lot of fighting.  I’ve painted them in a paler shade of indigo blue than normally seen.  I wanted them to have a somewhat worn campaigning look.  The officer’s coats have stood up better to the elements.