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Sir Arthur Heselrige is one of the less familiar names of the English Civil War, but he was a significant political leader on the Parliamentary side (one of the Five Members Charles I famously tried and failed to arrest in the Commons), a well regarded military leader in the first years of the war, and a major political figure during the Commonwealth. He is most famous for raising what was probably the last unit of fully armoured cavalry to fight on a British battlefield, a regiment of heavily armoured curaissiers known as Heselrige’s ‘Lobsters’. This book looks at Sir Arthur’s life and military career, alongside that of Richard Atykins, the Royalist leader who eventually defeated the Lobsters, and nearly captured Sir Arthur. We then look at the cavalry tactics of the time, before moving onto Sir Richard’s military career from Edgehill to Roundway Down.
One key element of the story is a change in cavalry tactics. The sixteenth century had seen the development of the caracole, a system that saw cavalry advance towards their opponent in a very deep formation. The front rank would fire two pistols then retire to the rear to reload, letting the next rank advance to the front. The idea was to wear down the enemy until they were vulnerable to a charge. At this distance in time it seems like a fairly rediculous tactic, charging almost up to an enemy unit and then stopping, and thus negating the shock value of cavalry. However it could be very effective against blocks of pikemen or other infantry without firearms, who would have very little way to respond and would have to simply soak up the fire (it is also very similar to the famously effective tactics used by Parthian archers against the Roman legions). By the English Civil War the caracole was on its way out, and King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden certainly popularised the tactics that ended its use, getting his cavalry to charge into point blank range before firing their pistols and engaging in melee. The slow moving cavalry engaged in their caracole struggled to cope with this more aggressive charge (although it would have been far less effective against those blocks of pikes).
One minor quibble is that having spent the book tells us these were the last of the kind, the author finishes by telling us Cuirassiers continued to play a role in European warfare for the rest of the century. A little more detail here would have been useful, as these later Cuirassiers appear to have been less heavily armoured, largely keeping just the body armour and helm, losing the limb armour (thus looking similar to much later Napoleonic Cuirassiers).
Section II focuses on Sir Arthur’s military career, from Edgehill to Roundway Down. His exact role isn’t always easy to work out in some of his campaigns, but the author does a good job of piecing it together, combining what we do know with the wider events of each battle to produce a convincing picture of his role. At Edgehill we see him fighting with that part of the Parliamentary cavalry that wasn’t chased off the field at the start of the battle, and was thus able to help prevent Charles I winning a decisive victory. This battle also demonstrates that superior tactics aren’t everything – Prince Rupert and the Royalist cavalry used the new ‘Swedish’ tactics, and defeated the Parliamentary cavalry facing them, but then disappeared from the battlefield, thus negating their own success.
Sir Arthur’s fate was then tied up in the fighting in the West Country. After a defeat at Ripple Field we see him raising his heavily armed regiment, which then went on to see real success at the battle of Lansdown. Parliament appeared to have a clear advantage in this campaign, but suffered a heavy defeat at Roundway Down, restoring the Royalist position. In this battle the Lobsters suffered heavy losses, and Sir Arthur was very nearly captured. The events of this battle show how effective the heavy armour could be at personal protection, almost certainly keeping Sir Arthur alive, but his unit was disrupted by retreating Parliamentary cavalry, and then hit by Atkyns’ men, suffering a heavy defeat. This appears to have ended their time as heavily armoured cuirassiers. Although the unit survived, it had to be restored to strength, and was almost certainly given the far more standard (and cheaper) lighter body armour used by most cavalry of the period.
This is an atmospheric account of Sir Arthur’s experiences before the Civil War, looking at what might have motivated him to fund such an expensive (and somewhat old fashioned unit), how it fought, why it was succesful in one battle and defeated in its next. The author shares his enthusiasm for the period, and brings us into the story very nicely.
Section I: Political Radicals
1 – Divine Right, Common Law, and True Religion: King James and the Youth of Arthur Hesilrige and Richard Atkyns (1601-25)
2 – Vivat Rex Carolus: King Charles, Arthur Heselrige, Richard Atkyns and the Road to Civil War (1625-31)
3 – Tech, Tactics and the Battle of Breitenfeld: Military Revolution and the Lobster’s Lineage.
4 – Decade of Defiance: The Emergence of Sir Arthur Hesilrige the Radical Leader (1632-42)
Section II: Military Conservatives
5 – Edgehill (1642): Planting the Seed
6 – Ripple Field (1643): Warping the Roots
7 – Lansdown (1643): The Lobster’s Triumphant
8 – Devizes (1643): The Lobsters Redundant
9 – Roundway Down (1643): The Last Stand of the Last Knights
Author: Myke Cole
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2024