The Earl of Essex's Regiment of Foot

I was starting to get "Viking burnout" assembling and painting the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings for a Dux Bellorum Sea Raider army. Another ongoing project is the English Civil War and I thought that since Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and Lord General of the Armies of Parliament commands my Parliamentary army then it was time to get his personal regiment in the fight.

 Essex's Regiment is also known as the Lord General's Regiment

The regiment existed from the beginning of the Civil War in 1642 until it was disbanded in 1645. During that time, the regiment fought with the main Parliamentary army based around London. It is interesting to note that during the Battle of Edgehill, Essex was among their ranks with pike in hand. (Editorial comment: It must have really hit the fan at Edgehill!  I always told my soldiers that if I was firing my weapon, something was wrong!)

 The Squire looks quite dapper

Based on my research Essex's regiment originally wore orange tawny coats from September 1642 until they issued an unknown coat color in August 1643. As I was concerned that any orange coats I painted might be too bright and I did not feel like buying new paint or mixing colors; instead  I decided to go with a common red jacket with white facings. Previously I did the King's Lifeguard in a darker red; Essex's regiment I decided would be a brighter red. After priming in black, I simply did two coats of GW's Blood Red and then added a Red Wash also from GW. After the I added the wash, the coat was glossy but I always use a flat clear coat when finished painting which nicely took away the glossy look.

The standard bearer is converted from an armored pikeman figure

In November 1644 Essex's regiment received new flags to replace those lost in Cornwall, these were orange with white mullets (five-pointed stars). At the First Battle of Newbury a set of orange colors with white eight-pointed stars was captured by the Royalists and they might have belonged to Essex's.

The Lord General inspects his regiment.

All of the figures for the regiment are from Warlord Games plastic ECW infantry box except for the "squire" which is from Wargames Foundry.