Tuesday 14 January 2020

Sir Jacob Astley


Sir Jacob Astley, Sergeant-Major-General of the Royalist foot, is one of my favourite characters of the Civil War. 

He neatly book-ending the war with two fabulous quotations. At Edgehill, the first major battle of the Civil War, there was his famous battle prayer:
"O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not thou forget me." He followed this promptly with the order "March on, boys!"
At the last pitched battle of the first Civil War, Stow-on-the-Wold, he surrendered to the Parliamentarians with the words:
"Well, boys, you have done your work, now you may go and play - if you don't fall out among yourselves."
What a man!

The model is a lovely Bicorne. I think I bought him on eBay; his drummer and fifer were painted by Chris Meacham. The base is one of my circular command bases with a scalloped edge.