Choose your side this Spring Bank Holiday weekend as we celebrate the 375th anniversary of the start of the English Civil War!
Amidst the glorious setting of Charlton Park, the Sealed Knot will bring this pivotal moment to life with a living history encampment across the weekend, plus dramatic cameos commemorating the history of the Howard family.
Set piece battles will take place on the Sunday and Monday showcasing the talents of musket, pike, cavalry and artillery!
Buy tickets here >>
Built by Lord Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, for his wife Catherine, Charlton Park House was ready for occupation by 1607. After Catherine’s death it was inherited by her second son, Thomas, who in 1626 was created the first Earl of Berkshire.
Malmesbury was held by the Royalists during the First Civil War but 
surrendered to Parliamentarian Colonel Massie in 1644, a Presbyterian officer who fought tirelessly against Royalists in the region. Massie eventually became commander of the Western Association army and, after the formation of the New Model Army, was given his own independent command. But after Charles I’s execution he switched sides to the Royalists, participating in the failed Scottish invasion of England in 1651 and fleeing with Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. He was captured but escaped from the Tower of London by climbing out of a chimney. He later returned to try and spark a Royalist uprising but was again captured, again escaping and fleeing to the Continent. He returned to England in January 1660 and caused a riot in Gloucester when he stood for election to the Convention Parliament. But, after being duly elected, he supported the Restoration and was rewarded by Charles II for his services with a knighthood and a grant of money and lands in Ireland, where he died in 1674.
This event is being organised and run by Hopton’s Tercio of the Royalist army of the Sealed Knot Society.
The Earl of Manchester's Regiment of Foote blog 