We’ll be supporting our friends in Lord Thomas Grey’s Regiment of Foote in Ashby-de-la-Zouche for a fascinating weekend of English Civil War history.
The living history encampment and the battle will both be located at Bath Grounds, near the town centre, where the troops of the Sealed Knot will be portraying ‘The Siege of Ashby’. The Sealed Knot will parade through the town to the battlesite, before a reenactment battle.
Schedule
10am–4pm Living History encampment open to public
1pm Parade
2pm Main battle
The History
During the Civil War, Henry Hastings – the younger brother of Ferdinando, the 6th Earl of Hastings – occupied Ashby as a Royalist base, and the castle formed a crucial link between Royalist operations in the north and south. Hastings fortified the town and castle on an impressive scale, and King Charles twice visited the castle during the fighting: on the second occasion he stayed the night at Ashby following the Royalists’ decisive defeat at Naseby on 14 June 1645. After a series of successful Parliamentarian raids on the town, Hastings eventually surrendered on 28 February 1646. He agreed to demolish the newly constructed fortifications around the town, while the garrison was allowed to march free with ‘trumpets sounding, drums beating, colours flying’. The castle buildings were initially used to imprison prominent Royalists, but later in 1646 it was directed that the defences be demolished. The earl subsequently complained that the demolition squad had far exceeded its orders and entirely ruined his “only convenient mansion”.