Gentlemen with high standards: Pike & Shotte command

After an almost unforgivable lapse of time without posting, here are some pics of my Lieutenant-Colonel and standard bearer for the company of the Earl of Manchester's regiment of Foote which I'm painting up. The standard is still very much a work in progress, so please forgive the sloppiness of it. I opted for blue as my Lieutenant-Colonel's suit. This will let him stand out from the grunts, whilst tying him in, as blue is the colour of the ribbons the foot soldiers were in my company.My understanding is that officers could wear pretty much what they liked. As I got into E.C.W. after reading a book on Marston Moor, I've sculpted on a band around the Lieutenant-Colonel's hat, into which is sculpted a piece of paper; it was reported that many of the soldiers in the Parliamentary armies present at Marston Moor wore such tokens, in order to distinguish themselves from the enemy in the heat of battle. Indeed, when Sir Thomas Fairfax, in his characteristic manner, got too far ahead of his cavalry corps and found himself caught up amongst an enemy horse regiment, he is said to have removed his white token to slip back through the lines to the Parliamentary side.

I opted to dress the ensign in black, so as to avoid his detracting attention from the Lieutenant-Colonel and the flag itself. The ribbon in his hat is white, following the same logic as with the Lieutenant-Colonel. I've not managed to find any detailed info on Manchester's flag, although I believe it was blue. As I understand it, the standard system for the flags within a regiment was as follows.

• C/O: plain field colour
• Lt-Col: Field colour with St George’s Cross in canton
• Major: As above, with addition of a device or wavy pile (which looks like a streaming line coming down from the corner of the canton towards the centre of the flag).
• Captains: As major, with increasing amount of devices or wavy lines to denote rank (the more wavy piles, the lower the seniority)

However, some nobles appear to have elected to use a device from their coat of arms on all their flags, using wavy lines. This could be understandable with some coats of arms. Manchester’s arms contain 3 lozenges and therefore it wouldn’t look particularly good to use the lozenges to denote rank, as heraldic devices in 3 could have a special significance. I therefore took example on the Sealed Knot and used the lozenges as standard on Manchester’s flag.

As always, comments & constructive criticism are welcome.

Joe