Henrietta Maria

 

In stunning contradistinction to today's grifting, huckster, in it for the money mountebanks, we have HRH Henrietta Maria. Of course the puritans hated her catholicism and, I'd argue, everything she stood for, not least the divine right of kings and Christendom itself.

You'll note her pearls. These enraged protestant sensibility, and she fled the Sceptered Isle when the war went wrong to carry on the fight to the enemy using her not inconsiderable fortune. Do you think her Puritan/Protestant fanatics = today's Leftists? I'd argue yes. You may not, your call.

Regardless, we know the result. The regicides were exhumed and dumped in the Thames, fittingly, while Charles II reigned in a kind of late renaissance (are you sure 'renaissance'? Ed.) degenerate glory. Maria, you'll be glad to know, lived in Somerset House on the Strand during that time but later returned to France. 

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, all hail the exuberant cavalry commander, was her nephew. I count her a hero, you may not, no "rule."

Semper Eadem

LSP

Sword Beach - If You Scorn this You Are An Utter Fool

 

Scorn this? Lovat returning home after Sword and all the rest? Impossible, but go ahead and scorn the the UK's MOD and Uniparty who've been idiotically gambling on never having to fight another real war again. What a dereliction of duty.

You'll note the very same people who've destroyed our Regiments and traitorously off-shored our manufacturing and industry are baying for blood. MOAR WAR, they rainbow cry. But with what? All the ammo from your factories which you don't have? Oops.

Have at him, Pudle,

LSP

Devil Dogge? I Say Good Boye

 

Everyone's heard of Charles the First's talented if impetuous cavalry commander, Prince Rupert of the Rhine (PROTR), but did you know he had a war dog called Boy? Boy was a large and rare hunting poodle(!) given to the prince by the Earl of Arundel when Rupert was imprisoned in Linz during the Thirty years War.

When the English Civil War broke out, Boy joined his master on the Royalist side and valiantly ran with the King's cavalry against the insurrectionist Paliamentarians. These hated Boy with puritan fervor, assigning the dog magical powers.

PROTR

Boy, they claimed, was a devil dog, a Lapland sorceress in canine form with the ability to speak arcane languages, a mix between Hebrew and High Dutch, apparently. He could prophecy, perform acts of espionage, make himself invisible and far more besides; Boy was bullet and knife proof, a valuable asset on the battlefield.

One Royalist pamphleteer lampoons doggish puritan superstition thus, in Observations Ʋpon Prince Rupert's white Dogge called Boye:

He is weapon-proofe himself, and probably hath made his Master so too, my self and the rest whom you have imployed to be of the conspiracy against him, have alwayes failed of our at∣tempts, as if something more then witchcraft watcht over him. Once I gave him a very hearty stroke, with a confiding Dagger, but it slided off his skin as if it had beene Armour of proofe nointed over with Quick-silver. Besides he hath been tempted with pieces of Capon and other choice morcells, as well seasoned all, as poyson and extemporary prayer could doe it: but the Cur as obstinately rejected them, as if he had knowne beforehand what they were, so that they hurt him no more then the plague-plaister, sent in the Letter did Mr. Pym.

Read Observations, it's short and amusing, but alas Boy wasn't bulletproof and met his end at the battle of Marston Moor in 1644, which saw the Royalists defeated with Rupert himself having to flee the field.

I'm no expert but I think the figure in the foreground is a LAPLAND WITCH

On Charles' defeat, Rupert left England only to return at the Restoration and serve as an Admiral in the Second Dutch War. How did this bold cavalryman become an Admiral? Therein lies another tale. 

In the meanwhile, here at the Compound we salute you PROTR and your dog, what a good boye.

Cheers,

LSP