Sir Alan Brodrick

To add balance to the last post, Sir Alan was a royalist who took no active part in the wars but later was one of the Sealed Knot group of conspirators working to restore the monarchy in the late 1650s. The picture was painted in the 1640s by Robert Walker and is now in the Wandsworth Museum. Unlike the warlike Sir Arthur Hesilrige his falling band is not tied away with ribbon and he sports some decorative bandstrings and although his armour is just as impressive, I suspect it saw no action.

Sir Arthur Hesilrige

Painted by an unknown artist in 1640, Sir Arthur was one of the parliamentary movers and shakers before, during and after the war. He was one of the five members that Charles tried to arrest from the House of Commons in 1642, fought in the war, raising a troop of horse equipped with three quarter armour known popularly as his lobsters. He was also prominent on the political scene during the interregnum. He is portrayed in front of a backcloth in very shiny full armour and presumably a wide falling band tied with a black ribbon. This picture is in the National Portrait Gallery.