Pikemen

The pike is a 16-foot (4.9m) long ash staff topped with a metal (in re-enactments rubber) point. It was, and is, used defensively against cavalry, but also offensively against other units of infantry as a shock assault weapon. To use a pike correctly demands strength, but also dexterity. In the early seventeenth century, the infantry captain was recommended:

'to make choice of the taller, and abler men for his pikes, and of the shorter, stronger, and well set, with good legges, for his muskettiers...'
(Henry Hexham, The Principles of the Art Militarie, 1637)

The pike was considered by contemporaries to be the more honourable arm on the battlefield:

'...it is so in respect of its antiquity, for there hath been the use of the Pike and the Spear, many hundred years before there was any knowledge of the Musket, as in many Histories you shall finde.'
(Richard Elton, The Compleat Body of the Art Military, 1659).

It was customary for gentlemen volunteers of the period to fight in the pikeblock, and pikemen generally were referred to as 'Gentlemen of the Pike'.


Basic Equipment

As well as your regimental clothes and shoes, as a pikeman you require some other items of basic equipment:

a pair of tough leather gloves or gauntlets. These can be bought at an event or by mail order.

a steel morion (helmet). This item can be lent to you until you purchase your own. The cost of the morion will vary depending on maker, style etc. You may be able to buy one second hand at a reduced price from a member of the regiment.

Please remember that there is a lot of unsuitable equipment on sale and it is best to ask for advice from someone in the regiment before spending your hard earned money.


Additional Equipment

As time passes you will wish to purchase further items to complete and supplement your basic equipment. There is no set time scale for this, nor any particular order in which to buy them. If you need any advice about what to buy, then please ask. Again, many of these items can be brought second hand from other regimental members.


These include:

back and breast armour, with or without tassets (steel plates to protect the thighs).

a buffcoat (optional). The London Trained Bands were unique among Civil War regiments of foot in that, being made up largely from the professional classes, many of them had the means to purchase protective buffcoats which could be worn in place of armour.

a snapsack (haversack).

a leather or pewter drinking vessel, a plate or bowl (wooden, pewter or slipware) and eating irons (knife, fork and spoon set).

a sword, scabbard and baldric. Please note, you will be required to pass a safety and proficiency test before being permitted to carry the sword on the field.

Photos: John Beardsworth