Robin is in da 'hood

This weekend's re-enactors are Regia Anglorum. They seem to cover a longish period ranging from the late Dark Ages to the early Medieval although one suspects their hearts are really with the Saxons. At the Royal Armouries this weekend they are doing 1213 in an event entitled 'John and the Pope'; neither of whom features at all. They were advertised by the museum as an 'interpretation' and as well as the fighting, of which more later, they did an awful lot of sitting around sewing. They brought a small fishing boat with them, but sadly didn't take to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal with it.

None of these people were in attendance; nice beards though

On Saturday afternoon they put their needles and thread down and adjourned to the tiltyard. First up was an exhibition of skill-at-arms featuring four mounted men at a variety of javelin and couched lance tasks (most of which made me think that I'd quite fancy my chances as a foot soldier against them) and one task featuring what were obviously very sharp swords (which I would prefer not to have to deal with). There was then a 'battle' the back story of which seemed to have something to do with liberty, freedom, and the Magna Carta. It seems that King John had imposed all sorts of taxes including one on widows who did not remarry. One can only hope that neither George Osborne nor Ian Duncan Smith were in the audience otherwise they'll be bringing that one in quicker than one can shout "They take from the poor to give to the rich". Which is a nice link into the main protagonists of this event who were, naturally enough, the Sheriff of Nottingham (boo hiss) and Robin 'of the Wood' Hood (huzzah).

A chap with a beard

I won't insult your intelligence by telling you who won. There was lots of shouting (neither this lot nor the cowboys from a few weeks ago are any loss to the world of amateur dramatics) and plenty of bashing and clashing. The one interesting point from a wargamer's point of view is just how quickly they tired. Still, in summary it was good fun, it was free and it was warm sitting in the sun for the first time this year.