The King’s Mercenary English Civil War
Philip Barham
- Regions:
- England, Surrey, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Hobby
- Fee:
- Paid: £60+£10 travel depending on distance
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 15th September 2026
- Tagged:
- 17Th Century | English Civil War Mercenary
Step into the world of Captain Matthias Hawkeslade. Forget dry history lessons. Forget lists of dates and dusty battlefields. Step into the boots of Captain Matthias Hawkeslade — soldier of fortune, veteran of the brutal Thirty Years’ War, and a man who has survived the blood-soaked battlefields of Europe. Now he has returned to England. But England is tearing itself apart.
With sword in hand and the promise of a large purse, he pledges to fight for King Charles, and finds himself drawn into a conflict where friends become enemies, neighbours take up arms against neighbours, and survival can depend on what you can do with a sword, a pistol… or your wits. These are not history lectures. They are an opportunity to meet the past face to face. Hawkeslade speaks of war as a soldier who has lived it — the fear, the violence, the comradeship, the hardship, the humour and the grim realities of life as a seventeenth-century fighting man. The audience isn’t simply there to listen. They can question Hawkeslade, challenge him, argue with him — and discover for themselves what it was like to live through one of the most turbulent and bloody periods in British history. Come and meet Captain Matthias Hawkeslade.
Just be warned… he has a sword, a lifetime of stories, and absolutely no intention of giving you a history lesson.
Views: 18 | Enquiries: 0About Philip Barham
My name is Phil Barham, an amateur historian with a fascination for one of the most turbulent periods in English history, the English Civil War of 1642–1651.
That fascination eventually took me off the page and onto the battlefield as a member of The Sealed Knot, Britain’s leading English Civil War re-enactment society.
Over the years, I’ve experienced something that no history book can quite reproduce. I’ve been charged by Parliamentary cavalry, shot at by ranks of musketeers, and found myself in the middle of hand-to-hand combat.
Fortunately, it was re-enactment but the experience gave me a far greater understanding of what seventeenth-century combat actually looked, sounded and felt like.
It’s that experience I bring to my talks as Captain Matthias Hawkeslade. I don’t simply tell you about the Civil War — I invite you into it.
And when I’m not charging into battle, I live near Maidstone, Kent, with my wife and an enormous Newfoundland dog, who, thankfully, has shown little interest in taking up arms for either side.
Send a message to the speaker
If you are interested in this talk and wish to contact the speaker, please complete the following form: