Tillier's Today

The present day Tillier's was created in 1996. Now with around one hundred members across the south and south-west, midlands and north-west of England, the regiment is widely accepted as one of the premier regiments in the Sealed Knot.

As members of Hopton's royalist Tercio, the regiment fields a well-disciplined and tenacious pike division and an experienced body of musketeers. Not just renowned on the field of battle, the regiment organises regular social activities, a winter banquet and field trips - offering the members more than just weekends away.

Tillier's first engagement was at Old Sarum in 1996. Some 1,500 Sealed Knot members staged spectacular battles inside the old hill-fort to the delight of thousands of Salisbury residents. Weekend garrison sieges followed at Porchester and Southsea castles.

In 2002, Tillier's organised a campaign march across the Mendips culminating in the battle of Winscombe in Somerset - regarded by many participants as the best event for over ten years.

2003 saw Tillier's organise the largest siege in England since the civil war at Weston-super-mare. See the page on The Siege of Weston 2003 for more details.

In 2004 and 2005 the focus shifted to Cheriton in Hampshire as we worked with the Battlefield Trust and local organisations to raise the profile of this important battlefield. Over two years, we staged two sponsored marches that raised £5,000 towards the project, two weeks of schools visits enabling hundreds of local schoolchildren to learn about the civil war and events in Winchester, Alresford and on the battlefield itself. The culmination of three years of work came over the August Bank holiday weekend in 2005 with a massive and spectacular battle re-enactment across the original battlefield enjoyed by nearly ten thousand local people.

2006 has seen the regiment staging events back in the south-west. Thousands of local people were transported back in time to the siege of Berkeley Castle in 1645. See our Tillier's Muster Successes section for a full report.

Underpinning our commitment to being the best are the people who together make up the regiment. The membership now comprises committed, experienced re-enactors with new members full of ideas and energy. But pinning this all together is the great camaraderie and friendships that exist in Tillier's.