We are portraying a troop of Border Light Cavalry, currently without mounts, with attendant infantry, in her Grace's Forces. Playing Renaissance Faires, Scots Games, reenactor events and other similar events.
From the Fifteenth century on, Borderers were regarded as the finest light cavalry in Europe. Known in service as "prickers", and used in the war of the Roses as well as every Tudor adventure on the Continent, In Scotland and Ireland; Border Horse were employed for all traditional Light Cavalry duties, as flankers, scouts, and foragers, and renowned for courage and discipline.(Will, at least, on the battlefield!)
The core members of our troop, a mixed group of English and Scots reivers, on a business trip " to acquire livestock and other goods, far out of our normal area, we ran afoul of the local authorities. Given a choice between short shrift and a shorter rope, or taking service with the Queen's Forces in Ireland, we decided, after much debate, that the latter was (slightly) preferable. We have had others of similar ilk join us, as replacements or as their sentences led them to our troop. Most of us are riders, some have served as infantry ("foot louns"). Fighting a tough war against the O'Neill rebels, a foe who hides in woods and lurks in swamps, always in ambushes and raids, but running away rather than meet in open battle, we became hardened veterans, who wished for nothing more then to escape back to our "normal" way of life on the Borders. Finally, we returned to England, a foul voyage in that vile vessel "Serpent". The Drunken crew and inept pilot lost us in a storm in the tiny Irish Sea. The tiny ship was tosst', a simple 3 day cruise taking 3 weeks. As rations ran short, the poxy, lice ridden, Scurvy crew, unbeknownst to us, butchered and served us our own horses as rations. Now we are afoot, marching with a militia trained band, accompanying Her Grace's progress through this county. We have heard rumors that we are to be shipped to the Low Countries to fight the Spanish, rather than be returned to our home regions, another virtual death sentence.