Sir Gervase Lucas' Company
Sir Gervase Lucas' Company
Friends!
To all those who visit this site we give you greeting and wish you joy of the day!
We are Sir Gervase Lucas' Company - The Belvoir Cormorants!
Once that name was an anathema to the officers and servants of the Parliament.
Let us make it so again!
There were few units during the Civil War with such unique aliases and make no mistake
- it was not obtained the easy way like Rupert's “Bluecoats” or Newcastles
“Lambs” merely from the coats on their backs, it was well earned - the hard way.
It wasn‘t a glib self-styling concocted by Lucas for those he commanded, it was
an invention of his enemies adopted in the face of the swift, daring and damaging actions
of the Belvoir garrison, the “flying column”. There was a lot more to fighting
the four years of the First Civil War than turning up at the half dozen or so major field engagements.
Lucas' continual and wide-ranging raids down from his craggy stronghold constituted a major
and concerted campaign in the East Midlands. His men were hardened through constant skirmishing
and harassment. Effective resistance was so difficult to formulate that they were likened to
diving cormorants swooping from the rocks onto helpless fish. The sobriquet stuck - and you
don't get a nickname like that unless your actions and your notoriety deserve it.
Belvoir Castle sits high on a rocky outcrop in what is now
a backwater but during the Civil Wars was a vital strategic point. For
Charles I it kept open his lines of communication from Oxford to Newark and for Parliament it dominated their supply
lines from Leicester to the Capital. When the fortress finally fell in 1646 there was rejoicing in the
streets of London.
The Belvoir Cormorants must have revelled in their infamy and so do we. We are a vibrant Company and
relish our nom de plume - we are dedicated to putting the vilainous Belvoir Cormorants back on the map!
God save the King!
