The Sealed Knot Society is an English Civil War reenactment society. It was formed in February 1968 at a meeting of six people at the Mitre Hotel, Oxford. They included Brigadier Peter Young DSO MC, a commando leader in the Second World War, an historian and the Head of Military History at Sandhurst. The meeting came about following the publication of his book on the Battle of Edgehill in 1967. To launch it an exhibition had been set up at the Castle Inn, Edgehill on the 325th anniversary of the battle. It was the interest shown here that led to the meeting at the Mitre. It was decided to call the new organization 'The Sealed Knot' after the secret society formed by six leading royalists in 1653 to plot the overthrow of Cromwell's government and restore King Charles II to the throne. Peter Young (sometimes referred to as 'Bear', 'the Old Man' or simply 'the Brig') became the Knot's Captain Generall. Initially, the Sealed Knot was styled the 'Society of Cavaliers' and a parade was organized at Frimley in July 1968 at which about forty people turned up in various forms of period costume. Following this first 'muster' a battle re-enactment was arranged at Edgehill that October, with thunder flashes representing the Roundhead opposition! This was so successful that members flooded in, with the next muster being at Basing House in March 1969. For the first time a small Roundhead opposition was fielded, commanded by Peter Young's friend and fellow historian, John Adair. On 1st April 1970 the 'Roundhead Association' became an official section of the Sealed Knot.
It was not long before the name was changed to 'The Sealed Knot Society of Cavaliers and Roundheads'. The Society was registered as an Educational Charitable Trust on 17th June 1971 and incorporated as a company registered by guarantee entitled 'The Sealed Knot Limited'.
The early 1970s, while it was a period of growth for the Sealed Knot, was also a period of some turbulence, with elements of the membership, on both roundhead and royalist side, seeking a degree of autonomy of action that sat uneasily with the way in which the Sealed Knot was run. On 1st April 1974, by mutual agreement, the Roundhead Association left the Sealed Knot, although many of its members remained within the Sealed Knot. Meanwhile the 'King's Army of the West', which in 1973 adopted the shorter title 'King's Army', had been operating as a de facto 'splinter group'. It was established in 1972 by Count Nikolai Tolstoy, its founder members being mostly members of Sir Bevill Grenvile's regiment who broke away from the Sealed Knot. The Sealed Knot attempted a rapprochement with the King's Army in 1973, inviting a contingent to the Naseby muster and supporting the King's Army at its Nunney Castle muster. Eventually, in 1979, the 'English Civil War Society' was formed as an umbrella organisation for the Roundhead Association and King's Army. Meanwhile, the Sealed Knot continued to grow and develop as a unified society for members of both royalist and parliamentary inclination.
In 1977, the year of the Silver Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, Peter Young formed a special ceremonial corps, the Yeomen of the Knot. In 1984 the Society was granted a coat of arms by the College of Heralds. Peter Young died in 1988 and in 1990 a memorial window to him was dedicated in the church of St. Mary, Ripple.
Administration and Governance
The central administrative body for the Society is its Board of Directors, originally called the Inner Council. Following the incorporation of the Society on 17 June 1971 a set of formal minutes of the Inner Council/Board of Directors was maintained [SKO1]. The Memorandum and Articles of Association incorporated the organisation as 'The Sealed Knot Limited'. The stated objects were: 'To promote research into and the study of and public interest in history'. In October 1972 two sub-committees of the Inner Council were formed: the Army Council (under Peter Young, Captain Generall) and the Business Committee (under George Stevenson, Chairman). The Memorandum and Articles was amended and reissued in 1980. On 23 August 2014 the Sealed Knot AGM approved a resolution from the Board of Directors that, to avoid confusion, the term 'Inner Council' in the Memorandum & Articles of Association be replaced with the term 'Board of Directors'.
By February 1991 the Sealed Knot had evolved to such an extent that it now had quite an elaborate administrative structure. Under the Inner Council (eighteen elected and six appointed directors) and the Policy Committee (Chairman and ex-officio members) there were six sections: Military (under the Adjutant Generall), Administration (Company Secretary), Finance (Treasurer), Musters (Muster Master Generall), Marketing (Public Relations Officer) and the Board of Safety. The 'Military' section included all the armies and the Living History Committee. The Safety section included the Sealed Knot Medical Service. Increasingly the term 'Inner Council' was dropped in favour of the somewhat less grand 'Board of Directors'.
