Sunday 7 November 2010

The Anglican League in Devon

First I’d like to thank Andy Callan for the Landsnechts in Devon Campaign. In his original the mayor of Exeter was called Blackaber so it was a easy step to ‘Blackadder’ and the man leading the relief column ‘Darling’. As you can see we couldn’t keep that in the book.
The Bishop of Exeter was not a fighting man, but he did support the Church of England’s policy of calling for Edward and Mosley too go. He also lend his full secret support to the Devon Anglican League.
The men who made up the Anglican League leadership in Devon were working hard to build an organisation to rival the BUF and Devon and Exeter Farmers Rifles (DEFR). One of these men was the Mayor of Exeter, Edmond Blackadder.
It was early in the morning that the Bishop was dragged from his bed, bundled in to a car and driven north. Mayor Blackadder had betrayed the League, he was in fact a Royalist and had been working with the BUF. The Mayor had given the BUF enough information to allow them to arrest the Bishop and all the leading members of the Anglican League.
But the Anglican League were tipped off about the arrests and the Bishop and some others were able to escape. The remnants of the Anglican League fled north heading for the town of Barnstaple, those that arrived had tales of night time drives through the lanes of North Devon and gun fights with the BUF.
The BUF and Royalists moved north to destroy what was left of the Anglican League. They moved through Meshaw, but were themselves attacked by DEFR around South Molton. DEFR also attacked BUF positions in the south of Devon. This took the pressure off the Anglican League and gave them time to organise as more stragglers arrived. With so much of the BUF forces in the north, DEFR moved to cut them off from Exeter. The BUF found themselves fighting the Anglican League to there front and DERF on there flanks and rear.

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