AFFECTIONATE FRIENDS, HONOURABLE ENEMIES

Every wargamer (and hopefully every right minded person)  would agree war is a pretty beastly affair to be avoided at all costs, Civil War even more so, but friendship and honour can be maintained throughout conflict as this letter (probably the most famous missive of the Civil War) testifies.

Sent by Sir William Waller, Commander of the Parliamentarian Army

 to his friend of many years, Sir Ralph Hopton, Royalist general.

To my noble friend, Sir Ralph Hopton at Wells

Sir

the experience I have had of your worth and the happiness I have enjoyed in your friendship are wounding considerations, when I look upon this present distance between us. Certainly my affection to you is so unchangeable that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship in your person. But I must be true to the cause wherein I serve...
...That great God, which is the searcher of my heart, knows with what a sad sense I go upon this service, and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy; but I look upon it as the work of the Lord, which is enough to silence all passion in me. The God of peace in his good time send us peace, and in the meantime fit us to receive it. We are both upon this stage and must act those parts that are assigned to us in this tragedy. Let us do it in a way of honour and without personal animosities. Whatsoever the issue be, I shall never willingly relinquish the dear title of...

your affectionate friend and faithful servant
William Waller 

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Lansdown where the friends faced each other in combat after fighting together for the Protestant Cause in the Thirty Years War.

Sir William Waller in 54mm. Figure by Del Prado

Sir Ralph Hopton is a Peipp Miniaturen figure.