Welcome Back to More Peril in Jeopardy-With added Kern

You may ask why are we having More Peril in Jeopardy?  Whither With Peril in Jeopardy?   Well, its a short and dull story so perhaps it's one for another time.  Meantime here's a link to the my old blog for your convenience, and one on the side bar for perpetuity.

http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/the-kings-spears.html 

And what of the promised Kern?  

 Here they are, made by QRF from their Tudor Range.  I've added some targets, and removed a basket work shield and turned a spear into a sword-otherwise they are as Chas and Geoff made them. 

The designer has got the clothes just right.  Irish shirts required a huge amount of cloth and were proscribed within the Pale along with many other things, laws and persons Gaelic.  

The figures we see here have unbuttoned their coat sleeves to allow their voluminous shirt sleeves to flow through.  It makes for a striking effect and has puzzled many a wargame figure designer and book illustrator. 

There is a, mostly, well informed debate about what yellowish colour these Saffron dyed garments actually were.  I've gone for a slightly worn campaigning look here.

 

I intend them for my 1513 games where they have a number of applications.Obviously they work for Ireland and also for Scots Highlanders, more of which shortly, and they can accompany Henry VIII to France.  

In Lion Rampant terms we might rate these lads as Fierce Foot.  They might be a band of Kern in Ireland or elsewhere.  This is also more or less, once plaids were set aside, how the bulk of a Highland Clan  would turn out for battle.  The Gaelic world was a continuum at this time.

The wealthier Highland clansman wore mail and/or Cotun and was an skilled archer as well as a good close combat fighter.  Quite often these fellows hired out as mercenary bands. The Western Isles were a regular supplier of fighting men.  Here are three takes on how they might look.

The successful mercenary band with everyone fully equipped and the serving folk, who could also fight, left in camp.

The mixed band with the serving folk forming a second line.

The Clan deployed for combat.

Let's finish on a translated extract from a contemporary poem taken from Berleth's lively book The Twilight Lords: 

You may tell a band of Kern
By the keenness of its edges

Irish and Scots Retinues will appear here shortly along with the finished Tudor and Valois Retinues.