A Tudor Retinue For 1513 Lion Rampant

King Henry VIII was a very uneasy fellow, what with the Cornish  and the Northern English and the Old English and Irish and the Scots and the French. He didn't get on with the wives either.  I think of him when anyone says 'Uneasy the head that wears a Crown'.   That said he had an interesting army so let’s have a Tudor parade.

The royal cronies better known as the elite King’s Spears-formidable.  These are all 15mm Roundway Miniatures conversions.

The Demi Lancers who tended to do much of the heavy fighting.

Border Horse, light cavalry-dangerous when they want to be.

Two unit of Archers for the Twilight of the Longbow.

 A unit of Bill Men led by Algernon Percy.

Irish Kern for raiding and skirmishing and costing the King wages for each warrior and pay for a servant for every two of them.  Fetching and carrying? Us? No,no,no...You want something burned down, some new cows? just say the word!

Here are some of the conversions together. 

Finally the whole Retinue ready for mischief. 

The one group of native English, or Welsh, soldiers I’ve not shown so far are the mounted archers.  I do have some but they are not painted yet.  Also, as aficionados of Lion Rampant know there is no specific category to reflect their dragoon like abilities.  

I’m minded to have them move as Mounted Yeoman and shoot with six dice.  In melee, they fight with the full 12 dice as Mounted Yeoman.  I’ll represent them as a mix of mounted and foot figures on the same bases.  So fast and handy troops but don’t expect miracles from them.

The French Mounted Archers will get similar treatment but they will move and melee as Sergeants as they are better armoured.  They were also used to supporting the charge of the Gendarmes.

A reasonable balance in game terms I think. The English are faster but the French are slower but tougher in melee. 

As for shooting the six dice represent the arsing about of dismounting, allocating horse holders, remounting and whatever.

Hopefully on the table both sets of lads will be handy for seizing ground or delaying the enemy but certainly not proto tanks.  This may or may not work-we will see.

 

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.