Scots Artillery

James IV's army continues to grow.

To support the existing pike I thought it was about time they had some artillery to represent the 'Seven Sisters' which battered English castles with ease on the Flodden campaign though through circumstances not of James' choosing performed less well in the field. I also wanted to represent James' Senior Gunner, Robert Borthwick.

Borthwick was initially taken into royal service for his abilities as a founder, he was put to use repairing the existing arsenal and then founding new pieces along with a team of six French gunners including a Jean Vielneuf. 

Borthwick's talent was recognised by generous grants of land from the King, some of which are still held by his descendants. From the time of his appointment in terms of pay and status it seems that Borthwick was the senior gunner in James' household but he is not officially referred to as the Master Gunner until 1515.

That title seems to have gone to Henry Lord Sinclair of Fife who was appointed in 1510/11 and was killed at Flodden, he may be the 'Master gonner of Scotland' who according to Hall's chronicle was slain by the English Guns in the opening artillery duel. That a senior gunner was seen to fall appears possible and this may be the candidate. What is sure is that it was not Borthwick.

Alongside Borthwick at Edinburgh castle there was John Drummond a cartwright and gun carriage maker with 7 workmen under him. Assisting were Robert Barker and Robert Scott, both Smiths assisting in the making of ironworks and fittings for the carriages.

Gunpowder was milled and mixed by a Wolf Urnebrig of Nuremberg. Also on the Flodden campaign were another two from German lands, Master Hans and Jacob who assisted with Gunfounding in Glasgow.

Records record other gunners with Scots names such as Seton, Wardlaw, Anderson and Lawson. 

For the Flodden campaign records indicate that Borthwick had 26 men under him to 'bere his chargeouris' but unfortunately no detailed list of the gunners survives.  Of note also are that a number of 'gentlemen volunteers' also took an interest in these dark arts and assisted. What is clear is though they had experience in manufacture and maintenance of artillery their experience as crew in siege and on the field would yet be put to the test.

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There are a lot of 28mm heavy artillery pieces out there to choose from. I was keen to use guns that were different from the Nuremberg Pieces typical of Maximilian's artillery train;

The artillery train that accompanied James IV's invasion of England in 1513 consisted of five cannons, two culverins, four culverin pikmoyens, six culverin moyens and other smaller pieces not listed individually. The principal use for these guns was siege rather than in the field. All were pulled on the journey over the border by teams of oxen, horses, labourers and pioneers accompanied by carts of equipment and a crane in flat pack form.

I wanted rather to give the impression of the Flemish and French influence at James IV's foundries. The easy notion is to not paint the carriages red and black but the influence is also in the more slender designs and long barrels of the culverins as in these images of Flemish and French origin.

Flemish School, Meeting of Henry VIII & Maximilian, after 1513

Treatise on the Art of War, Beraud Stuart, 1508 (unknown artist)

I considered the demi culverins from Steel Fist Miniatures perfect for this brief. These are available in two packs, each with an interchangeable barrel and crew either firing or manhandling the gun.

The barrels are either Imperial or French however I contacted Steel Fist and asked if it was possible to have the barrel without the designs around the base and Simon happily obliged providing 3D printed barrels sans design, result !

The guns are very cleanly cast and required very little cleaning and filing, painting up very nicely. I opted to paint the wheels a lighter wood than the carriage for difference and as wheels were often replaced - especially if guns are being brought over the border with considerable effort.

The crews are taken from those that come with each gun along with the crew from the Peasant Wars cart gun, some standing peasants from the same range also made for great labourers. I also added a Tudor dolly standing in as a gunner. In addition there are also two old Citadel gunners which do still crop up on eBay from time to time. I'd had these for a while and they fitted in perfectly.

I used a range of figures for the guns in this manner as I wanted to represent the experienced Flemish and French gunners of James IV's court alongside their Scots Master Gunner, Robert Borthwick and his Scots labourers and men of his retinue.

Here's the first gun and mixed crew, Wardlaw, Seton and another assisting Master Hans perhaps?

The gun barrels were painted using the Burning Gold triad set from Wargames Foundry. The shade tone was applied over a black undercoat. This was washed with a mix of Bay brown shade, GW contrast Gore Grunta Fur and a little water after which the shade, mid and highlight tones were drybrushed then painted until they looked about right. The barrel designs picked took this really well.

No livery as such but an obvious difference in the well paid continental gunners and poor Scots labourers, some wear livery badges.

Below is the second gun and mixed crew. This includes James IV's Master Gunner, Robert Borthwick along with two gunners in his white and black livery and a German gunner - Wolf Urnebrig i'd like to think.

The extra bits (barrels, cannon balls, bucket, spade with doublet) are from Wargames Foundry and The Assault Group. Prior to basing I paint the bottom of each figure in an earth tone, this really helps to blend the figures in when basing.

I have hit and miss luck when painting black. I usually use black on a black undercoat for a neat flat colour base which I then highlight with incremental blue/grey tones, not always with success.

For Borthwick's coat and hat I tried a different method based on a few online tutorials; Black undercoat, Dark Blue-Grey shade which was a mix of dark blue and black. The mid tone was the shade tone plus a little more white and dark blue and more again for the highlight. You'll then have what looks like a shaded grey coat, then the magic happens.

Over this apply a 50/50 mix of GW Nuln oil and black with a drop or two of water, leave to dry and repeat with another two or three washes until you're happy with it then a final highlight of blue / grey. 

I was quite happy with it and shall try it again when the opportunity arises.

Also new for me was trying Wargames Foundry's triad set of British Redcoat which I applied a diluted wash of GW Contrast Blood Angels Red to the shade tone then re-applied the shade tone as a mid-tone then the mid and highlight tones from the triad with a final highlight of mid-tone orange. A really nice finish.

Prior to basing I then mixed up the crews.

Then on to basing, each gun has a 120x60mm base from the lovely people at Warbases, the tufts are from Gamers Grass which though a little more expensive are very much worth it, there's a huge range and the various sets complement each other well, you can easily achieve a natural layered effect tailored to climate (these are highland and moorland sets combined).

I intentionally didn't add any gabions or mantlets as I have some siegework bases, see below.

Then for some fun with the camera, here they are set up in a siege arrangement.

'Gentlemen volunteers' taking an interest

I hope you enjoyed that, this was a great project and I look forward to gaming with them.

Bye for now

Stuart

Scots Pike part III

 

I'm very happy to be unveiling another batch of Scots pike. These do take a little while and are something of a labour of love but one which has improved with each iteration.

I think the first unit developed an approach, the second honed that and now with these i've refined it.

The main driver in this batch has been the release of late medieval dollies and heads from Steel fist miniatures as well as their new(ish) Swiss marching pike one of which I used for the standard bearer as well as using some of their heads.

These dollies and heads make for relatively quick conversion straight out of the box for gentlemen and men at arms in the front ranks. There are also a few dollies with knee length gambesons which I thought would represent the Gordons from Aberdeenshire and Inverness under Huntly's command rather well. 

As with my approach in my existing collection of Scots in this batch I aimed to have an armoured caparison in the front ranks through to light / no armour in the rear ranks. This can be seen in this image when I was abut 2/3 done;

It feels like with each batch i'm getting a bit more authentic and better at an overall image. There are a handful of gentlemen in fine armour, a French captain, a Galloglass, a few in livery coats of Huntly's blue and yellow and the vast majority in a mix of light armour. A bit of a muted palette and a bit more blackened armour features here too. This really makes the faces pop, which i must add a few unshaven types to but always forget.

I did these in batches of 8 or thereabouts, here's a few development photographs to see some of the individual characters;

The Piper is from Pete's flags, available via ebay or direct contact with Pete.

In this batch I also wanted to show the St Andrew's cross on a red background, At this juncture if I understand correctly the white saltire was the adopted Scots field sign but the background was yet to be standardised as there are examples in black, blue and as here in red.

This was inspired from a 1503 image from a Book of Hours belonging to Margaret Tudor commissioned by James IV;

The Treasurer's accounts detail banners made in preparation for the 1513 campaign, It's mentioned that the St Andrew's banner was on blue taffeta this was likely a saltire but may have been iconography.

Interestingly the King's banner is mentioned as being red (rather than the lion rampant on gold) which, given the above source may refer to this banner and/or the heraldic Unicorn standard above;

 'August 1513

Item, for four ells of blue taffeta to make Saint Andrew’s and Saint Margaret’s banners, price of the ell 20s; Total £4

Item, for four ells of red taffeta to be the king’s banner, price of the ell 20s; Total £4'

For the figure I added some greenstuff to the arms of this Steel fist miniatures marching Swiss pikeman to make a fine slashed doublet for the bearer;

In so doing It did make me think this approach would work really well for a unit of Picard Pike.

Here they are based up;

Advancing alongside their compatriots;

As one unit (108 figures)

With Galloglass in support

Advancing toward the English 

Fabulous images, they really are quite a sight, you can almost hear the pipes and war cries.

As I mentioned, there's more to add to these, Huntly will be added rather soon I hope and then it'll be on to the next batch of 36 at some point. The next batch I suspect may be command heavy, James IV is notable by his absence alongside some other key commanders. 

Really enjoying creating this army. A tragic beauty to them which just makes it all the more alluring.

Until the next time, cheerio for now 

All the best

Stuart

English Bill & Durham Knights for Flodden

This post marks the start of a somewhat inevitable addition to the collection, some English troops proper to the Flodden Campaign and suitable for other various border clashes of the period.

My collection of Scots is slowly building and I'm keen to start a Northern addition to my existing English army rather than just using the same figures I already have.

I feel that the army mustered to defend the border would have looked a little different to that sent to France and wanted to see what I could create to effect my take on that.

To achieve a borders look I have increased the proportion of jacks and brigandines to coats and of the latter included both plain white coats and more contemporary white guarded green coats. There's also some blackened armour in there and a variety of poses blending different figures.

Arms, bodies and heads are from Perry Miniatures wars of the roses plastics along with some Tudor dollies and later medieval heads and bodies from Steel Fist Miniatures which include some very lovely bellows faced sallets. I really could have gone a bit mad with these as I like the look but less is definitely more here.

The unit includes some dollies sent to me by Pete of Pete's Flags to which I added arms from the Perry wars of the roses set. These are part of a Flodden range that Pete is working upon, this is still in the funding stage with no release data as yet. I'm very grateful to have these, I really like the jacks over coats look.

I really should also mention a recent source for painting that I cannot recommend more highly;

The Typical Tudor is a reference for those interested in reconstructing garments of the Tudor period, detailing how clothes were made, what they were made of, who wore them and of particular interest it contains some invaluable colour references for all garments. 

To give the unit a bit more identity other than just being Northern I then started thinking about potential commanders for an accompanying unit of knights and banner bearer.

It was a bit of a no brainer for me really as hailing from County Durham myself I couldn't resist the temptation to represent the 2000 or so men of the Palatinate of Durham who served in the vanguard at Flodden under the control of Sir Thomas Howard.

Command for the Durham contingent under the banner of St. Cuthbert

Lord Lumley (L) and William Hylton (R) are in surcoats

Various sources state these men were led by Lord John Lumley and Sir William Bulmer under the ancient banner of St Cuthbert. 

In 2012, the banner was painstakingly recreated at a cost of £35k (you read that right) to adorn St Cuthbert's Tomb in Durham Cathedral.

I've since seen this a number of times and I recommend a visit if you're in the area to see the recreation and stand in the place where the banner was handed to Howard prior to his march to the border.

This proved very useful for my own creation as someone else had already done all of the hard work in researching its appearance and dimensions, though not an exact copy i'm pleased with how my take on it turned out.

My friend Oli donated an old Essex miniatures medieval figure from which I salvaged the cross and the bearer is from the Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses range. The banner was hand-painted which was quite a task but I listened to some interesting podcasts on the life of St Cuthbert and channelled my inner medieval scribe. It was an enjoyable creative exercise. 

To accompany the banner I started looking into any recorded nobles and knights from the Durham Palatine who were present at Flodden.

Lumley I was aware of largely from some memorable school trips to Lumley Castle. There are many Lumleys and it was interesting to read that this particular one was a mere 20 years old at Flodden and was knighted on the field, the Popinjay (parrot) heraldry was an interesting point as well which sealed his entry to be represented in miniature.

I was also familiar with Bulmer, who exists in my collection represented on horseback commanding a body of mounted archers. Whilst it was tempting to represent him dismounted I was eager to see if I could add some further Durham notables and so the leap into the internet rabbit hole began.

First stop was the excellent online Flodden eco museum which features an interesting page dedicated to Sir William Gascoigne. 

That's the first addition to the bag, within this others were mentioned as follows;

In the document known as “The Trewe Encounter”, which describes the battle itself, Surrey is said to have divided his army into two sections, the vanguard being nine thousand strong under the command of the Lord Admiral, his son, whilst Surrey led the rearward. Sir William Gascoigne is named as being in the breast of the vanguard under the banner of St Cuthbert along with Lords Lumley and Hylton amongst “diverse others”.

On the Battlefield Trust website, in the pages devoted to the Battle of Flodden, Robert White in his Cambridge History of the Renaissance is quoted thus: “The [English army] was separated into two bodies or wards, nearly equal in number, each having a centre and a right and left wing – the foreward being on the right and rear or mainward on the left. 

The former was commanded by Lord Thomas Howard the admiral, with Henry Lord Clifford, usually called “the Shepherd Lord” aged sixty, Richard Nevill Lord Latimer, Lord Scrope of Upsal, Sir Christopher Ward, Sir John Everingham, Sir Nicholas Appleyard, Sir William Sydney of Penshurst, Thomas Lord Conyers of Sockburn, John Lord Lumley, William Baron of Hylton, Sir William Bulmer and others, being the power of Bishoprick under the banner of Saint Cuthbert, Robert Lord Ogle, Sir William Gascoigne the elder of Leasingcroft, Sir John Gower and divers gentlemen of Yorkshire and Northumberland, with their tenants and followers, also the mariners brought by the admiral himself, the whole amounting to about nine thousand men,”

There's lots to go on from here so it was a case of picking one, I settled upon William Baron of Hylton, in particular for this interesting detail attributed to the battle of Flodden;

'In the account rolls of the masters of the cell of Monkwearmouth there are frequent notices of gifts bequeathed to that church as “mortuaries” by the barons of Hylton. The mortuary banner, standard, and coat armour of Baron William Hylton, who died in 1505 or 1506, were removed a few years later from Wearmouth to grace the walls of the Cathedral of Durham. Here they remained until July, 1513, when they were lent by the prior to the then baron, another William, who, in the following October, fought in his sire’s armour, and beneath his sire’s banner, on the field of Flodden.'

Of worthy mention is Hylton Castle, within which there are twenty arms in the entrance hall of notable families of Durham, Scotland and Northumberland. I must visit next time i'm in the area.

Here's Hylton and Lumley together with knights in armour from the first decade of the sixteenth century. I particularly like the pointing figure, the body is a dolly from Steelfist Miniatures which matches effigies from 1500+ I matched this with an appropriate sallet and painted the cross of St George on the breastplate.

Quite a mean looking bunch. There are further names I'm aware of, Sir Ralph Bowes, just down the road from my hometown, another young soldier, knighted on the field is also worth a look. Then I found further names mentioned by name and county on the Flodden Muster site. 

Lots to think about there, I really could have some fun doing a deep dive into this but, as with my choice of Scots commanders I equally want the figures to have some diversity so I'll start researching some of these individually to see if any were career soldiers of the era.

Further bases of Durham foot knights could be added to continue this indulgence......No Stuart stay on the task, get one of the Howards done at least ! haha, i do love a tangent.

Here's the unit with some more ranks from the collection and archers in support;

Hopefully that was an interesting read and shed some light on the men of Durham who answered the call to arms. I certainly enjoyed the rabbithole and learning more of my home county.

Bye for now

Stuart