Alexander Gordon 3rd Earl of Huntly 1460 ish -1524

Another commander to lead the ranks of Scots Pike, Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly.

Brief biography is here on Wikipedia.

Of particular note, Huntly was a favourite of both James III and James IV. Despite significant involvement in a 1489 rebellion against the latter he managed to quickly gain the favour of James IV.

This was done primarily in becoming a key ally in subduing the Highlands and Islands to Royal control in raid and counter raid of the Donald Dubh rebellions of 1501-1505

For my interest, Huntly commanded the Scots left at the Battle of Flodden alongside Lord Home and saw comparatively good success in seeing off his opposite number. Huntly suggested they rejoin the action and aid James IV to which Home responded

 'the man does well this day who saves himself: we fought those who were opposed to us and beat them; let our other companies do the same.' 

Huntly and Home likely as a result of this decision survived the action but suspicion would be the undoing of Home in the years to come. In the aftermath of Flodden Huntly became a supporter of the Duke of Albany.

He was succeeded by his Grandson, George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly who would also see battle against the English at the Battle of Haddon Rigg.

You can see my representation of Home along with a brief history here.

At Flodden in 1513 Huntly commanded a combination of Borderers and Highlanders, the latter are perhaps not fully represented here but I wanted to have a Flodden bias for this base with armoured men and I can easily add highlanders around him when suitable figures come.

As he survived, there are some interesting gaming opportunities to represent Huntly's career from his subduing of the Highlands which really has got me thinking, dramatic skirmishes in fabulous terrain ! i feel a commission coming along-  through Flodden to his support for Albany.

I really like these Scots figures from Pete's Flags and Huntly was my first thought upon seeing this command group.

I've based him with figures carrying polearms so that he can be a bit more flexible and easily stand alone as a command base or be among other units of bladed polearms or pikes. The figures with halberds effectively acting as a colour guard 'in the manner of the Almains'

Here are some individual photographs of the command prior to basing.

There's a very loose colour scheme to the group based on those of Huntly's arms.

Figure is from Pete's Flags by direct contact (see ebay page), banner from Flags of War. The arms are from the Warlord Games Landsknecht plastics command.

Piper & Drummer, figures from Pete's Flags. The Drummer's Tartan plaid is loosely based on the 'Glen Affric' tartan, aka Scotland's oldest known tartan dated to the 16c

Earl Huntly, figure from Pete's flags.

Here's Huntly along with Home in my representation of the Scots left wing at Flodden. Armoured figures and command in the front ranks with borderers in the rear and highland Galloglass in support about to make contact with the English.

Huntly & Home's Highlanders & Borderers

It's a real treat seeing the command nestled among the pikes. I've tried to create some highlander pike figures via conversion in the last batch of Scots pike but wouldn't it be lovely if some specific figures were created?

And I need more, so many more. In the short to medium term I shall concentrate on some more command bases then possibly get my hands on some highland skirmishers and of course, in the long term I need to get kitbashing again to create more pikemen. Flodden is inching closer........if we ignore the many English personalities I also need to do !

I hope this was entertaining.

Until the next time

Stuart