Monday 6 September 2010

Lombardy men at arms




As part of completing my French forces, I've added two more bases of men at arms mounted on armoured horses, who can be used as Lombards for the battle of Vernuil.

For the 1424 campaign, Charles VII had raised a large contingent of Lombard mercenaries, contracted to a Milanese captain called 'Le Borgne Caqueran'. The rationale for the armoured horsemen was to counter and break the English defensive positions and longbows, as they had apparently achieved in 1423 against a Burgundian force at La Buissiere.


At Vernuil the French may have had at least 500 and possibly upto 2,000 such mounted troops. Although there is debate about whether they were positioned on the wings or in the centre of the French army, their initial charge successfully broke the English line (although not win the day). More figures may therefore be needed for any refight of the battle; but I do have more castings and already have some similar ones completed.

The man at arms on the grey horse is a part-painted figure from Oliver James, which I've finished off and the others are done by me - all Perrys AO range.











6 comments:

Sire Godefroy said...

Love their somewhat clean appearance. It really looks the part. Well done, again! Must get back to my own 1400's, so thanks for the inspiration.

Cheers
SG

Bedford said...

I love them!

The Lombards will be well represented on the tabletop as i've been working on some too :O)

Darrell.

Stuart said...

Thought you might like this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIvsBI0SgI

There's a reference to Verneuil about halfway through.

Stuart

painterman said...

Darrell - looking forward to seeing yours...oh er misses..!
Stuart - many thanks for the link, I've not seen this series before (no cable TV), looks interesting and wonder if its on DVD? I'll look it out.

Stuart said...

Unfortunately it's not available on DVD as far as I know. which is a damn shame as it was really good!

Bedford said...

I've got the series on VHS- recorded at the time on C4.

I could lend it to you Simon if you still have a VHW player(?).

Darrell.