I have an uncompleted MESBG Battle Companies campaign to finish, the “trials of Khabaal” but I am going to leave that to one side for now, I have two ongoing projects, one is a recent foray into the 15th century, the other is a lifelong project, my own set of rules for 19th century naval warfare.
Margana was great fun, it was however, a complete distraction from what I was doing and happened because I discovered a great set of rules and just had to play them. It’s that aspect of this hobby that keeps it fresh and relevant. One minute I am scouting along the borders of Mordor, the next I am whirled away into a completely different fantasy setting and then before I know it I am at sea in the 19th century boarding an enemy frigate or plodding across a muddy field in the 15th century carrying my trusty yew bow.
All because clever people are constantly thinking about better and more fun ways to have a good time with toy soldiers and a box of dice.
Fantastic Battles is such a game. However, some of the old school stuff can be just as much fun and with a few tweaks can be just as innovative and challenging.
Never Mind the Billhooks by Andy Callan, available through Wargames Illustrated, is just such a game. Billhooks is a small battle/large skirmish game and is all about the Wars of the Roses, the inter-factional warfare of Medieval England in the 15th century. Andy has reached back in time to some of the earliest game mechanisms utilising ideas from the Featherstone era of Tony Bath and further back to the grandaddy of all wargames, H.G.Wells.
However, the game also incorporates more modern ideas, the Too Fat Lardies being another influence, and features card play and random player activation which gives it a fresh feel and guarantees each game will be different.
I came across this game last year shortly before my horrible near death Covid experience, my first reading of the rules convinced me this was a game I wanted to play and my lovely wife bought me a small army for Christmas! Hooray!
The Wars of the Roses is a horribly tangled, poorly recorded, historical monstrosity of a conflict, or more correctly, several conflicts spanning thirty years of bloodshed, treachery and slaughter. Involving small privately raised armies sporting colourful livery, it lends itself perfectly to wargaming. It’s an era of open battles (there are no tiresome sieges) between small armies mostly composed of infantry armed in a similar manner where today’s ally is tomorrow’s opponent and battles are won or lost in an instant often as a result of treachery.
One aspect of this war that appeals to me is the local history element of these conflicts. Like the Civil wars of the 17th century, the Wars of the Roses were fought across the whole nation. Unlike those later wars however, the general public were mostly unaffected by them, as campaigns were of short duration, they rarely denuded crops or livestock and they mostly involved small professional armies and the nobility.
So, I began to assemble my army! I considered that the army had to fulfil several prime functions. It had to contain local elements as I envisaged a campaign based in the area where I live utilising the Dawns and Departures set of rules from Too Fat Lardies. It had to be “generic” enough that it could represent either or both main factions Yorkist and Lancastrian. It had to be big enough, 250+ figures, so that I could field both sides as I have no doubt the majority of my gaming will be solo.
I live in Bristol and although there were few major conflicts in the area, Bristolians played a part in the local battle at Nibley Green and local lords fought in some of the bigger battles too, several of them switching sides as it suited their interests. Margaret of Anjou passed through Bristol during the Tewkesbury campaign bringing with her the usual intrigue that followed this lady. More about this in another blog.
Weapons and tactics changed little over the period although personalities came and went. I settled on the Tewkesbury/Barnett period circa 1470 as I wanted to incorporate the goings on at Nibley Green as being the most local battle of any significance.
With the help of a very good friend, I began researching local lords, I defined local as within 50 miles, and started to compile a list using Freezy waters data base and books as well as Google of course.
https://www.findagrave.com/ is a great website which often has a short history of the interred and so is
https://www.achurchnearyou.com/ our experience was that the churchwardens were only too happy to help.
The aim was to discover their probable standard and livery as well as find out more about their history and involvement in the wars. We planned to do this by identifying a Lord then visiting local castles, houses and churches where they were known to frequent or to have been buried. Local churches often date back beyond the 15th century, remain unchanged and can be a great source of information. They can prove to be a treasure trove! The Lockdowns greatly hampered our progress but we were able to unearth a few treasures and our mission is far from over.
Our first catch came to us from Freezywaters Publications Heraldic Banners of the Wars of the Roses vol 1 by Thomas Coveney and was very local indeed! Sir John Barre of Barrs Court! This was a surprise to us both as Barrs Court was well known to us a as a local pub that we have both frequented at various times over the past 40+years. What we didn’t know, was that the pub was adjacent to a small green that was bordered by what turns out to be a moat and back in the 15th century this was occupied by a large manor house wherein, for a short time at least, dwelled the aforementioned Sir John.
The freezywaters series of books are inavluable for this kind of research and from them we composed a small book of likely candidates, more about this in the next blog.
From https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/John_Barre
“Sir John was a son of Sir Thomas de la Barre and Alice Talbot, daughter of Richard Talbot, 4th Baron Talbot. The Barre family owned houses and lands in Rotherwas in Herefordshire , Knebworth House in Hertfordshire and Barr's Court in Gloucestershire .
Sir John represented Hertfordshire as Knight of the Shire in Parliament 1445-1447, 1459 and 1470-71. He also sat in Parliament for Gloucestershire in 1450/51 and at the same time served as Sheriff of Hertfordshire.
In the mid-1450s he was considered a supporter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, from whom he also received an annual payment of £ 20. From 1459 Sir John turned to the House of Lancaster and fought for Henry VI at the Battle of Northampton in 1460. After Edward IV's coronation in 1461, orders were issued to arrest Sir John, but this did not succeed.
In the following years Sir John Barre must have come to terms with the ruling House of York and received pardon, since he fought for Edward IV in 1471 at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury in the later course of the Wars of the Roses.
Sir John Barre died in 1483 and has his final resting place in All Saints Church in Clehonger, Hertfordshire.”
All very well and his involvement in the great battles of 1471 makes him perfect for my army, but it does not tell us much about either his standard or his livery.
He has two entries in Freezywaters. The first is for Gloucestershire at Barrs Court which is described as below
Sir John Barry of Barrs Court
Arms Sable 2 shin bones Argent in saltire dexter uppermost , died 1483. His widow died shortly after his death and as there was no male heir passed on to the nearest relatives who were the Newton family.
Battles Northampton (L) Barnet (y) Tewkesbury(Y) -Poleaxed
The second entry is for Sir John Barre of Rotherwas which became his title following his second marriage to Joan Rigge
Arms
Gules 2 bars compony Argent and Sable Lable Or
https://barrscourtmoat.wordpress.com/tag/barre/
https://herefordshirepast.co.uk/churches/all-saints-church-2/
But what livery? Black and white from the saltire or red from the Rotherwas arms? I could find no relevant family crest to provide more information so we decided to visit the churches associated with Sir John to look for clues. Churches often have coats of arms in the window glass or plaques with family crests and can provide clues about possible livery. We had a rather fruitless visit to St Marys of Bitton which was closed due to the lockdown, however we gained entry by accidentally being confused with a documentary film unit that had arrived to film the church. It was about 20 minutes before the mistake was realised and we were very politely ejected.
One thing that was of interest was this coat of arms in one of the church windows. I found this in the book Wars of the Roses Heraldry by Mike Jones and Bob Pritchard and it belongs to the Babington family of Dethick, Derbyshire. Sir John Babington was a Yorkist killed at Bosworth and Sir William Babington of Dethick, a Lancastrian, both had this coat of arms which goes to show just how this war divided families and how Lords often owned manors, and claimed revenue, far from their family home.
Clehonger is a little hidden gem. A sweet little 13th century church built on the site of a Norman one. Two sweet little gems of volunteers agreed to meet us and open it especially for our perusal, bless them!
The church contains a pair of memorial brasses of Sir John de Barre and his wife Joan, widow of Robert Greyndour.
This lovely ancient building is showing signs of neglect and
underfunding and unfortunately is slowly beginning to fall apart.From the church’s own guide book written by Geoffry Snewin in 1970, the pictures are my own.
THE BARRE
BRASSES
In 1956 it was
wisely decided to remove the two brasses from their original position on a
stone slab on the floor of the chapel and place them on a wooden board which
was then attached to the west wall. However in 1995 after expert advice both on
security and preservation the brasses were remounted on a new wooden board which
had been treated to prevent a re-occurrence of corrosion of the brasses from
certain acids in the original wooden mounting and at the same time the
fastenings were improved and hidden to provide better security.
The male figure represents Sir John Barre, founder of the chantry. He is wearing armour popular about 1472. His head rests on his tilting helm with a talbot head crest, and his feet on a lion. He died in 1482-3. Next to Sir John Barre is his second wife, Joan, widow of Robert Greyndour. Joan who died in 1484 is wearing a low cut dress of the period, round her waist is a girdle at the end of which is an acorn. On her head is a particularly beautiful example of a late 15th century butterfly head dress, and at her feet are two dogs. It is probable that the two memorials were laid down during their actual life time. This was by no means an uncommon practice of the period, or indeed of later times.”
A detail from the brass showing the couter to be fluted suggesting very fashionable, expensive armour for its time.
Next
to the brasses hangs a small plaque with two shields showing coats of arms one
allegedly that of de Barre the other that of the Pembrugges, the family that De
Barre married into.
This is allegedly the coat of arms of De Barre following his marriage to Joan Brugge however experts have since said that it is erroneous, showing a marriage of a female de Barre to a male Pembrugge and may have been a replica that was wrongly copied in 1650 a mistake that was perpetuated by a more modern artist in 1956!
All very interesting but leaves me no nearer
to discovering de Barres livery! I decide his standard will be as the Rotherwas
one and he will also have a battle flag showing the crossed shins, like a
proper Britsle pirate, aaaar!
The framing of this rather simple but lovely window at Clehonger made me consider how colours and patterns might be used for clothing the gentry of this period. Most windows from this era depict a religious scene and are full of people, brightly coloured and have been donated by a local Lord so often incorporate his arms. The simplicity of this is striking.
It is apparently (1970 guide book!) a 19th century reproduction of the original window but I like the colours and the pattern so I may use them to decorate the gown a of a gentleman.
Having got no nearer a decision concerning his livery I decided to start painting other contingents for my army. I wanted Sir William Berkely of Berkely for his role at Nibley Green
Sir William de Berkeley 2nd Baron Berkeley
Arms Gules a chevron between 10 crosses formy Argent
Battles Nibley Green, Bosworth(T)? Barnet (Y)? Tewkesbury(Y) -Poleaxed
Livery red and white/green and yellow (after Bosworth?)/red?
He was known as “waste-all” as he lost so much land and money is pursuit of the King’s favour and titles. More about him in a later blog.
And
I very quickly knocked up himself, his standard bearer and a musician from
Perry Plastics Bills and Bows
Berkely is perfect for my needs being local, a bit of a character,a schemer, who allegedly provided troops for one side at Bosworth and money for the other! So he can sit in either camp!
I painted a company of bills and one of bows with the Gules and Argent livery that I understood his men to have displayed (from Freezywater data base)
However, such is the state of my Long Covid brain fog that it wasn’t until I had painted all 24 figures that I realised that I had actually painted them Argent and Gules.
And then, after some more research decided that his livery was almost certainly all red.
…in such a circumstance it’s no good me saying to myself “no one else will notice, nobody could possibly care” there’s no way I can allow that to happen, I will know!
So I painted up a hero, reasonably local, who did dress his men in Argent and Gules and that man was Walter Deveroux of Woebely, latterly Lord Ferrers, a Yorkist through and through and a real scrapper
and I painted him a standard bearer too.
And I wanted an opponent of a similar peerage to Deveroux who fought on the opposing Lancastrian side so I picked Sir Henry Holland, infamous scoundrel, a bully, an intemperate man who dressed well and died shabbily.
We shall hear more about him in a future blog
I couldn’t resist having a go at this sumptuous cloak.
It took two sittings and made my eyes water!
I based his cloak on this painting from the 15th century of the Lords of Exeter and Salisbury
And guess what? He dressed his men in Argent and Gules to so I knocked up another two-dozen white and red bows and bills!
I like to freehand my standards, its is rather labour intensive but immensely satisfying! I may not think so if I ever tackle Montague!
Sir Thomas Talbot’s standard bearer. Talbot, Viscount L’Isle, was Berkely’s opponent at Nibley Green, which I will cover in a future blog.
Both forces at the battle were a raggedy arsed mix of miners, famers and ne’er do wells as well as a small retinue from each household. I plan to knock up a group of generic ruffian peasant types to mix into some more regular troops to represent them. The ruffians may prove useful in peasant uprising scenarios or as angry villagers for the proposed campaign.
Viewed from the front, the standard of my painting can be seen to be not so standard on this standard!
These lions certainly lack uniformity and some of them look as if they are at a rave!
The whole force arrayed! I have knocked up some of the raggedy arsed , some skirmishers and a company of Men at Arms since taking this picture. Next blog a "it's a Load of Bill'ooks!"
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| The Barre Brasses |
