The second unit of French infantry is done!
These are a different sort of archer to the ordonnance longbowmen.... These are the
francs-archers, which were essentially a sort of part-time militia as opposed to full time professional troops. They were first raised by Charles VII during the latter stages of the hundred years war, who I believe hoped to have a force of longbowmen to rival the English, but the idea never really took off. The French did start to use the longbow, but I think the 'golden age' of English superiority on the battlefield had passed and perhaps longbows weren't battle-winners anymore, especially if both sides used them.
Fast forward to my era (the War of Burgundian Succession 1477-1493) and the francs-archers saw service both in the Low Countries and Burgundy itself. They seem to have earned themselves a bit of a poor reputation, perhaps due to their interest in looting rather than fighting. They let the side down at Guinegate in 1479 - though to be fair to them the French infantry had been left to face Maximilian's pikemen by themselves after the French cavalry had chased their Burgundian counterparts off the field, and it wasn't just francs-archers who were there. I have found a suggestion that they were responsible for disorder in Burgundy too - the duchy was occupied by the French led by Georges de la Tremoille, until he was dismissed and replaced by Charles d'Amboise. The latter to placate the inhabitants of the duchy promised to put a stop to the looting, and sent the francs-archers home, so perhaps they were to blame? In gaming terms they can be made notably inferior to the ordonnance archers, or at least less reliable.
Louis XI disbanded them in 1479 after Guinegate, but they were raised again under his son Charles VIII.
For this unit I've used the metal Perry marching archers and billmen from the WOTR range, with headswaps to avoid clones and some of the plastics mixed in. I generally prefer my units in combat poses (archers shooting), but these models are too good to pass up and I really wanted an excuse to use them. So my rule will be ordonnance archers shooting, and francs-archers marching. This could work out quite well for gaming, as in some scenarios I could have the ordonnance archers deployed and ready for action, whilst the francs-archers can be late to arrive and unenthusiastic about engaging!
I really enjoyed painting these, now that I've finally got used to painting all those damned white crosses, and have found a way of painting padded jacks that works.
Here's the two units of French infantry together. It's a start, but not a big enough force for battle yet! I plan to do another unit of each, and there will also need to be some sort of heavy infantry which I've got some cunning conversions planned for.
25 May 2012, 09:11:03 AM