Happy Chappy's Jaunt to Burgundy! - (12/11, P.10 - 1420s Foot Knights)

[HappyChappy439]

Hi everyone!

So after rather too many late nights reading sources about the (Valois) Duchy of Burgundy, some excellent 28mm blogs, and a trip to Belgium last year, where I took a visit to Bruges, Leuven and Ghent, I got inspired to start a tabletop project around the duchy...combined with my other ASoIaF log, I got a bitten by the heraldry bug and wanted to do a bit more with historical heraldry, so it seemed like an idea to get to work practicing!

My plan is to be working on essentially two forces in parallel, an earlier army representing 1400-1440(ish) under Dukes John and Philip, and a later one based around a Compagnie D'Ordonnance under Duke Charles (or his half-brother Antoine) with the reforms to equipment and organisation.

So to start things off, here's my attempt at some free-hand tabard heraldry, to represent either Duke John the Fearless, or a younger Philip the Good (i.e before 1430 when he inherits Brabant, Limburg, etc.)





Let me know how he's turned out!

[OSHIROmodels]

A very solid beginning 

[SirGromit1879]

Wow that is lovely freehand work there. I have just been looking at some Burgundian heraldry and you have nailed it, especially the colours =). Looking forward to your later Burgundians!!

[Charlie_]

Very impressive, the heraldry is done really well.

Is that the latest freebie figure that comes when you buy 3 plastic boxes, for the Agincourt knights?

Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Though working on two periods of the same army in parallel sounds a bit crazy! Wouldn't you rather focus on just one at a time to get more units finished??

[AKULA]

Great job - I hope though you aren’t going to slack off on your Westeros project, I’m relying upon you for motivation

 

[Hu Rhu]

Very nice indeed. 

[jamesmanto]

 
I don't think you could hope for better.
Absolutely top drawer!

[HappyChappy439]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Very impressive, the heraldry is done really well.

Is that the latest freebie figure that comes when you buy 3 plastic boxes, for the Agincourt knights?

Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Though working on two periods of the same army in parallel sounds a bit crazy! Wouldn't you rather focus on just one at a time to get more units finished??

Yup! That's the freebie officer that comes with the plastic knights!

I'm *hoping* I can avoid it getting a bit too ambitious by focusing on the HYW-era Burgundians more than the Charles the Bold era ones, but without totally neglecting the latter!

Great job - I hope though you aren’t going to slack off on your Westeros project, I’m relying upon you for motivation

 

Don't worry! I've got some plans on how to sneakily mix the two (possibly!...somewhat!)

[Captain Blood]

That’s a fine piece of paintwork on a lovely figure 

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again everyone!

Bit of a delay from the last post, I've been trying to track down various sources to describe how the Burgundians would look in the early 1400s, but it seems that my French is...stumbling, at best, so it's a bit of a limiter!

In the meantime, I've been working on the 'later' Burgundians a bit, starting with some test figures to represent the archer contingent led by Antoine, Grand Bastard of Burgundy. I've based them on Painterman's fantastic Ducal Guard conversions in their Je Lay Emprins blog, which I highly recommend! http://je-lay-emprins.blogspot.com/2012/02/burgundian-ducal-guard-test-figures.html







I'm basing the livery and paint scheme off an assortment of illustrations I've seen going around, and from snippets of Jean de Haynin's account of the Battle of Montlhéry. A red surcoat with a white cross of St. Andrew, with a blue 'barbicanne' in the middle, with flames shooting out from it.

I've given them green/white leggings, based on the illustrations I've seen, but my French isn't good enough to have found a source where this is described, does anyone know where this comes from?

I'm not sure whether Antoine maintained his own force of archers after his half-brother started the Ordonnance system, with its new uniforms, or whether they were restricted to Montlhéry, but I figure that it'll be nice to have a unit that breaks from the blue/white livery of Ordonnance troops!

Let me know how the test figures have turned out! My plan if they've turned out ok (and if they're historically compliant) is to have a unit similar to the Master W.A illustration of a rank of archers, and a rank of polearm-armed infantry, in Antoine's livery.

[Charlie_]

Very nice, I like those metal archers a lot - I'm planning to use them for French 'francs archers' of the same period.

I'm not sure whether Antoine maintained his own force of archers after his half-brother started the Ordonnance system, with its new uniforms, or whether they were restricted to Montlhéry, but I figure that it'll be nice to have a unit that breaks from the blue/white livery of Ordonnance troops!

I may be wrong, but wasn't the famous blue/white livery just for Charles's own company / ducal household troops? If you don't focus just on his troops, I think you can come up with any livery colours you want behind the St Andrews cross. But I may be wrong....

[HappyChappy439]

Very nice, I like those metal archers a lot - I'm planning to use them for French 'francs archers' of the same period.

Thanks! I'm a big fan of the sculpts, they fit really well for a more organised, less scruffy infantry!

I may be wrong, but wasn't the famous blue/white livery just for Charles's own company / ducal household troops? If you don't focus just on his troops, I think you can come up with any livery colours you want behind the St Andrews cross. But I may be wrong....

Ah! Thanks for the heads up! Jean de Haynin has a lot of pretty detailed descriptions of the liveries of all the retinues of Charles' allies and vassals, so there's definitely plenty of room! Worst case I can just base them around forces at Montlhéry!

And for a quick redaction on my previous post, looks like de Haynin does address the green/white leggings situation later on in his Memoires:

"les archers de corps de monsieur le bastard tous revestus de nouveaux paltos d'orfèverie, l'une chausse blanche, l'autre verde; et estoit le fond de leur paltos rouge."

Though it does seem ol' Antoine is a bit fickle when it comes to his liveries, after Montlhéry de Haynin describes his archers wearing yellow surcoats with the blue barbacane without the cross of St. Andrew (I think this is his attendants during a tourney, but I'm not sure?) But it seems that doesn't last, and Antoine goes back to red later on!

[SirGromit1879]

Really like your red livery looks lovely!. A whole unit of those are going to look very smart indeed

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again!

Another update for Antoine this week! I've decided to paint up some more Perry metals as dismounted Coustiliers from Antoine's retinue, to accompany the dismounted bowmen.





My plan is to build up both the archers and dismounted coustiliers up to units of 12. Hopefully Antoine's personal livery looks good en masse!

I'm still in the process of reading up and researching around the early Burgundians, and how their livery, banners and forces would look, so hopefully once I find some more information, I'll get some HYW era ones painted up for Duke John!

[poulppy]

Really great painting job !