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

[Hupp n at em]

Lovely painting! 

[painterman]

Great work on those - really enjoying the new figures you're doing.
Nice collection!
Simon.

[ragbones]

Oh, my...they’re beautiful. 

[Breazer]

a very nice addition! Well done!

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again!

Another Jean sans Peur adjacent update! I've been trying to puzzle through how John the Fearless' ducal guard (his archers du corps), there's not really any conclusive description or depictions for how exactly they would have dressed!

I've tried to piece together a few different sources to get an assumption going, mostly relying on descriptions in "Memoires Pour Servir A L'histoire De France Et De Bourgogne," which itself quotes accounts by the ducal chamberlain Jean de Noident. There's quite a general description which explains that the ducal archers were issued clothing in black, white and light-green cloth, with a bundle of arrows embroidered on the sleeve. However there's other descriptions which contradict that somewhat! Saying that the sleeves may have been embroidered with rabots, or the arms may have had strips of cloth in the ducal colours from the shoulders!

So with that in mind, I also took a look at Pierre Salmon's "Dialogues," which has some lovely contemporary illustrations that could be useful! There's an image featuring Duke John, with a number of soldiers around, so I figured they'd be a good reference!



The chap on the right of the image here also has some of those cloth strips from his shoulders too! Which also make an appearance on the Royal Huntsman in one of the illustrations in the "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry" from roughly the same time period



Most of the figures in the illustrations are wearing houppelandes though, and they're rarely shown in more than one (or two at most) colours, which left me in a bit of a bind in working out how exactly the ducal guard would wear three! I've decided on a compromise there, by not really having a 'uniform' for the guard, but working off a more general theme. So using the Agincourt French infantry as a base, I've decided on bodies in houpelandes to be just in the plain green (with the black and white elsewhere), but ones in the other bodies would have a tricolour livery going on, with all of them having the duke's Rabot badge on their chest.



Similarly, I've opted for a combination of 'shoulder-stripes' and embroidered sleeves to get both of them included



And of course because they're the ducal guard, who Duke John spent an awful lot of money on, they've all got a full set of kit, with a sword and buckler to go with their bow-and-arrows



I hope they've turned out ok! And hopefully the reasoning behind the designs isn't too outlandish! If it's all fairly accurate and turned out ok, I'll probably put together a full unit of them! If anyone knows any more information that I've missed here feel free to let me know!

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again!

A bit of a delay from the last post sorry! But now that I'm under lockdown I've been making a start on some of my backlog!

So as part of that I've painted up a unit of pavesiers from Lille, as part of the Burgundian force under John the Fearless, they're mostly Perry metals, with a couple of plastic infantry in the mix



Lille was pretty much the administrative heart of ducal power in the County of Flanders under John the Fearless, and generally reliably loyal to the duke too. Les Armées des Trois Premiers Ducs de Bourgogne mentions the city militia providing soldiers for the Ducal armies a few times, including during John the Fearless' campaigns in the Vermandois in the early 1410s where they provide 150 crossbowmen and 75 pavesiers.

And because it's hard to see the guys behind their huge pavises here's a few more pictures at other angles





And here's a couple of my favourites from the bunch



Let me know how they've turned out! Painting that many fleurs-de-lys was difficult!

[AKULA]

Cracking job...at first glance I’d assumed you’d just used transfers on those pavise.

Personal preference...I’d be tempted to grubby up the pavise a little , but lovely paint jobs

 

[Captain Blood]

Great job. Lovely fleur-de-lys 

[Hu Rhu]

Really nice painting.

[Atheling]

Great work. The fleur de lis are especially well executed 

[Sparrow]

Really well done!

[HappyChappy439]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Another quick update this time, fast forwarding 50 years back to Montlhéry!

It's been a while since I put together the retinue for Antoine, Bastard of Burgundy, so I figured it was probably time to make a start on his half-brother Charles, the Count of Charolais!

Similar to Antoine's retinue, I went back to Jean de Haynin's Mémoires to get a description for Charles' guards' livery:

"Ceux des archers du comte de Charrolois estoient de drap my-parti de noir et de violet, les archers de corps ayans une croix Sainct- Andrieu de deux bastons nentelleux dedans un fusil, et un C et I) ès deux costez dudict fusil, tout d'orfèverie"

(And posted from another thread, here's the translation)

"The archers of the Count of Charolais had parti-coloured cloth of black and violet, the archers of the body [his personal guard] had a cross of St. Andrew made up of two knotted batons, in a fire-steel, with a C and I on either side of the fire-steel, all in gold"

Most of the description is fairly clear but I found myself scratching my head over what colour to make the Cross of St. Andrew. With other liveries, they get described as specifically one colour or another (like, Antoine specifically described as having white for example), but Charles doesn't get a specific mention! I was torn on either using red as a 'default,' white for consistency, or gold in line with the other ornamentation!



Thankfully Atheling clarified that red is a likely candidate for the livery, so I settled on that one! (Thanks Atheling!)

So with that on mind, here's the first two test archers for Charles' bodyguard, plan is to have a unit of 24 to go along with his half brother's (incidentally, painting teeny tiny Gothic script is difficult!)









Let me know how they've turned out, and if I've made any glaring mistakes with them too!

[Tonhel]

Great work!

[Atheling]

I think you have nailed it. The livery colours are spot on and the 'badge' (actually part of the livery) is very finely done 

Thankfully Atheling clarified that red is a likely candidate for the livery, so I settled on that one! (Thanks Atheling!)

No probs. Thank Google Translate too 

[Christian]

They look lovely, well done! And a good bit of detective work there... love seeing that.