DBA Special: Book IV list 83a Wars of the Roses 1455 to 1485 (1460)

Many thanks for indulging me this little 'late August; flurry of posts ... there are a number of items that have been almost ready post, and relate to the July-August activities that I had had scheduled to clear before the end of the month.

Today we are catching up with the Wars of the Roses ...

 Book IV list 83a Wars of the Roses 1455 to 1485 (1460 battle of Northampton) 15mm

Drawn from my '3 command' Northampton specific collection ...

I x Gen ... 4Bd or 3Kn

 

(a: Yorkist commanders at Northampton)

 

 

(b: Lancastrian commanders at Northampton)

 

There are other Lancastrians you could use - Percy and Beaumont come to mind.

There are a variety of figures here, but for the command elements in particular, I have made much use of the amazing 'Burgundian' range from Mirliton, and some New Age Donnington.

The flags were printed fabric by the late Graham Fordham of Fluttering Flags who was always there with advice on heraldry, liveries and contacts.

 

1 x currours (Cv) border staves (LH) or unreliable levies (7Hd)

 

(improvised cavalry ... figures by Corvus Belli, Irregular and Donnington)
 

 

 

But the core of the DBA army is 8 infantry, 4 longbow and 4 bills/men-at-arms.  Here are some Harringtons and some Fauconbergs.

(4Bw: Figures here from Corvus Belli, Mirliton, Peter Pig, TTG, Essex and Irregular)

 

1 x guns (Art)

 

Although not all battles featured artillery, and some involved so many guns, I'd allocate 2 elements, the basic DBA army requires everyone to have one piece.  They would have been proper wheeled field guns, not obsolete bombards.

(a nice, handy, 15th cent. Field Gun from Peter Pig)

1 x Welsh (3Pk),  Irish (3Ax), men-at-arms (3Kn/4Bd) or mercenary handgunners (Ps)

(an interesting pair of handgunners fron Thistle & Rose: they needed an extra deep base)

CAMP

(15mm Royal tent)

This is actually the King's tent from the Lancastrian camp at Northampton - the Yorkist baggage would have been some way from the battlefield ... but the Lancastrian camp was taken, and the hapless .king captured at his tent.

The model is entirely scratchbuilt from card and tissue.  Graham printed me an extra 'plantagenet' flag to cut up and apply as drapery.

The flags to the flank are Beaumont (left) and Egremont - 'Percy' (right)

EDIFICE

(the archbishop of Canterbury and the Eleanor Cross, Northampton 1460)

No battle of Northampton would be complete without a cross on a hill - from which reliable sources say Thomas Bourchier, the archbishop and Francesco Coppini watched the battle.  It may indeed have been site of the Yorkst HQ.  Coppini excommunicated the Lancastrians before the battle - so it may even have been important.

The model is entirely scratchbuilt from cork, mdf, metal rod and miliput.  I followed the extant original as best I could (although my method and intentions were knowingly impressionistic*)

 

(Phil's Eleanor Cross and the real one)

There are some tweaks in list 83 for Henry Tudor's army at Bosworth, but basically, this army fights other versions of itself. Or you can design your own variant according to a given historical prototype.

* NB it is quite a complex structure *wry smile*

The Wars of the Roses in Northamptonshire

July is that special month at the heart of the English campaigning season which saw fighting on both of Northamptonshire's 'Wars of the Roses' battlefields, Northampton 1460 and Edgcote 1469.  As a consequence, locally, it is a month of anniversary walks, talks and events.

 

(Northampton 1460 ... the visitors gather)

July 10th saw us stretched with both the commemoration of the battle at Northampton and a fete at nearby Naseby.  We had a (pre-booked, Covid compliant) capacity crowd for a morning walk on the 1460 battlefield - from Delapre Abbey to the Eleanor Cross (from which the primary sources tell us the battle was watched by the Archbishop of Canterbury).

 

(Northampton 1460: the view from the top of the battlefield)

 

(the view from the top of the battlefield - another way of visualising)

At the Eleanor Cross, Mike completed his account of the battle before handing over to me for a potted history of the monument (and its recent conservation), plus its part both in the events of 1460 and 1469 (when according to the Herbert family history, it was where the earl of Pembroke, and his brother, Sir Richard Herbert, were executed by Warwick in the wake of his victory at Edgcote).

 

(10th July 2021 at the Eleanor Cross, Northampton) 

At 2pm, the time of Warwick's attack at Northampton, we had a brief wreath laying with the town Mayor in remembrance of the fallen in this battle and more widely in wars and civil conflict.

With the weather on our side, we were then able to mix and meet with  members of the battlefield society and general visitors more informally.  We had a table up and a range of publications, so could recruit new members, hand out leaflets etc.  Almost back to normal.

 

(almost back to normal: Graham recruiting members at the Eleanor Cross) 

Towards the other end of the month, we were out on the trackways at Edgcote (spelt that way - no 'e' - and, contra Royal Mail, no 'Moor' tacked on).

Although commonly pinned to the 26th, as we have demonstrated, the battle of Edgcote was fought on 24th July, the eve of the feast of St James.  Another thing the Royal Mail got wrong.  It was such a pity they didn't consult the Battlefields Trust or the local battlefield society (ourselves) or just get someone to look it up in the most recent publication on the battle (Graham's book).

 

(first stop on the 2021 Edgcote anniversary walk)

Edgcote battlefield is threatened both by HS2 and by a proposed solar farm that has tried to slip into the landscape on the coat tails of HS2 ... so it was good to see the battlefield in reasonably good order and still fully accessible to the visitor.

Some of the fields didn't seem to have been as 'active' as usual ... whether this was Covid neglect of HS2 blight was unclear.

 

(me talking about medieval battle at Edgcote)

 

 

(Graham pointing out the rebel positions at Edgcote)

 

(looking back at the Royalist position)

 

(Graham Turner's visualisation of the Royalist lines)

 

 

(looking into the dead ground behind the rebel position - it is probably via this hollow that Clapham's unseen reinforcements approached the battlefield) 

 

 

(click to enlarge ... an attempt to pin the views to their positions on the battlefield)

 

A few weeks later, I was back on Northampton battlefield doing an evening walk and interpretation for the Friends of Kettering Art Gallery and Museum.

 

July is also 'awards season' in Northamptonshire, and I'm pleased to be able to report that having done well in a number of specific categories, NBS was given a special 'judges choice' award in recognition of our innovative and determined work to preserve and publicise historic battlefields and to keep public engagement up throughout the Covid restrictions.  They particularly liked the toy soldier displays and miniature battlefields.

 

Next month sees the anniversary of Bosworth.

BattleDay 21 preview: Bosworth 1485

 Bosorth Field ... what's in a location?

In 2010, the Battlefields Trust completed an archaeological project which identified where the battle of Bosworth was actually fought - the evidence was conclusive, and, contrary to a tradition popular over the last 200 years, it was not fought on Ambion Hill.

 

(Bosworth Field)

 

Apart from anything else, it was pretty much fought on the flat.

 

In the case of Bosworth, we can pretty much pinpoint when we 'lost' the battlefield.

 

Speed's map of Leicestershire is from 1610 and marks 'King Richard's Field' and when you compare his location with the archaeological trace, it seems that, after 125 years, people still had a fair understanding of the location.

                         

(detail from Speed's Leicestershire, 1610)

Click for a bigger version. If you look a line from Shenton to Dadlington, you will see that maybe 70% of the field is West of that line.  If you compare it with the finds map (below) you can see how closely it is validated by the archaeology.

(finds map, Bosworth battlefield)

Compare that with the Ordnance Survey map of 1810, and it is evident that something has changed:
 

 

(OS Map of 1810)

 

The area of the battlefield West of the notional Shenton to Dadlington line has disappeared and is now concentrated up in the area of Ambion Hill (where archaeologists will later find, pretty much, nothing).

 

How did this happen?  In his study published in 1788, William Hutton mixed local anecdote with 'clues' in Holinshed to propose a detailed battlefield based on Ambion Hill, which was picked up by subsequent antiquarians, and by Ordnance Survey.  It quickly embeded itself in maps and books - and without any real foundation, became the 'orthodox' location for the next 200 years.

 

There was never any archaeology to support the Ambion Hill location, and very little sense could be made of the primary sources.  Many books have challenged the orhodoxy over the years - but it took intensive archaeology to reveal a convincing alternative.

 

 

 (some of the 32 canonbals found marking the site of Bosworth Field)

In addition to the cannonballs that provide compelling evidence for the site itself, the archaeologists also found a 'high status' silver gilt boar badge, surely closely associated with Richard and his closest personal supporters in an area of Fenn Hole, marsh in 1485.

 (Richard's emblem - the white board)

 

It seems very likely that this marks where the King met his sticky end, and Plantagenet gave way to Tudor

 

 

(Fenn Hole today ... there is even a thorn bush)

The archaeology does not tell us the exact orientation of the troops or their deployments, and as the much delayed BattleDay approaches, the presenting teams will be making their assessments.