From LeeH: Another Stanley, Sir Peter Leigh and Sir George Holford (75 Points)

These are the last three nobles and their retinues for my Lancastrian/Tudor army for Bosworth. The only extras are a few French and Scottish units that may have taken part but for which I am still hunting down details (and flags!). I’ll leave those till the end of the project…which is considerably closer than it was a few weeks ago.

Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe was the 2nd son of Sir John Stanley. He was an indentured retainer of William Lord Hastings by 1974 and the Duke of Buckingham in 1483. He was for a time Sheriff of Staffordshire and after fighting for Henry at Bosworth was Knighted.

Sir Peter Legh of Lyme and Haydock was the eldest grandson of Sir Peter Legh of Bradley and keeper of Rhudlan Castle. The younger Legh was knighted by Edward IV and made a knight banneret by the Duke of Gloucester in the Scottish campaign of 1482. Despite this apparent close connection to Richard III, he fought for Lord Stanley at Bosworth.

Sir Gorge Holford of Holford was knighted in 1482 by Thomas, Lord Stanly, and fought for the Stanleys at Bosworth. His banner was a Sable Greyhound on an Argent (white) background. I couldn’t find a suitable flag so I made this myself from the description of his Arms.

The Array was the peasant levy raised in a time of war and would have been a lot more varied in quality and equipment than retinue troops. Different rules seem to treat them in different ways (and call them different things!) but for my army, I will be referring to them as Array and they represent the lowest grade of infantry on the table. Many of these men would have been peasant farmers and therefore unarmoured, except maybe for a quilted jacket, a helmet, and any armor their parents and grandparents may have handed down. They would have wielded a variety of weapons, mostly farm implements such as billhooks fitted with longer shafts to give them better reach in combat. For most poor rural folk the dynastic civil wars of the 15th century (that became known as the Wars of the Roses) would have had relatively little impact on their day-to-day lives unless, of course, they found themselves recruited into an Array.

Before I work out my points estimate for these I thought I would show a picture of the ‘completed’ Lancastrian Army for Bosworth. There are still a few French and Scottish nobles to represent but I’m going to come back to these later when I have more information on them. So what you see in the picture below are the mounted Knights of Henrt and Jasper Tudor and the main body of troops under the command of the Erl of Oxford. Behind these are the two independent commands of Thomas Stanley and William Stanley.

I'm roughly at the mid-point for this project so next week I begin work on the Yorkist army of Richard III. More Billmen, more Archers, and lots more flags!

Points Estimate:

Sir Humprey Stanley - 24 Retinue Bllmen and 24 Archers - 48x6mm Foot = 24 Points

Sir Peter Leigh - 24 Array/Bllmen and 24 Archers - 48x6mm Foot = 24 Points

Sir George Holford - 24 Array/Bllmen and 24 Archers - 48x6mm Foot = 24 Points

Total = 72 Points

From TeemuL: The army looks great on a table, it must have been a great feeling to see it as a whole group! I'll give you a few extra points for the flags. You are on a good pace with this project and your Challenge target, there is more than half still to go. Let's see how far you get.