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| François II de Bretagne |
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| Duchess Anne de Bretagne, later Queen of France. |
Last week we hosted David Knight, a huge fan of everything medieval and one of the authors of Test of Resolve medieval ruleset. David was on his forth visit to us for holidays and wanted to tour some more of our local 100 years war battlefields, which I was only to happy to oblige being a huge HYW fan myself.
When the ground has been walked and the primary and secondary references are consulted the scenarios are written, the scenario will reflect the ground, references and some playability will be included. The first day tour visit was a visit to the real Rohan, the dukedom which is also the site of the Combat of the thirty, one of the most famous occurrences during the war of Breton succession. First a visit to Ploërmel for a coffee and walk of the city walls and medieval buildings in this flourishing city. Then a short drive to walk the battlefield site, a walk around the location visiting the 19th century column then a visit to the chapel of Saint Maud where three French-Bretons are buried, then the agreed meeting location at the fountain of Saint Maud, and finally the cross where the eight of the English Bretons are buried. Then an off the Josselin to have lunch, visit the chateau, then return to visit the battlefield of Mauron.
Some photos and description of our battlefield tour of the combat of the Thirty.
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| The Pyramid, the modern 19th century marker of combat of the thirty column |
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| Vanessa and Dāvīds turn |
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| The marker of the combat, destroyed during the revolution and replaced in 1848 |
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| The plaque which is quite good, we cleaned it, I regularly carry cleaner in the car for these. |
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| Chapel of Saint Maud, the three Breton-French were buried here on the edge of the battlefield. The chapel was enlarged in the 17th century. It is only open on a few occasions now every year, the horse sale and patrimony weekend. |
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| David and I on the edge of the battlefield, the stream in the trees is the boundary behind us. |
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| The Shrine of Saint Maud, the defined location in historical documents of the actual meeting place. This location had been a Gallic, then Roman then a Christian site, the statue is thought to be 16th century. A horse fair has been held here since the Gallic period and is still in today to sell horses on what was the old border between the dukedoms. |
 The Olivier V de Clisson and his wife Marguerite de Rohan |
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| Josselin Castle |
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| Chateau Josselin, one of the castles of the Dukes of Rohan |
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| Chateau Josselin from the river |
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| Breton Gendarmes 1488 |
At the battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, Aragonese contingents were sent by Ferdinand of Aragon to support the Breton Cause. The documents have 1000 mercenary Aragonese landing at Quimper to join the Breton Army under two captains, Pere de Queralt commanding a unit of Arbalète and Gimenez Soler (a Aragon Jewish captain who had fought with Edward Woodville) a unit of spear men. The crossbow unit are complete and the spear unit not far behind. I have used the red cross on a green field the field sign of the Aragon contingents at the siege of Montpellier in 1479.
Again Perry miniatures based for impetus
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| Aragonese Arbalete -Crossbowmen |
Cheers
Matt
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| Breton Compagnie d'ordonnance |
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| Breton Billmen 1488 |
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| Breton Billmen |
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| Breton Billmen |
Another unit off the table for my Breton army for the Guerre Folle-Mad War. Breton harquebus were in small numbers, around 200 present according to accounts and archeology of the field does prove they were in use. It is thought the german mercenaries also brought some with them.
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| Breton Harquebus |
The anniversary of the battle of Saint Aubin du Cormier was yesterday, so good to add something for the commemoration. We offer a battlefield tour and a visit to the chateaux of Saint Aubin du Cormier and Chateau Fougeres (largest medieval chateau in France) as part of our wargame holiday experiences.
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| Breton Crossbowmen “Wargaming History” |
Another Breton unit off the table for my Breton army for the Mad War. The Breton Ordnance companies were required to have one Archer (crossbow, longbowman, or spearman) per every 10 hearths. In 1488 less than 20 per cent mustered, mostly because the French Army invaded during the harvest season. Some of the northern Arrie ban did muster from the city of Rennes and the border marches( Vitré, Dol and St Malo was occupied by French) and the Comte de Laval sided with the French, and many of the Marcher lords of Maine and Brittany owed fealty to both sides and did not even take part on either side.
Perry Miniatures again, the pavises are Perry plastics, lots more coming this week.
cheers
Matt
Contrary to the belief of many, the bretons also conducted practice for archery, quite often gathering at the local parish church, after 1425, 1 in every ten hearths raised a longbowman, at Saint Aubin du Cormier only about 1700 of the army was armed with them and a further 500 with the crossbow. This Archer unit will join my Rennes contingent. I do like painting livery, it is very quick, I have another couple of units not far behind.
Cheers
Matt
Completed one of my English Mercenary longbowmen bases to add to the Breton army. 28mm Miniatures are from the Perry Miniatures Range.
Edward Woodville, known as Lord Scales, fought in the war of the roses supporting Edward IV, after Edwards death he fled when the Duke of Gloucester seized power and declared himself Richard IIIrd, his brother Anthony was executed being an ally and uncle of the two princes who later die in the tower.
Edward Woodville flees to Brittany and along with the future King Henry VIII, he later returns to England and fights at Bosworth, leading the valiant vanguard. After Henry VIII became king he inherited his brothers estates which was confirmed in 1485 including the captaincy of the Isle of Wight and his castles at Portchester and Carisbrooke.
Edward uncle of the Queen Elizabeth, approached Henry VIIth to raise an army to support the Bretons who had a long alliance with England, However Henry had been also supported by the French and the Bretons for his return to England, so he was undecided upon what action to take.
On April 23rd 1488 two ambassadors of Francis II of Brittany arrived in England to plead with Henry VII, also partaking in the investiture of Sir Edward into the order of the garter due to his prowess at the battle of Bosworth. Henry VII is unconvinced by the Ambassadors and he explicitly orders on the pain of death that no one from England was to get involved in the war in Brittany.
Edward departs for the Isle of wight with the two Breton Ambassadors and offers his services as a mercenary Captain as he had done previously for the Bretons in 1472 and the Spanish in 1475. The exact size of the company is unknown, some contemporary Breton accounts say 300 others as large as 800. I am leaning toward a mid range numbers due to the claim in the Breton financial accounts of 660 men. It is thought 400 archers, 40 knights and squires depart the Isle of Wight. Armed with pikes bows and arrows and dressed in white tunics with a red cross.
On May 20th 1488 Edward departed the Isle of wight with his company and arrived in Saint Malo a few days later(although accounts have him landing at Honfleur also, but that could be more english mercenaries ?). Edward and his company fight a small skirmish at Dinan against the comte de D'Aunay, losing 20 odd men (French accounts inflate this to 240). A further 200 odd english mercenaries arrive from Portsmouth on a Breton salt ship and a French ship captured in Portsmouth harbour along with an Ambassador of the Scots and his son, all of the 200 english men were veterans and had previously fought with Edward in Spain in 1487.
Edward arrives in Rennes on the 5 of June, they are welcomed by a reception committee, in their honour two red Bordeaux wine barrels are opened in rue Haute, and two barrels of white in place Bout du Cohue (next to medieval grand hall). A group of musicians and play and a young boy is doing tumbling tricks. A banquet is held for the officers in the ducal palace, a menu still exists and it consisted of one and a half vealers, two and a half sheep, three kids (goats), two hares, twenty eight rabbits, eight goslings, thirty six chickens, twenty-eight pigeons, one barrel of Bordeaux wine, one barrel of white wine, and seven estamaux (cauldrons) of hypocras (mulled spicy wine). The company and was the only available force in arms to protect the Breton Capital as a ceasefire was in effect and the remainder of the Breton Army was in Nantes and the Rennes muster had returned to their homes for the summer harvest.
On May 27th Henry VII letter of apology arrives in Paris informing Charles VIII of the rouge Edward Woodville, and that he had also seized other ships and men who were to join him. (One knight and more men at arms were seized in Portsmouth)
The French were in a strong position and capture of the key Breton marcher fortresses of Ancenis, Chateaubriant, La Guerche and Redon in May of 1487 and Vitré, Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier and Dol-de-Bretagne in September left Brittany split into north and South and the French on and in the interior lines of the Breton Duchy.
On June 12th Francois calls the muster, but many men do not return to arms as the harvest is not complete, finally a army musters in early July and marches north to Rennes.
On the 6th of July the ceasefire ended and the French immediately advanced from Mayenne and sieged the largest castle in France on the border marches, arriving at the key northern Breton fortress of Fougeres on the 12th of July.
The Breton Army departed Nantes on the 9th moving North and arrived in Rennes on the 25th of July. A council is called in Rennes on the 25th of July between the leaders of the Breton army and the mercenary contingents. On the 27th the Bretons then march to Andouillé-Neuville to gather the muster and join with the men coming from south western Brittany via Dinan, they are then inspected by Francois II and and Princess Anne. The army now numbering 7000 bretons 4500 mercenaries marches towards Saint Aubin du Cormier on the 28th of July. The Bretons felt they needed a phycological edge over the French and clothed two Breton mixed archer divisions with white tunics with the red cross badge of the English some 1700 men in total, giving the French impression that a large contingent of English were now with the army.
Fougeres, the greatest castle of Brittany had fallen after a six day siege on the 17th of July, the great French artillery train had breached the walls in three places and the garrison had surrendered with full honours so the city was saved from a pillage.
The French army departed Fougeres on the route towards Rennes, the Breton capital, clashing with the Bretons on route in a field south of Ville Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier.
I will complete an article about the forces and the battle next week.
cheers
Matt
The "Mad War" was the struggle of major feudal lords against centralized royal power. As part of these power struggles, in 1484-1485, Louis II of Orléans tried to seize the crown supported by Francis II of Brittany and a certain number of border lords of Anjou-Maine and Normandy, attempting to depose the regent, Anne de Beaujeu . On 2 November 1485, the Peace of Bourges suspended the hostilities for eight months. The second phase began June 1486 to November 1488, is sometimes called the War of Brittany (Brittany).
The first army I will build will be the Bretons, along with the Gascon, Béarnaise, Aragonese, English, Castilian and German Mercenaries, followed closely by the French, Swiss mercenaries along with Germans and Italians. The armies will focus on the field battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488. I predominantly will be using the Perry range of WOTR plus the mercenaries pack along with some other bits and pieces from other manufacturers
My first unit off the table is done is Breton archer Skirmishers based for Impetus, the figures are Perry Plastics.
cheers
Matt
