Foot Knights VI

Closing in on the Burgundians, only 3 more to come...

Foot Knights V

More defenders of Neuss and first unit finished...don't look too close at the Hessian flag, def. not among my best works ;-)

Foot Knights IV

More Burgundians...

Foot Knights III

The 3rd batch is ready, defenders of Neuss again - you can see the pattern now ;-) Noticed too late that the left and right shoulder armours are different on the left guy - things like that happen when you mash up 3 different Perry boxes!

Foot Knights II

This time some slightly converted figures, painted as Burgundian officers.

Foot Knights

The first 4 of the new Perry foot knights. Painted as defenders of Neuss. The tabard shows the coat of arms of Dieterich von Elben, a fellow knight of Landgraf Herman. Elben was killed during the siege.

For all interested in the siege of Neuss, there is a short article in the current issue of Medieval Warfare IV.4

http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/shop/mw-issue-iv-4.html

Edelman Bedelman / Rich Man Poor Man -- A Short Review

Together with the latest issue of Medieval Warfare I bought this stunning image book by photographer Stef Verstraaten. In 2008/2009 Verstraaten took pictures of participants/reenactors of the yearly Limbourg Brothers festival in Nijmegen. The book shows on roughly 200 pages full colour photos of reenactors dressed in 15th century gear. The text is bilingual Dutch and English, however, there is only about 20 something pages of text, the focus of the book is clearly on the beautiful images.

The first thing to notice about the book is its enormous size. The format is rather large, for example compared with your average Osprey title.

The second noticeable feature is the superb quality of the photos inside the book. You can clearly see those pictures have been taken by a professional. As I am not into reenactment myself and have not much knowledge about 15th century clothing I cannot say whether the colours of the clothes, their patterns and their fabric are "historically correct". They look authentic to me and I will certainly take inspiration from the book for my late medieval brushwork :-)

Compared to other reenactor books like Embletons Medieval Soldier, it is easy to see that both digital photography and digital printing made a huge progress during the last 20 years.

However, this book is neither a history book nor is the focus on the military aspects of 15th century life, it is rather an art book. I would guess only about 20% of the images are soldier/weapons related, the rest shows civilians exclusively.

The book is available on http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/shop/medieval-book.html

Some more pictures

Doeffingen 1388 - Reloaded

This time some men of the League of Towns, from Augsburg. I couldnt figure out exactly whether they used this flag in 1388 alreday but it looks nice ;-) The two knightly figures supposed to be wealthy Patrizier of Augsburg. Figures by Claymore.

Siege of Neuss -Part IV

Duke Charles soon realised that his siege efforts would be fruitless without having isolated the town from the supply via the waterway. The Neussers received provisions, ammunition and reinforcements from shipments arriving on the two islands in the River Rhine near the eastern city walls. Charles put all his efforts to capture these two small islands "Weid" and "Wert".On 6th August 1474 a Burgundian landing party attacked the larger "Weid" island. The Neussers send reinforcements by boat and a bitter struggle developed. During the fight, the flag bearer of the Burgundians, a giant Ethopian named Christoph was captured. His red flag bearing the inscription: "His maximum est periculum,qui maxime timent." (Those are most in danger, who show the most fear). He was paraded through the streets of Neuss and must have appeared as the true devil to the Neussers, even more so as he managed to escape a few days later! The Burgundians lost nearly 200 men that day but managed to finally capture the islands on 11th August.

 and the complete unit

Siege of Neuss - Part 3

After his offer to surrender had been declined, Charles moved his army into position. Surrounding the town (except for the River Rhine which was passing directly beneath the eastern city walls), Charles put his forces opposite the 5 city gates. His main force, soldiers from Burgundy and Picardy, were arrayed in front of the Obergate.The second largest unit, Lombardian mercenaries, were put in front of the Rheingate. The English had their camp southeast of Neuss.The Neussers had not been idle in the meantime, they secured their already strong gates with Bollwerke, additional structures of earth amd timber. More important, they stocked massive supplies of food and gunpowder.

Charles wasted no time: on 29th July 1474 he attacked with 6.000 men towards the Obergate. The Neussers, boasting with confidence, made a sortie and challenged the Burgundian force in an open field battle. Greatly outnumbered though, the Neussers had to withdrew quickly behind the gate. The approaching Burgundians were met by a hail of gunfire from the walls and had to withdraw. In the words of a Burgundian nobleman writing a letter home: The bullets were flying denser than arrows in a battle with the English.

Figures are Perry and Crusader with Perry head swaps.

Siege of Neuss - Part 2

The Burgundian army arrived at the gates of Neuss in July 1474. Before engaging into costly siege operations, Charles sent his heralds to town to demand surrender. In the words of the chronicler Christian Wierstrait the herald asked:
"Yr Burger uch sy allen kundt,
der Printz gesynt van uch zur Stundt,
as myr bevoil syns selues Mundt,
dat yr yn laist herynnen."
However, the Neussers didnt want to let the prince (duke) in so easily and the mayor of Neuss replied equally polite:
"Herr Herald uch sy vry bekant,
wyr stayn an Paes ind Kaysers Hant."

Siege of Neuss

Nurgle break - and finally an excuse to paint some Burgundians! In 1474 - under the pretext of helping the archbishop of cologne who had trouble with the city of cologne as well as the surrounding towns - Charles the Bold entered the Rhineland with a mighty army of at least 13000 (according to others 18000) men. Among them Flemish, English and Italian mercenaries. He decided to lay siege to the city of Neuss, a stronghold of opponents of the archbishop. Neuss, a heavily fortified town, was defended by the Landgrave of Hesse who had been appointed episcopal administrator by opponents of the archbishop. The town was held by a force of 60 Hessian knights along with 1200 Hessian levies,some 500 mercenaries from Cologne and Bonn and of course by the citizens of Neuss.

Burgundian Pikemen

Neuss Pikemen

Duke of Somerset Retinue

Edward IV. Retinue

Earl of Oxford Retinue

Scurrers

Yorkist Command

Lancastrian Command: Somerset

Yorkist Knights

Lancastrian Field Cannon