War of the Roses

Not only have I managed to complete this division but I have also managed to get them on the table in a recent campaign we are playing (albeit masquerading as someone else).

I mentioned earlier that we agreed a convention for the command stands to ease identification on the table.

The longbow units would have 5 figures and the household units would have 6 figures on the base. For the household units if they were “upgraded” to include “men at arms” the command stand would contain only knights (I haven’t painted any of them yet).

The entire division was completed using 2 boxes of the War of the Roses infantry with the odd metal figure and a couple of figures from the Men at Arms box.

Next I am starting the division for the Exeter, after I finish my Saxons for Midgard.

It was time for the divisional commander, and this was going to represent Sir Thomas Stanley himself.

Up to now all figures have been from the Perry’s but for the commander I picked up a couple of figures from “Ragged Staff miniatures” off Etsy (however you need to keep checking as supply is intermittent). This was the “thoughtful” commander and the “veteran bowman”.

I will admit that I completely “wimped out” on painting his quartered livery and just went with a representation of his main heraldic flag (badly). The stand also carries his personal standard.

The last unit for the Division would be a bill unit from the retinue of Sir Thomas Stanley himself again we were on solid ground with the livery being tawney and green but these being billmen and men at arms not a lot of the colour was on show.

Now we have Sir William Stanley of Holt the younger brother of Sir Thomas. He was a staunch supporter of Edward IV but would appear to bare a grudge against Richard III.

Here I was on solid ground in he had a recorded livery of red and the badge of a stags head.

For Sir William I completed a household unit with a command base consisting of men at arms and bills.

Sir John Grevill of Cherlton Regis and Sir George Stanley of Hooton, Lord Strange were the next unit up. This again was a longbow unit. Again the livery colours were lifted from the flags with white being used for Grevill and blue and white being used for Lord Strange (the son of Sir Thomas Stanley who escaped execution at Bosworth when Sir Thomas didn’t commit his troops to combat when order to by Richard III.

A longbow unit was next representing the troops of Sir Edmund Mountford (heraldic flag yellow and blue) and Sir Christopher Moresby (flag black with white cross).

The command stand on the longbow units include a couple of archers but also only have 5 figures to ease identification of unit type on the table.

The liveries were directly lifted from the flags as I could not find any other information.

The first unit off the blocks was a household unit. This was going to be the combined retinues of Sir John Pilkington of Pilkington Hall (White) and Sir Everard Digbie (or Digby). Now here is the first mistake as poor old Sir Everard was actually killed at the Towton in 1461 but could be his son?

John Pilkington’s flag was white with red cross so I decided to use a white livery with the cross as the badge. I knew that the Digbie family used a blue livery and decided to add a fleur de leis badge to reflect their heraldic flag.