English Mounted Archers

Having picked up several boxes of the Perry Agincourt to Orleans cavalry I’ve been thinking up ways to use them. And this is my first effort with these mounted archers.

Medieval mounted Archers

This set is predominantly geared for heavy cavalry, but the Perry’s have very thoughtfully added the options to do mounted archers. You can get two per sprue, for a total of 6 in a box. To add a bit of variety I have used a small number of head swaps and used some spare parts from one of the Agincourt infantry boxes. They’re beautiful to work with and a joy to paint. Can’t say I like doing horses, but when I do heavier cavalry later for the French/Italians (Verneuil for the latter if you were wondering) I’ll have more variety as some of the horses will be in full barding. So that should spice it up a bit hopefully.

Mounted archers were, from reading Andrew Ayton in the Soldier Experience, mainly comprised of minor landholders and had been gaining prominence in English armies since the 1350s. They were a cut above peasants, but not full Gentry. This is not an absolute thing the author cautions, as many may have been recruited and equipped by their respective Captain making their social status less clear. It’s interesting that becoming a mounted archer in such a way was a means for those from lower status backgrounds to work towards becoming a man at arms. Indeed a good many started out this way including perhaps some of the more famous names from the conflict such as the great Routier Captains Sir Robert Knolles and Sir John Hawkwood.

A typical mounted archer. Apologies for the background, I've got a new telly and I'm not sure where to take photos now. I think I have a clever solution for next time though.

In terms of how they were used, the horses were just to give them mobility. They would still operate in the same capacity as everyone else in English armies at the time and would fight dismounted from a well-established infantry position. This was normally a successful tactic for the English, but if the position didn’t have time to be set up correctly it could end disastrously like at Patay for instance.

This was a fun little project and something I’d trying to be figuring out how to do for a long time, so I was overjoyed when the Perry’s announced they were going to include these options in this set.