For my post this month and final for the year I’ve done two command bases depicting the Kings of England and France for the early Crecy era part of the 100yw.
They’re both by Claymore and are up to their usual standards of quality. The 100 yw is reasonably well covered in the later period (because Agincourt), but for the earlier period it’s thin on the ground. So its credit to Claymore that their one of the few manufacturers building a broad range in this area.
It was fun doing these even though obvious what you have to do in terms of painting, the coats of arms are always a challenge for me. However in each case I found it was actually fun having a stab at them, and my results weren’t unreasonable. With the more complex examples like Edward III I was able to do shapes that kind of looked broadly in the right ballpark and used armour or straps to help me mask the fact my painting is far from first class. Part of the joy of painting miniatures with their proper coats of arms is that it really brings out the vibrancy and colour of the medieval world, which is often overlooked in modern interpretations of the era.
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| From left Edward III, his standard bearer John Beuchamp de Warwick, the standard bearer for Philip VI Sire de Hangest and Philip VI himself. |
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| The banners and shield transfers all came from Claymore, but are done by Flags of war. They've got really vibrant colours and look amazing once they're on the miniatures. I haven't made them interchangable given I won't be using the banners on other miniatures. |
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| Rear view of the English King. You can incidentally go and view his tomb and indeed likeness in Westminster Abbey |
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| Philip VI, I particularly like the details of the crown on the helmet it adds an interesting feature to the miniature. |
The men themselves are more complicated characters. Philip the VI often tends to get associated with his defeat at Crecy, but this is unfair. He was actually fairly canny fighting the English and avoided fighting with them, but it wasn’t ultimately enough to protect his kingdom. While the achievements of Edward III were ultimately undone by Charles V, the damage inflicted by England and other opportunists meant France at various points came perilously close to collapse. The strife of its civilian population, particularly at the hands of the routiers (be they English or French), would have been horrific and it must have been disorienting for the nobility who must have wondered if their kingdom would survive at all. Ultimately though the English never found a way to land a knockout blow on the French and eventually had their own internal problems to resolve, which left the French with the breathing room they needed to put their country back together again. So Edward III only lasting territorial legacy was really limited to Calais, which isn't much considering what he'd initially won.
