The Barons War – Free book adventure

The de Percy family stood against King John after the Magna Carta was clearly not being upheld by the King. With my initial primary school level understanding it felt like the Magna Carta ended the war, but in actual fact it only really represented an armistice. The fact that promises had now been made and not upheld only seemed to add fuel to the fire. The conflict erupted again, now almost as a duty and a requirement to uphold the signed pledges made, rather than just disagreements and grumblings of discontented Barons.

The Scots under William fought on the side of John previous to the Barons’ War. Alexander II seemed to lean towards the side of John also. The lands of Galloway though technically still autonomous at the time generally followed the line of their larger neighbour. King John called upon the Lords of Galloway to fight against the Welsh in conflicts before the Barons’ War but I haven’t seen much about them fighting in the Baron’s War. The Lords of Galloway had interests in lands in Ireland, ruled over some of the isles between Scotland and Ireland and appeared to be admired militarily.
My excuse for pitching these nobles at each other is partly the later feud the Douglas’ and Percy’s had and partly the scale of the game. These are literally just 25 to 50 men against 25 to 50 men encounters and each unit is not trying to represent a regiment, just the 4 or 5 men in each unit. So can I game in the gaps of history and say that a rouge Galloway laird, The Douglas family not yet established as one of the powerhouse families of this era, chose to take a small retinue into de Percy lands to upset the apple cart and technically support King John as an old ally of theirs? I think so. And could de Percy, in open warfare with the King, strike out in a small way against his Gaelic / Scots allies so long as it didn’t incite a wider conflict in the North? I think so.

Another bits box find. The body is from an unknown source. (Though had a suggestion that it might be a Bretonian peasant of some kind). It had several studs on the surcoat which seem to be more of a Hollywood convention rather than something historical. I clipped and trimmed off the studs. The arms connect at the elbow not the shoulder which is not typical amongst most of my collection of minis. The helmet is from an Oathmark Human sprue. With little chain mail on display I chose to paint his chest to look like a leather tabard, but the suggestion is that there’s mail beneath his puffed out clothes.

I asked if this mini was in the right era for Barons War on their FB group page. I was reminded that the Perry twins sculpted the GW Bretonnians and they would typically leaned into the historical side of fantasy in their minis. Most people said he fits in fine, but perhaps the helm is a bit ahead of it’s time. I now wish I had more of them, but this was a one off find in a friend’s bits box. They were letting me forage through their bits box because they wanted to lend fresh parts from kits I have never had to feed my love of kitbashing. I think I still have Conquest Games plastic Medieval archer minis spare to flesh out my first lists and hopefully blend fine with this fine fellow.

The idea to get a game going in the Barons War era was with a poor warband from Galloway with a mix of Douglas Ferguson livery. And a Northern England contingent to face them. Galloway was in many respects it’s own Kingdom separate from Scotland and as such a volatile region.

Apparently Galloway was very Irish Gael in this period, with links to Man and Dublin. Sources such as John of Furdun mention Alexander “raising an army of Scots, Gallowegians and knights from the borders.” Unfortunately that is as much detail a they mention.

But in actual fact… “Thankfully” that is as much detail as they mention, because this gives me license to game in the gaps. I can Have a small group of Galloglas for some flavour and some big axes. Some of my early (maybe part Flemish by some accounts) Douglas Scots ancestors as knights and a few sergeants with the Galloway lion shields. Some levy and archers to pad out the list. Joy. I think a plan is coming together.