De Valence's Retinue - work in progress

Hot on the heels of Gloucester's body of cavalry comes the front rank of De Valence's, with the heraldry taken from the Osprey Campaign book on Bannockburn.

Now, before you all go rushing out to buy said book expecting some lovely colour piccies of various shields, let me just point out that the image showing the heraldry is in black and white! What I have done (and I hope accurately!) is gauge the shades of grey against known each other, using liveries I know to shade match.

As a back up, check out websites such as the Danish Miniature Wargames one (www.krigspil.dk, I think), other literary and web sources, heraldic and genealogy sites, etc.

Needless to say, any errors made are entirely mine.

So without further ado, it is time to meet and greet the three extra knights I have painted to accompany Thomas Ercedekne, Thomas de Berkeley and Aymer la Zouche from previous posts to form the first half of De Valence's cavalry.

For those who know the battle, and indeed those who do not, Aymer De Valence (aka the Earl of Pembroke) led the valiant though costly rearguard action that allowed Edward II to escape the field. A command base depicting him will join the ranks at some point, along with Hereford and Edward, so stay tuned.

By the way, thanks to everyone who posts comments about what I do. I enjoy painting miniatures and I am continually trying to improve as much as I can, but all comments received are excellent motivation, whether favourable ones or not! I am always open to new ideas, suggestions, critiques, etc. Thanks guys.

G



Nicholas Kingston, distinguishable from John Kingston by virtue of the red rather than white label.

I had to use the morning star mace arm from the Fireforge Teutonic Knights box at some point and Nicholas got the honour.

The tri-coloured lance referred to in a previous post, going one better than the one I did for Gloucester by the addition of some black bands! This is William Vescy.

Vescy was just 21 years of age when killed at Bannockburn.

I believe this heraldry depicts Giles D'Argentan, who was killed during the aforementioned rearguard action, but I have not yet verified it. This figure features in a colour plate in the Osprey Bannockburn book, in the same plate actually as De Valence, Edward, Ercedekne, Despenser, La Zouche, Berkeley and others.

D'Argentan was described as one of the three best knights of Christendom alongside Robert the Bruce and the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII. If this is not him, then I ought to paint up a figure to represent him should I discover his heraldry at some point.