Lion Rampant... A Knight's Tale.

Having put the finishing touches to two armies for Clash of Spears during this period of lockdown and self-isolation, I found myself in a situation where I really wanted to get on and get some more painting done while I had both the opportunity and the inclination. On the bookshelf above my painting bench was a copy of Lion Rampant medieval skirmish rules by Daniel Mersey, which I had bought some years ago. Having had a re-browse through the rules a germ of an idea began to take shape which would involve modelling some of the very wonderful Perry Miniatures, Battle of Agincourt English and French 28mm figures without pitching English and French armies against each other! The story of the first character in the story appears below… read on to find out more…


Sir Thomas Kegworth...

The origins of Sir Thomas are, I’m afraid dear listener, lost in the mists of time, shrouded in mystery and legend and, if you were ever foolhardy enough to ask the man himself to tell you his story, that question would be the last thing that you would ever utter. Rumours and whispers tell that Thomas was a veteran soldier who sailed to France in the army of King Henry in 1415. To begin with, his tale was like that of many thousands of others in that army, but, following the deadly siege of Harfleur events took a turn which were to change the life of Thomas and, indeed, countless others forever. It is said that Thomas got into a brawl with a veteran knight, befuddled with alcohol, in an upstairs room of a squalid and unsavoury ale house. Some say that the struggle was caused by a game of Find the Lady and others, that a mademoiselle of disreputable virtue was the origin of the quarrel. Whatever the cause, in the ensuing struggle, Thomas dispatched the knight with a dagger’s thrust to the heart. Fearing the consequences of his actions, Thomas fled the city, taking many of the dead knight’s possessions with him.

At some point thereafter, “Sir Thomas” joined and later took command of, a band of desperate deserters, brigands and ne’er-do-wells, eking out a miserable living by preying on the defenceless villages in the area of the Eu Forest in Normandy. Using his military experience and newly acquired nobility, Sir Thomas turned the outlaw band into a disciplined and ruthless fighting force, which became so efficient in extracting what it needed from the local populace, that they became known as La Morte Noir (The Black Death!) an epithet believed to originate from the black lion rampant, which Thomas wore emblazoned upon the jupon he had acquired from the Knight he slew in Harfleur. Indeed, so proficient did Le Morte Noir become in their despoliation of the land that were forced to move on, draining the very life blood of each new community they descended upon, their infestation bringing misery and despair to their victims. As their progress took them ever eastward through Normandy, their notoriety drew more and more outlaws, exiles and outcasts to their banner. Then, one fateful day, Le Morte Noir arrived before the somewhat dilapidated walls of a chateau near the village of Haudricourt. The events of that day were to have a profound impact upon Sir Thomas and the ever growing band of mercenaries under his command; in their attempt to bring the local populace under their heel, they would encounter an opponent the like of which they had never encountered before, a man with royal blood flowing in his veins and a determination to defend the place he called home.

To be continued…