Smaller Scale Feuds in the Age of Magna Carta…
It goes without saying, that when Warhost and Footsore
Miniatures released their Barons’ War skirmish rules, the dwindling pension
fund was going to take another hit. Having purchased and read the rule book, I
started thinking about how I could build a setting for the game, which would
tell a story of events on a much smaller scale than the huge political turmoil
caused by the Barons’ War itself. Stories of local feuds and vendettas are the
drama that I love to base my games around!
After a bit of searching around the internet, I came
across a story which I believed would fit the bill perfectly and, in more ways,
than I originally thought.
The star of my story is Sir Geoffrey de Lutterall, the
ancestor of the more famous Geoffrey de Lutterall of Irnham, responsible for
the commissioning of the Lutterall Psalter in the 1340s. Geoffrey was born sometime
around 1158 in the village of Gamston, North Nottinghamshire, about six miles
away from where I live. Relishing the prospect of setting my wargame stories in
the local area, this was a character that would be worth investigating further.
Sir Geoffrey was a long-time adherent of John Lackland
and supported him in an unsuccessful rebellion against Richard I. The
consequence of this injudicious action was the forfeiture of some of his
estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, only for them to be returned to him
when John became king in 1199. I haven’t been able to find out what happened to
those estates, but medieval kings were known to hand out such confiscated
properties to their loyal supporters and, if this was so in this case, the
lucky recipients would not have been particularly impressed when they had to
surrender them and hand them back over to Sir Geoffrey. If this was how
events transpired, then what may have followed, could have been a
lovely local feud between the rival claimants to these disputed estates.
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| The Luttrell Coat of Arms |
This then is the background to building a Retinue to
use in Barons’ War skirmishing games. I have yet to discover who the
dispossessed parties in this tragic saga may have been, but I can start to
build my first retinue based upon what I imagine Sir Geoffrey’s forces to have
been. Certainly, a small group of local knights, hoping to feather their own
nests, would have supported someone who was held in such high regard by the
king. Sir Geoffrey’s forces may possibly have been reinforced by members of the
Paynell family, from Hooton Pagnell in Yorkshire, into which he had married. As
these dramatic events are taking place in and around Nottinghamshire, a strong
contingent of archers would certainly form part of the retinue and Geoffrey
would have access to the local levy, although these may have been of
questionable loyalty.
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| Wybert Claytone... Veteran Sergeant in the Retinue of Sir Geoffrey. |
More to follow, as the retinue begins to take shape…
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