|
Background Henry
Tudor seized the throne of England at the battle of Bosworth in 1485,
becoming King Henry VII more by conquest than by having a good claim to
the throne. Fortunately for
him, the Wars of the Roses had wrought such carnage in the upper ranks
of the English nobility that there wasn’t really anyone else with a
better claim! The only real threat to his claim was the young Earl of
Warwick, who Henry quickly had thrown into the Tower of London, where he
spent the rest of his life. The
next year or so saw a lot of unrest, with a few remaining Yorkist nobles
trying to stir up rebellion. These
tended to be very short-lived affairs, as they lacked a figurehead to
rally to and Henry showed great skill at undermining the resolution of
the Rebels. His basic
approach seems to have been to decide who the ringleader was and then
offer everyone else a pardon. Captured ringleaders, such as Sir Humphrey
Stafford, were hung, drawn and quartered. In spite of his uncertain
claim to kingship, Henry certainly knew how a king should act! Unknown
to Henry, however, a sinister plot was underway. A priest called Richard
Simons was grooming Lambert Simnel, the son of an Oxford carpenter, to
impersonate the Earl of Warwick. I like to think that this grooming
included lots of instruction on taking the ‘advice’ of his betters
and not discussing the merits of the dovetail joint at social occasions. When
Simnel was revealed to Yorkist supporters in Ireland he was accepted as
the Earl, and proclaimed both an Irish Prince and heir to the English
throne. The Yorkists now
had a figurehead to rally opposition to Tudor rule! They assembled their
army in Ireland and then made their move to challenge Henry. After a
short and unremarkable campaign the Royal army blundered into the Rebels
who stood waiting for them on a low ridge near Stoke. The
Armies The
6000 strong Royal army seems to have been entirely English in origin,
consisting of the usual mix of bills and bows with a smattering of
mounted Knights and Currours. The bills, bows and Currours would have
worn a variety of armour, ranging from padded jacks (apparently fairly
effective at stopping an arrow, at least at long range) to partial plate
armour, while the knight would be wearing full plate with some The
Rebel army that assembled in Ireland for the attempt to put Simnel on
the throne of England was small and varied. The core of the force was
formed by 1500-2000 Swiss and German mercenaries under Martin Schwartz.
These were battle-hardened veterans armed with pikes, halbards and
handguns, the weapons that were dominating European warfare at this
time. This force was supported by a larger number of Irish The
bulk of the 9000 strong Yorkist army is said to have been poorly
equipped, but I suspect that the presence of renegade members of the
Calais garrison would have given a useful boost to the English infantry.
This is represented by upgrading one of the Bill units to Veteran and
giving the front rank troops heavier armour. Deployment The
Rebels deploy on a long low ridge, facing the advancing Royal army. You
could place a small village on the table edge to the Rebel left and a
wood to their extreme right. This would serve the dual purpose of both
making the game look better an also The Royalist army is on the march and starts the battle with only the Advanced Guard on the table. The rest of the army arrives during the course of the game. |
