Lovell our Dogge

Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell was one of the last great Yorkist magnates.  A close friend of Richard III (by whom he was knighted), he replaced Sir William Hastings as Lord Chamberlain and accrued a number of other honors.  He fought at Bosworth and was believed to have been killed, but he escaped and almost immediately began to foment armed insurrection.  After the rebellion's immediate suppression and a narrow escape, Lovell made his way to Burgundy and eventually became one of the big wheels in Lincoln's campaign.  After (probably) fleeing the field at Stoke, he seems to have made his way to Scotland and then passed from historical record, though there are some (almost certainly untrue) stories that he was hidden in a secret chamber in one of his houses by a faithful servant.

Lovell's family emblem was a "white" (argent) wolf, which appears on his Garter arms.  This probably derives from the old Latin form of the name Lupellus (little wolf), which eventually morphed into Lovell.  His personal arms were a field vairy gules and or, which figure on the bend worn by one of the archers.

Lovell's standard is conjectural.  The large wolf is taken from his Garter arms, the other wolves are just generic heraldic wolves, and the motto tempus omnia monstrat is attached to the Lovell family at a later point, though I don't know whether it was in use in 1487.

I've decided to paint the various English contingents by retinue, and Lovell's will be one of the biggest.  Next up will be a collection of the smaller gentlemen's retinues.

Nocked Up

Been rather busy of late, and on top of it I haven't felt much like painting.  So instead I assembled more figures for the English bases.

Here are the archers.  Seconds before taking the photo I bumped the table, so some aren't in the right position/orientation.

A couple of command figures for various bases.  The aristocratic fellow in the middle is none other than John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln.  He will of course eventually get one of those circular "command bases," which will permit a kind of vignette.  I picture him stepping forward in alarm as he's given some not very encouraging news by a (still unmade) lieutenant, moments before entering the fray himself to swing the balance of battle in his favor.

These men, and the billmen in the previous post, await extensive greenstuffing, and some of them will probably be altered considerably before I get to painting them.  I have a habit of assembling the contents of a new box in a rush and then being displeased by how unoriginal the poses are, so the next step will be to fiddle with them a bit.  I also hope to get a hold of the new standard bearers and some more musicians, but that will have to wait until I've painted most of these plastics.

Billmen Mock-up

Here's a quick mock-up of the billmen.  I've tried to give a somewhat more static impression with this base, with the front rank 'receiving' the enemy while the men to the back keep piling forward.  Perhaps one or two more men to cram onto the base - not sure yet.  These guys are awaiting GS at the moment, which I should be able to apply within the next day or so.

Last of the True, II

A few more knights take the field:

Left to right: Sir Ralph Ashton,Sir Thomas Broughton (KIA) and Sir Philip Constable of Flamborough.  It's not entirely clear that Ashton fought at Stoke.  Local tradition holds that he died in 1486 (a cause of much celebration), but in fact his death-date, though unknown, is almost certainly after 1490.  He held several high offices under Edward IV and Richard III, including that of lieutenant of the Tower; he was pardoned by Henry in 1486, but such a pardon was not a guarantee of loyalty.  There is no reason to suspect he wasn't at Stoke, in any case.

L-R: Sir Thomas Blandrehasset (whom I've designated as Lovell's standard-bearer), Sir Thomas Pilkington, and Alexander Appleby.

 In the past I've been pretty leery of painting free-hand, so I've used this project as a way to force myself to do more of it.  Not only have I come to find it a delight, but it's infinitely preferable to painting armor, of which I'm fairly sick at the moment.

More or less finished with knights for the time being.  The next item on the list is the billmen.