"Feudal Fun" Topic

This is one for all you Medieval experts:

I have the WAB 'Siege and Conquest' supplement, and further down the track would like to optimise its usefulness for my gaming group by creating a multi-faction campaign setting along these lines: a self-contained European region in the middle ages; megalomaniacal barons fighting each other for dominance with their personal feudal forces of no more than a couple of thousand men; peasants exploiting the chaos by rising in rebellion; sieges featuring at least as prominently as field battles.

Chronologically and geographically speaking, can anyone point me towards a 13th or 14th century historical episode that could serve as a model?

I do 13th Century Spain. It is good for multiple factions. You could also do The Holy Roman Empire, Pope vs. Emperor conflicts or the 4th Crusade with the sack of Constantinople.

Perhaps oportunistic Marcher Lords and Welsh chieftans during the first or second barons war? There were plenty of other examples of fueding families and greedy barons exploiting the social breakdown during Henry IIIrd's reign to expand their own estates and make war on on another.

You can do no better than Richard II.

You have the Peasants Revolt and the Lords Appellant. All great stuff. Knights with jupon, pig faced helms and great heraldry, peasants in hose and hoods, archers galor, what is not to like?

Or you can do Edward II. Equally anarchic, and you get to use a red hot poker…..

Cheers,
JohnG

Late 14th century northern marches of England. Percy captures Douglas. Frees Douglas without ransom when he agrees to join Percy fighting against Henry IV.

Late 14th century Spain. Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Navarre, Granada all fighting it out in various combinations, with intrusions of French and English companies. John of Gaunt making a claim for the crown of Castile.

Whee.

Spain is a great option. Charles of Anjou and the Pope vs. the Hohenstaufens in Sicily is another – the Sicilian Vespers was a subsequent bloody rebellion against Charles' rule and Charles himself went on the 7th Crusade; lots of juicy stuff!

12th cent southern France,

link

spain late 12th

I immediately thought of 12th Century Southern France as well! Or The Anarchy – Stephen and Matilda – midnight escapes in the snow etc. 12th Century again so may be a bit too early for you?

Yes Cerdic, I like the look of knights wearing great helms, so ideally would like to set the campaign in the 13th century. As an additional incentive, Fireforge has some plastics for the period, no doubt with more to come – or I might just go the Old Glory route; that company has a broad selection of knights with separate heads that can be mixed and matched, and they can be got as cheaply as plastics.

I checked out the Barons' Wars on Wikipedia; just conventional two-siders, so not a good fit. Spain has the added complication of Muslims, whereas I want to keep this an all-Christian affair. Germany, with its myriad tiny city states and principalities might be the best historical template,

Can anyone suggest where I might find a suitable list for this concept? The same list would do for all factions except peasants, for whom I already have a list that appeared in an issue of WI a few years ago. It would be something along the lines of "Generic 13th Century Western European Feudal Baron's Personal Retinue', or as close as possible. Perhaps there's something appropriate in 'Armies of Chivalry', which I never managed to acquire. I would think copyright would no longer be a concern now that the book's OOP and its publisher has ceased to exist.

Steven and Matilda (Maude) in England. This is the time period that the Brother Cadfael (sp) books are written in and a very pivital time indeed.

Magna Carta era (First Baron's War) or Second Baron's War would both fit the bill. Also France during the same time period down in the Plantagenet held lands.

Well, much track has been trod since my OP, but with the impending release of Lion Rampant interest in this idea is building in my group. I know that game is designed with small forces in roughly the same size range as SAGA and Dux Britanniarum in mind, but reading Dan Mersey's notes on his blog it's apparent that the mechanisms are simple enough that using larger armies shouldn't present any problems. It also shouldn't be too hard to work in sieges by adapting rule and ideas from S & C.

Does anyone know of any sources that explore in detail narratives and dynamics of minor baronial feuds in medieval western Europe?

Of possible interest to others is an online discovery I recently made: an abstract, non-geographically specific boardgame for six factions designed for school students, 'Battle of the Barons'. It has the virtue of being simple, and with a little work could probably be easily developed into a campaign system and battle generator.

Early 14th C. Scotland? You'd really want early HYW figures if you're fussy, but really it's all spearmen, archers and men-at-arms.
There's the Balliol party versus the Plantagenet occupation then the Bruce party vs. the Balliol party and against the English,raiding through northern England and southern Scotland, the expeditions to Ireland and the isle of Man and then the Bruces versus Balliol and the 'disinherited' and the English again.
Skirmishes, battles, stormings, sieges lots of small actions and a few medium to big ones and a real significance to the rise (or demise) of aristocratic houses.
The regional aspect is also more important and easier to model than in England since Scottish Earls and some of the greater barons (same applies in France)were formally recognised as regional potentates whereas English ones had their properties spread all over the place and did not have the same range of powers and influence in a particular region.
You might try Cynthia Neville's book on the Earls of Strathearn, Michael Brown's 'The Black Douglases' or Alan Young's book on the Comyns to get a flavour of things….or (ahem) Chris Brown's 'The Second Scottish Wars of Independence'.

Thanks for the suggestion Ugly, but armour had advanced sufficiently by this period to make the Fireforge figures I bought since the OP unsuitable, and this setting has too much of an international dimension. I'm really looking for purely localised conflicts.

Do you know if minor inter-noble feuds were common in the same region in the 13th century?

In the end, if I can't find a detailed historical background for this project it might just have to be fictionalised.

I have just put my campaign system up on the web as a free download and it is set up as a Flipbook to view ahead of time. This covers England, France, Spain, the Crusades and more.

It can be used for games other than Day of Battle.

Chris P.

link

For 13th century conflicts, what about Holy Roman Empire? My understanding is that there was at times plenty of room for local conflicts between individuals counts, barons, independent towns etc. Depending on area, Hanseatic league might also get involved.

Does your campaign represent the type of local, multi-sided conflict I'm seeking to model, Chris?

Griefbringer – do you know of any detailed, narrative English language histories?