"Soldiers of Brittany 1450-1500" Topic

I am working on a late 'Wars of the Roses' army in 15mm. I need to field Bretons for Henry Tudor's Bosworth army of 1485 but I am pondering troop types.

It is known that Brittany produce javelin men in earlier centuries and I know that the javelin was still used in Spain and Ireland and possibly still in North Wales. As all four countries have a Celtic connection I am tempted to field some Breton javelins with an option to upgrade to crossbow for some or all. These would support a French/Breton bill unit but the French component could also be pike as the Swiss were already training French pike by 1485. The other option is a few Francs Archers with longbow or some fully armoured bill as French mercenary foot knights.

Any suggestions or sources for 1450-1500 Brittany?

Barry

The Bretons had long abandoned the javelin by 1485, the Bretons had an army set up along French lines with Ordonnance Companies formed into "lances" of men-at-arms, coustiliers and archers, Francs-Archers armed with either bow or guisarme (i.e bill) and the Ban made up of the nobles and their retainers.

The idea that the French troops at Bosworth were mainly pikemen has been pretty much debunked by the latest research carried out by Gleen Foard and Anne Curry. There is simply nothing in the sources which supports it, the camp which was supposed to train the French in Swiss tactics had been disbanded in 1481 i.e 4 years before the battle and the troops actually there had been mainly armed with halberds & bows, not with pikes as pikes were only purchased for a limited number of men. Sources detailing the equipment of the Francs-Archers from which Henry Tudor would have likely recruited his troops indicate the use of halberds and longbows but no pikes. (Documents detail the equipment lost in a previous campaign.)

You need to look at "Huchehault", a Breton re-enactment group. Intro page at huchehault.com/xv/f.htm ; mediaeval documentation at huchehault.com/diell/f.htm (All in French, of course, but at least it's not in Breton.)

Basically the Bretons had their own francs-archers before the French crown did, and their own compagnies d'ordonnance aas well. No reference to javelins that I can recall.

Also
PDF link

abpo.revues.org/2565