"Facts About the First Battle of St Albans" Topic

"On 22 May 1455, troops supporting the rival houses of Lancaster and York advanced on St Albans.

Troops commanded by Richard, Duke of York, resoundingly defeated a Lancastrian royal army commanded by the Duke of Somerset, who was killed in the fighting. King Henry VI was captured, leading to a subsequent parliament appointing Richard of York Lord Protector…."
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Amicalement
Armand

I always thought this would be a fun game to participate in but I couldn't justfy buying the city walls myself just for use in 1 game.

Uesugi, if the urge gets to be too much, I bet you can find a PDF at Wargames Vault, so you'd pretty much be out ink and cardstock. Here we go, in fact:

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Was St Albans actually walled? I thought not. So surely the battle doesn't need city walls, just some buildings to represent the suburbs, with perhaps a defensive ditch, and some gardens, orchards, fields and such outside the suburbs?

@Charlie
A 16th or early 17th century map shows St Albans not much different from the time of the battle. This map suggests that, in common with other towns, medieval St Albans had a ditch around it, possibly with a light fence.
Town ditches performed several roles in this period – they marked the administrative boundary of the town, they kept domestic animals in and wild animals (wolf, boar etc) out and also served a police function by keeping out beggars and the unwelcome.
The gate may have been nothing more than a bar across the road, manned by a nightwatchman. Some towns still preserve the name 'Bar' for some gates.
Finally the ditch may have served as waste or sewerage disposal with 'night soil' being tipped in from a bucket or direct from an outhouse. Part of the London town ditch was called Houndsditch, due to the practice of throwing dead dogs into it. That name persists today in that part of London.

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BTW: there ARE still substantial Roman walls at St Albans but they are nowhere near the medieval town but about half a mile away in a field.

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The Roman walls of Verulamium were downhill of the medieval settlement but were abandoned in the post-Roman period when Christians moved the town to the top of the hill, where St.Alban was allegedly martyred. By the Norman period the Roman town was being stripmined for building material to build St Albans Cathedral.

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This has led to the rather odd situation of a Norman building made of brick. The Normans did not know how to make brick but robbed the old Roman site of the precious material. Brick making did not return to Britain until about 1350.

B

Despite eventually losing, the Lancastrians were well prepared for battle

The Lancastrians were NOT prepared for battle. The Lancastrian "army" was essentially the royal hopusehold plus a relatively small number of retinue troops as guards.

In it, Margaret of Anjou persuades the distraught King to flee the battlefield and head to London.

Of course Margaret of Anjou was NOT present at the battle.

but I couldn't justfy buying the city walls

St Albans did not have city walls. It was defended by a ditch and wooden palisade.

Two of us put in a club game once of the battle

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First lot completed

Cheers
Matt
French Wargame Holidays
L'Hotel de Hercé
Mayenne, pays de Loire
France
"Walk the battlefield in the morning, Wargame it in the afternoon"©

Interesting comments on that AAR!