Spain was on the front line between Christendom and Islam from the age of Charlemagne until the eventual fall of Granada (the last Moorish stronghold), the same year Columbus set out for the Americas. The early Christian armies were very like contemporary Normans and evolved along similar lines but often with Moorish contingents in their armies. El Cid fought on both sides in these wars of reconquest.
This army is from the early 13th Century, contemporary with King John in England. The Catalans (county of Barcelona etc.)
allied themselves to the rebel Southern French heretics when the King of France, with the support of the Pope, sent an army to suppress the heresy and enforce his authority over the, essentially independent, lords of Languedoc (the Albigensian Crusade) …
The Crusaders were led by Simon De Montfort, father of the Simon De Montfort who was Earl of Leicester and led the rebellious parliament in England (and who was killed at the battle of Evesham). Small world, the Middlew Ages!
You can see, in the army's camp, that the rebels have insulted the French, the Pope and the De Montforts by inverting their shields and targeting them with rotten fruit (indeed, one of the peasants is urinating on De Montfort's post!) …
I love this as a wargames project because the decisive battle at Muret was over in minutes. An outnumbered De Montfort sallied from Muret and charged straight at Pere king of Aragon, leader of the enemy army. Unfortunately for the Spanish, the king was killed in the first contact and the army promptly disintegrated.
A classic example of Pere rolling a 1 in combat, and the army then failing any/all rally attempts. The kind of thing that happens on the wargame table, but you think never happens in real life!
So it's a great one to fight as a 'what if' – the freak event, historically, was utterly decisive.
Anyway, Frederick … sorry for the lengthy reply but it is a great period and part of history to explore.
!
Phil
gets medieval.
