Gaelic mercenaries in medieval Ireland

Last year, I wrote a post about galloglass and kerns, the gaelic warriors of medieval Ireland. This post contained pictures of one warrior of each sort.

Today, my warband has grown a little. Here they are:

This warband is led by a chieftain, even a lord, considering the quality of his armour.

His retinue is composed of galloglass, Scots from the Highlands and the Isles, at first, but also local Irishmen, whose main weapon is the double handed axe.

These fierce mercenaries are seconded by kerns, light native infantrymen, whose main weapons are javelins and knives, and sometimes bows.

They are ready for raiding!

Gall óglaigh and Kern

Hi Everyone!

Commenting my last post related to Templar men-at-arms, "Boss" Paul from Paul's Bods (one of the best 1/72 blogs dedicated to 1/72 minis... all right, everybody already knows :))asked for more Medieval minis, so I promised new pictures for yesterday night... well the night is over (here) and I am a bit late, but I could finish two minis and take pictures.

I wanted to start something new for a small vignette, an original or unusual subject (at least for me), because it's always a good way to discover and learn new things. I searched my plastic stocks and picked a set by Redbox for the war of the Roses: Irish troops, set 72044.

I know very little concerning this period in Irish history, so I opened the online bible (PSR), and read about the two main troop types represented in the box:

• the galloglass (from from Irish: gall óglaigh meaning foreign warriors - thanks Wikipedia), heavy infantry originated in the Scottish Isles, and using terrible two-hands weapons such as big battleaxes - maybe a remembrance of housecarls, or of their common viking ancestors)

• the kerns, or light skirmishing infantry, using javelins as their main weapons (by the way, I finally took time to know a little about kerns - a term I read in WRG army lists years ago, without the slightest idea of what they could look like)

You can see below one of the most famous illustrations representing galloglass (left) and kerns (right) in the 16th century by Albrecht Dürer. Though posterior to the medieval period, it gives us an idea of the appearance of these fierce men.

One more thing eventually convinced me to start painting: these men were also known to wear saffron colored coats, and since I can't use my yellow paint everyday, I became very tempted!

And here you are the result, two minis painted yesterday night.  Hope you (including Paul :)) like these medieval men.