Irish Targeteers in 15mm- Conversions

If you are doing the Nine Years War in 15mm you are going to need some Irish targeteers and you are going to have to convert your own.  This post is about how to do so.  If you are working in larger scales I hope the following is still of use to you.

First you are going to need some Irish figures holding a sword they can look like this.

Or they can look like this.

QRF will do you for the first with lots of variants. 

Essex do a figure based on the second. If you ask nicely, they’ll do you a pack.  I mixed both together above.

We have, so far as I know, only one image of Irish targeteers.  They appear on the picture-map of the Battle of The Yellow Ford where they are about to cut up Sir Richard Percy's disorganised regiment. 

The figures, bottom centre above, are small but we can see that they wear morions, carry shields and all are sword in hand.  Further detail eludes us.

Now, and this is crucial, you need some figures wearing a morion that will fit exactly with your Irish figures. I used Miniature Figurines Tudor English pike men.  Subsequently I discovered Peter Pig make heads wearing morions and cabasset helmets - I've sent off for some.

Yes, we are talking head swops.  There is something about decapitating figures that gives you pause when you have the Nine Years War in mind.

With a sharp blade carefully remove all the heads.  Then mix some green stuff, a little sticky this time.  Apply a minute ball of it to each neck with the bulk to the rear.

Gently press your heads onto the necks.  The surplus green stuff will rise at the back giving you long Irish hair beneath rear of the morion.  Incise this with the edge of a blade.

Set aside and let it dry overnight.

Next you need to add the targets.  These are not small shields. Think Spanish Rondelos rather than Highlanders.  I bought some medium round shields from Essex which are right enough.  I stuck them on with green stuff but you could glue them.  You will notice a  Spanish adarga shield in the mix.  There was an awful lot of Armada salvage to be found in the Irish Army and I couldn't resist it.

There you have it Irish targeteers in 15mm and just the lads to terrify shaken pike men.  I should add that targeteers were an important part of the new Irish Army.  Following Mountjoy's restructuring they became an important part of the English Army too.

The Battle of Aldfreck Ireland 1597

The Battle of Aldfreck 1597 is an interesting encounter. It was fought predominately between the McDonnells of Antrim and the English Garrison of Carrickfergus.  It arose out of pre- arranged parley.  As we will see both sides mistrusted each other and at least one side definitely intended treachery.

The immediate background to the parley was the mutual raids on those who had accepted the others authority in the locality.  Relations between the Scots and English were not always antagonistic, they were sometimes allies. 

However, there was profound animosity on both sides. The Scots had previously spoiled and burned Carrickfergus town as a reprisal for the English massacre of 700 McDonnell elderly, women and children on Rathlin Island. The leading men on both sides James Mc Sorley McDonnell Lord of the Glinns and the Route and Sir John Chichester Governor of Carrickfergus were deeply aware of both events.

Days before the parley, and unbeknown to Governor Chichester, James McSorley had met with Tyrone. It was agreed that he should marry one of Tyrone’s daughters, accept him as over lord and deliver hostages to him.  In return Tyrone loaned him 500 Tyrone shot. These men would have required feeding and that might have been part of the motivation for Mc Sorley’s raiding.

On the 4^th of November Chichester led 5 companies of Foot, a troop of Horse and some Irish Kern to the meeting point some 4 miles outside of Carrickfergus. If normal English practice prevailed this should have produced 2 units of muskets, two of units of calivers and one of pike or, two units of pike and just one of muskets with two units of calivers. They were accompanied by somewhere near 50 Horse. 

Taking 80 men to a company I'd estimate the English at around 450 men. To this we must add the Irish Kern presumably a company. If so the entire English force stood somewhere around 530 men.


McSorley was waiting with possibly up to 700 men.  This may be too high an estimate. We might recall that in the war with Shane O'Neill the core fighting strength of Clan McDonnell in Antrim was 500 men. Additional troops could always be brought from the Isles but no one claims that McSorley had done so.

The Scots would have been armed with bows, great swords and axes.  The wealthier men would have worn mail and even more would have had helmets.

This show of strength on both sides demonstrates the caution of the parties involved.  McSorley especially was taking no chances for he had placed companies of Tyrone shot concealed in the undergrowth and scrub to his rear flank.

At this point Governor Chichester either lost his head or failed to appreciate the military reality of his situation.  We are told he turned to his Military Commander Captain Merriman and said "Now, Captain, yonder be your old friends. What say you? Shall we charge them?".  Merriman agreed that they should and Moyses Hill who commanded the Horse also concurred.  Moyses, we can say, was married to a cousin of James McSorley.

We can note that Governor Chichester was careful to consult his senior military officers before taking action.  He was ensuring that the responsibility for what he was about to do was shared with his subordinates.  The Lord Deputy and the Queen would expect a written account.

The English cavalry, ever confident, charged and the Scots either evaded or were driven back.  Either way the ground behind them was broken by drumlins and it was on these small hillocks that the McDonnells took a stand.  By this time the Scots would have been shooting their bows while their mailed gentry struck with great sword and axe. As a result, the impetus of the charge of the English Horse was held.  James McSorley explained that:

" & he (Chichester) followed me & did drive me from hill to hill to hawe effectit his bad intention and is the gentil men that is heir in handis vithe us knows, it besemeth the gentil men that vas vithe us to do for themselfes or die."

The English Foot had also engaged and it was at this point that the Tyrone shot rose from the bushes and fired intensely into the English flank. The Scots now counter charged the English Foot breaking their formation. 

Governor Chichester was hit in the leg and knocked from his horse.  He remounted, attempted to reform his line, and sought to lead the Horse in a charge against the Tyrone shot.  He was shot through the head and fell dead; some accompanying officers were also shot with one being captured.  The charge had failed and with that the English troops broke and fled the field.

Of the 5 companies Governor Chichester had led out that morning the equivalent of three of them were now dead or wounded.

James McSorley conscious of his new obligations had Chichester’s head cut off, placed in a barrel of salted water and sent to Tyrone.

The battle is interesting because of the effectiveness of the Scots combination of missilery and melee abilities. 

We can see that the Scots retreat resulted in the Tyrone shot flanking the advancing English presumably as McSorley had intended.

The ground helped enable the Scots to resist the charge of the English Horse but resist it they did. 

We might have expected the armoured, close order English pike to have cut through the Scots line yet no account suggests that they were able to do so. Nor was this explicable as being due to the disruptive Irish flanking fire which must have fallen first on the English calivers and then on the English muskets before reaching the pike men.   

The pike men it seems charged in good order and were held and then broken.  We might consider the ground hindered them but seemingly not enough to prevent a charge.

Looking at the battle we can see that the English Commanders made a series of mistakes. Firstly, they over-estimated the power of their cavalry which they expected to break the Scots line.  Secondly, they did not use the destructive fire power of their shot to maximum effect before committing their pike men. Thirdly, when the Scots did not break, they allowed the English shot to be caught at close quarters by experienced close combat soldiers.

To add to these basic mistakes, we can add that despite having the only Horse on the field Governor Chichester and his Commanders failed to scout the ground.  The sudden appearance of the Tyrone shot on their flank probably doomed the English Amy.

As to the ordinary English soldiers we should not be surprised that they broke having being hit in the flank and seeing their General killed and many officers wounded, captured or slain.

In the aftermath the surviving officers, Moyses Hill included, concocted explanations for their defeat including the failure of the English Horse to do their duty and huge numbers of Scots. Neither are credible.

Irish Pike Men at Kinsale

This contemporary painting shows the pursuit of the Irish pike men after the battle of Kinsale. As you can see they have kept their weapons and are vainly trying to keep together as the English demi lancers spear them.  Let's have a closer look at their dress and equipment.

The English demi lancer is in half armour and is using his lance over arm.  The Irish pike men are all wearing helmets, three are clearly morions.  They seem to me to be uniformly wearing an aketon of thigh length. They wear trews which may be a light blue colour and have swords at their belts.  Compared to the pike men shown below that we have looked at previously they present a uniform appearance.

While we are on the subject I came upon some testimony from an English observer of the training of Irish pike men.  He noted that a large part of their training consisted of moving swiftly from one point to another and forming a pike hedge immediately they arrived. This makes perfect sense when their tactical role of blocking the English cavalry is considered.  Their job was to protect the Irish shot and that must have involved swiftly placing themselves between the former and the threatening English Horse.  I'm minded, noting their light equipment, that they should be considered fast troops in terms of movement.