Bishop Thurstan’s Array at Northallerton

 

Why Bishop Thurstan and not Walter Espec or some secular Norman Lord?  Thurstan sorted out the squabbling Norman barons and played a key role in mobilising the English to fight alongside their Norman overlords. Political boundaries were quite mutable at the time and there were ethnic tensions. 

The Harrying of the North would still have been fresh in the popular memory.  Such horrors are not quickly forgotten. 

King David (Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim) already had English subjects. Indeed his mother had been an English Princess. Refugees had been welcomed. The English might have considered if they would do better in a Greater Scotland.  

Thurstan seems to have decided them against it. 

In his favour he was a known champion of Northern Church Rights, a skilled politician, and it was an era when religious authority was taken very seriously.  It was also a time of brutal military incursions and King David's invasion followed that pattern.

The English nobility of the North had been in exile at Constantinople or Scotland for two generations.  They were not coming back. The ethnic English of the North were leaderless.

Thurstan was probably as good as it got. His name might make one assume he was of English stock.  Not so, he was born in France. Yet he had a sure touch in Northern politics as his dealings with Fergus King of Galloway attest.  

He was also a dab hand on the international stage securing the support of two successive Popes against the encroachments of the See of Canterbury.

We know the Norman knights opted to fight dismounted. A wise decision against the long spears of the Scots. Our Normans will be Elite Footmen.  Only 6 figures in  the unit yet they are formidable. 

One of the attractive things about LRv2 is its sliding representative scale. It enables me to represent these Norman Barons as a single base of 6 figures rather than 6 on two bases. The latter just looked wrong. A bit thin I thought. The single base will fight as 6 figures with12 dice. They fought in the front line.  Here they are again.

 

Also in the front line were the retainers of the Norman Lords.  Here, a decision was required.  We know that the soldiers were spearmen and archers. 

I could opt for two separate units or two mixed units. For the fun of it, and due to Shipway’s novel, I chose mixed units. Is this right? Maybe, shading to probably.

The second line comprised of the better off English. I see them as Heavy Infantry in two units. These figures are Feudal Castings from Steve Shaw. 

They are very handy fellows indeed. They can form the core of the Anglo-Danes at Hastings. One unit can take its place in King David's "Warband" representing his English subjects. 

The pair of them will benefit from the presence of a Holy Man. This will help morale, another nice touch from LRv2. They are substituting for Thurstan's cart mounted Cross. I don't have one.