Lion Rampant Chronicles: The Saving Of The Lady Gertrude

    Intro

     So today I am presenting another of my Lion Rampant Chronicles (batrep being too modern a term to use for medieval themed games, methinks), this one concerning the history of Digby de Baquaill. We first encountered Digby in the Baltic Crusades and my aim with his History is to flesh out his background somewhat. 

     We, Dave Knight of the Falkirk and District Wargames Club and myself, played this game a few weeks back. The scenario we chose was The Fugitive in which the Defender has to locate and rescue a member of  his Lord's household who has recently escaped from the Attacker's Lord. The Attacker, of course, must prevent this, bringing back the fugitive dead or alive. I took on the role of the defender to Dave's attacker. The Fugitive has hidden herself in one of the six likely locations on the table. My force must search them to discover if she is hiding. They do this by getting into contact with the location then rolling a dice. For the first location they must roll a 6 to find the fugitive, at the second location, if the fugitive wasn't at the first, a 5 must be rolled to discover the fugitive and so on at each successive location, the number required decreasing at each location.  Once found the fugitive must then be escorted off the table for the defender to claim a victory. The attacker must stop this to claim a victory. 

The table layout. Each of the circled area represents a
possible hiding place for the Lady Gertrude and, as such,
must be searched thoroughly by Digby's men

     The Plot

     The scenario is set during the disastrous campaigns in Normandy during 1202-1204 when King John, he of historical (and by all accounts well deserved) ill-repute, is trying to reclaim his lands in Normandy. King John's forces are on the offensive after the victory at the Battle of Mirabeau. He has sent a force under the Sir Henry of Sheppey to besiege the Chateau Ecrou Dur, a local stronghold belonging to rebellious members of Poitevin faction. 

     Whilst they are besieging the Chateau Ecrou Dur, the long suffering Sir Henry hears that his wife, the Lady Gertrude (or Gertrude Sharp Tongue as she is known by the many poor folk who have had the msifortune to upset her, a thing easily done) was travelling to join him. However, enroute, she has been captured by the Poitevins and is being held to ransom. On receiving this news, Sir Henry pondered on how best to react. After a period of deliberation and reflection, about a week or so; and on recalling that the Lady Gertrude 's father, Stephen, Count de Pennys, was incredibly wealthy and that he, Henry, stood to inherit that wealth as Gertrude's husband, Henry overcame any desires he had of being freed of a shrewish wife and prepared to dig deep and pay the ransom.       

     However, news reached him that the Lady Gertrude had escaped the clutches of the Poitevins (by way of a series of doors that just happened to have been left unlocked by the long suffering gaolers and servants in the castle where she was being held) and that she was demanding rescue. Sir Henry acted swiftly for a change and sent for one of his more able knights, Digby De Baquaill, to effect milady's rescue....

Extract from The History of Digby de Baquaill; Knight and Baron

     And thus it was during the spring in the year of Our Lord 1203 that Digby was first given the chance to earn fame and fortune in battle. At this time he was a member of the retinue of Henry of Sheppey and was with Henry at the siege of the Chateau Ecrou Dur. Sir Henry's much loved and deeply regarded wife, the Lady Gertrude had been travelling to be at her husband's side to bring him warmth and succour during the long, dull siege when she had been captured and held prisoner. After a brief period the brave Lady Gertrude had managed to win the hearts of her gaolers and they had assisted in her escaping. She had further managed, by her kindness and gentle words, to have word sent to her fretting husband of her escape and he, in turn, dispatched Digby de Baquail, his most trusted knight to effect the Lady Gertrude's recovery back to the warmth of her husband's embrace.

Lady Gertrude on the run

     Dismounting from his palfrey, Digby handed the reins to his squire and strode over to where a group of mounted sergeants waited astride their mounts. "Good morrow, Lionel; what news?" he said to their leader. The leader of the mounted sergeants, Lionel of Yardley Chase, nodded to Digby and said "Good morrow to you, Master Digby. What news, you ask. Well as far as we can discover, Milady Gerturde is in the beech copse yonder" at this he pointed beyond the edge of the wood where the retinue were gathered toward a small copse a few hundred yards away "however, Master Digby, it appears we are not the only ones intent on relieving the good Lady Gertrude of her status as a fugitive; a band of Poitevins are approaching beyond the village, with no good intent and in greater numbers than we have here". 

      "Are they now" replied Digby, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "How many do you make them, Lionel?". In his turn, Lionel became thoughtful then replied  "From what I could see, though their numbers are many, their quality is questionable; many of them are a mere rabble though there are some mounted sergeants and a band of crossbow men or two. However they are led by Arnon of Mus and five of his knights; all mounted on war horses, and they are not to be counted as rabble".

     Digby's face lit up. "Arnon of Mus you say. A most secretive knight, Lionel,very bold, very brave and rumoured to be wealthy too. However talk of wealth and boldness must not distract us; where he Alexander the Great himself we must stay true to our purpose and prevent the Lady Gertrude from falling once more into his clutches". Digby considered for a few moments, looking towards the copse, the small hamlet beyond the copse, the road running through it and the distant soldiers approaching the hamlet. 

     "Very well; you say milady is in yonder copse, Lionel". Lionel nodded. "Good; I want you and your good fellows here" here he indicated the mounted serjeants accompanying Lionel "to sally forth and rescue milady". The faces of the mounted serjeants fell at this news. Ignoring their looks Digby continued "When you have her, treat her with the utmost respect, Lionel; Sir Henry has bade me insist on this point. The Lady Gertrude must suffer no cause for complaint or he will have the skin off the back of the man who upsets her, upsets her most that is; now go, good fellows; gather her up and whisk her away. We shall keep Arnon of Mus and his followers busy whilst you make good your escape. Go!" The mounted serjeants turned their horses somewhat reluctantly and set out for the copse, many of them already imaging the lashing their backs might receive from Sir Henry at his wife's behest. As they did so, Digby called forward the remainder of his retinue and led them forward toward the small hamlet...

The hamlet of Racler with the Poitevin forces approaching from
the right

Digby and his men advance to cover the rescue party

Digby leads from the front; happier to be facing the enemy
rather than the Lady Gertrude.

On the right, the mounted serjeants reach the copse (at this point I rolled a 6 for my search of the copse and found the Lady Gertrude. With little chance of the Poitevins stopping us getting her away the game seemed to be heading to a speedy end. However, I was looking to create Digby's history so we carried on with Digby intent on winning glory; the rescue of Milady Gertrude would doubtless earn him Sir Henry's thanks but Digby was really after much more besides Sir Henry's good will. So even though the mission was soon to be accomplished there were enemies to best; glory to be won and fame earned so on we went with the battle...)

The mounted serjeants rescue the Lady Gertrude, who is none
too happy to be rescued by mere mounted serjeants and lets
them know of her unhappiness no uncertain terms.

Digby's retinues forms a blocking line

Poitevin serjeants, both mounted and foot...

Gilbert of Cockermouth leads his mercenary band towards the
pig farm, intent on getting to grips with the Poitevin Bidowers
in the farm

Digby and his men jeer the Poitevins. Though once the
Poitevin crossbowmen got within range there was slightly
less jeering

The Poitevin bidowers keep the mercenaries busy whilst Arnon
of Mus and his knightly retinue advance to within charge
distance

The Poitevin host advance along the road, two groups of lethal
crossbowmen leading the way

Bidowers, armed with javelins, in the pig farm, ankle deep
in shi... in ordure

Digby's immediate retinue who were the focus of much
stinging crossbow fire (Digby has still got a lot to learn
about tactics, it would be fair to say)

Arnon of Mus and his knights rout Gilbert of Cockermouth and
his mercenary band

Digby and his squire, being all that are left standing of his
retinue, spot Arnon of Mus and his fellow knights and set
off towards them intent on glory.

     Digby watched Gilbert of Cockermouth being carried from the field of battle by his men. This little escapade wasn't going as he had planned. As the last of the mercenaries departed Digby espied his man; Arnon of Mus and his mounted men trotting forward towards the English force. Arnon must have seen Digby's penant for he halted his retinue and advanced forward slowly on his own, halted and dipping his lance towards Digby, dug his spurs into his horses flanks. "So that's how you want it, you vile dog" muttered Digby as the giant steed charged towards him. Digby crouched slightly, his shield held forward and his sword arm held back ready to strike. Within moments the giant warhorse was upon him and deftly turning Arnon of Mus' lance point downwards and to one side, Digby turned and struck at the knight's saddle with all his force.

     The mounted knight's lance buried itself in the ground as he tumbled from his horse and landed heavily on the ground still with his feet in his stirrups, his wrecked saddle now detached from his horse. Within seconds, Digby was astride his foe and turning over the dazed knight he cried "Yeild, Arnon of Mus!!" The dazed knight waved feebly to indicate his surrender. Digby smiled delightedly; this was a turning out to be not such a bad day after all for here was a fine prize indeed; Arnon of Mus would fetch a very good ransom indeed. All he had to do was get himself and his prize back to their encampment at Chateau Ecrou Dur.....

     And that was how Digby de Baquaill began his glorious history; with the bold rescue of a lady in distress and defeating his foe on the field of glory in hand to hand combat.

     And it was also how me and Dave's game ended; well not quite. We played a couple of more turns for the sake of fun but with the Lady Gertrude "safe" and Dave's commander, Arnon of Mus captured, his head aching and his family fortune about to be seriously dented after being bested in a challenge it was clear that Digby had done more than enough for me to be getting on with in creating his history. 

     I think this mission is a bit hit and miss. As played out above I was very quickly able to get the fugitive away to safety by sheer good luck. A 5 would have seen me having to continue to search as my enemies got nearer but I hit pay dirt right away. The one time that I had previously played The Fugitive I wasn't so lucky and the fugitive was in the very last hiding place and that made it well nigh impossible to reach her. However that didn't detract from that game as my opponent played an excellent game and that made it a very memorable game for me for all the right reasons. 

     As is the one I have chronicled above; Dave's commander challenging Digby was a bold if reckless act but only reckless because I won the combat and truly won the day. 

    I know I have said it before but Lion Rampant really is a great game especially when you leave the field of battle covered in laurels whilst the field of battle is covered in yours and your enemies dead...huzzah!!

     Digby will be back in battle soon, aiming to win more fame and glory and not a little cash through ransoms. 

     Till then, farewell gentle reader

Jimbob