Third Crusade - Outremer

Battle of Arsuf - 7 September 1191

Outremer, Knightly Orders and a few French

Last week we looked at King Richard I in the Levant, with an army of English, during the Third Crusade. As I covered last week I have always found this era of time captivating, particularly Richard and the Third Crusade. This week is about some of the supporting forces of Outremer. 

Selection of Outremer

I will attempt to steer clear of giving a history lesson but want to provide the context to my reasoning for painting the army and for the battle. Reading from the Osprey Campaign 161 book, the Battle of Arsuf took place after Richard had decided to take the army south from Acre. Forming three divisions, with a fleet just off the coast to keep them supplied. Richard commanded the middle of the Army, Guy & Geoffrey de Lusignan with the Templars the head, and the Duke of Burgundy the rear with the Hospitallers. 

Henry Duke of Burgundy

As you can probably imagine there was a lot of tension within the Crusader camp. Particularly after the English had insulted the Duke Leopold at Acre, throwing his standard into the gutter. That acrimony extended to the French too, and King Philip of France went home after the siege due to illness, bitterness, and designs on English lands in France. That left the Duke of Burgundy in charge of the remaining French, not only did he not get on with Richard, Philip had also given the French wages to Richard, so I bet that irked.....
 

French & Flemish Crossbows

Above is my depiction of Duke of Burgundy, using a plastic Bretonnian and a small group of French knights from Fireforge leftovers. In addition this are some converted French & Flemish Crossbowmen these are from Gripping Beast I think, I got these from ebay and polished them up a bit. 

 

Vanguard, Templars

 

 

Another fasinating tale is the assination of Conrad of Montferrat who was contesting the throne of Jerusalem with Guy. Richard favoured Guy, one of is vassals in France and Philip Conrad, a cousin. Again to keep it brief Conrad was made heir to the throne and was set to be King, only to be assassinated the next year. So many interesting stories, think they missed a trick with the film in my book.

Templar Command, Robert de Sable, Grand Master 

The Templars were at the head of the march from Arce, and the Duke of Burgundy the rear. My Templars are above and come from a vast range of manufactures: Gripping Beast, Fireforge, old Citadel and Footsore to name but a few. I like both the Templar red cross and the Battle Standard, so I decided to make a command base from these plus the priest adds a little flavour too. 

Guy, King of Jerusalem

I am not basing for any rules in particular and normally go for the 25mm square, but this time the whole army is on rounds, my thinking here was to team up with someone else with a crusader army and use mine as supplementary leaders, for a command and control element to the game.  Given the context of the battle, I have not yet really found any rule set that replicates the command aspect to do the battle justice yet. Maybe you have a few ideas, drop them below please?

Knights of Jerusalem

Back to the miniatures , Guy & Geoffrey de Lusignan were also at the head of the army according to the Oprey book, however they were likely relaying orders up and down the like to keep discipline. Above is an even smaller force of Knights from Jerusalem, with Guy carrying a rather big Warhammer. Guy is a converted Perry miniature given at Salute.   

Balian of Ibelin

Balian with Men from Ibelin

A little bit of Hollywood here; Balien from the film Kingdom of Heaven, in Ibelin colours with retainers. Along a mix of Men-at-Arms below, representing the crusaders kingdoms: County of Edessa (1098–1150), the Principality of Antioch (1098–1268), the County of Tripoli (1102–1289), bearing different colours but all with freehand Cross of Jerusalem of the shields.

WiP Mixed Outremer

 

Finished Shields

As the battle progressed the Muslims started harassing the crusaders with horse archers and retreating before taking too much damage. Essentially this cause much angst in the ranks, with the Hospitallers in the rear becoming very frustrated. Richard kept strict order to stay in formation until he said otherwise, and as the day progressed many requests to charge and scatter the Muslims by the Hospitallers was refused. 

Templar Knight

Cutting a long story short, please do read up on the battle in more detail, the Hospitallers could take no more and charged the Archers. At which point Richard sized the opportunity and supported this with the centre of the Army. Several charges, and recharges later the Muslims were forced to retire until another day. There is of course much more detail to comment on, but I don’t wish to bore people or commit them to a history lesson. I do recommend reading up on it tho its very interesting story, especially some of the accounts of Richard single handed combat skills and ability to lead from the front, whether they are all true or not is another thing entirely. But as mention some of these events are documented by Muslims as well as Christians.

Rear View

Finial pictures are of one of my favourite models in the Army, a Footsore limited edition Templar Knight, but he serves as Pilgrim or Hermit Knight for me. On the shield is my first ever attempt at battle damage on a shield. It looks ok even though the lines are a tad thick.

Thats it for another week, there will be a little gap now while I decide which army to next dig out and take photos of.