Death and Taxes part 3

Scenario 3 - King Richard's Messenger, "The monk" awaits the messenger on the beach as two ships fight it out in the estuary. But is he really a monk?

Sc 3 - King Richard's Messenger: The monk awaits the messenger on the beach. But is he really a monk?  Meanwhile a pair of ships battle in the estuary

Sc 4 - The Rebellion.  Robin of The Hode escapes the Bishop's dungeon in Cestria and seeks the aid of Lords Lumley and Lambtun.  Both declare support for King Richard, and a battle is fought on the Burnt Moor.

The Italian great ship, Il Vento d’Oro,"the Golden Wind," has been chased into the estuary of the River Weare by a cog load of French pirates.

Giovanni di Valtellina, Captain of the "Oro" is delivering a messenger to the northern barons from the King; Sir Thomas of Alnwick, whose mission is to rally the barons.  

The "pirate" ship is the "Corbeau" (Raven) under the notorious Pierre "Le Corbeau" du Havre, a captain currently employed by the French Crown, seeking to disrupt King Richard's return.

The Game

I began by adding medieval style fore and aft castles to my bronze age Sea Peoples ships.  Work in progress, I'll be adding decorated shields hung on the castle sides.

The Weare estuary.  First time I've used my Warlord Games sea mat.  It looks great.

The Monk arrives but with him is Sir Richard of Lambeth, keen to meet his old crusader companion Thomas of Alnwick..   

The ships come onto adjoining edges.

The Oro is packed with Men at arms and Crossbowmen

The Raven is loaded with veteran Sergeants (some of my Norman figures) and archers.

The Italians shoot, despite the distance two archers killed

But the archers get a pair of f crossbowmen too.

The hulls come close as the pirate beers in.

At point blank the crossbows roll five hits. Three archers are killed and they are shaken.

And the collision comes.  The ships grapple and are now drifting.

It's a fight across the aft-castles.  The Italians lose a man at aems

And the French also lose a man.

The crossbows have reloaded using the third action from a club and kill three French Men at arms.  One man remaining and he is shaken.

The Italian men at arms board the aft castle an as both ships ground. Pierre "Le Corbeau" is taken.

Game over as Sir Thomas is delivered.  News of King Richard's return can be spread.  The Bishop, as a supporter of Prince John will not react well to this.

The last game in this mini campaign will be "The Rebellion."  Robin of The Hode escapes the Bishop's dungeon in Cestria and seeks the aid of Lords Lumley and Lambtun.  Both declare support for King Richard, and a battle is fought on the Burnt Moor.

The scene is set

Death and Taxes part 2

The Devil is Loose, King Richard (inexplicably Scottish in this movie) is on his way back to England.

Finding Brother Belcher: Race to find a monk who is the only one to know where the messenger of King Richard will land.  The Bishop of Cestria is somehow involved and Robin Hode of Lumley is apparently the only man to save the day.  The plot may make no sense but that has never stopped the Lumley boys before.

Sc 3. Finding Brother Belcher: Race to find a monk who is the only one to know where the messenger of King Richard will land.

Sc 4 - King Richard's Messenger: The monk awaits the messenger on the beach. But is he really a monk?  Meanwhile a pair of ships battle in the estuary.

Sc 5 - Fight or Die: A plot of nobles has been discovered by Prince John. He sends his the Bishop and his men towards a beach where a secret meeting is being held.

Sc 6 - The Rebellion.  Robin of The Hode escapes the Bishop's dungeon in Cestria and seeks the aid of Lords Lumley and  Lambtun.  Both declare support for King Richard, and a battle is fought on the Burnt Moor.

From the Chronicle of the Monk of Twizell

The Year of Our Saviour 1194.  Lord Richard of Lambtun dreamed of the Holy Rood, held aloft by a burning snake, with naked angels wearing black leather.  Drinks a little does Lord Richard.  He awoke and declared "the devil is loose."

Word has reached the Bishop of Cestria that a monk named "Belcher of Wigan" has been sent North to give word to the Barons that King Richard has been released by his Austrian captors and is returning.  The Bishop has been doing rather nicely with John as Regent.

Determined to capture this monk the Bishop leads his men into the Dene to raid the camp of Robert Hode of Lumley, noted poacher, Hoody Bob to his mates. 

The Dene, heavily wooded and defended by Outlaw peasant archers.

And the Lumley Men muster behind Hoody Bob.

The Bishop and his men at arms advance behind a screen of Footmen.

But clearly Bob has a mad moment and launches his fighting lads into the Footmen, driving them back.

Three are killed and Bob harries them backwards.

But the Bishop readies his horsemen for a charge.

A frenzied charge breaks the outlaws.  

And the Lumley lads are routed and massacred 

The Bishop meanwhile charges at the Bowmen hiding g in the woods.  The volley of arrows kills one man at arms.

But three archers perish.  

Only the Grizzled Veteran Long John of Lumley survives, having taken his group  into the rough ground of the nearby burn.  This is a wargames Atlantic Levy figure, and I'll be replacing my 13th century bowmen with these figures for the future.

No sign of Brother Belcher among the Merry Lumley Lads.  Robin Hode, now a prisoner reveals that the monk has gone to the sundered land a marshy area near Wearmouth to meet a ship.

Can the Bishop trust anything Hoody Bob says?

Next:
Sc 4 - King Richard's Messenger: The monk awaits the messenger on the beach as two ships fight it outbin the estuary. But is he really a monk?

A Guidebook to Medieval Cestria

A Guidebook to Medieval Cestria

Cestria, A Medieval history of the North by Sir Augustus Farthingale, University of North Dyrham, 1923.

In 1069 AD, with the conquest of England developing into its settlement, King William I invested Robert de Comines as Earl of Northumbria.   The new Earl and his men made their way north, only to perish in insurrection and fire trapped in the Bishops town of Dyrham.  The King was incensed, leading his army into the rebellious province in the "harrying of the north."

The role of the Bishop of Dyrham was at the very least suspect. William imprisoned Aethlelwine and reorganised the Bishopric, appointing William Walcher of Lorraine, as Earl Bishop of Cestria, the first and only time such an appointment was made, and giving all of the church lands north of Dyrham, as well as the Priory at Finchale into his care, effectively limiting the power of the Dyrham Prince Bishops. 

As Earl Bishop of Cestria, Walcher took charge with some vigour, and used his own household knights to pacify and take control.   Aethelwine, before his imprisonment, had sent Saint Cuthbert's body to Lindisfarne, when the Norman Harrying of the North seemed about to doom Dyrham.  On Walcher's arrival he had his Norman Knights escort the Saint's body into its previous resting place in Cestria.  This was a coup that would infuriate future Bishops in Dyrham, since the Saint's remains were a source of great wealth from pilgrimage, and prestige from the miracles they performed. 

The rivalry between Dyrham and the new Bishopric to its North has often turned violent, but never more so than during that period.   When Aethelwine died in captivity two years later Cestria kept it's hold on the Saint's remains, and Walcher began construction of the great Minster church.  Dyrham had kept the body of the Venerable Bede, and was now only a stopping point on the pilgrimage. 

A fuel between the House of Lumley and the Bishop lead to Walcher's murder in 1080.  King William sent an army north under his brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux, in a second harrowing of the north.    

On Walcher's death the Earldom passed to his nephew, Gilbert, who in turn was invested as Earl Bishop, placing his Norman followers into the lands of the vanquished Saxons.   The new Prelate served as chancellor under Henry I, and passed the Bishopric in turn to his Grand nephew, also named Gilbert.  By this time the Bishop's family had adopted the name of Finchale, the Priory of that name being a source of much of their wealth.

By the time of the Anarchy in the mid twelfth century the two Bishops, Cestria and Dyrham both paid the Scottish King David to leave their towns alone, and both prelates fought beside the Archbishop of York at the Standard.  Despite victory at the battle the Scots held Northumbria north of the Tyne, and it was only the presence of the Bishop at Cestria that prevented further encroachment.

By 1199 AD the great Minster Church over Cuthbert's shrine has been completed.  Another Earl Bishop Gilbert of Finchale was Earl Bishop in Cestria, and England over the river Tyne to the north is still overun and held by the Scots, as are much of the lake lands to the west. To the south the Barons are squabbling with the King as the Long Anarchy of the last century seems to be about to repeat itself. The Vikings are still out there over the sea to the East, their raiding a threat.

The Six Knights

The feudal system within Cestria supports six major land holders.  The Earl Bishop, from the House of Finchale undoubtedly the richest and most powerful of these. As a noble title this has been kept within Walcher's family.  The fact that the clergy are forbidden marriage has not daunted the Finchales, and there always seems to be a second son available to be appointed as successor.  These have usually been Priests, but occasionally not.  When King William appointed Walcher he probably did not forsee that creating an Earl Bishop to rival the Prince Bishop would have this unique hereditary effect.

Finchale,

Lambtun, 

Lumley, 

Ravensworth,

Stanley,

Wessingtun.  

Outside the walls of the ancient Roman fort at Cestria a Leprosaria was founded to serve pilgrims visiting the shrine of Saint Cuthbert.  A Knight Hospitaller of St Lazurus is stationed here primarily to protect pilgrims to Britain's foremost holy site, but also to encourage donation.  

Cestria

The Shrove Tuesday Tourney

Jousting

Sword fighting,

...and for the peasants, foot and ball, down the hill and into the Cong Burn

Scenarios

The Curse of the Lambtons

The Sheriff and the Bishop's Men.
Ambush on the forest road
The crossroads battle
The richest monastery
The charcoal burner's huts
Raiders and traders
The enemy fleet
Rival merchants
A plague on both your houses
The Merchant of Lancaster
Two gentlemen of Middlesburg
The Devil's brood :Lackland comes North
Hawking and hunting with my Lord the Bishop
A turbulent priest
Northmen pirates
Revolting peasants
Crossing the Tyne
The Sacred Item racket
A war band of Gaels
The Great Royal Bribe
Bandits in the forest
The Scots Princess
Wreck of the Maid of Rouen
Band of pilgrims
The Bishops hostage
Bishop versus Duke
The Archbishop flees North
An exile from the Scots
Monastery's Taxes
Castle attack
Pillage the Village
Ship battle, the floating harbour
Fight on the fells
Ambush in the city streets.
Battle, the Vengeful Barons
Battle, the Martial Bishop

Special scenarios (If I were to do "Fantasy!")

The Hound of the Perkinsvilles

The Wyrm of the Lambtun's on the Burnt Moor

The Great Bear of the Woods

The Backstabbing Stanleys

The Shrine of Pity

The Wildmoor at Chilton

The Grey Lady of Beamish

Terrain requirements
Tower 
City gates
Hovels 
Forest
Wagons
Civilian figures.  
Possible Bonus Awards. 
Defeating some scenarios gives the characters certain bonus awards.
Marry well for the title of Earl
Capture a town for the title of count
An Oxford Scholar joins the retinue for +1 
"The Devils own luck," reroll one dice per turn cost @1
Goddes Warrior +1 courage @1
The benefits of family - Add a second character.

Retinues
4 Kn
2 Mtd Sgts
2 Foot Sergts
Spears
Bows
Crossbows
Peasant levies

Holdings

The Bishop's Lands
The Sacrist Abbey
Finchale Priory
The three farms

The Lambton Lands
Wessingtun
Birtley
Lambtun

The Lumley Lands
Lumley
Penshaw
Chiltun

The Ravensworth Lands
Peltun
Beamish
Causey