The Tudors – the dynasty that ruled England from 1485 to 1603 – are perhaps not widely associated with military activity. Religious strife and poor marital choices probably spring to mind before any notable battles or campaigns, and arguably the most famous military encounter of the period – the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 – was not even a land battle. In general, the Tudor monarchs saw wars as expensive and unpredictable, but that did not stop them from engaging in them from time to time, particularly Henry VIII, who was keen to promote his country up the pecking order of Europe. The principal opponents in these ventures were the usual suspects, the French and the Scots, and there were also military adventures in Ireland and the Netherlands. At several points during the period there were calls to arms when the French or Spanish were thought to be about to invade, and finally a fair number of internal rebellions also had to be put down by force. So English soldiers were often to be found in action under the Tudors, although for the most part England was spared the horrors of war found on the continent, especially in Italy.
It is easy to think of the bow as a medieval weapon in Europe, but in fact it persisted well into the 16th century, especially in England, where memories of triumphs gained by its use in the past gave it many advocates. Henry VIII was particularly keen to promote its use, but it continued to decline in importance, although it was as late as 1595 that the Privy Council finally declared that bows were no longer to be an acceptable weapon when raising troops. Thus bowmen made up a major part of many Tudor armies, especially earlier in the period, and this set has four such poses. All wear the common doublet, over which they have a longer coat or jerkin with short sleeves and a cross of St George on both front and back – the usual mark of English soldiers by this time. Three have trunk-hose over either carrion or breeches, while the fourth appears to have simple breeches (or ‘Venetians’). All have stockings or hose on the lower leg, and footwear consists of duck-billed shoes, which were fashionable for a long time. Three of these poses have the fairly flat bonnet that was so widely worn during the period by all classes, while the second archer wears a simple sallet helmet.
The poses are a nice selection, showing the major phases of using the bow, and we liked them all. Every man has a longbow slightly longer than he is tall, and a handful of arrows tucked into his belt. All have a bracer on their left wrist, and all look really natural to our eye. Each also has a sword – either straight or curved – and three also carry a buckler, should they ever actually get to grips with the enemy. We thought these were great archers, faithfully representing the traditional if increasingly outdated weapon.
Our second row shows the firearms in this set. The arquebus was introduced well before the Tudor period, and steadily became more important as it improved, gradually displacing the bow. Unlike the later musket, the arquebus was light enough to not require a rest, and there were also weapons termed calivers, which were mainly distinguishable by their curved stock, which we find here held by the first two figures. The dress of these men is very similar to that of the archers, with the same basic garments but in various styles. Here again one man wears a sallet helmet while the others have ordinary caps, but the first gunner also wears a mail coat between his doublet and jerkin, visible at the sleeves, so seems to be a bit better protected than his comrades. However, padded armour was quite common, so any of the other figures may well have armour of either thick fabric or perhaps a coat of small plates not visible here. Another small but welcome variation is that one man wears short boots rather than shoes. As with the archers, everything here is appropriate for the period, though some elements would be more or less common depending on the precise year.
The poses of the gunners are also a good selection of the elements of loading and firing a gun, and again we liked all of them. Every man has a sword as a sidearm, and there are a couple of bucklers too, plus one visible dagger, though doubtless every man would have one somewhere. The gunners also have a varied but authentic selection of bags and flasks for powder and ball, and all are also wearing a bandolier with prepared charges hanging from it. This bandolier, or ‘collar of charges’, would be normal wear for musketeers of a later age, but it was rare for those with lighter pieces, so we were a bit surprised to see so many in this light infantry set. Also, all of them have around five or six charges hanging at the front, but none at the back. This would have been very unusual, and something of a waste, so must count as a very minor error (10 or 12 charges per belt was more normal).
Heavy infantry of the period would follow the Swiss and German examples and carry pikes and halberds, but troops with sword and buckler were still important, and we find two of these in our final row. Their dress is much the same as that of the archers and gunners, and here one man wears a sallet rather than a cap, and also wears a mail shirt beneath his coat. Both have drawn their broadsword, and, like the figures already discussed, these have a variety of different hilt designs which are all correct and give a pleasing diversity, as is the fact that some swords here are straight and others slightly curved. The bucklers in all cases are flat, with a raised boss, and while this too could have been more varied, the shape used is perfectly accurate. The poses of the two swordsmen are also very good. While we tend to dislike poses of men holding their sword directly over their head, in this case the pose is realistic, and has been properly done with the sword to the side rather than directly overhead, so full marks to the sculptor there.
In addition to the repeat poses, we have three command figures in the set. The first is a trumpeter, striking a nice pose, though holding such a large instrument with one hand must be somewhat challenging. His costume has all the same features as the rest of the men, so is fine, but he is not one of the more useful figures here. This is because the trumpet seems to have been phased out as an infantry signal by the mid 1520s, so while it was still widely used by cavalry throughout the period and beyond, for infantry we would have preferred to see a drummer here, as this was the usual method of communicating commands to infantry for most of the period. So while not a bad or unusable figure, it would not have been our choice.
The ensign next to him has more protection as he wears a full cuirass front and back, and a modern morion helmet on his head. He is armed with a sword and dagger of course, and holds a banner of about 15 mm (108 cm) square. The size of such banners depended on the commander’s status, but this one is reasonable and in the correct proportions. It is pretty limp (surely the usual condition anyway) but not engraved with any design, so can be painted however the customer wishes, although should you wish to replace the plastic banner with one of paper, this is not a great figure for that exercise.
Finally we come to the captain of the unit. He too wears a cuirass and a helmet – in this case a burgonet with characteristic peak and crest, which was very common amongst such men at this time. His visible clothing of doublet with fashionably slashed sleeves, trunk-hose, Venetians, stockings and shoes is all correct, but is partially covered by his open-front sleeveless coat or cassock. Although much of his costume would have looked similar to that of his men, its higher quality would have helped to mark out his superior rank and status, as would his fine sword, but most obvious of all would have been the partisan he holds, which here is in the popular ‘langue-de-bouef’ style, with its broad head. His pose is one of commanding rather than getting involved in the action, which may seem dull but is far more typical than the more active officer poses we so often see. Another excellent figure.
We have already said a lot about this set, and not even commented on the quality of the sculpting, which is excellent. These are detailed figures with complex clothing, yet everything has been done really well, and the finer details are lovely and clear. The weaponry too is well defined, and we were happy that the bows have no bowstrings (which are much too fine if done to scale anyway), but we did have a slight concern about the firearms. Most firearms of this period were matchlocks, and indeed two of these gunners clearly have the match in hand. The second gunner is correctly holding his match in the left hand as he rams his weapon, but he has allowed it to dangle perilously close to the pan, freshly filled with powder, which looks very like a messy accident is about to happen. The third man is perhaps filling the pan, or attaching the match, but either way, the match is hanging from his right hand, again close to the pan and likely to end badly for him. The fourth man, either presenting or giving fire, has no visible match, so unless this is a wheellock or similar, he won’t be hurting anyone this way. Likewise, the first man has no visible match, but perhaps he is not in the act of loading and firing the weapon as he is on the move. Discussing the match like this is very pedantic, we know, but that is why we are here. That aside, the sculpting is lovely, although there is a fair amount of flash of varying quantities, which will take some time to remove if these figures are to be seen at their best.
The usual infantry formation on a battlefield of the period was a block of pikemen surrounded by the ‘shott’ (both gunners and archers), who could protect the pikemen from attack but be protected themselves should cavalry attack them. Such light infantry as these were also useful for skirmishing, ambushes and all the usual light infantry roles that would persist for centuries. The figures in this set present us with a fine representation of such troops. Certain aspects of the clothing could be more or less common at particular dates, but at this time raised troops might only be given a coat as uniform, and have to wear their own clothes otherwise, so an abundance of variety and items that were currently less fashionable would be expected. Whether dealing with local disputes or getting involved with the power politics of Europe, these lovely and well-made figures look great, and are a necessary addition to the heavy pikemen and cavalry of a 16th century army.