Swiss Pike at The Battle Fornovo 1495 Livery Quandary/Question?

I've started speed painting up some Swiss Pike for my long overdue Battle of Fornovo 1495 project. Please excuse the gloss varnish in the picture; the miniatures are patiently waiting another six days before they see any matt varnish. I decided to go for a speed painting method as realistically this was the only way they are ever going to get onto the table top before I kick the bucket! It was a simple choice between speed painting leaving the miniatures to languish in the box or clean them up and start painting! The mini's have been painted in the Canton colours of Lucern and Zug. It seems clear that the Swiss did not fight in their traditional Canton liveries at Fornovo (see below) but a few here and there sprinkled in will not look too out of place. 

I will be putting much more effort into painting the command stands and vignettes but the rank and file will have to make do with what they get for the reasons outlines above. It must be nearly a decade since conception of the project and the one vignette so far is really not doing the job of putting on a display game! LOL

These will be representing the Swiss pike hired by Charles VIII during his Invasion of Italy culminating in the battle of Fornovo. The question I have is what sort of liveries would they be wearing? Given the vast wealth of the Kingdom of France it seems only logical that many of the mercenaries would have been given a livery coat or at the very least a least a sash. Or alternatively would at least some of them have fought in the colours of their Canton? They were certainly hired as Mercenary "bands" It is a question that I find some difficulty in answering to my satisfaction. I think I may have to compromise and go for both interpretations. Possibly have a few Canton liveries at the back of the pike square and something more akin to that of the image below taken from The Italian Wars Volume 1, The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy and the Battle of Fornovo, Massimo Predonzani, Rahelel Tico, Vincenzo Alberici, Helion and Company 

It does seem that the Swiss were given to more lavish, dare I say garish, clothing during the campaign.

At present I have eight painted up, completed in one sitting, in the colours of the Canton of Lucerne. I will be adding to these while I work out how to go about speedily representing the multi coloured hose and sleeves. 

I am also in a bit of a quandary over whether to add in any Canton banners. There is extant evidence that the Swiss fought under banners supplied by Charles VIII as seen below:

From The Italian Wars Volume 1, The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy and the Battle of Fornovo, Massimo Predonzani, Rahelel Tico, Vincenzo Alberici, Helion and Company:

They bear them in front of the square shaped flag with a rounded fly end displaying a white cross in the middle on a field of azure and gules (blue and red). These colours do not belong to any of the cantons of Switzerland of the time; therefore, the group of soldiers must be part of a free company. One hypothesis could be that the depicted infantry kept the same banner they bore under the French; in fact the Aragonese and Italians sported the red cross to set themselves apart from their enemies beyond the Alps.

"The Battle of Fornovo", preserved in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (see below), is another iconography depicting Swiss flags of the time. This print is interesting because it accurately portrays the battle; the weapons used and the garments.

The infantry square of the Swiss troops in the pay of France is in the meddle of the scene, and exhibits among the pikemen's ranks five flags with a slightly pointed fly end displaying the cross. However, since the etching is on black and white, the field colours of the flags are not visible.

If anyone reading this has any info regarding the clothing, liveries and banners carried by the Swiss at Fornovo I would love to hear from you. There is a contact form on the right panel of my blog if you wish to get in touch.

Francesco Gonzaga Crossing the River Taro Vignette(Formerly from Gewalthaufen Blog)

Here it is, finally, the vignette I've been working on of Francesco II Gonzaga leading the Italian Men at Arms in a charge at the Battle of Fornovo crossing the River Taro during Charles VIII's ill fated invasion of Italy to capture the Kingdom of Naples.

Many military historians have postulated battles that mark the end of Medieval warfare; in Britain we usually refer to the Battle of Bosworth or the Battle of Stoke Field but in fact history is very much in a state of flux and it is really impossible to pin down when one period finished and another begins. However, if I personally was to choose one campaign and one battle I would have to say that Charles VIII's invasion of Italy in 1495 and the Battle of Fornovo, if anything are about as close as we are going to get in the Western world to a Medieval ways of war moving closer to what we would define as Renaissance warfare.

Charles VIII artillery train is but one aspect that exemplifies my point, his use of Swiss mercenaries armed with their pikes is another.

Anyway, without too much waffling from me, here are the pics:

A note on the livery that I have chosen for Gonzaga's retinue. The yellow and black are taken from the centre of his banner. Information regarding heraldry in English is particularly hard to come by when it comes to The Italian Wars so it was a necessity to take an educated guess as to what his livery might have been. Lack of information will be a common theme to many Late Medieval wargamers but it is particularly difficult to get information for The Italian Wars say, compared to the Wars of the Roses which are relatively well documented.

One last thing I should mention is that the heraldic banners are printed onto a fine cloth by Pete from Pete's Flags which are available from his blog HERE. They really are charming painterly renditions of banners, standards and flag and I would highly recommend them to all.

Cheers

Gonzaga Crossing the River Taro at Fornovo Vignette- (Formerly from Gewalthaufen Blog)

Splashing Through the River Taro

For the first piece of the Fornovo demo game that I'm planning on putting on at Salute (hopefully with the Lance and Longbow Society, but nothing is written in stone as of yet), my heart was set on doing a vignette of Gonzaga as he charged through the River Taro. This was largely inspired from the artwork of Richard Hook in the Osprey Fornovo 1495, Campaign  book.

I got as far as the planning stages, some might say that it's still in the planning stages although the paint starts to get applied tonight (hurrah!).

OK, so up until now I had the chap below standing in for Gonzaga's banner bearer (with the chap above, on foot, carrying the banner of Venice):

The new Banner Bearer:

All well and good you might think? Well, not really. Although ideal in terms of dynamism and posture the chap above is fully encased in German 'Gothic' style armour and as I was using the Richard III Memorial Miniature as Gonzaga (painted my none other than moi)  from Perry Miniatures who was already encased in armour probably of German origin (if not then an English copy) then the piece was going to lose it's Italian flavor which I was really looking for. The mini also has the advantage of wearing a tabard particular to Italy at the time of the battle.

So, a quick conversion was in order. I took one of the mounted miniatures from the Perry's EA12, Mounted Italian Command packs, the one gesturing with his right hand. I carefully cut his right hand off and to this was added one of the hands (and fingers- if you try this make sure that the fingers are very well bonded to the hand!) and simply drilled through and added a suitable metal banner pole.

Hopefully we have one great model for Gonzaga's somewhat delayed attack across the River Taro near Fornovo.

Painted vignette to follow!

Gonzaga; A Lot Less Pissed Off! ;>)

EDIT: Since I wrote this article earlier today the Editor of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy has made an apology. I've known him for a number of years and know him to be an honest and straightforward chap I have accepted his apology in full.

I apologise in advance for my rant! A month or so ago, whilst still trying to work within the cramped confines of the small space that I had at my folks house, post relationship break up I was asked if I could provide Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine with pics of the Gonzaga Crossing the River Taro vignette painted up by me a few years ago and featured on my Gewalthaufen Blog HERE . It's credited in the mag as belonging to the collection of Kevin Lowth- which of course it does not as it resides in my wargames cabinet!!

Surely it doesn't take too much of an effort for an editor of a wargames magazine to take note of who it is that has contributed to an issue and credit them with a small note next to the pic? I make a living out of painting and for me that is an essential part of the deal. Lets face it, without the painters out there who make the contributions (for free in my case!) there would not be a wargames media to speak of at all.

It has not just happened the once either.

Purely for my own satisfaction, here are the pics again:

Bye for now.