Peasant Characters

For today's post we have two sets of individually based figures one of which is suitable for the German Peasants' War and the other for the Tudor rebellions of 1549 in Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall. The first set, shown in the picture below, are from Steel Fist Miniatures "German Peasants - Radical Priest & Looters" pack, https://steelfistminiatures.com/products/ren-51-german-peasants-radical-priest-looters, which Simon of Steel Fist very kindly sent me a while back. The figures are sculpted by Paul Hicks and, as has come to be expected of this range, are packed full of character. The pack comprises a radical preacher, exhorting the peasants to take action, along with three looting peasants, one of which is mockingly wearing a bishop's mitre as he brandishes a looted crucifix.

A radical priest and looters for the German Peasants' War from Steel Fist Miniatures.

The figures are perfect for adding flavour to my German Peasants War collection and can be seen in action below, with the radical preacher rousing the peasants to rebel against the church and princes as the looters sack a local ecclesiastical building. Whilst Douglas Miller's Helion publications are superb for the military aspects of the revolt for an overview of the motives behind it Lyndal Roper's recently published "Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War" is a fantastic read full of detail about the nature of the revolt and the peasant's actions during it. Roper explains that during the revolt "monastic institutions were so hated that fully a third of them in the region of the war were attacked, some damaged beyond repair, a figure that rises to more than half the monasteries of rich orders like the Benedictines. Over 100 of the nearly 180 Cistercian monasteries and convents were harmed or damaged, two-thirds of the over 200 Benedictine houses. The sheer scale of the destruction is astonishing, and in the areas of the fiercest fighting in Thuringia, Saxony, Saxon-Anhalt, and Hesse, nearly two thirds of all monastic institutions were attacked". Based on this of course peasants with looted monastic items are required for a peasant band!

The radical preacher addresses the peasants arrayed under the "Bundschuh".

A local church building has been looted by the peasants and landsknecht from the peasant band.

The second set of figures are from the following "Tudor Rabble" packs, from The Assault Group and sculpted by Nick Collier, https://theassaultgroup.co.uk/product/tudor-rabble-i/ and https://theassaultgroup.co.uk/product/tudor-rabble-ii/. Again these are great figures, perfect for the Tudor Rebellions of the mid 16th century. I intend to cover some of the action from these rebellions in the future. "The Commotion Time. Tudor Rebellion in the West, 1549" by ET Fox is full of detail on the Prayer Book Rebellion in Devon and Cornwall whilst Alexander Hodgkin's thesis, available here https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/6439/1/Alexander%20Hodgkins%20eThesis.pdf, also covers the Prayer Book Rebellion as well as the Norfolk rebellion and Thomas Wyatt's 1554 uprising.

Tudor rebel armies were different from those in the German Peasants' Revolt as, whilst there were often landsknecht in the armies of the German Peasants' Revolt and some of the "Peasant Bands" were well armed and equipped, in the Tudor Rebellions the rebels were very similarly equipped to the local English forces raised to face them. This is because, unlike in Germany, in England all able bodied men were expected to own arms and be proficient in their use ready to serve in the levy. To quote Gervase Phillips (from the "The Anglo-Scots Wars") "In each shire commissioners of array, normally local gentlemen and justices of the peace, were charged with the responsibility of maintaining the levy, checking that individuals armed themselves according to their wealth and were trained and ready for service at short notice". When this was combined with the fact that in 1549 and 1554 many men in the shires were veterans of the French and Scottish campaigns of the earlier 1540s it is clear the rebel forces of mid 16th century Tudor England could be a challenge for the English forces opposing them. It becomes clear why foreign mercenaries were employed to help quell the uprisings, especially as they could provide cavalry that the Tudor government was often weak in.

Between the 1549 and 1554 uprisings there were enough clashes to justify building a specific mid 16th century Tudor Rebel army however my intention (at the moment) is to use my German Peasants' War collection mixed with figures from my Tudor armies to create forces at a pinch suitable for the rebellions of 1549 and 1554. These "Tudor Rabble" figures on individual bases can then be placed amongst the "peasant" units to add flavour to the armies. A couple of photos showing this are included below.

Mid 16th century Tudor peasants in arms.

A peasant army for the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion. Note the militia archers wearing the red cross, perhaps these are veterans of earlier campaigns in the 1540s.

A Tudor Peasant army.