Hold On Tight, Lion Rampant

I'm finally managing to get somewhat organised, blog-wise. These are a few doctored images of a game played between gaming chums Derek, George and myself a few weeks ago. The game was based on Scenario E: Hold On Tight (I think). The object was to reach the bridge as quickly as possible and hold it against the enemy. In this particular game this involved Derek and myself taking on George.

You may notice it took an eternity to get my forces into the game with Derek pushing on and reaching, and holding, the bridge first. It didn't help that my deployment decision was terrible, plus I was using my notoriously unlucky dice. Well...any dice I use seem to be unlucky.  

Derek and myself managed to hold of George's forces and gain enough glory points to secure the win. I had to stop myself from celebrating with a small victory dance as winning games is a habit I somehow haven't managed to develop. There's few things more annoying than a bad winner. The game took place at [Asgard Games Uk] in sunny Walsall, West Midlands.

If you want to see far better photos please pop over to George's page [Hrothgars shed blog] and read the proper game review.

Retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, Fireforge Games

There figures represent the imaginary retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, they are the battlefield buddies of the retinue of Dafydd ap Gruffydd which can be seen (here). I've given this group better armour (great helms etc.) to signify their higher status over that of Dafydd's retinue.

Retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd
group portrait

Retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd
Rear View

Llewellyn ap Gruffydd was the grandson of Llewellyn ab Iorwerth (Llewellyn the Great) and is generally considered to be the last native Prince of Wales. Again I will post a more detailed account of Dafydd himself once I paint a mounted figure to represent him.

The livery colours are based on the traditional banner of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, an area of north-west Wales. Fortunately the colours also match the ones used for the House of Dinefwr (red and yellow) which will be useful if and when I play a campaign based on the rebellion of Rhys ap Maredudd along the Tywi valley.

All of these figures have been made up with cloaks to distinguish , I used as many with wolf pelts as I could find from the various plastic boxsets.

As always seems to be the case I only noticed the semi-gloss effect of the varnish on the cloak after I'd taken the photo. Hopefully a quick squirt of the matt varnish should eradicate the problem.

This figure is wielding a morning star/flail. The original model has a double headed version but I'd have thought a single one would have been dangerous enough to the owner, never mind two swinging about. A simple flick of the knife removed one of the chains.

Llewellyn ap Gruffydd was the grandson of Llewellyn ab Iorwerth (Llewellyn the Great) and is generally considered to be the last native Prince of Wales. Again I will post a more detailed account of Dafydd himself once I paint a mounted figure to represent him.

Retinue of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Fireforge Games

Retinue of Dafydd ap Gruffydd

These plastic Fireforge figures represent the fictional retinue of Dafydd ap Gruffydd. I will eventually create a post (don't hold your breath) about Dafydd himself that will provide more information about this interesting character who was the last native prince of Wales and the younger brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (Llywelyn the Last).

Made to represent a unit of Foot Men-at-Arms (MAA) armed with a variety of hand weapons. These have based individually but arranged in a group of six as stipulated by the Lion Rampant rules. The unit base has been made from 3mm thick MDF to suit this particular group of figures.

A quick search on the internet normally show the arms of Dafydd as being blue and yellow but my brother pointed out a page from the Denbigh Castle guidebook that happened to contain an image, taken from the Lord Marshal's Roll of Arms, that showed a medieval illustration that clearly indicated that the colours were in fact blue and white.

I double checked with the excellent Brian Timms website and his modern illustration shows the arms as being 'Quarterly argent and azure four lions passant gardant counterchanged' which can be found (here). Therefore I decided to paint this group in basic livery colours on a blue and white quartered surcoat. In order to made some variation I painted the shields in different patterns and using another base shade of blue. The idea of having different shields patterns but using the same colours isn't an original one from me, the first time I recall seeing it was on this French blogger's site (Perry's Heroes) and since seen it on numerous sites since then.

I'm currently working on a matching group to represent the retinue of Dafydd's brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd.

Retinue of Dafydd ap Gruffydd

Medieval Retinue

I can think of few things that more impressive on a tabletop than a great big bunch of colourful knights armed to the teeth with swords, maces and battleaxes riding into the thick of battle (often uncontrollably in my experience). These well turned out chaps will eventually form two units and the core of my English army for Lion Rampant (LR) games. There are three categories of mounted troops in LR: 

• Mounted Men-at-Arms - the elite attacking force, your knights in shining armour.
• Mounted Serjeants - well-armoured, non-noble horsemen (who can be armed with bows/crossbows).
• Mounted Yeomen - lightly armed and armoured mounted skirmishes equipped with bows/javelins.

In initial games they can pass as either Mounted Men-at-Arms or Mounted Serjeants but as I build up a greater force (i.e. when I make and paint more figures) then only miniatures mounted on caparisoned horses will be officially classed as Mounted Men-at-Arms, well in my games anyway.

Waiting in my painting queue are a similar number of figures to represent the Welsh opposition. These will be easily identifiable as being Welsh (or any over nation that takes my fancy to fight the English) as I'm using similar figures that are also noticeably different; more of that in a future post.

Below are links to posts detailing the various knights shown in the photo:

De Brian

Wyville

Stafford

King Edward I

Poyntz

Harcourt

De Somery

Corbet

Battered/Casualty markers

Following on from a previous post - details (here) these are also markers for use with the game of Lion Rampant. These indicate a unit has been 'battered' i.e. one that has failed a courage test. Specific markers aren't actually necessary, you can simply use a small stone, die or something similar but I prefer the aesthetic of having a suitable looking model on the table.

These have been made from a combination of spare weapons from the FireForge Games Teutonic Knights plastic box set and the Gripping Beast plastic 'Dark Age Warriors' box set (one of the most versatile sets of figures I've come across in terms of time periods it can be used for).

The hands and arms have been removed from the weapons as I don't particularly want to represent the gore of a real battlefield. The abandoned helmets are simply spare heads from various plastic FireForge sets with any human element removed or hollowed out with a drill bit and scalpel.  

Coat of Arms of Wyville, Crusader Miniatures & Fireforge Games

This model doesn't actually represent anyone in particular but the coat of arms is once again based on floor tiles discovered at Shaftsbury abbey, once one of the richest abbey's in the country. More information about my visit to the town and figures based on the tiles can be found (here), (here) and (here).

From the note at Shaftsbury Abbey museum:

Wyville 

Arms: A cross argent fretty between four mullets of six points.

Robert Wyville (or Wyvil), was Bishop of Salisbury from 1330 to 1375. He was involved in a quarrel with the new newly ennobled Lord Salisbury in 1341 over the ownership of Sherbourne castle. This escalated into an argument that was nearly settled through (a very rare) trial by combat. At one time he held the high office of Lord Privy Seal.

As you may notice the figure, in terms of the style of his armour etc., predates the bishop by approximately one hundred years. The most interesting aspect of this character was his near involvement in a trial by combat. This dispute was due to be settled by two champions chosen by the two main protagonists, Wyville and the Earl of Salisbury.

However before the combat was due to start one of the men (the Bishop's champion if I remember correctly) was discovered to have been 'cheating' by having magic charms and amulets tucked into his clothing so the trial was suspended. Eventually the cause was settled so the trial by combat never actually took place. It would make an interesting basis for a 'what if' scenario.

The mounted knight and the knight on foot are both from Crusader while the horse is from Fireforge Games. As you may notice this is another model I have altered slightly. I've removed the tail and filled in the gap on the barding with greenstuff. The reasoning behind this decision can be found (here).

Apologies for the quality and strange colour of the photos (just like the good old days). I got a bit carried away with editing on Picasa and didn't want to waste time altering then back.

William de Harcourt, Fireforge Games

This figure represents William de Harcourt. As regular readers may realise that, especially when it involves medieval figures, I'm not total obsessed with obtaining absolute accuracy with my models and figures (life really is too short to stress over such matters). If I like the look of a chap's shield, he's in my miniature retinue. Bearing that in mind whenever I visit Worcester cathedral I try and take a look at the effigy of Robert de Harcourt (which isn't always easy as it is sometimes hidden behind panels and displays) which lies near to the tomb of King John. An image can be found (here) 

This heraldry appeals to me not only from a painting point of view but also because it is a simple, strong graphic image. I haven't been able to find that information about the Harcourt's during the 13th century but they do make a very interesting appearance in the 15th century. 

The Harcourt's were involved in a remarkable feud (even by the standards of the Wars of the Roses) that included the siege of Stanton Harcourt church in 1450. This is one of the few recorded armed assaults (i.e. where the building itself was attacked) on a church in British history, although others did take place in the English Civil War. This involved the Harcourt family, supported by the de la Pole family (this family was headed by the Duke of Suffolk) against members of a branch of the Stafford family (the head of the Stafford family being the Duke of Buckingham), both influential characters during that period. Although not set during the official time-frame of the game I hope to use this as an scenario in a game using Lion Rampant rules.

The model is from the Fireforge Games Teutonic mounted knights box set. I've removed the typical Teutonic horns (?) from the helmet to give it the figure a more English look.

If you surname name is Stafford, Harcourt or any in fact any other surname and you fancy a miniature painted in your own personal heraldic pattern please take a look at my special free-to-enter competition - details can be found (here).

Special Give-Away Competition

I've previously mentioned that I was working on a special (mainly because it's my first ever) give-away competition to reward the long suffering followers of this blog. After a great deal of thought I've finally managed to work out the details. So to put it simply:

The winner of this special give-away competition will receive a model of a 13th century style mounted medieval knight miniature painted in the follower's own personal coat of arms. 

To win this prize all you have to do is be a public follower of this blog and leave a comment below, even if it's something like, "Hi my blog is 'Garry's Blog' and I like winning free stuff, regards Garry." No tricky questions to answer (like how do you actually produce 'Ubique'), it really is as simple as that. 

Image for reference only. Unless the winner's real name is actually
Peter of Dreux then they won't be getting anything looking like this.
The winner will however win a model painted and finished to the same standard.

I have to admit that the idea for this comp isn't entirely original. The initial idea for all this came about having a chat, during a demo, to the makers of a new'ish medieval tournament game Crossed Lances at a recent show. They have started to introduce, in conjunction with Curteys Miniatures and  Battle Flag, branded sets of figures for their game and mentioned in passing that they'd eventually like to produce individual transfers for their customers (it is also mentioned somewhere in the rulebook). I thought I could use this idea to make and paint a unique figure for one of followers of my blog. I'd like to point out that I have no personal connection to the Crossed Lances game or to the creators of the game, two nice and very knowledgeable gents called Peter Bradford and Martin Knight. So if they happen to enter and win there has been no sneaky deals or tricks behind the scenes, honest.

I'm currently working on a similar project for my dad which I know is destined to go straight into his display cabinet. So even if you don't play medieval games or use different size figures then I still hope you will take part, even if the model will simply end up in a display cabinet or given away as a gift to a member of your family.

Now then the all important Terms & Conditions which I recommend you actually read in full because (most of) it will be relevant: 

• This competition is free to enter. 
• One entry per follower. 
• Entries (i.e. comments below) must be in before 1st July 2014. 
• This competition is open to all followers of the blog, so whether you've been following since the start (blimey, way back in late 2008) or from just a few minutes before midnight on 30th June 2014 GMT all are welcome to take part.
• The winning entry will be chosen at random by myself or by a glamorous assistant (if I can find one). 
• I will paint for the winner a single 13th century style mounted medieval knight miniature. Either a plastic or medal 28mm sized model will be used, depending on what I think is suitable for the winner's heraldry but probably a plastic FireForge model (see model above). 
• The model will painted especially for you and finished to my own usual standard i.e. one I'd be happy to display online as one of my own collection (again see model above). It won't be a rushed job so it might take a while to complete (so don't moan if you have't received it within a few days of the close of the comp). 
• I will be painting the model by hand, by this I mean I won't be using transfers for any of the heraldry details. 
• The heraldry will be displayed on the shield and on the horses barding but, unless it is a very simple design, not of the figure's surcoat. I will produce a model based on a similar format to that seen on the Great Seal of Edward I. 
• I will finish the base to my normal standard (painted sand, tufts and grass) if required. If you'd prefer an unfinished base and would rather it left blank in order that you can match your own models, no problem (less work for me). 
• The model will be varnished to a matte finish. If you prefer high gloss, again no problem, just let me know.
• The prize cannot be exchanged for a cash equivalent (which I think would be quite rude and probably get you blocked if you even asked, cheeky bugger). 
• As I realise that not everyone is not fortunate to live in the Black Country, or even the English Midlands (I know blimey, you poor souls, you only get to drink stuff like Fosters, Carling or Stella) so if you win and you don't happen to live in this blessed region, don't worry, I will post the prize internationally and it still won't cost you a penny (nor a nickel, peso or euro). 
• If you play fantasy games you may, if you wish, have a fantasy style heraldry pattern such as a half ogre/half flying trout combo etc. but the figure used will be still be a 13th century style model. 
• There is one special rule - if a lady wins then the I'll throw in an extra prize mainly because I like ladies and they generally smell nicer than blokes. I'd prefer to call this positive discrimination, rather than being sexist. After a few unpleasant experiences at some shows and in a number of GW and independent hobby shops (such as walking into a solid 'wall of stink') I'd like to encourage more women to share in our hobby if only to encourage better general hygiene levels. 
• Speaking of poor hygiene, my nephew young Barry is not allowed to enter. 
• I will announce the winner in the first week of July (the best month the year - obviously). 
• The winner, and only the winner, will need to provide me with some of their personal details e.g. only the obvious and nothing too personal (I don't really need to know your inside leg measurement or your mother's maiden name for example) but surname (unless they want a fantasy scheme), email and postal address spring immediately to mind. Only enough information so I can paint the figure with a suitable heraldic design, keep you informed of the stages of progress and finally, of course, know exactly where to send the model to. This information will not be passed on to anyone else nor will it be sold to an annoying marketing company.
• If you leave a comment and enter the comp then you agree to the above Terms & Conditions. 

Now to deal with the potentially tricky/fun part: The vast majority of people do not have a personal or family coat of arms. You may have an image printed out from one of those commercial companies that will sell you the history of your family name and a rather nice picture of your family heraldry. I've seen at least three totally different images presented for my own family name, so I personally suspect they simply make a lot of these things up (apologies if you already have one of these). If in any doubt about that statement, enter your own surname into Google Images and see how many different results you get. 

On my travels wandering around many old medieval churches, often in tiny villages in the middle of nowhere, one thing I've noticed is that the coat of arms of the great medieval families are normally very simple/geometric patterns. For instance the Beauchamp, Mortimer, de Clare, de Vere, Hastings, Woodville families etc. all had very simple, and the important bit, easily identifiable coat of arms. Is this an attempt at a cop out of painting complex heraldry, again no. If the lucky winner wants me to use one of these commercial available images as a design reference that's no problem. If the winner doesn't have a particular design in mind then I'm quite prepared to research it for them and come up with a few suggestions. 

Free feel to advertise this comp/give-away on your own blogs. It would be jolly nice of you and it would of course be greatly appreciated. However you will still only get one entry as I like to think of my online blogging empire, my own Ubiquetopia, as an loosely democracy-based benevolent dictatorship rather than some kind of banana republic with crazy multiple voting options. As stated above - one entry per follower. You will of course be technically decreasing your odds of winning by promoting the competition but you will also be acting 'nice' and being 'nice' is good thing.

There may (note the use of the word 'may') be a runners up prize but which will depend on the number of entries (it's my blog = my rules. It's my 'loosely democracy-based benevolent dictatorship' remember). This runner up prize will be triggered after a reasonable number of entries (I know, it's almost like a Kickstarter style comp), I'm thinking once around twenty/thirty entries but I'm going to be flexible with this. If only two people enter for instance then I'm not going to be particularly inclined to paint another prize but if all the blog followers enter (200+) I may even produce several runner-up prizes (my dictatorial benevolence knows no bounds).

In the near future I will also be running a similar competition/give away type thingy to promote the new medieval skirmish game Lion Rampant which is being released be Osprey Publishing but that competition will have slightly different T&C's, entry conditions and very likely a far broader scope for potential contestants, with use of various social media with multiple entries allowed for and you won't need to be a follower of this particular blog. 

So this personal coat-of-arms comp/give-away is more of a reward scheme for followers of this blog (and this competition, in my opinion, has a better prize because it will be a personalised, unique model for the winner) plus you'll have a potentially far better chance of winning. 

Now hopefully you will have realised that I won't be making a penny from all this, quite the opposite in fact. So why, you may reasonably ask, do it at all? Well the answer is simple. I've had an awful lot of enjoyment and entertainment from all the other blogs that I follow and read so I'd like to give something back to the online community and 'pay it forward'. This may all sound a bit Hollywood/soap opera spiel (or "a load of old cobblers" as my granddad would have said) but I think the users of the Bloggosphere (all the other online blogger systems such as Wordpress and the like, not just Blogspot, are included in this) are quite special in their approach and spirit. Online forums and YouTube, although very useful at times, can often deteriorate into an aggressive bun fight or echo the antics of an unruly schoolyard. Bloggers always seem to be universally positive (apart from the occasional rants) and very generous in their comments and advice, plus they always seem to be giving goodies away. So if you can't beat them, join them.

So anyway thanks for reading down to this bit, thanks for entering (if you do) and good luck.

Othon de Grandson - Knight, Fireforge Games & Crusader Miniatures

This is another figure based on a illustration by Richard Hook the Osprey book 'The Crusades' (Elite Series E19). This time it is the Savoy knight, Othon de Grandson (d.1328).

It was the colourful heraldic shield that initially attracted me but in a happy coincidence the real Othon had a very close connection to Edward I, one that I happened to notice on a recent visit to Beaumaris castle on the isle of Anglesey. This connection resulted in Othon being appointed as first justiciar of North Wales between 1284–1294.

Othon de Grandson (sometimes spelt Otto or Otton de Grandison) was a knight from the Savoy region which is now covers parts of modern day eastern France, western Switzerland and north western Italy.

The English Plantagenet kings had close family ties to the area. Count Philip of Savoy was Edward I's great uncle and also owned him homage for part of his lands. One result of this connection was that many Savoyards joined the English royal household.

Othon de Grandson himself entered the service of English king Henry III and was placed in the household of the young prince Edward, later being knighted in 1268. He became a lifetime friend and confidant of the future king Edward I. As a result many other Savoyards went on to serve with Edward in his Welsh wars.

In 1271 Othon accompanied Edward on the Ninth Crusade where he served at Acre. Here he commanded a small force of English volunteers defending a section of city's walls. During the siege he saved the life of fellow Savoyard Jean I de Grailly, the heraldry of whom I hope to recreate in miniature form for my ongoing Cry Havoc project. It was possible that it was Othon, and not Edward's wife, that it is supposed to have sucked the poison from the wound inflicted by an assassin's blade on the future king.

Interestingly on Edward's return he appointed the builder/mason/architect Master James of Saint George to build the now famous castles in north-west Wales such as Conway, Harlech, Caernarfon and Beaumaris. James was also a fellow Savoyard and is thought to have travelled on Crusade himself. Many of Edward's castles feature architectural details that appear in both north Wales and Savoy but rarely elsewhere.

Dismounted knight with mace

A more detailed (i.e. better) history of Othon de Grandson can be found online.

With this character I realised that after looking over the metal and plastic figures I had available I knew I could utilise a dismounted knight from Crusader and modify a mounted plastic Fireforge figure (as the Italian company do not currently make knights on foot) to suit as it is far easier to modify a plastic figure to match a metal figure than visa versa. Although not identical they could be made to look similar enough to suit my purposes.

As I wanted to have a bit of variety with the mounted knights I decided to depict the knight on a unbarded horse. This meant that I would have to use the plastic horse model from the Fireforge 'Mounted Sergeants/Men at Arms' set. To match the metal Crusader figure however I used the head, limbs and body of the mounted knight figure Fireforge 'Teutonic Knights Cavalry' set.

The picture above better illustrates the changes I made to the original model but note that the large horns have already been removed from the other plastic helmet.

After removing the horns/wings from the Teutonic helmet and smoothing the surface I added the tiny vent holes to the faceplate by poking it with a sharp metal scribe. Next I removed the head from the triangular plastic mace, shortened the handle to match the metal version, and replaced it with a metal mace head taken another Crusader figure.

I also rounded off the plastic shield so it resembled the one shown in the Osprey book.

I attempted to copy the shield illustrated in the Osprey book and totally messed it up as I thought the heraldic designs were stylised flowers so painted a simple five petal pattern on the shield. A short time afterwards however by chance I found an online image (link) of Othon's effigy which is in Lausanne Cathedral.

I noticed that the symbol I thought was a stylised flower in the Osprey illustration was actually a scallop shell, quite appropriate as the shell was a symbol of pilgrimage. After a liberal amount of swearing I decided to try a paint the shell symbols over the other pattern.

Although they're not a perfect match, for instance the plastic Fireforge helmet is noticeably larger than the metal Crusader version, I'm pleased with the overall look of both figures and how they turned out.

Peter of Dreux - Knight, Firefore Games & Crusader Miniatures

The matching pair of figures detailed in this post have been painted to represent Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany, based on the Richard Hook illustrations of Peter in the Osprey book 'The Crusades' (Elite Series E19).

The livery of Peter of Dreux is alternate squares of blue and gold (designating the house of Dreux) quartered with ermines (representing Brittany), or to be precise 'Chequy or and azure within a border gules a quarter ermine'.

Regarding the model itself I had noticed that fortunately one of the plastic Fireforge mounted sergeants and one of the metal Crusader knights matched each other and bore a close enough resemblance to the illustration to represent this character.

Please note that I intentional didn't fit the horse's tail piece on this model and I'll explain why. I read an interesting discussion on the Fireforge Games Facebook page, where someone pointed out something I'd never noticed before. To paraphrase, someone basically said, "On all the medieval illustrations of fully barded horses the horse's tail is covered and is not visible." Out of curiosity I double checked all my image reference books and was slightly surprised to find that I couldn't see any that showed the tail on a fully caparisoned horse (if anyone can provide a contemporary medieval illustration/glassed glass image or reference etc. showing otherwise I'd genuinely like to see it, it would save me a lot of work in the future!). 

I thought it may be an interesting challenge to make and paint a proper fully barded horse. The problem with this approach is that it left me having to fill a large gap at the rear of the model where the caparison/barding is modelled flapping open. This issue was solved by using a thin sheet of greenstuff and blending it in as best I could to match the folds before it set.

As the mounted figure is depicted as having drawn his sword I cut away the hilt, grip and pommel of the sword the scabbard on the figure's waist. I also cut away a small section of the material from the area beneath the saddle area so as to create a similar look to the one show in the Osprey book.

Obviously one the initial attractions of this character was the eye-catching heraldry. However attempting to paint it may, at first glance, appear quite intimidating but the final appearance is actually more down to using simple techniques than any artist skill on my part. I will however freely admit it did eventually prove to be a bit of tough bugger to paint (all this after saying in a previous post that I was sticking with simple geometric designs).

After the base colours, yellow at the front and the off white/grey for the rear, were applied I then used a small, square single piece of cardboard loosely stuck to the model horse with Blu-Tac. I lightly traced the edges using a H6 pencil, repeating the pattern until the front half of the horse was covered with faint grid lines. With the tricky areas around the neck and head I simply drew the lines in by eye. I used a H6 pencil for this as it is traditionally used to create trace lines, the hard lead produces a very fine, faint line (being a draughtsman by trade its nice to be able to return to using a pencil instead of a computer). Once satisfied with the pattern the alternate squares were painted and filled in with blue paint.

For the ermine pattern once again I traced in very faint horizontal lines across the whole of the rear of the horse. Then using the horizontal lines as a boundary guide I painted in short black vertical lines. Once that was done I then painted an inverted V at the bottom of each line. I tried to paint the three dots using a brush but repeatedly made a mess of it. I eventually tried using a cocktail stick, dipped the tip into black paint and placed the three dots on top of the vertical line (although I'm still spotting the odd one or two I missed). I'm not particularly looking forward to painting the wounded/dead version of the same figure if I ever get round to it (I might just cheat and stick to using generic casualty markers).

'A Knight with a Big Weapon'

The dismounted figure is from the 'Knights with Big Weapons' pack (MCF003) by Crusader Miniatures and is painted straight out of the box i.e. no modifications were made to the figure.

Unfortunately neither illustration in the Osprey book (unusually the artwork on the cover is not replicated inside the book) shows his shield but a quick search using Google 'all hail' Images soon revealed the appropriate details.

With hindsight I should have added the greenstuff to repilcate the fancy strips of material that form the sleeves in the original illustration but this only occurred to me after I'd starting to paint the figure.

This figure is a substitute for Sir Conrad in the Cry Havoc game who carries a yellow and blue checked shield and whose horse has a matching caparison.

In an interesting historical footnote Peter of Dreux's original sword pommel, displaying his coat of arms, actually turned up for sale in Damascus a number of years ago. Peter had been wounded at the battle of Mansourah (February 1250) where he had fought with Robert of Artois, the Master of the Templars. He was taken prisoner along with King Louis and other barons. He later died as a result of his facial wounds. The pommel is now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.