Tuesday 17 June 2014

King Edward I, Curteys Miniatures

Seeing as he was born this day in history (in 1239 to be precise) I thought it would be appropriate to post this model which represents English King Edward I. 

Perhaps best known now for being responsible for building a chain of some of the most impressive castles in Britain. Conway, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris castles still stand and dominate the landscape seven hundred years after their construction. 

I could write several posts about Edward each one detailing his involvement in the Baron Wars, both the Welsh and Scottish Wars, castle building, crusades, treatment of the Jewish population, the Eleanor Crosses. However all this information is available and better written online and in books, a particular good read is "A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain." by Marc Morris.

If anyone is curious as to why the surcoat is left plain white it's because I based the model on the illustration of Edward from Christopher Rothero's book, published by Osprey, Scottish and Welsh Wars 1250 - 1400. This image, I believe, is taken from the Great Seals of Edward which shows the king in a plain surcoat.

The model is from the Feudal Medieval - Western Europe range from Curteys Miniatures

The heraldry is from Wargame Transfers by Battle Flag details:
EDI/01 28mm Medieval Mounted Knight King Edward I Transfer Kit and Standard.
The technical description for the King's heraldry is 'Gules three lions passant gardant in pale or.'

Useful online references for Edward I:

14 comments:

  1. Great looking figure. The transfers for the Heraldry look really good.

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    1. Thanks Sean. Those transfers really are a great idea, makes heraldry easy for everyone.

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  2. Very nice work, great colors!

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  3. Very nice. Edward I is one king I need to learn about, he seems to be much maligned these days due to his wars of conquest.

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    1. Thanks Mark, Edward was a remarkable character but very much 'of his time'. He hammered the Welsh into submission in a way they never really recovered from. Had he lived longer I believe he would probably would have defeated the Bruce as well.

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  4. Cracking work, those transfers must be fiddly?

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    1. Thanks Michael, the transfers/decals are no trickier than ones supplier by Airfix and the like. The only issues that may arise is when you have to apply the transfers to curved surfaces but using a decal softener normally solves that problem.

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  5. Another very fine piece of work!

    Christopher

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  6. Great looking figure :-)

    Jason.

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