Håtunaleken – The Full Host of King Birger Magnusson

As I now have finished my host for our club project Håtunaleken, about the feuding royal brothers in early 14th century Sweden, I decided to take some pictures of the assembled units. To me, it's always very satisfying seeing a finished project like this.

This is a full 24 points retinue for Lion Rampant consisting of:
Mounted Men-at-Arms (Drilled) 7 points
Foot Men-at-Arms 6 points
Foot Serjeants 4 points
Foot Yeomen (Mixed Weapons) 5 points
Bidowers 2 points

Leading from the front, swinging his big axe and accompanied
by his personal bodyguard, is the king himself.
In the background can be seen the fearsome knights,
ready to make short work of any rebellious brothers.

The miniatures are a mix of Black Tree Design, Curtey's and Gripping Beast. There are some headswaps hidden amongst the units, with new heads from Curtey's and West Wind.

I had my first game with the complete host this past Monday – and it was a complete and utter disaster! More about this humiliating defeat in Dalauppror's upcoming AAR I'm sure ...

And to finish it all off, here is the last part of the story of the Second Feud of Brothers. When we left the three royal brothers – Birger, Erik and Valdemar – Sweden had just fought a civil war with the king Birger on one side and the younger brothers duke Erik and duke Valdemar on the other. Since Birger and Erik through marriage, had the support of the Danish and the Norwegian kings respectively, neither side was strong enough and the fighting was inconclusive. Instead, on initiative of the two other kings, in 1310 a peace treaty was signed and Sweden was now definitely split between the brothers and in practice ruled as three independent kingdoms. However, as the "legitimate" king Birger had, in his own opinion at least, drawn the shortest straw, he naturally wanted to restore his power and unite the kingdom under himself once again.

Here are the king's trusted knektar (serjeants),
and in front of them some skirmishing peasants.

In December 1317, as a sign of reconciliation, king Birger invited the dukes Erik and Valdemar to Nyköpings hus (Nyköping Castle). When they arrived they were told only they could stay at the castle, since there wasn't enough room to house all their men. Instead, the men had to make camp in the city itself.

On the night between December 10th and 11th, the dukes were arrested by a company of crossbow men. According to the legends, the king himself was present at the arrests and is told to have said:

Minnes idher nakot aff Haatwna leek?
Fulgörla minnes han mik!
Thenne er ey bätre än hin!

(Do you remember the Håtuna Games?
All too well I remember them!
This one will not be any better!)

The dukes were then imprisoned in the dungeons, while in the morning all their men were also arrested. These particular events have became known as "Nyköpings gästbud" (Nyköping Banquet).

However, Birger had misjudged the political situation: rather than acknowledge him as king, the dukes' supporters rose up against Birger and Sweden was once again thrown into a civil war.

Finally the allmoge, peasants armed with a mix of spears,
polearms and crossbows. (Sorry about the blurry picture!)

When Nyköping castle was besieged in the summer of 1318, Birger and his queen were forced to flee to the island Gotland and then further on to Denmark. In the meantime, their son, Magnus, was left in charge of the defenders of the castle. However, they could not hold out against the attacking forces and Magnus was also forced to flee towards Gotland. During the flight he was captured and later executed in Stockholm in 1320. When the dukes' supporters broke into the castle they found both Erik and Valdemar dead in the dungeons. How they died remains unclear to this day – were they murdered or did they die of starvation?

Birger ended his days in exile in Denmark 1321, while duke Erik's only son Magnus Eriksson was chosen as king of Sweden in 1319 at the age of three. Prior to this, he had been declared king of Norway after his grandfather king Håkon Magnusson had died, and thus he was destined to become a very powerful man indeed. King Magnus was a very interesting person, for many reasons, but this is another story best left for another time!

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you very much for reading!

Håtunaleken – All the King's Men

Not much action here lately I'm afraid, but I've actually not been idle. Hopefully I can sort out some picture of the latest stuff some time soon. Here's a start anyway!

Even more men are rallying to the king Birger Magnusson's banner in the fight against his rebellious brothers. This time I have painted up some dismounted knights (foot men-at-arms) and some more serjeants.

After the first couple of games – read all about it here and here – I not only found I lacked in missile troops, but also that I wanted the king to lead from the front instead of sulking way back with the defensive serjeants. As befits his status, I have now put him and his closest man in a hard-hitting unit of foot men-at-arms!

This slight rejigging of the force was done by adding the two foot knights I had already painted to the new unit, meaning I had to paint up a total of four foot knights and two serjeants (to replace the king and his man). Here are the new recruits.

The miniatures are all from Gripping Beast with two head swaps for the serjeants (the two miniatures to the left) as I didn't want any duplicates in the force. The new heads are from Curtey's and fit perfectly.

As before, the lions on the shields are over painted transfers.

This force is now almost finished, just a small unit of bidowers to paint up and the full 24 points of Birger's host is finally ready to defend his crown. If I can get the time for some games that is!

As always, thank you very much for reading!

Håtunaleken – Allmoge for The King's Host

The king Birger Magnusson has rallied some more troops to his banner. This time he's reinforced by a unit of allmoge – yeomen armed with a mix of spears, pole arms and crossbows.

As befits such a motley crew, the miniatures are a mix of Curtey's and Black Tree Design. One of the BTD minis had a cone helmet with a nose guard, typical 11th century stuff and not really suitable for the 14th century – even the rural Swedes weren't that much behind the fashion of the times by then. To bring him forward a couple of centuries I chopped his head off (a-ha!) and gave him a new one from one of the West Wind head sprues I have around. He's the one with the red and white shield on his back. The head fitted reasonably well, but for some reason it looks a bit weird from a certain angle. Oh well.

As they are in essence a bunch of peasants, I painted them mainly in muted colours but with some details in the colours of the House of Bjälbo to show their allegiance to the king.

This was my first experience with Curtey's miniatures and they were jolly nice, although perhaps they look a bit "squat". Might just be my preference though ...

During the games in our club campaign Håtunaleken, I have felt a distinct lack of missile troops for my host, so this unit is a welcome addition indeed.

Thank you all for reading!