Historical Overview Section
By the 12th century, Ireland was divided politically into a shifting hierarchy of petty kingdoms and over-kingdoms. Power was exercised by the heads of a few regional dynasties vying against each other for supremacy over the whole island. One of these men, King Diarmait Mac Murchada of Leinster was forcibly exiled by the new High King, Ruaidri mac Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair of the Western kingdom of Connacht. Fleeing to Aquitaine, Diarmait obtained permission from Henry II to recruit Norman knights to regain his kingdom. The first Norman knight landed in Ireland in 1167, followed by the main forces of Normans, Welsh and Flemings. Several counties were restored to the control of Diarmait, who named his son-in-law, the Norman Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, heir to his kingdom. This caused consternation to King Henry II of England, who feared the establishment of a rival Norman state in Ireland. Accordingly, he resolved to establish his authority.
With the authority of the papal bull Laudabiliter from Adrian IV, Henry landed with a large fleet at Waterford in 1171, becoming the first King of England to set foot on Irish soil. Henry awarded his Irish territories to his younger son John with the title Dominus Hiberniae ("Lord of Ireland"). When John unexpectedly succeeded his brother as King John, the "Lordship of Ireland" fell directly under the English Crown.
Initially the Normans controlled the entire east coast, from Waterford up to eastern Ulster and penetrated far west in the country. The counties were ruled by many smaller kings. The first Lord of Ireland was King John, who visited Ireland in 1185 and 1210 and helped consolidate the Norman controlled areas, while at the same time ensuring that the many Irish kings swore fealty to him.
Throughout the thirteenth century the policy of the English Kings was to weaken the power of the Norman Lords in Ireland. For example King John encouraged Hugh de Lacy to destabilise and then overthrow the Lord of Ulster, before creating him to the Earl of Ulster. The Hiberno-Norman community suffered from a series of invasions that ceased the spread of their settlement and power. Politics and events in Gaelic Ireland served to draw the settlers deeper into the orbit of the Irish.
By 1261 the weakening of the Normans had become manifest when Fineen Mac Carthy defeated a Norman army at the Battle of Callann. The war continued between the different lords and earls for about 100 years and the wars caused a great deal of destruction, especially around Dublin. In this chaotic situation, local Irish lords won back large amounts of land that their families had lost since the conquest and held them after the war was over.
Using the army in FoG
- include your tactical tips or advice in here
- It looks neater if you do it with bullet points. Just put each new suggestion on a new line, starting with an "*"
UK Tournament Results with this army
Useful Links
User-contributed links about this army:
- Register and you can put you own link in here and then write some brief detail about the link here
- Register and you can put you own link in here and then write some brief detail about the link here
- put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here
Allies
Put information on allied contingents here - including recommendations on which to use, and why.
Painting and Collecting the Army
- Paint schemes, insignia, shield designs? Put it here.
15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army
These are mostly Vikings and also Scots - probably getting a bit too early to use as this list, but more interesting than generic medievals. You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site
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- Essex Miniatures - Saxon range, 12 Vikings including a nice mounted warrior carrying off a young lady. If you really want Highlanders in skirts then Essex have a number in their Renaissance range (REN89-91, 93).
- Donnington Anglo Saxon ranges amongst others around this era.
- Gladiator Miniatures by Fighting 15's (Gladiator Games) Half-dozen Vikings and many similar figures in the Dark Ages range
- Old Glory Anglo Saxon & Jute ranges, 5 packs of Vikings Dedicated Scots-Irish range
- Magister Militum (includes former Chariot ranges) Navigators dark ages ranges include Saxons
- Museum Vikings is about as close as it gets, Their Medieval Welsh are pretty generic, likewise some of the Norman and Viking ranges
- Minifigs UK figures for this era in their dark ages section
- Lancashire Games worth looking at their Saxons
- Irregular Miniatures Have a Saxon range and 6 Vikings, sold singly
- QRF Models (Feudal Castings & Friekorps ranges) 6 Packs of Saxons, 8 variants of Vikings and one or two in among the dark ages Scots too. Irish, Welsh, Anglo Normans, Scots, Anglo-Saxons, Highlanders
- Tin Soldier Saxons.
- 2 Dragons Vikings Anglo-Saxons, Slavs, Carolingians & Normans may have approriate figures
- Viking Forge Franks & Vikings, late Saxons
- Isarus their Saxons and maybe Goths work, of Vikings of which they have 15 variants, including (unusually) some mounted
- Camelot Games (Italy) Vikings maybe ?
- MY Miniatures Saxons
- Miniature Wars Dark Age Franks
- Splintered Light Dedicated Scots-Irish range Early Saxon ranges will work - they have war dogs too!
- Brial Hall’s Hall of Ancient Warriors Norse Irish range has Viking, Scots, Norman figures too
- Outpost have a dedicated Saxon range
- Jacobite Miniatures via Stronghold Saxon range online
- LKM/QRF (Feudal Castings range) 8 packs of Vikings
- Khurasan New range of Saxons/ Anglo danish
- Viking Forge 9 strong range
- MY Miniatures 6 Vikings from the era of American Vinland C.1000AD. Ideal to fight Eskimo's with!
- Gallia 12 viking figures, sold as singles
- Baueda Now carry the former 50 paces Viking range
Army Lists
Sample army lists for this army
Name of Army / Date
- Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
- This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
- For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
- with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
- 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
- 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
- Dont forget to include your Generals !!!
Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.
Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list
eBay Listings
UK Bookstore