Slitherine

Why are "Burgundian heavy horse" Horse in the Early Henrician list, when they are Gendarmes in the Caroline Imperialist list.

If they should be gendarmes, should they get a Superior option, or can Henry be assumed only to have been supplied with/able to hire the crapper ones?

rbodleyscott wrote:Why are "Burgundian heavy horse" Horse in the Early Henrician list, when they are Gendarmes in the Caroline Imperialist list.

If they should be gendarmes, should they get a Superior option, or can Henry be assumed only to have been supplied with/able to hire the crapper ones?

The latter

The Osprey on Henry VIII's army sums it up nicely - "Despite the money he lavished on the hiring of such troops, he was generally disappointed by their quality."

nikgaukroger wrote:

rbodleyscott wrote:Why are "Burgundian heavy horse" Horse in the Early Henrician list, when they are Gendarmes in the Caroline Imperialist list.

If they should be gendarmes, should they get a Superior option, or can Henry be assumed only to have been supplied with/able to hire the crapper ones?

The latter

The Osprey on Henry VIII's army sums it up nicely - "Despite the money he lavished on the hiring of such troops, he was generally disappointed by their quality."

So they should be gendarmes? (and average)

Fully or Heavily armoured?

rbodleyscott wrote:

nikgaukroger wrote: The Osprey on Henry VIII's army sums it up nicely - "Despite the money he lavished on the hiring of such troops, he was generally disappointed by their quality."

So they should be gendarmes? (and average)

Fully or Heavily armoured?

I'm happy for them to be horse, so Heavily Armoured is the best you can have which seems to OK as they don't appear to have had horse armour.

In fact from about 1540 it may be that all Gendarme types in all lists should have a Fully Armoured option (if they don't already), however, it is something I still need to look at a bit further.

OK so I will leave them as Horse, in which case I think some explanation needs to be added to the troop notes to explain why they are classified differently from those in the Imperialist list.

Something like "Burgundian heavy cavalry, hired by Henry on the continent at great expense, was generally of lower quality than the king had hoped."?

However, I suspect that this idea in fact comes from the campaign of 1544, and the reason he was disappointed was that most of the "Almayne and Burgundian" cavalry that turned up were reiters and not gendarmes. (See Oman)

Which brings us back to the question of whether the ones in the early army should be gendarmes.

rbodleyscott wrote: Which brings us back to the question of whether the ones in the early army should be gendarmes.

No, same applies - the ones at The Spurs were less than enthusiastic.

OK, then why are the ones in the Later Henrician list Superior?

rbodleyscott wrote:OK, then why are the ones in the Later Henrician list Superior?

Mistake, make them average