Love and Marriage

One night as they lay in bed Medb said to husband Ailill I brought more to this marriage than you did.  He is outraged and denies it.  The row escalates and soon the whole household is up as the royal couple shout for the totality of their possessions to be assembled to settle the argument.  Matters proceed apace but with each new comparison no supremacy can be established.  Until that is, the cattle are compared.  Ailill has a bull that is indubitably better, better by far, better beyond dispute. 

Did Ailill crow? Did he chortle? Did he quietly and provokingly say Sin E (That’s that.) and decide to go back to bed?  It didn’t matter because Medb was furious and she called her people to her and demanded they bring her a bull to match that of Ailill and restore her loss of face.  So, the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the Irish Iliad, begins and so does a war.

Let’s deconstruct what is going on here.  Our protagonists are the ruling couple of Connacht, royal from the day of their births.  From their first spoonful of honey and cream thickened porridge they had been told that they were without compare. First in beauty, wit and valour.  By dint of family connections and personal ability they had got to the top in a very competitive world. 

It’s tempting then, to see the incident as an overprivileged couple badly falling out over a trifle.  That would be to miss the point, the story is entirely political.

When Medb questioned Ailill contribution to the marriage she was instigating a challenge to the distribution of power in their kingdom.  For their marriage was legally of the best sort. Comadas and Comchenél, suitable and equal the jurists said. The couple were equal in beauty, wit, courage and status and both of their kin groups approved the marriage.  It provided for equal decision making within the union.

Were such a marriage to be dissolved, as they often were, then all brought to and gained by the marriage would be divided by halves.  That was the law.  There were of course many other less advantageous forms of marriage.

Ailill would have been alarmed at Medb’s words.  Probably he feared she had identified a future husband which would mean a civil war in the kingdom.  He had after all killed Medb’s previous husband in single combat. Possibly his life and the prestige of his clan were at stake.  At the end of the great counting he could relax, he had moved from equal to superior.

Not so Medb, the instigator was undone, she was no longer an equal and had badly devalued the status of her marriage, damaging her own clan’s prestige in the process.  Ailill could now, at least in theory, seek a wife of equal status who would be pre-eminent. To restore the balance, Medb was willing, and more importantly able, to launch a war.

So, the story goes and stripped of embroidery it no doubt reflects events but it’s importance lies in the world it shows us and its rules and conventions.

As a result, the world has the Táin Bó Cúailnge that provides a window to the Irish Iron Age, Cú Chulainn has literary and folkloric immortality and we, well we can understand that Celtic royal women had an agency of their own.

All of which makes me think Icenian Boudicca and her late husband Prasutagus.  I would suggest they had enjoyed a marriage of equals. Boudicca famously led a war.

Brigantian Cartimandua and her husband Venutius also clearly shared power and separately both of them started wars.  

Cartimandua took a lover, the ‘armour bearer’ Vellocatus - for whom the Romans thought she risked everything.  Contra Tacitus, I'd say he would most likely be another royal, albeit clearly too young to have achieved position.  I'd guess he was a close kinsman of Venutius.  A nephew, if we take tradition as our guide. 

Did sexual desire for a younger man move Cartimandua to civil war?  That would not be unlikely, but the politics of maintaining the Roman alliance would have weighed heavier. Venutius, a man pre-eminent in military skill as Tacitus tells us, was happy enough to take Rome on and eventually did so. Cartimandua preferred not to.

Cartimandua’s fate is unknown to us, as is that of Venutius, Vellocatus and Boudicca.  Medb and Ailill long ago passed into legend.  Yet all of them are recognisably human like us.

Did Alasdair Mac Colla invent the Highland Charge?

I’ve blogged about the Highland Charge before and so it was with keen interest that I read David Stevenson’s case that the tactic was invented by Alasdair.  Stevenson, a financial journalist by trade is author of Highland Warrior a biography of Alasdair, of Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates and a fair bit more.

To briefly summarise his case:

Mac Colla originated the Highland charge at the battle of the Laney fought in Ireland in February 1642 as this seems to be the first recorded incidence of it we have.  The tactic was enabled by the adoption of the musket, sword and targe as standard equipment. The abandonment of Cotun and Mail armour also resulted in a swifter closing speed.  The inspiration came from the traditional tactic of sword and targe armed Kern but substituted a volley from  the more effective musket for the less deadly shower of darts.

I find this interesting and think Stevenson could well be right.  The impact of a Gaelic charge was a serious matter.  Mountjoy, Elizabeth the First’s most successful general noted “When it comes to hand-strokes the Irish will usually prevail”.  That said the Irish tended to separate out their shot from their targeteers not least because the latter were drawn from the traditional military class.  Many of the Irish shot, better shots than the English says Mountjoy, were not drawn from the military classes and so were not all trained swordsmen. They therefore could have carried out the effective volley required but not the superior swordsmanship needed upon contact, nor for that matter did they carry targes.

Although the ‘New Scots’ Highland soldiers who fought alongside the Irish were dual armed we find them shooting with their bows or charging fiercely with two handed swords depending on the tactical situation.  I cannot think of a single incidence during the Nine Years War of the combined shooting and assault required by the Highland charge .  

I can note that some of the McDonnell’s of the Route are recorded as carrying targes in the time of Shane O’Neill.  It was a targe that saved Sorley Buidhe (Blonde Charles) McDonnald from being brained by a Galloglaich axe.

All of which suggests that the tactic was an innovation and one that might well lie with Alasdair Mac Colla of Clan Donald.

An Irish Retinue for Lion Rampant

It’s great see all these old Steve Shaw figures finished and ready to use as I’ve had them for decades.  It occurred to me that with a bit of swapping round of unit types I can field an early version to tackle the Vikings and the Normans and as well as a later one.  Not only that but I can also produce an Islemen Retinue.  Anyhow here they all are: 

Irish Raiders for Lion Rampant and 100 Years War Retinues

I’m doing OK on retinues for Lion Rampant but as usual I’ve gone for the exotica, Samurai and the Bronze Age respectively. With the best will in the world these are variants rather than the rules as written.  With that firmly in mind I have bought two retinues from Donnington New Era, English and French for the 100 Years War a classic match-up. I’ll start painting them soon.

Meantime I have a bunch of the old Feudal Castings medieval Irish to hand including the now out of production Irish cavalry-lovely figures.  Most of them are painted so a little re -basing job and I’ll be good to go.  I'll opt for the retinue of the King of Leinster Art Óg Mac Murchadha Caomhanách, who we see below.

On the flat the Irish could not stand up to the massed armoured cavalry of royal expeditions from England or assembled from the colonial nobility.  All of which tends to make for a dull game.  

That said under many rules it is perfectly possible to field an Irish army that operates somewhat like a Roman legion, with double ranks of Gallóglaich, flanked by auxiliaries, fronted by skirmishers and with the cavalry in reserve.  For me, there is no fun in that, I have Roman armies and a fair idea of how the Irish tackled well-armed opponents, I think there is a better option.

All of which brings me back to Lion Rampant which I think will well reflect the small wars of raids and ambushes that now and then became small battles. Here is the retinue.

The nobles as sergeants.

Other marc slua as mounted yeomen with javelins.

Two bands of Kern as Bidowers.  More foot to follow.

And as you can see we are back in business courtesy of Imgur and the good advice available on the Wargames website which does what it says on the label.