MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

The Battle of Shrewsbury 1107 AD
Makmartane marches from Nottingham with an army to deal with the Earl of Shrewsbury’s rebels in the West Country.

Deploying his archers on a low ridge overlooking the rebel camp Makmartane orders his knights to move around the enemy and position themselves on both flanks, whilst he and his bodyguard move to block any escape to the West.

Seeing Makmartane and his bodyguard moving past his left flank towards his rear the Earl directs his longbowmen to close on them and try and bring down the Scottish nobleman.

However, this was a poor decision. As the Welsh longbowmen rushed to close to within range of the Scottish knights they allowed a wide gap to develop between themselves and the armoured swordsmen and Makmartane was not about to ignore that sort of opportunity.

Suddenly Makmartine and his bodyguard swung left and instead of heading across the longbowmens front they began bearing down on them directly. The Welshmen skidded to a halt and loosed a hasty volley of arrows which brought down two of the Scottish knights, then Makmartane and his retinue were upon them and cutting them down with their newly improved swords. Fifty seven were cut down and the rest threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Meanwhile instead of trying to aid his Longbowmen Shrewsbury and his armoured swordsmen had decided to try and drive Makmartanes archers from the ridge above them. This action was predictably futile, as in their heavy mail the swordsman had no hope at all of catching the nimble peasant archers and merely ended up chasing them around the ridge until Makmartane and his knights finished dealing with the longbowmen and returned to finish them off with a well timed charge.


The Earl of Shrewsbury is ridden down and killed during the pursuit.



Makmartane gains +1 Dread and +1 Loyalty as a result of this battle.