Following on from creating Sir Robert Babthorpe's retinue, I wanted to create one of the French retinues who might have been present at the time of Agincourt and maybe faced Sir Robert. After all we don't want Sir Robert standing in some French field all on his own?
As before, the intention isn't to claim that I've somehow reconstructed an exact medieval retinue, but to start with what we actually know and then use the evidence for French armies in 1415 to fill in some of the gaps.
For this one I have chosen Jean Quiéret dit Rifflart, écuyer, a member of the lesser nobility of Ponthieu and Picardy who is associated with the French forces at Agincourt.
Unlike Babthorpe, where the English records give us a remarkably good idea of the actual composition of his twenty man retinue, there is no surviving muster for Jean so there is inevitably rather more "reconstruction" involved here. That said, the surviving French records give us some useful clues about what a small French retinue of the period might have looked like.
Jean Quiéret dit Rifflart
The Quiéret family were established in Ponthieu, in northern France, and several members of the wider family appear in connection with Agincourt. Jean is recorded as Jean Quiéret dit Rifflart, although identifying medieval men from names alone can sometimes be a dangerous business as they are often inaccurately recorded.
A modern genealogical entry styles Jean as an écuyer. I have not found a contemporary muster or armourial that independently confirms that rank for Jean himself, so I am treating écuyer as the best-supported current identification rather than as absolutely proven. In English terms this makes him an esquire rather than a knight, so I have deliberately avoided calling him 'Sir Jean'.
There is, tantalisingly, a Rifflart mentioned in accounts of the attack on the English baggage during the Agincourt battle. It would be rather spiffing if this was our Jean, but I haven't found enough evidence to confidently say that it was.
For the purposes of the retinue I am simply treating Jean as one of the lesser French fighting gentlemen associated with the campaign. This is actually rather useful for what I am trying to achieve here, I don't particularly want every retinue to be commanded by a Duke or one of the great lords of France. Jean seems exactly the sort of man who could plausibly be found travelling through Picardy with a handful of armoured companions and assorted armed followers.
The Campaign in France and Agincourt
Jean appears amongst the men associated with the French side at Agincourt, but unlike Babthorpe I haven't found an individual muster telling us how many men-at-arms or missile troops he actually brought with him. That means there is no French equivalent here of Babthorpe's wonderfully convenient four men-at-arms and fifteen archers, it seems the French had a very lass à faire approach to record keeping.
What we can do is look at the wider French evidence. The Medieval Soldier Project's work on the French army of 1415 shows captains serving with men-at-arms and gens de trait (“men of the projectile/shot”). Importantly, the surviving records identify both archers and crossbowmen and individual 1415 entries include mounted archers as well as mounted and foot crossbowmen.
That is useful as a mixed body of bowmen and crossbowmen is entirely reasonable for the period, even though the exact mixture I have chosen for Jean is necessarily conjectural.
Pavises also fit the wider northern French military world of the period. Tournai's accounts record Robert Campin being paid to paint standards, pennons and pavises for the city's crossbowmen in 1414 and again in 1415. That does not prove that Jean's own men carried pavises at Agincourt, but it does show that they were very much part of the equipment of contemporary French and Low Countries crossbow forces.
Arms of Jean Quiéret dit Rifflart
I haven't found a contemporary armourial specifically attributing arms to Jean himself in 1415, so I'm treating them as a family-based reconstruction rather than pretending we know precisely what Jean painted on his shield at Agincourt.
Building the Retinue
Without Jean's actual muster we need to do rather more reconstruction than we did with Babthorpe. I wanted the force to have a well-armoured household core, but also to make use of the French archers, crossbowmen and pavisiers that appear in the wider evidence.
I have therefore settled on Jean, five other heavily equipped household men, four crossbowmen, two archers, pavisiers and eight other armed retainers. Which, rather conveniently, gives us twenty men, almost as if the French had Écorcheurs in mind too.
The crossbowmen and archers are not an attempt to reproduce a lost Quiéret muster. They are a gaming reconstruction based on troop types we know were present in French forces in 1415. The same is true of the pavisiers. They can work alongside the crossbowmen or armed with a spear or hand weapon, can operate as an armed retainer.
Jean and some of the men-at-arms can be mounted, although they would normally dismount for a set-piece fight.
Enguerrand
I've also included Enguerrand as Jean's second Leader. Unlike William Callowe in Babthorpe's retinue, I don't have documentary evidence placing an Enguerrand specifically in Jean's service. This is therefore one of the deliberately fictional elements. There are men called Enguerrand amongst the northern French military community of the period, so the name is perfectly plausible, but I'm not going to manufacture a historical identity for him that I can't prove.
For our purposes he's simply one of Jean's experienced men-at-arms and the man most likely to keep everybody moving when Jean is otherwise occupied, so I gave him a new trait of Steadfast.
The Retinue
As with Babthorpe, I rather like having some uncertainty about exactly how well equipped the individual men are. Jean himself is obviously well equipped, but for the remaining men-at-arms I've allowed some variation.
Likewise the crossbowmen, archers, pavisiers and armed retainers can vary between Unarmoured and Part-Armoured.
So my proposed retinue looks like this:
Quiéret dit Rifflart, Jean. Fully-Armoured. Mounted. D8 Quality Die. 2CD in combat. Leader, Chivalrous, 75% chance of Puissant trait.
Enguerrand. Part-Armoured, 66% chance of being Fully-Armoured. Mounted. D8 Quality Die. 1CD in combat. 66% chance of 2 CD. Leader, Steadfast (see below).
Standard Bearer. Part-Armoured. 50% chance of being Fully-Armoured. Mounted. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
3 Men-at-Arms. Part-Armoured. 75% chance of being Fully-Armoured. Mounted. Sword. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
4 Crossbowmen. Unarmoured. 50% chance of being Part-Armoured. Crossbow. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Archers. Unarmoured. 33% chance of being Part-Armoured. Bow. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
8 Armed Retainers. Unarmoured, 50% chance of being Part-Armoured. 50% chance of Pavise. Spear or pole arm. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
Steadfast - This individual is an experienced, calm mind in the midst of battle. When this figure is required to make a Rally or Faltering test, it may re-roll a failed Quality Die roll. The second result must be accepted.
I get the sense that Jean's retinue should have a heavily armoured core surrounded by a much more mixed body of fighting men, with the small group of crossbowmen, archers and pavisiers giving it a distinctly French appearance. The pavises in particular should make it look very different on the table from Babthorpe's mass of longbows.
If you would prefer a non-chance based retinue then this would be (I know wargamers still love a list after all!):
Quiéret dit Rifflart, Jean. Fully-Armoured. Mounted. D8 Quality Die. 2CD in combat. Leader, Chivalrous, Puissant trait.
Enguerrand. Fully-Armoured. Mounted. D8 Quality Die. 2 CD. Leader, Steadfast (see below).
Standard Bearer. Fully-Armoured. Mounted. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Men-at-Arms. Fully-Armoured. Mounted. Sword. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
1 Men-at-Arms. Part-Armoured. Mounted. Sword. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Crossbowmen. Unarmoured. Crossbow. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Crossbowmen. Part-Armoured. Crossbow. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Archers. Unarmoured. Bow. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Armed Retainers. Unarmoured, Spear or pole arm. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Armed Retainers. Unarmoured. Pavise. Spear or pole arm. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Armed Retainers. Part-Armoured. Spear or pole arm. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
2 Armed Retainers. Part-Armoured. Pavise. Spear or pole arm. D6 Quality Die. 1CD in combat.
Steadfast - This individual is an experienced, calm mind in the midst of battle. When this figure is required to make a Rally or Faltering test, it may re-roll a failed Quality Die roll. The second result must be accepted.
A final thought is that period French records do mention mounted archers and crossbowmen, so feel free to make the them mounted if you have the figures.
The precise numbers are obviously my invention, but the combination of troop types isn't and should feel different Babthorpe's retinue.
Enjoy!
Sources & Further Reading
Medieval Soldier Project - French Troops Table - Individual records for French archers and crossbowmen in 1415.
Jean Quiéret dit Rifflart - Geneanet - Modern genealogical entry styling Jean as écuyer, used cautiously.
Jean Quiéret / Agincourt material - Genealogie Québec - Genealogical material associating Jean with Agincourt and drawing on the Nobiliaire de Ponthieu.
Armorial des familles de Picardie - Quiéret family arms used as the basis for the heraldic reconstruction.
Robert Campin - Tournai archival records - Evidence for standards, pennons and pavises painted for Tournai crossbowmen in 1414-15.
Monstrelet - Extrait des Chroniques - Chronicle evidence for French archers and crossbowmen at Agincourt.
Medieval Soldier Project - The French Army in 1415 - French army organisation, musters, men-at-arms and gens de trait.
