James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

Hello it's been a bit of space since my last post, but not so much because of productivity which I've actually been getting things done in spite of the heat and have several things to post, but rather the fact that with work, heat, family, painting and keeping up with what others have been doing has resulted in one thing having to be neglected and that has been the blog. I enjoy blogging so no worries this blog will stop as I will continue to march on for the foreseeable future as I still think it's the best medium in presenting what you are personally doing be it past, present and future plans without all the noise other mediums usually have.

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose aka "The Great Montrose" is thought by many to be the best commander to come out of the ECW and a tactical genius for his daring surprise attack victories against  forces larger and better equipped then his own. While first supporting the Scots Covenanters for a short period he later switched sides to support King Charles I which eventually cost him his life.

He represented the Royalist cause in Scotland during the reign of King Charles I fielding an army of mostly Irish mercenaries and Scots Highland clansmen vs Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll leader of the Covenanters.While many like to debate if Montrose was a patriot or traitor most agree militarily he was a superb tactician with a string of famous victories in 1644 - 1645 at Tippermuir, Aberdeen, Inverlochy, Auldearn, and finally culminating in the coup de grace at Kilsyth making him all but master of Scotland in effect crushing his rival Argyll. However, with King Charles defeat at Naseby Montrose had to try and save the king so had leave before he could consolidate his grip on Scotland, but lost his highlander support along the way leaving him with a force to small to resist the Leslie Covenanters blocking him thus leading to his defeat at Philiphaugh.

In 1649/50 Montrose once again tried to rally the Royalist cause in Scotland to avenge the death of Charles I and support a return of Charles II but failed to get enough highlanders to join back up resulting in a defeat at Carbisdale. He escaped capture only to turn himself into Neil MacLeod who he believed was friendly only to discover he was a political enemy and was soon after hanged in Edinburgh. Ironically just a short time later the Scots Covenanters supported Charles II attempt to regain his throne and were soundly defeated by Cromwell's New Model army thus depriving themselves of an excellent commander who may have been able to change the outcome or at least mitigate the defeat.

This is my Montrose command stand to lead my Scots Royalist forces and is on an 80mm round base. The figures are from Bicorne and the flag is from Flags of War. The figures are large 28mm and a pleasure to paint and the flag I believe represents the severed head of Charles I so would place this command vignette just after Montrose ill fated attempt to retake Scotland in 1649/50 although I will use this stand for the entire service of Montrose in Scotland, but included the flag as I felt it was such a striking symbol. I removed the blood droplets from the head as I wish to interest people in the composition and not turn any off to something some may find gruesome although my flag still has the drops on the actual flag. I'm quite pleased how the overall piece turned out.  I still need to make some more commanders for both sides so expect more to come. Eventually I will get a game of Baraque I tell you! Don't arch your eyebrows at me!:-)

Plenty of more material for the blog waiting in the wings already finished just waiting for me to do some write ups like AWI, ECW, Terrain and CoC battle reports so more on the way for those interested!

Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company-Bicorne Miniatures