ORDER OF BATTLE:

French … built around 3x IV/4(b)

1 x General (3Kn), 3 x knights (3Kn), 2 x communal militia (Sp), 2 x feudal spearmen (Sp) or Low Countries mercenaries (4Pk), 1 x mercenaries (3Kn or 4Cb), 2 x archers (3Bw or Ps), 1 x bidet, bidower or Breton javelinmen (Ps) or peasant levies (7Hd) or ribauds (5Hd) or Frisian sailors (3Pk) or dardiers (4Ax) or stone-throwers or springalds (Art).

French Army: Bishop Guerin of Senlis (can roll all three Pip dice and allocate as he chooses) Camp: the village of Bouvines and its vital bridge

Vanward: Duke of Burgundy; Breakpoint 4

Allies … built around 3x IV/13(b)

1 x General (3Kn), 3 x knights (3Kn), 1 x mercenary knights (3Kn) or Hungarian horse archers (LH) or Teutonic knights (6Kn) or crossbow cavalry (Cv), 1 x crossbowmen (4Cb), 2 x Feudal retainers (7Hd) or city militia spearmen (Sp), 2 x heerban with glaive or goedendag or mercenaries with axe or 2-handed sword or halberd (4Bd), or Brabanter pikemen (4Pk), 2 x archers (Ps).

Contemporary accounts describe Otto as raising a dragon windsock standard attopped by an Imperial Eagle in a golden chariot or cart, and fighting in the vicinity of it until making his escape from the battlefield. It seems correct to make the allied C-in-C’s element a CWg

(Deployments)

The allied army has no on table camp.

The Game:

One of the features of the battle is the forced march of Ferdinand Count of Flanders up a short cut

to Bouvines via Cysoing. The forced marchers ran into the French rearguard under the Duke of Burgundy in what became the opening phase of the battle. DBA deals with this deployment from a road particularly well, but players should be reminded that the front element of a column (more than 2 deep) has no recoil so the count of Flanders will need to take heed.

Sources discuss Renaud de Dammartin’s skilful retirement into the protection of his infantry and players will find this will work in V3 of DBA if the foot are kept close behind.

This scenario was played with members of the public and some seasoned players at The Other Partizan in Newark, September 2015. We ran the battle through twice, in the morning amongst the usual suspects, in the afternoon as a full 6 command, 6 player participation game. As in the historical battle, the outcome was far from certain for some time.

(the Bouvines game at The Other Partizan, courtesy of The Society of Ancients)

Although the deployments followed what we know of the historical battle (so were mandatory) the scenario clearly allowed quite a lot of flexibility as the two games developed along very different lines - the second game, producing a generalised melee right across the battlefield, probably taking a more historical shape.

In game one, following a very historical approach, Ferdinand count of Flanders opted to try to punch his way through the French right wing before a bad situation got any worse. Low die rolling combined with the scenario handicap to demoralise the Flemish very quickly, and the Burgundian knights then flooded into the centre of the battlefield against the Emperor’s battle.

The Count of Dreux’s battle engaged much more cautiously, worried about exposing its flank to the longer Allied right, and keen to get his somewhat dubious reserves of infantry into the engagement. This allowed Dammartin and Salisbury to divert some of their force into the centre to support the Emperor.

With his flank exposed, and outnumbered, the King’s command succumbed next through weight of casualties. This proved the French undoing.

In the second game, the Duke of Burgundy started the defense by sending forward his bowmen and caused some early reverses. Pre-emptive attacks with cavalry were less successful however – and the support of the knights was quickly needed.

The French were pushed back onto the outskirts of Bouvines – but without actual losses. Although generally winning and pressing forwards, the count of Flanders lost elements in the process and became demoralised before being able to inflict a telling blow.

Across the main battle, the commanders pressed forward aggressively and a battle of attrition was played out with neither side breaking through. Almost following the historical narrative, the decision came around the person of the Emperor himself … In the heat of the action and overlapped by the King’s infantry, the CWg was doubled in hand-to-hand combat. Otto then applied his once only ‘post calculation’ C-in-C +1 to save the situation.

It was unfortunately the allied turn, so no repairs could be made to the unequal combat and a (seemingly inevitable) further low combat roll repeated the loss of the CWg. Of course, there was no second chance and so the outcome stood. We had gathered a small audience by this stage and a cheer went up – it was an exciting climax as the 2-element loss was sufficient to end the game in a French victory.

I could scarcely have worked this game better had I scripted it.

The chariot on which the standard was resting was destroyed, the dragon broken and the golden eagle, its wings torn off and in pieces, brought to the King. Thus was Otto’s battalion completely destroyed after he ran away.

(William the Breton)

Aftermath:

We concluded that although his element was destroyed, Otto may well have escaped the field (this is something players may like to dice for in the wrap up phase of their games – should the allies lose) The Importance of Bouvines …

Victory at Bouvines also freed up the French from Imperial threats, allowing Prince Louis to be sent into England in support of the baron’s revolt in 1216, fatally damaging King John’s cause.

Without Bouvines it is hard to see events pushing John to accept the terms of Magna Carta.

For France, of course, Bouvines and the expansion of territory can be seen as the beginnings of the country as we know it today … while on the other side of Europe and in the Mediterranean it also changed the course of history (effectively seeing the Hohenstauffen’s re-established on the Imperial throne, fuelling the Guelf-Ghibelline struggle for the next century – and ultimately drawing the French into Italy) …

(1) Richard built Chateau Gaillard in 1196, and renounced Angevin claims in the Languedoc in order to bring Raymond Count of Toulouse into the alliance. Meanwhile he drew Baldwin count of Flanders to attack Philip’s possessions from the North. Philippe de Dreux, bishop of Beauvais (cousin of King Philip) was captured – a great warrior bishop, he would later fight at Bouvines. Richard won notable victories and a favourable truce at Vernon (1198) but was killed at the siege of Chalus-Chabrol in 1199 before he had completed his campaigns.

Chateau Gaillard fell in March 1204 but in the new campaign William Longspee won a resounding naval victory off the coast of Flanders at Damme (30-31 May 1213) …

References:

The original sources can be found in G Duby, The Legend of Bouvines (1990) …

You can find the sources online at http://deremilitari.org/2014/03/the-battle-of-bouvines-1214/

The traditional classics are Ferdinand Lot and Sir Charles Oman although these have largely been superseded by Jan Verbruggen (‘The Art of Warfare in Western Europe’) 1997 edition, Kelly Devries (various) and John France (‘Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300’) 1999. Ian Heath’s WRG volume

‘Armies of Feudal Europe’ (1999 edition) remains a key guide to how the soldiers would have looked.