The Hundred Years War (39 page)

The Prior and many of his men were killed. The kern had made a strong impression by their outlandish dress and their ferocity, riding back from raids with severed heads and even babies dangling from their bareback ponies. There were other Irishmen who, led by the Butler family, made a small but effective contribution to the Lancastrian war effort in France. The fourth Earl of Ormonde—Fra’ Thomas was his bastard son—had been on Clarence’s
chevauchée
in 1412 and also took part in the siege of Rouen. Two more of his sons, Sir John and Sir James Butler (later the fifth Earl) were to be noted captains under Bedford and Old Talbot in the 143os and 144os. Besides a long-haired, moustachioed, saffron-cloaked, barefooted ‘tail’ of javelin men and axe- and claymore-wielding gallowglasses, these Anglo-Irish chieftains would have brought more conventionally armed
daoine uaisle
(gentlemen) recruited from their relations.

‘This Lenthall was victorious at the battaile of Agin-Court and tooke many prisoners there, by the which prey he beganne the new building and mannour place at Hampton.’ John Leland,
Itinerary.

Ogard was a Danish mercenary, his real name being Anders Pedersen. Born about 1400, he was the son of the Knight Peder Nielsen of Aargard, of the great Gyllenstierna family. By 1425 Ogard was serving in Anjou and in 1433 he was made Captain of Vire. He was naturalized in 1436. He served on the Councils of both Bedford and York and was twice an ambassador to the French. In 1450 he was appointed Captain of Caen, which he had the melancholy duty of surrendering. In 1443—in association with Fastolf—he had received a royal licence to ‘empark’ land near Ware in Hertfordshire and here with the money from his French spoils he built Rye House (to be the scene of a famous plot against Charles II). Sir Andrew’s wife was a Norfolk heiress and in 1453 he was elected to Parliament for that county. He died the year after and was buried at Wymondham Abbey.