Burgundian light cavalry

Next up from the big cavalry rebasing project..... Two units of Burgundian 'light' cavalry. Some of these have been rebased, whereas many of them are new additions.

In this period there weren't really dedicated 'light cavalry' companies in Burgundy or France as far as I can tell. The 'lance' organisation featured coustilliers and mounted archers alongside men-at-arms, but it seems that the Burgundian ordonnance companies raised by Maximilian from 1477 onwards just had two archers for every man-at-arms - no coustilliers. There of course is the theory that the term 'archer' doesn't always have to refer to a soldier armed with a bow, and perhaps it's an umbrella term referring to any professional soldier on a lower pay grade than the men-at-arms. Or perhaps some 'archers' could perform multiple roles, including that of light lance-armed cavalry?

The first of these two units is supposed to represent either members of the Burgundian ordonnance companies, or instead just a more informal grouping of horsemen thrown together for a certain task. Half of the figures are actually in full armour so could be classed as men-at-arms. Again I've gone for no uniform livery as with my heavy cavalry, though a few of them do sport Burgundian crosses.

For the second unit I tried to make them look a bit more Germanic. It seems that among the many Germans that came to seek employment in the Low Countries and Burgundy from 1477 onwards were companies of horsemen who were paid less than men-at-arms, so perhaps these were some form of true 'light' cavalry. You can read about them on this French article here - google will do a perfectly readable translation for you.

Both units are a mix of Perry plastics and metals, with various conversions, plus a few Steel Fist parts and two converted Wargames Foundry sculpts. One of the flags is from Pete's Flags (link), the other is from the krigsspil website (link).