Hawkwood

Similar to Gunka no Baltzar but with less politics and more action, also no firearms.
 
Those knights deserved to lose for using such stupidly ridiculous lances, those are way too thick and likely too heavy to be of any use compared to how real lances would have been.
 
Discovered that there was a real John Hawkwood, who was the captain of a mercenary band called the White Company (not the White Ravens), and was active during the early phase of the Hundred Years War (1337-1364). The real Hawkwood was also known for brutality (but it's the Hundred Years War, I think they'd all be pretty brutal), and crafty tactics. Linky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkwood

So far the manga seems right that he would have been about 23 years of age in 1346, when Edward III and his son the Black Prince invaded Brittany. However my reading suggests he would not actually have been a mercenary or even wearing plate armor at this time, instead serving as a soldier and a longbowman in the English army until the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360.
 
Now that was brutal. Should've seen that coming, but somehow still didn't expect Hawkwood to order something like that.
 
Did medieval archers receive orders to "fire" or to "loose"? Same with catapult operators.
Today, we use 'firearms', but they were not in use in the opening scene here. Are there any historians who can clear this up?
 
Good series, thanks HnG and of course HappyScans. Hawkwood's a cocky bastard!

@x754 nice job finding the real deal. Mercenaries usually started as soldiers, still true today.
 
10 chapters in, it really bothers me that the author changed his drawing style of the characters every chapter.
 
GO HAWKWOOD!!! I don't like the prince very much.
Nice series! Thanks for procuring this for us, Hokuto no Gun and HappyScans! Your work is very much appreciated!
 
Well well one of the few manga/anime where people actually wear armour and helemets that isnt sliced in 2
 
@DanYHKim

There are varying accounts for how the archers engaged back then. The English scholar Roger Ascham notes in his book Toxophilus that the term for English longbowmen was "loose." The French chronicler Enguerrand de Monstrelet notes for the Battle of Agincourt that Sir Thomas shouted "nestrocque" which translates to "strike now". The term "loose" is probably the best translation, since you don't actually use "fire" for the weapon.
 
As a CK2 player, I approve of starting a game as a mercenary band and raiding goddamn Francia every time I get the chance.
 
This arc will end with the Battle of Crecy won't it? IIRC the crossbowmen from Genova will be cut down by the French because they let their bowstrings get wet, and then the English archers will just kill most of the French. I think the Black Prince's position almost gets overrun at one point, but his father decides not to send him aid and they somehow make it but I think the blind king of Bohemia dies. Then it's onward to Calais?
 
An excellent series in every respect. Historically accurate for the most part (more full plate armor than was common at the time, I think), good characters, and it does a decent job of retelling history as a story. 9/10
 
When does this arc end? After the battle of Crecy leading to the fall of Calais to the English or after the battle of Poitiers ten years later and the closing of the Edwardian phase of the HYW?
 

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