Somebody has to start a battle. At Agincourt on 25 October 1415 that man was Sir Thomas Erpingham, a Norfolk knight approaching sixty, whom Henry V — in the words of the chronicler Jean de Wavrin — "appointed… to place his archers in front in two wings." Having set them, Erpingham threw the baton he was holding up into the air and called out "Nestrocq." That was the signal. The arrows went, and he climbed down off his horse and walked back to stand on foot beside the king. He had earned that much trust the hard way. He entered John of Gaunt's retinue in 1380, campaigned with Henry Bolingbroke in Lithuania, Prussia and the Holy Land, and was one of only seventeen men who volunteered to follow him into exile. He landed with Bolingbroke at Ravenspur in 1399, and French chroniclers put him at the head of the ambush that took Richard II. Constable of Dover Castle within weeks, Knight of the Garter by about 1401, Steward of the royal household under Henry V — the rewards of having backed the right man early. Tradition of London give him green barding and jupon scattered with white shields and martlets, the charges recorded for his arms as far back as 1370, with a coronet on the helm and the mace up. He belongs directly in front of King & Country's English Archer Set — those are the men he was placing — with Thomas Strickland and the banner of St George alongside, and Charles d'Albret, Constable of France facing them across the field. There is a quieter pairing too: Sir Richard Pembridge held Erpingham's two great offices, Constable of Dover and Warden of the Cinque Ports, a generation before him. Erpingham outlived Agincourt by thirteen years, built the cathedral gate at Norwich in 1420 that still carries his name, and lies buried inside it. Shakespeare put him on stage twice in Henry V, which is more than most of the men who were actually there ever got. Model: MK03 / Tradition of London / 54mm (1/32) scale / 1 piece set All hand painted Toy Soldier sets packed in the Classic Tradition Red Boxes. All Toy Soldiers cast in quality white metal, and individually hand painted in gloss enamels. Please allow 2-3 weeks delivery.
