The last two entries have seen us in America, then France, and now we enter… Scotland!

Agnes Randolph (Ranulph according to contemparies but commonly referred to as Randolph, so will be by us for search results!) known as Black Agnes for her dark hair and eyes, is most well known for The Siege of Dunbar in 1338. She lived 1312-1369 making her around 26 for the time of the siege, now I feel somewhat underacheived!

As the wife of The 9th Earl of Dunbar and March, Patrick Randolph, early 1338 she came into the common situation of being left in charge of the castle while her husband was away. The English forces, led by the 1st Earl of Salisbury took this as an opportunity to siege the castle. What a great chance hey, while the man of the house was away, it must be a doddle!

The siege lasted until the 10th June that same year, a whole five months. The winner being…… Agnes and her castle full of awesome and loyal supporters and soldiers. Take that! There are various “fun” anecdotes of the siege, yes I know… a ….fun…siege anecdote? Sieges are by their very nature, horrific! But everyone loves an underdog tale.

At one point, one of the boulders launched over the walls was dropped back over the edge right into the top of a siege tower, crushing most the soldiers inside. They gave back what they got and much more! It is said that her handmaidens, dressed in their finest gowns would be at the ramparts flamboyantly dusting with lace handkerchiefs. This is the psychological warfare I can get behind.

Salisbury even threatened the death of her brother, to which she responded along the lines of “Whatever, I’m his heir anyway”, which reminded me of the tale of Caterina Sforza (who we make a mini of already!) where her children were captured and being threatened, she lifted her skirt, grabbed her crotch and declared that she possessed the instruments to make more. Casually brutal.

Cam I early, Cam I late, I found Agnes at the gate.

Designing the Miniature

This is another I thought would be straight forward as there are already great depictions of her already that are similar to each other. However I didn’t want to just duplicate without knowing why certain details are there. You know what I’m like, I want it to be right! So even if I do all the research and it ends up like the above picture, I will at least know why, and can explain it confidently.

Hairstyle. Around this era it’s largely a variety of plaits tied around the head, sometimes with ribbons, and with nets or cages called crespines or crespinettes and a veil or wimple. I’ve decided to go with the almost Princess Leia style as it’s in almost every depiction I could find, and fits reasonably within the time frame. It’s correct enough and recognisable enough as Black Agnes. Unfortunately the best “photo reference” I could find is Isabella from Braveheart I KNOW PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

The circlet, hair and crespine are going to be the same, as they will look super on a miniature and different from our Jeanne de Clisson from the same era. The wimple will be different. I THINK it would be called a veil and gorget, as they will be separate, whereas a wimple is one piece, but happy to be corrected. Also the top of the hair covered by the veil.

Clothing. The kirtle (dress) will be quite plain with a surcote on top, sort of like a tabard. Tippets will add some detail, they are the ties of fabric above the elbow that drape down. The surcotes by this time were getting laced or stitched down the side, giving them a bit more of shape, so we’ll go for this. This will all be quite simple but allow for a manner of creative paint jobs.

Pose. I struggled with a pose but happy with the outcome! The tippets make it difficult regarding casting but I am probably overthinking it, I am sure there are minis in the range with the same sort of hanging strands! Having quite a closed body means they will be much easier to cast, but I might enquire about whether hand on hip would work. Tippets can be quite large so it could work – what do you think? Hand on hip or around waist? Forgive the mitten hands, they will look better! That’s quite a splayed hand on chest as a common laughing pose. Yes she’s laughing – you know I love a laughing mini. It suits her I think as “ha, call that a siege!”. The wimple/gorget is tucked in so you can see the nice hem on her dress, which laces up fairly low. There will be more waves in the surcote of course, not a solid cone!

What do you think? – Annie