Sir Henry Percy aka Harry Hotspur

Here's an old GW Bretonnian knight painted up as Sir Henry Percy, called Hotspur by the Scots for his eagerness on the battlefield. He was knighted by King Edward III in 1377, the same year the king died. He served under King Richard II and campaigned in Scotland and France. He was captured by James Douglas at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, and later ransomed by King Richard II. After Richard II was deposed, he served under Henry IV and fought at Homildon Hill in 1402, where he captured Archibald Douglas. Sir Henry died at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 while leading a rebel army against Henry IV.

The horse's armored head is from a GW Empire knights set. This is actually the first Bretonnian knight I've painted up - although I've used parts of them for various other projects, including helmet crests for Mycenaean standards,

Sir Henry's horse trapper has the quartered arms of Percy (blue lion rampant on a gold/yellow field) and de Luci (three white lucies, or pikes, on a red field). His tabard and shield bear just the Percy arms with a red label as the eldest son.

Although I've seen Sir Henry's helmet crest depicted as a lion standing as the one belonging to the Black Prince, I figured the upper half of a lion rampant would be appropriate as that is type of his coat of arms. Besides that's the way the GW helmet is made :)

I was inspired to paint up Sir Henry after a stein I just picked up off a ebay which has a depiction of him. I need to get some dark beer to test out the stein.

Finally, here's a nice 19th C. illustration of Sir Henry at the Battle of Shrewsbury, after receiving a mortal wound to his head or neck.