I just discovered Dark Albion and absolutely love it. Currently planning a campaign to play with Old School Essentials.

The background is that they are playing a small fictional Knightly Noble family. They have just been awarded a keep and some lands in Wales. This has upset another fictional family that was wanting the lands for themselves.

Anyhow, it's going to be a sandbox campaign, where the players can go anywhere and do anything.

What I'm having a hard time figuring out is who lived where and ruled what. for instance, say they want to go to Conwy. It's 1453. Who is living in Conwy castle at that time? Who is running the town? Is it a Lord? Then who, in turn, is the lords lord, all the way up to Henry VI? Is the Sheriff of the county is the direct line to the king?

Honestly, I really don't need all this info for the game, and if I need to make stuff up I'll make stuff up. But for my own personal satisfaction I'd like to know who was in charge of what and a little more about how general governance worked at that time (without getting a master's in medieval history). The book itself provides like 90% of what I want, just wanna know a little more

Is there some kinda Dummies guide or something?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Boteler,_1st_Baron_Sudeley

Baron Ralph Boteler seems to have been the ruling constable of Conwy, both Castle and town. I think he was picked by a king but idk. Read the castle's Wikipedia page; maybe it says.

Quote from: Tatertron on August 27, 2024, 03:58:06 PMI just discovered Dark Albion and absolutely love it. Currently planning a campaign to play with Old School Essentials.

The background is that they are playing a small fictional Knightly Noble family. They have just been awarded a keep and some lands in Wales. This has upset another fictional family that was wanting the lands for themselves.

Anyhow, it's going to be a sandbox campaign, where the players can go anywhere and do anything.

What I'm having a hard time figuring out is who lived where and ruled what. for instance, say they want to go to Conwy. It's 1453. Who is living in Conwy castle at that time? Who is running the town? Is it a Lord? Then who, in turn, is the lords lord, all the way up to Henry VI? Is the Sheriff of the county is the direct line to the king?

Honestly, I really don't need all this info for the game, and if I need to make stuff up I'll make stuff up. But for my own personal satisfaction I'd like to know who was in charge of what and a little more about how general governance worked at that time (without getting a master's in medieval history). The book itself provides like 90% of what I want, just wanna know a little more

Is there some kinda Dummies guide or something?

So to begin with, starting with what should be obvious: you should read the whole book. But more importantly, you should carefully read the sections of the Gazetteer that are most relevant to your campaign area. Conwy is in the Principality of Wales, which is ruled nominally by the Chamberlain of North Wales (a secretary appointed by the crown, essentially the King's representative in the region).

In all fairness, I didn't state who was the Chamberlain of North Wales in 1453, because I wasn't able to find a source for it. William Hastings gets the office in 1461, after the Yorkist victory.

In any case, the Chamberlain of North Wales in this time was almost always an Englishman, and would not actually be around in the area. Instead, loyal English-descended knights owned most of the land and enforced the King's laws, repressing any rebellious elements in Welsh society. It is noted in the book that the largest landowner in the Principalities was John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (who also isn't in the local area).

Who lives in Conwy Castle? A Castellan, who runs the castle and sees to its maintenance (I'll point out Conwy was a relatively minor castle, so much so that it's not even mentioned in the book). This would be the case of all the castles in the Principalities. Most of the Castellans will be Englishmen.

Towns are almost never run by a Lord, though the people who run them are sometimes beholden to a local Lord, if they don't have town rights. In Conwy's case, as in many other places, it is run by the Guildsmen, the craftsmen of the town who belong to artisan Guilds (like the ones listed for London, though not all of those Guilds will exist in a town as small as Conwy). They are essentially the "Town council". In many bigger cities, they will instead have city rights, and have an elected Lord Mayor (who in spite of the title is almost always a commoner, a guildsman from one of the guilds).

The "lords' lord" question is a bit irrelevant, because this is the Late Medieval era, and you are thinking in terms of Feudalism, which was by that time abandoned. The boss of most Lords will be the Crown. 


In other questions, you should look at the NPCs section as well, where many of them have offices and special titles noted in their entry.

Quote from: WERDNA on August 27, 2024, 06:12:06 PMhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Boteler,_1st_Baron_Sudeley

Baron Ralph Boteler seems to have been the ruling constable of Conwy, both Castle and town. I think he was picked by a king but idk. Read the castle's Wikipedia page; maybe it says.

Close. Boteler had the title of Lord Chamberlain of the Household, which made him in essence the logistical secretary of the entire kingdom. The office of Lord Chamberlain of North Wales was a subordinate office to that one, so it was someone that worked for Boteler.

Thanks for the replies!

Yeah, I was definitely got confused about the type of government at the time. Just reread everything about the Magna Carta. God, it's been 30 years since I learned about that! Thanks for the correction.

I did read the entire book, albeit rather quickly. I'm now going through it in detail and pasting/copying sections of it tied to the world map, so instead of flipping through the book I can just point and click on the location they are traveling to and get all the info I need. Or at least a page number.

I have definitely been reading a LOT of Wikipedia. Starting the campaign in Wales and have read about every single location on the Wales regional map, and a lot not on it. It has been very helpful, but doesn't have everything. But I think now that a lot of that is because there are not records of everything.

I guess before I start making crap up I just wanted to make sure there wasn't solid info available.

Thanks for the comments!

Very glad to be of help, and I always love to hear about people who are running my products!

Maybe there is a Calendar of Patent Rolls or something for the period.

The castellan's name should obviously be Rhys Phylip Gwyndaf Beirniad.

Quote from: Brad on August 28, 2024, 01:47:32 PMThe castellan's name should obviously be Rhys Phylip Gwyndaf Beirniad.

Probably not. The castellans in the era tended to be Englishmen.

Quote from: RPGPundit on August 29, 2024, 03:18:07 AM

Quote from: Brad on August 28, 2024, 01:47:32 PMThe castellan's name should obviously be Rhys Phylip Gwyndaf Beirniad.

Probably not. The castellans in the era tended to be Englishmen.

Fine, Robert Phillip George Pundit.