Knights of Kronberg, painted by Tankred, Perry Miniatures

Knights of Kronberg – The Donkey Charge

Knights of Kronberg, painted by Tankred, Perry Miniatures

Our Club´s annual presentation for this year´s Tactica Hamburg was the Feud of Kronberg, a medieval local conflict between Frankfurt and nearby living Knights of Kronberg. During the Battle of Eschborn 1389 the Kronberg Knights led a charge in against the troops of Frankfurt. There is a myth around this battle. It was told that one of the knights lost his destrier and desparetly searched for a mount in the area. Unfortunately he was only able to find a donkey on which he rode into tha battle.

His charge was so devastating that the Frankfurters were completly demoralised and fled the ground. One stirps of the family has donkey ears in their family crest.

A knight of Kronberg riding on a donkey into the battle.

In order to have this myth appearing in the presentation I asked Ebob if he could do me a donkey or a mule because he really sculpts excellent mounts. He did this outstanding mule, thank you so much for this, and I mounted a knight on it. It is very funny that people did not notice it without help. A wrong mount in a group seems to be not very obvious. However it was great fun to paint.

Knights of Kronberg, painted by Tankred, Perry Miniatures

The house and fence is from perry miniatures.

I was asked to post detailed pictures showing the farmer woman and her children and the knights in detail. Here you are.

Shepherd or Farmer woman with children miniature painted by Tankred

Knights of Kronberg miniatures detail painted by Tankred

Comments 4

  1. There is a version of the legend that claims it was the donkey which accidentally caused the victorious charge in the first place. It kicked out and its rider lost control over his long-eared mount. Then the donkey bolted towards the enemy lines and dragged along the horses of the other knights.

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  3. After rechecking the tale I could only confirm the part of the frightened donkey bolting towards the enemy. But dragging along the other horses was only a very free interpretation/imagination of mine. Sorry for that, though if it sounds like a nice extension of the original story anyway.

    But I learned another legend about the feud. A kind of Romeo and Juliet story connected to the battle. A baker from Frankfurt fell in love with a girl from Kronberg. The feud separated the couple. Being a member of the bakers guild the young man had to go to war against the hometown of his beloved. (Each guild supplied a company of the city militia and nearly all Frankfurt bakers were imprisoned or killed in the battle.) Finally the girl rescued her wounded fiancée from the battlefield.
    The story (in German) is available as free download at http://www.cafesagenhaft.de/menue/geschichtenraum/doc_details/100-der-frankfurter-baeckerssohn-und-die-tapfere-kronbergerin.html

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