Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Medieval Adventures => Topic started by: Ahistorian on May 04, 2014, 12:32:11 PM
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My view of the Crusades is perhaps overly influenced by the Penguin books I grew up with, so I have come here for help painting some members of the First Crusade.
What sort of things would knights and men-at-arms have had on their shields? Would it have been the classic red-cross-on-white, or would any colours have been acceptable? Or would knights have had personal heraldry and the men-at-arms whatever they fancied? It seems a little early for true family sigils.
Where should I paint the sewn-on crux, and how large would it normally be?
Sorry for the barrage of questions, but my Google-fu is weak, and I want to get started soon.
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Cracking, thank you. An excellent resource.
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I'm not a huge authority on the 1st Crusade, but in terms of clothing and uniform, both sides tended to adopt very similar clothing. Even excluding Saladin's Frankish mercenary contingent or the native Christians who fought for the Franks, both sides began using similar equipment and dress,
for colours, clothing generally consisted of a single coloured one-piece tunic.
The Knights who took up the cross would go with a simple cloak worn over their usual clothing.
Having said all this, it is probably highly open to interpretation as battle and campaign gear varied widely, and the illustrations produced by chroniclers and artists is rarely representative of the majority, reality or produced accurately.