Flags and war banners

[Constable Bertrand]

Howdy chaps.

I'm working on a WHFB Bretonnian army and am baffled over how to create my flags and banners. I though you all could point me in the direction of some websites that discuss the flags.

My research so far suggests that an army would have a plethora of flags for the king, generals, lords and whatnot. Was there anything that tied them all together or was it a bit like a family of gypsies at a carnival? How did they put their banners together with various CoA? I've seen some HYW flags and I like the style but not sure how to create my own.

Thanks for the assistance!!!

Cheers
Matt.

[Suber]

I really think that the bunch of colours suits your kind of army. The image of lords and families from everywhere with their different liveries is quite evocative. The banner bearer holding his king/master/whoever's flag should look right, but don't feel too tight, Bretonnia is just made for colour show!

[whiskey priest]

To put it simply, If you were a Lord, Earl, Baron, Prince etc you would have a Standard, which is the long often swallow tailed banner that would normally contain the owners 'badges' and moto and probably use the same colours as the owners coat of arms. These would usually accompany the unit that the lord was with. He would also have a heraldic banner. These would be squarish and contain the owners coat of arms. They would be carried by a close retainer and mark the position of the owner. So what you might have is a unit of knights with a long Standard of the highest ranking noble accompanied by several square heraldic banners of the other nobles accompanying him. Other units that owe allegiance to that particular noble might carry a flag that contains one or more of the badges that are featured on the standard. Badges might not have anything to do with the coat of arms but might be a heraldic joke, a nickname or a message in pictoral form.(the dukes of burgundy for instance have had a series of badges, knotted wood crosses, planes, flints, sparks etc all related to a herladic tit for tat). In addition to units raised by nobles you might also have units raised as militia from towns or guilds and they would carry their own banners and possibly be led by a noble from the town. Militia banners would contain the town badge and guild banners would usually contain an image of their trade etc. Hope all that helps!

[Constable Bertrand]

Image curtesy of the download section on http://www.krigsspil.dk/

Thanks for the help. That's very enlightening!!!!!

In the example of Edward III, what does the red cross on white represent? England? If so, that represented which nation the Lord/barron/prince was for? With the CoA colours/motto/badges flowing behind that?

Would infantry/militia raised by a nobel fighting elsewhere (ie in cavalry) have a flowing standard for their lord, or a square banner for the highest rank lord/town?

Cheers!
Matt.

[whiskey priest]

Normally it was only titled (ie rich) people who could afford to act as cavalry. They may arm and equip a number of relatives or retainers but it was rare for troops raised by a lord to fight elsewhere as strictly speaking they only actually owed service to him. By the time you get to the 1400's the strictly feudal system had broken down in the uk and what would often happen is that nobles would hire captains to recruit men to fill their obligations for service. It gets quite complicated if you start to consider how the free companies were recruited and hired after the treaty if bretigny!

[Ray Rivers]

The Grimsby people have some free downloadable flags... but no banners 

http://grimsbywargamessociety.webs.com/flagdownloads.htm