OK, after a year or so of total absence, I'm back and looking for abuse..errr opinions. I'm to the point now where my Gothic that rings in at just about 100lbs it just too much for melees. There is a REASON that stuff was used mainly on horseback I have found.. So I am making a melee suit that is more period appropriate for me. Here we go..Think Elizabethan on the field.. The armour I want to put together includes an armoured doublet with a "spanish" collar type gorget (illusion's gorget) wingless elbow cops and leather vambraces over a white shirt and a set of archers knees with leather uppers for legs. As far as the helm goes I have an English Pot that I have been waiting on for 3 years from AB, if it ever shows, to complete the look (yeah, I know the helm will have a bargrill, but infantry/pikemen wore open faced in 1573) Any comments/concerns/ideas as to the functional side of the rig or comments on the period nature of the rig or ways to make it better are much appreciated!
[This message has been edited by Bainard Grey (edited 06-26-2002).]
Opinions on a proposed melee suit..
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Bainard Grey
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horsefriend
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Been there, except my target date was 1600. Wore breast and back, gorget and burgeonet, over a leather jerkin with attached doublet sleeves to hide arm armour, and de Gheyn style Dutch breeches over leg harness. As a 'gentleman at armes" I copuld explain tall riding boots.
English pot?, please be more specific, an English lobster tail pot is quite a bit to late for 1573, but an english style cassabet or early "pikeman's pot" would work. I assume you mean to hide cops and vambrae under shirt sleeves; adding sleeves to your doublet would be a more accurate choice, IME bare shirt sleeves are very rare in period illustrations of combat troops. Long slops to just below the knee easily hide leg harness and provide the oppourtunity for lots of bad fashion sense.
Jacob de'Gheyn's "Exercise of Armes" has a great number of very detailed illustratioins of Dutch troops from approximately 11600/7; which is good if you shoot for the SCA terminus. (easy to get Dover reprint)
There is a beautiful set of tiles in the Palace Viso del Marques (spainish military museum near Almuradiel) that show Armada era Spainish infantry, quite detailed veiws of officers, colour party, pike and shot, "sword and bucklermen" etc. Winston Graham's "The Spainish Armadas" has a couple of nice plates of the tilework, if anyone knows of a fuller reproduction, I'd love to know.
"Soldiers of the Virginia Colony, 1607-1699", D. A. Tisdale, has a number of major faults but is a useful referrence as equipment in the colonies is frequently quite obsolete.
Lastly, with all the usual cautions, Osprey; Border Reivers, Armada Campaign, Elizabethan Sea Dogs; avoid "The Irish Wars" it's just awful.
English pot?, please be more specific, an English lobster tail pot is quite a bit to late for 1573, but an english style cassabet or early "pikeman's pot" would work. I assume you mean to hide cops and vambrae under shirt sleeves; adding sleeves to your doublet would be a more accurate choice, IME bare shirt sleeves are very rare in period illustrations of combat troops. Long slops to just below the knee easily hide leg harness and provide the oppourtunity for lots of bad fashion sense.
Jacob de'Gheyn's "Exercise of Armes" has a great number of very detailed illustratioins of Dutch troops from approximately 11600/7; which is good if you shoot for the SCA terminus. (easy to get Dover reprint)
There is a beautiful set of tiles in the Palace Viso del Marques (spainish military museum near Almuradiel) that show Armada era Spainish infantry, quite detailed veiws of officers, colour party, pike and shot, "sword and bucklermen" etc. Winston Graham's "The Spainish Armadas" has a couple of nice plates of the tilework, if anyone knows of a fuller reproduction, I'd love to know.
"Soldiers of the Virginia Colony, 1607-1699", D. A. Tisdale, has a number of major faults but is a useful referrence as equipment in the colonies is frequently quite obsolete.
Lastly, with all the usual cautions, Osprey; Border Reivers, Armada Campaign, Elizabethan Sea Dogs; avoid "The Irish Wars" it's just awful.