The Armour Archive

I'd like to make a banner or flag to put up for big events with high public traffic, to draw attention and so forth. Anybody got any good information of medieval flags? I understand that some were painted, which would be a huge timesaver for us. I'm unsure how hevay I need the linen to be, how they were attached to poles, etc.

This is the most comprehensive site I know of:

http://www.kwantlen.bc.ca/~donna/sca/flags/

Just as an example, here is what I did for my War banner and the reasoning:
My SCA arms are: Argent seme of gouttes, on a bend sable three eagles displayed palewise Or. ( In case you don't speak Herald - A white shield sprinkled with drops of blood with a black diagonal stripe from top left to bottom right as you look at the shield. On the stripe three yellow Eagles with their wings outstretched oriented vertical to the shield not the stripe.)
My War banner is a pennant 3 yards long, tapering from 1 yard tall against the pole to a rounded end about 14 inches tall.
I start with the cross of St George (red cross on white background) nearest to the pole as this is appropriate for my persona. This takes the first 18 inches. Then I divide the rest of the flag horizontally between my principal metal and principal colour. In my case this is white above black (remembering that to a Herald white and yellow are silver and Gold). Nearest the pole I put one large example of my principal Charge so that it almost fills the flag from top to bottom. In my case this is one of my eagles. At the tail of the flag I have several minor charges dotted around - the drops of blood.
I could make several changes based on historic examples. For instance I could choose to have some thing other than the cross of St George at the "hoist". I could use a national symbol appropriate to a different country based on my persona; I could use a cross registered in the SCA for my Kingdom - in my case Drachenwald; or I could ignore the "hoist" and start my own part of the banner against the pole.
I could also, either from choice or lack of colours in my heraldry, have a single colour for the whole field (background) or I could decide that the drops of blood are not minor charges, but instead are part of the white half of the field. If I did this then I would want some thing else at the tail of the banner. I could either repeat the major charge twice more, getting smaller each time to match the taper of the banner, or I could display any badges of my house if I had any.
Ther is on more major item that I do not have on my banner but could if I wished: a motto. If I displayed a motto it should fit in one or two diagonal stripes across the banner, falling from top left to bottom right and with the writing sat within the stripe oriented to the stripe and with the top of the letters towards the tail of the banner. If you use two stripes to fit the motto then the writing should start in the one nearer the pole and continue in the one nearer the tail. Remember that if you need to it is perfectly period to carry a word across the divide with the break whereever it happens to fit.
Finally a fringe of your principal metal and colour or a border of those two in short alternating blocks can placed all round the outside of the banner except where it meets the pole.
As you can see the rules of banner creation are incredibly flexible and very little you do can be considered "wrong". Even the absolute heraldic No-no of placing metal on metal or colour on colour is not a hard and fast rule.
I hope all this helps and if you would like I could suggest how to convert your Arms into a banner if you PM me with your Arms and any motto/badges/Country or Kingdom loyalties that you would like to include.
One final point. Although sewn cloth banners are authentic, so are painted sik ones with the advantage that they are lighter so the fly better and they are easier to create complex designs. Even a fringed edge can be painted.
Maredudd

Maredudd wrote:One final point. Although sewn cloth banners are authentic, so are painted sik ones with the advantage that they are lighter so the fly better and they are easier to create complex designs. Even a fringed edge can be painted.
Maredudd

I am getting ready to make a small standard using silk dyes, gutta resist, etc., but I'm stuck upon which type of silk to order (not being a silk aficionnado). I want a heavier silk that the gutta resist will still work with. Suggestions?

I'd forego linen entirely. While it's an authentic fabric, so is silk. Silk looks sooooo nice snapping in the lightest breeze; linen will often fail to snap at all, and simply hang limp.

The Blewe Regiment's ensign is light silk, painted. It flows like water through the air, is bright BLUE, and attracts lots of attention, especially when you do Stupid Flag Tricks with it!

Read Donna's page carefully, for it is good research. You have a variety of options available to you.

I just made a war standard out of cloth, and if I had it to do all over again, I would have gone with silk. I was using some fabric remnants left over from making a heraldic surcoat, so I wasn't being picky about the fabric choices. I also made it pretty short (about four feet long - which is apparently much shorter than they were in period) - again mainly due to the amount of fabric available, and not an attempt to be perfectly period.

If I can figure out how to post pictures (I'm a web moron), I will.

How about in the 1300s? Was there silk in the British isles? If not, what should I use for a flag?

In case it's useful ... I've started collecting links to pictures & information about extant heraldic banners at http://geocities.com/karen_larsdatter/banners.htm.

Mercenary - there was certainly silk in the British Isles in the 14th century, if that's what you'd prefer to use.

HA! My sister said there wasn't! stupid sister.

Mercenary wrote:HA! My sister said there wasn't! stupid sister.

Your sister might like to read Silkwomen of the Later Middle Ages or Making Silk; or just rub her nose in a copy of Crowfoot & Staniland's Textiles and Clothing, if you have one handy.

Thnaks everybody. I guess I should have made clear that I need to know more about actual construction techniques and not heraldry. Thanks for the advice on the silk, but I'm not sure it would be quite appropriate for us in 13th-14th century northern Scotland. My guess is that linen flags flutter much more impressivly from horse than on foot. Who knows, we may do a silk flag later.