Scottish Armour -- myArmoury.com

Kyle Kurth · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2009 5:59 pm Post subject: Scottish Armour

I was curious on what the scottish of around the 14th-15th century would wear to battle? Did they wear chain maille, leather, plate? I was thinking about trying to put together a scottish kit for combat and for festivals. Thank you.

David Wilson · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2009 6:15 pm Post subject:

A Scottish what?

Highlander? Lowlander? Borderer?

Knight? Common soldier? Mercenary?

It varied greatly, depending on who, what, and where....

Kyle Kurth · Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2009 6:18 pm Post subject:

A highlander I guess. I am not very well informed as you can tell so anything will be useful to me or any links. Big Grin

Randall Moffett · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 7:23 am Post subject:

Lowlanders for that period would be more or less equipped like their southern counterparts. By the 1320s Bruce is requiring his men to be armed and armoured in ways that compare to other european powers.

Highlanders are a bit out of the normal loop. They were appearingly behind much of Scotland, let alone Britain in general. My guess is perhaps only the heads of a highland clan would be in more up to date armour. Accounts into the 16th or 17th talk about them being armoured in very little. Flodden comes to mind where a force of highlanders is basically destroyed due to lack of armour.

You can check out the parl. rolls of Scotland which are not online and cover the period you are looking at.

RPM

Mikael Ranelius · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 12:48 pm Post subject:

Effigy slabs as well as written evidence from the period in question suggest that the Highland armoured elite wore mail and quilted armour throughout the Middle Ages – apparently they never adopted plate armour.

David Wilson · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 1:13 pm Post subject:

http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_armies_scots.html

Here's an article, here on myArmoury, about Renassaince (I know I misspelled that!) Scottish armies, just a little later than you're asking about, but it covers things pretty darn well....

http://swordforum.com/articles/history/the_me...oldier.php

Here's an article from Sword Forum that's closer to your period, more specifically about Highland and Irish warriors (who would have been armed & armored similarly)....

I'm gonna go look up some of the grave slab pics and see if I can post them here....

David Wilson · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 1:24 pm Post subject:

David Teague · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 1:50 pm Post subject:

Nat Lamb · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 3:09 pm Post subject:

this image
http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/5725.html
Seems to show some sort of splinted forarm defence, or am I just looking at it funny?

David Teague · Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject:

Funny...

Irish style of maille over cotun.

Cheers,

David

Nat Lamb · Posted: Sun 18 Oct, 2009 1:19 am Post subject:

O.k. so the groves running "in line" with the forearm are quilting in the fabric?
Yep, now I see it. Matches the look at the "hem" of the skirt.
Thanks

James R.Fox · Posted: Sun 18 Oct, 2009 10:09 am Post subject:

Sirs-Plate was very rare, only worn by the very wealthy.. If you read "Wars of the Bruces" by Colm Mc Namee, one of the first things Robert did after capturing a sea port was to write to the hanse towns requesting that they sell arms and armour. There are a number of letters in the book from Edward II asking the Duke of Flsnders,and the Rhineland towns to Not to sell arms and armour to the scots. Also there are effigies of western scott knights wearing only a Helmet and long quilted coat.Most scot arms amd armour were captured from the English or purchased from Germany with the loot and ransoms from the English.

Randall Moffett · Posted: Mon 19 Oct, 2009 7:53 am Post subject:

James,

Yes and no. I am not sure that is actually true without some clarification. It is hardly uncommon that leaders send such letters for supplies, not just arms and armour but victuals as well, when planning a major offensive. You see French kings doing the same in the late 13th to get ready with wars in Flanders. Hardly means the French knight was not armoured just that the French king had big plans. If you place this occurrence with your next example it makes sense. No English or Irish trade means you have to get it somewhere.

Boycotts on arms and armour are nearly the first thing to be done in war on your enemies. They also bar wheat, barley, wine and all types of other foods at this time as well but that does not mean they did not have them in Scotland either. This is much more a political posture than anything. You are limiting their possible avenues of weapons and armour true but more so limiting everything that might be useful for war. If you can get others not to sell even better.

There are plenty of local records in Scotland to indicate plate was not rare among those you'd expect to see it, for example the knightly class-so yes the wealthy. That said though requirements for plate in the 1320s go fairly low down the wealth scale so technically they should have had some plate, helmets and gauntlets for example for the front ranks of spearmen which were not per se hugely wealthy. Problem with this group is they tend not to have many inventories we can see if the law was fulfilled though one cannot just assume the opposite with some evidence they should have.

RPM

Chris West · Posted: Mon 23 Nov, 2009 6:55 pm Post subject:

Kind of on this topic and a little off, I am wanting to make a skirt somewhat like Stephen's from Braveheart but am finding a good place to find the cloth and possibly a pattern. I'm sure I can figure out a pattern but if anyone has a good idea for me much thanks.

Thom R. · Posted: Tue 24 Nov, 2009 9:26 am Post subject:

Josh MacNeil · Posted: Tue 24 Nov, 2009 11:29 am Post subject:

I just did a search and came across this link on how to make a cotun like the ones depicted in the grave effigies.

http://www.stoccata.org/stoccata.nsf/Pages/e6...amp;Click=

Looks petty labor intensive, but appears to yield good results when done right. According to the tutorial, the construction method sacrifices shoulder and underarm defense (padding) for mobility. Just speculation on my part, but maybe the entire arm of some period cotuns were left un-padded for arm mobility, which would account for the splinted forearm defense seen in one of the above effigies. Thoughts...?

Lin Robinson · Posted: Tue 24 Nov, 2009 4:42 pm Post subject: