[Pedro Paulo Gaião]

I came across these paintings describing battles of 1520-1530's regarding Emperor Charles V's wars in North Africa. In some of them, I notice the use of a very uncommon shields, as you can see:


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5p1itMjp4nQ/Vbo5SM8...enberg.jpg



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hy76E7i6800/Vbo5FzK...2Bmora.jpg

Their size and shape reminds me of hungarian winged shields, but I thought the only cavalry shield they had there was the leather "adarga". I would like to know if they are acurate descriptions of berber shields or simply european artistic license. I also have other questions regarding the usage of calvary harquebusiers by that time. I don't recall any reference of this in European Armies at that time, but these illustrations shows cavalry using both crossbows and firearms (the cavalry crossbowmen at least were a common feature in andalusian armies of Spain). Does any of you knows any book, link or online article to recommend on this subject?

[Daniel Staberg]

The top print is by Franz Hogenberg who copied the works of others rather than making his own interpretations. In this case he has based his print on either the "cartoons" or actual tapestries shown the conquest of Tunis in 1535.

The Conquest of Tunis series was illustrated by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen who took part in the campaign and made numerous sketches of the things he saw first hand. 10 years later Charles V commisioned him to make a series of 12 "cartoons", huge water colour drawings that were to be used by the tapestry makers to create tapestries comemorating Charles victory. 10 of the cartoons survive in Wien today and they are an incredible source as Vermeyen took great care to draw the equipment and clothing in actual use in 1535 when just about all other artists would simply have shown the troops in 1545 clothing. There are some exceptions here and there and some parts are unusual, in particular the mounted arquebusiers among the Berbers at a time when such troops were just being introduced into European armies. (Mounted arquebusiers able to fire from horseback that is.)

Similar shields can be seen in use by Ottoman horsemen and the Ottomans had a lot of influence in the region, some Berber horsemen are using the adarga as well in Vermeyens drawings.

[Peter Spätling]

at the Veste Coburg one of these paintings survives. What I found interesting was the many left handed people depicted there. (But only the moors were left-handed)

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Weren't European armies already experimenting with mounted handgunners as early as the 1480s or 1490s? At the very least we have artwork as well as Philipp von Seldeneck's manual to prove it, although they were obviously not as common as they would later be in the 16th century. Given that North African armies were pretty quick to adopt firearms too, I don't find the presence of firearm cavalry among them to be that surprising either.

[Pedro Paulo Gaião]