[Jeff Hsieh]

Hello Rod,

I really like your kit, a LOT. Can you give details on each piece of it? Like who made it, where you got historical inspirations, pieces you're satisfied/dissatisfied with, etc.

[Bruno Giordan]

Knights in the Manesse code inviariably feature helmets topped by elaborate three dimensional versions of their heraldic emblems.

That is what history teaches us, so we cannot pretend t change it to have it adapted to our fancies.

[Nathan Robinson]

More examples:


Circa 1485


Circa 1450


Click for details

[Russ Ellis]

[Jean Thibodeau]

From one of my French reference books: ARMES ET ARMURE de Charlemagne à Louis XIV, Paul Martin © 1967 Office du Livre, Fribourg. Page 106 figures 82 shows a drawing of Ludwig von Hutton ( 1414 ) in armour influenced by the fashion of the period, Ludwig lying in state at the cloister Himmelspforten, Wurtzbourg: Next to the Ludwig who is dressed in what seems like armour mixed with civilian clothes, is a great helm with a decoration on top that looks like a head wearing a crown. This might be a Saint or something or maybe even a likeness of the knight in papier maché. Like having a copy of one's own head over one's real head hidden by the Great helm.

Figure 84 shows the same thing and the Head decoration on the Great helm looks exactly like that of the head of the Knight.
Martin von Seinsheim ( 1434 ) Tomb at " La Chapelle Sainte-Marie, Wurtzbourg in the same drawing ( Oh, these drawings are copies, I think, of sculptures at these tombs. ) ( Don't know why drawings 19th century ??? were chosen to illustrate this book rather than photographs: Maybe because the drawings are very clear or maybe because some of these sculptures may no longer exist due to WWII. Just gessing here. )

Unfortunatly I still have to buy that digital camera

[Sean Flynt]

Fascinating discussion. I guess if I were wealthy at a time of sumptuary laws, I'd want to show my status by showing what I was allowed to wear. Likewise, if I were a peasant, I'd dream of the most outlandish and colorful clothes I could imagine. I was perusing Osprey's German Peasant War book the other night and noticed something about the rebel peasants making a special point of flouting the sumptuary laws. Fashion was (is?) an instrument of social control, for sure, and what we see when we look at these crests is very different from what people saw in the period. I would argue that we can't see what they saw (though we certainly should try, as Nathan points out).

Consider the average Landsknecht. He appears to have been equipped by the Committee For Inappopriate Combat Attire.
It's not just about practicality, even now. Flip-flops? Uggs? Baggy-ass jeans? I can just picture archaeologists three centuries from now unearthing some college dormitory preserved by volcanic ash or something. Archaeologist #1 says, "These pants must have been purely ceremonial because no normal-size person could practically move around in them without them sagging to his knees". Archaeologist #2 says, "But there are too many of these pants for them to have been only ceremonial. Rather, they are evidence that 21st century humans were horribly bloated," etc. Much of fashion is just unfathomable even in its own day.

By the way, even some of us peasants can be seen with cats on our heads two or three times per week, usually around 6:00 AM.