Category: Living History

Some Background

An explanatory note around my apprehension about being a guest of Company of St George.

There are two aspects. To begin with, in Australia the Company has a hallowed reputation, and is seen as the unobtainable gold standard for re-enactment. This was partly driven by the publication of the Dragons, and the ‘Medieval Soldier’ book. I think one of the characteristics of re-enactment in Australia – particularly during the late ’90s and early part of this century – was that everyone is largely ham-strung by and dependent on a limited range of available materials and artefacts, and with very limited access to primary research resources. Pretty well if it is available on the open internet in English, it is used, otherwise there is a dependency on secondary and tertiary resources and looking at other re-enactors. And so I’m very conscious of how relatively primitive and uninformed my impression is.

The other aspect is that it has always been my desire to do good living history, with the Company as a guide to what was acceptably good. The trouble was that for years I spent a very large amount of my time and effort kitting out other people, and never really concentrated on my own kit. I know exactly what is wrong with my kit, and what needs to be sorted out, but time (and then for quite a long time, money) prevented me doing anything about it.

Right now I have the money, and I have a very clear idea of what to do, but time is distinctly lacking. The whole project is thus very daunting.

The Schaffhouse Project

This is the other project. The Company of St George has invited me to take part in an event in Schaffhouse, in late July (yes, I know it’s just May now). And the prospect has me, frankly, terrified. For me this is kind of like someone who occasionally sings a bit being invited to perform as a soloist with a full orchestra at Carnegie Hall in front of the US President and the British Queen. Or a weekend rambler attempting to climb Everest without oxygen.

I’m excited about the prospect, but also very apprehensive. It’s not the aspect of being on public display and presenting a convincing portrayal of the right social class. It’s rather that I don’t have a good feeling about most of my kit at the moment, and don’t want to embarrass the Company.

The kit challenge is not the only part of this which has me worried. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to get to Schaffhouse, and speak no German and only the very vaguest memory of bad Australian high school French. I probably have the ability to say “S’il vous plaît” and “Danke” at the right times, but am as likely to come out with “Grazi” and “Por favour”. I may be able to drive to the site, although I’ve never driven on the right of the road.

My kit challenge is a big enough issue. The thing about my gear is that it’s virtually all been made by myself in Australia using the very limited range of cloth available there, or sourced from local suppliers who generally work with a lot less rigour (and a lot less access to originals and good research) than suppliers here in the UK and Europe. All of this is a large part of why we came over, and my intention had been to spend last year replacing most of my kit. This didn’t happen as the pressures of work, finance and sorting out my partner’s visa completely obliterated any ability to cogently and intelligently approach the problem.

So what I am going to do here, and follow up with more posts as I try to tackle this problem, is collate a list of what I need to have compared to what I have, and get it distributed to other eyes in order to gain advice in the short time I have to get this sorted out.

The Company Men’s Clothing Guide (V 1.1, 2009) is the source of the following statement of basic required kit:

Every member should aim to have the following:

Hat
To be worn at all times. Extravagant styles to be avoided!

Shirt
Linen (off-white). You should have at least two.

Braies
Linen underpants. It is usually off-white, some rare German artworks shows black braies. All male members should wear them or go without!

Doublet
Woollen, with sleeves.

Hose
Woollen, woven; cut on the bias.

Red livery jacket
A red wool company soldier’s jacket. This is the livery issue coat of the Company and every man should have one.

Sleeveless red livery jacket
Same as above without sleeves. A good alternative for warm weather or over armour.

Hood
Preferably half red, half off-white.

Shoes
Strongly made turnshoes.

Belt
A narrow belt with correct medieval buckle.

Purse
Wear a small neat purse with a minimum of useful 15th century contents: comb, money, kerchief, etc. Think of what you really need to carry.

Cloak
Not essential, but wonderful for cold weather and to sleep in. Must be of woollen cloth

Burgundian Livery
Should be worn by all active military personnel who are veterans or recruits. It should be made according to the official pattern, preferably with the woollen cloth issued by the Company or the closest one available.

Knife
Have a small general purpose one in a sheath or in your purse. Do not hang cups, spoons, bags, scissors and bits and pieces from your belt!

Eating utensils
Spoon, cup bowl and/or plate, all of 15th century design

Bedding
Blankets, sheets and a canvas bag, big enough to fill with straw as a mattress. They can all be rolled up in the canvas bag for travelling.

Armour
Soldiers should aim to acquire a helmet and a body armour (a simple jack, breastplate or brigandine) during their first year as “veterans”.

Weapons
A simple dagger or short sword is a minimum.

Washing
A piece of soap and linen towel. Everyone is allowed one small “private” bag for modern necessities.

Badges
Company badges are to be worn by full members only! No badges are to be worn on the company red jacket except the metal Co.St.Geo. shield badge. Cloth Co.St.Geo. badges may be sewn to cloaks, watch coats, etc. Other badges are restricted, and should be checked with an officer prior to wearing.

I’ll wind up doing a page or post for each of those items, with accompanying photos, but my initial thinking is thus:

Hat – I have a tall felt hat that’s reasonable, and a woollen sock hat that is ugly and silly, but also pretty good. I would be happy to get another, or reclaim the black wool ‘acorn’ hat my partner usually wears.

Shirt – I’ve replaced the too-white and too-short linen shirts that I’d brought with me with a new off-white and much longer shirt, and probably have enough of the same linen to knock up another one.

Braies – I have three or four good pairs, taken directly from older versions of the clothing guide, and now comfortably worn in. This and the shirt is probably my best kit.

Doublet – The two doublets I have are neither really of the right sort of wool, and should be replaced. I do have a good linen pour point / petticoat that I’ve just finished that I can use under my jack to hold my hose up in place of the doublets I was wearing last year.

Hose – one of the pairs I have (the green, footed ones) are not the right sort of wool, but the red ones (which have a stirrup under the foot) are ok. The trouble is that both of them are cut in what the Guide deems to be the later period style, with the seam up the back. If I could find suitable wool in a hurry, I do have the patterns for both pairs, and so could probably build a more correct pair.

Livery Jacket – I do not have this at all and would need to build it or acquire it. This has me worried, as I’m not sure about getting the correct colour.

Hood – Do not have, but this may be available from somewhere on the market

Shoes – definitely need to replace them. The turnshoes I made myself are not bad, but as they are low shoes they need footed hose. Also they have been resoled so many times by having soles clumped on, they are looking pretty battered. I have a pair of ill-fitting knee boots that are a bit early in style,  and not really suitable.

Belt – I’ve got several good belts with simple buckles and chapes

Purse – Two that I made are not bad, and are probably acceptable, but I’m going to have a look at others as well. I’ve got a variety of handkerchiefs, dice and other bits and pieces that can go in them.

Cloak – do not have. While this is optional, I suspect it would be good to have in the evening. This is a very low priority. I do have my giant blue watch coat, which is probably ok at night without the public about, but I’d need to take the synthetic Burgundian badge off the breast.

Burgundian Livery – I’m not sure what to do here – again, I’m nervous about making this because I’m not sure I’d get the colours right, and that’s one item that would look bad to be too variant from other people.

Knife – All good here, I have a knife good for my belt as an eating knife, and a slightly larger one that’s good cooking and so on. Both are plain design, and just look like good simple ware.

Eating Utensils – I’m fine for spoons, having both horn and pewter, and have probably acceptable wooden plates and bowls. I’ve got a very good large tankard from Flaming Gargoyle, but it may be a bit large to transport and a smaller cup would be good.

Bedding – I will have to find out how authentic this needs to be. If I can lay my hands on canvas, this should be achievable. If not, I’m going to need that cloak and hope to find a rock to use as a pillow.

Armour – Thanks to Paul, I’ve got a good jack that fits me (the one I made in Australia was a lovely fit, until I grew out of it around the middle), and the breastplate over it is fine – when I had it made, I deliberately went for a very simple style. I replaced the sallet last weekend with a nice Burgundian styled one from Rebellum Armouries, and the gauntlets I have are good, albeit a little fancy for the rest of my kit. For most purposes I’m happy just to go bare handed or wear the three-fingered mittens (deer skin) that I made. I don’t think I need to adjust any of this other than take the St George cross back off the Jack sleeve. The mail standard around my throat is split ring, not riveted, so if I could not replace that easily I would just be leaving it behind.

Weapons - I have no idea, and will have to enquire, whether they want live weapons or blunted. The baselard  I have which is not bad, and my arming sword, are ok but rebated. The scabbards for both are rubbish, although the belt for the sword scabbard is good.

Washing – should be ok if I can find a linen towel for sale somewhere.

Badges – we don’t need no steeenking badges. I’d not take any with me, and would leave my somewhat rude hat badge off.

So there you go. I’m finding this profoundly daunting, and it’s scaring me.

If it comes to it, and I cannot get this sorted, I’ll pull out, or else offer to go at the end of the event to meet people and help with the pack up. The one thing I do not want is to do anything or present anything which would embarrass my hosts.

A New Project

So last weekend was at Wrest Park with the Beaufort Companye – although we were somewhat in disguise as just generic English troops, and not wearing the blue and white livery. Wrest Park had been our first experience with the Beauforts last year, and that’s one of the reasons I think I will be very fond of it, but as an event it’s a delight. The venue itself is lovely, but the event is also fairly small and relaxed, with a low-stress pace and the opportunity to stroll around the huge garden in relative peace and tranquility.

On the Saturday evening one of the groups (whose name I keep losing in my head) which has strong crossovers with KDF Nottingham did a brief lesson on some (real) longsword and messer techniques for the re-enactors. It was nothing too exotic – some people were looking at the Zwerchhau with messer, and others were doing a simple counter cut into an Oberhau – but even being shown how to stand and step better, and how to hold the sword, were an eye opener for many re-enactors.

Given the enthusiastic response then, we spent a chunk of time on Sunday morning just training and drilling with Federschwert, and talking the public through what they were seeing. So yes, one of the new projects for Beaufort’s purposes will be doing a lot more of this, and doing it in a more structured fashion.

And once we get the roof-racks on the car, and are taking pole weapons to events, we may even introduce some of the evil and exhausting pole weapon drills.

There’s another giant new project started too, which I will write about later today.

TORM

The Original Reenactors Market. I’ve heard about this for quite a few years, and to an Australian the event has a somewhat mythical aspect, some mysterious fair that only occurs at solstice every seven years in a stone circle. The reality is quite a bit more mundane.

First, the location. Sort of near Coventry. More or less. We are finding many events outside of London are somewhat inaccessible without a car: trains can get us sort of near, more or less, but local bus services then turn out to be pretty well non-existent. We’re slowly sorting that out, and it does look like hiring cars is a reasonable way to proceed: having our own car for within London so far seems like a very bad idea. So, more or less near Coventry.

Getting to Coventry was a bit of an adventure in itself: I had looked to see what price train tickets were, saw that I could get there for about £20, and so decided just to pick up tickets from the station. Bad idea. I got to the station on Saturday morning, and found that the only tickets available on the day were going to set me back something like £160. Can you say “price gouging”? I went home, cranky, and booked tickets on-line for about £20 for the next day. On the way up the weather went from grey to full on fairly heavy snow somewhere around Northhampton, and turned into sleet when I got out. I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all: my mind still is blown that frozen water falls out of the sky in any form other than golf-ball sized hail stones. Coventry rail way station is, for reference, one of the least interesting and attractive stations in major cities I’ve seen so far. Spend as little time their as possible. Into a cab for a 10 minute trip south to a venue even less inspiring, two sheds next to a football ground – one of the local sports centers.

Seeing the venue I understood the location: obviously the only sort-of-central location with sufficient space that could be had for a special, mates-considered rate. Insert here some hand-waved description of my jaw dropping when I went inside, possibly using the word ‘cornucopia’ and vaguely alluding to a dragon’s hoard. It’s just as well I didn’t have a car, or any money, because I would definitely have strolled off with a few tens of meters of cloth. I limited myself, with some regret, to hunting for business cards and tips.

I’m honestly not sure how many vendors were there – probably 160 odd – but the thing that impressed me was how little rubbish there was. I’d say it was something like only 20% rubbish, and of the 80% good, 30% was very very good indeed. For my own purposes, more than anything else, I’m going to list off my impressions of those vendors that really caught my eye.

Caveat! For any vendors that were there that I don’t list below, do not be offended. It just means that whatever you were selling was not what I was looking for. Oh, and a second caveat for anyone going next year: there are no cash machines anywhere nearby, and a lot of the vendors only take cash.

Herewith the list.

Two J’s

Nice daggers, hangers and chapes for scabbards – these are the first and only chapes I’ve seen, for a ridiculously low price. Also good morions and sallets.

The Mulberry Dyer

Dyes, mordants, dying kits, really good thread, period paint brushes and some nice dyed linens.

Tod’s Stuff

Great stuff, as usual, beautifully made, but they also now are doing courses in knife, scabbard and crossbow making.

ASH

Gorgeous harness and brigantines.

Replica Crossbow World

Beautiful work, and able to produce museum quality replicas as well as more simple pieces.

Plessis Armouries

Very nice harness, including some superb gauntlets

Red Swan Books

These guys have a great product: reproduction period books, of various periods but mainly 14-16th C. Beautiful re-creations of period books, bound in traditional fashion on heavy rag paper.

The Leather Man

Phil Quallington – outstandingly good bombards, jacks and bottles, but the whole range is great.

NP Historical Shoes

Staggeringly good shoes – currently with a 7month back log of orders, but definitely worth the prices they are asking.

Trinity Court Potteries

I definitely was not looking for, nor currently need, any more ceramics, but this stuff is spot on.

Phil Fraser

All his stuff is good, but the pouches particularly caught my eye

Historical Footwear

The web site is only showing 17th C stuff, although they had a few other bits and pieces on the day, if I recall correctly. Tempted to get some of the high boots, later, when I have money again.

Steve Millingham

All I have written on the back of the flyer is “still awesome”. Cannot go past here for pewter goods. They are also one of the only places around making replica Tudor and Medieval jewellery. Highly recommended: Tudor Jewels

 History In The Making

Outstandingly good oak furniture. Museum quality.

Traditional Materials

All those odd bits and pieces you can never find anywhere. I can see myself spending way too much here.

White Rabbit Lynens

Museum quality linens. Beautiful and surprisingly affordable stuff – the quality was superb, and they supplied most or all of the linens used for the production of Twelfth Night we saw recently with Mr Stephen Fry.

Armour Class

Very nice swords, reasonable prices and they will do commissions. They had some lovely rapiers there that were particularly responsive in the hand, although the medieval weapons seemed to feel a bit like they’d been made to the expectations of re-enactors, rather than swordsmen.

St George Armoury

Pretty good harness, and quite nice swords.

Forest Glass

Beautiful work, although their website needs work: it appears to be powered by Joomla that has been infected by spam worms.

Kitty Hats

Bespoke Medieval, Elizabethan, 18th and 19th century hats.

Period Glasses

In addition to making very high quality medieval, 16th and 17th C glasses, Trevor is passionate about the subject in a way that only re-enactors can appreciate. He also sells original glasses up to the WWII period.

Atelier Zilverlinde

Superb reproduction medieval and renaissance jewellery, sourced from period illustrations and surviving pieces.

Dressed To Kill

Pretty good harness.

ANA Period Shoes

Quite nice work, and well priced for the quality.

Bruised

I did say that I would try to write something each Tuesday after training at what is now The Sword, London, so here we go.

More work on stepping and footwork last night, and it feels like it is starting to come together, although I must say it only feels natural to me with a sword in hand.

More relevantly I sparred briefly with TinyTim last night, the first free sparring in almost a year, and with long sword to boot. To my surprise I didn’t suck as much as I expected. Which isn’t to say I was not soundly trounced and now have some embarrassing bruises, and am so out of shape it felt like a marathon. But I did start to relax and get the flow back, and toward the end was not letting him get away with the easy shots and delivered some satisfying strikes.

Apart from the obvious – being out of shape and still coming to grips with long sword – I noticed that I am suffering from two problems to resolve:

1. I have been conditioned to telegraph hits and to strike outside the body
2. I am forgetting to keep mobile and maintain distance.

More sparring please. Bruises are a sword’s way of telling me I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Twirling

I popped back to the Wallace to have another look at the plates from Thibault that Dave R was demonstrating here. (and just spent 10 minutes explaining it all to an American actor)

They key point of the plates for me is that Thibault’s turn is very much on the spot, but crucially is only done when Alexander’s body is well past Zacahry’s point: he turns inside the blade. It’s a very restrained and careful action (apart from the context of ramming the rapier through someone up to the hilt) and there is no opening for Zachary to exploit.

Bigger Steps

I decided last night as I took the train home from training (the training train?) that one way to help cement each evenings training would be to write about it. Simply recounting what we did will be of limited use, so rather I need to consider how I reacted to the training each evening.

We focused again on the cuts along the diagonals, given that they are simple and natural but also because they lead into many areas of investigation. The true-edge cuts went smoothly, with just a bit of adjustment to my footwork. To echo Meyer’s body shape, I have to extend my body more forward over my left foot, and reach for that almost-but-not-quite falling forward feel. My previous training wants me to put all my weight on the left leg, but I need to keep some of it on my right too so that I can push forward with my right as I take a big step forward. Thats something new I learned: the forward motion is a step and not a jump.

One thing I am still not doing with the cutting drill is getting the cuts coming through the face: the centre of the cross is still somewhere down around my chest height. When I do focus on getting the pattern shifted up higher, the line of the cuts suffers and the edge wobbles all over the place. I suspect when I return to doing them with dussack that will improve though: I feel like I am muscling the long sword around as though it was heavy, rather than just relaxing and letting it flow.

We started on the false edge cuts, which initially felt weird until I stopped thinking about them and just restricted myself to thinking: my sword is here, and I want it to go along that next diagonal to wind up with the false edge at the other end of the diagonal. My body knows how to do that, I just have to turn off my mind so that it doesn’t get in the body’s way. Any philosopher who wants to argue against Descartesian dualism should be required to wave a sword around.

The reworking of the mechanics of the big step made the zornhau drills work better: in general I found that if I relaxed, got the sword moving ahead of me so that I had to follow it, and bought my hands through the line to cut through rather than striking the target, then I was arriving where I needed to. What I learned: “covering the line” in my head maps onto “keep the sword between me and his sword”.

I still have to work on the Big Step: I think that I am trying to cushion my landing by touching my foot down with the front of the foot, rather than just stepping out as though walking. This is pulling me up short. Thinking is in progress.

Swordplay ’11 From Around The Interwebz

There’s been some questions about how Swordplay ’11 went, so I’ll dump some quick links here to things that other folk have already said.

To begin with, Chris Slee has done a great write up saying pretty well everything I’ve either already said, or was going to say. Which saves me saying it. Scott MacDonald has also done a write-up at the ACA web site.

Over on YouTube, Marcus has started uploading the videos he took of the bouts involving GLECA folk, which covers most of the “finals”, and Bob Dodson has put up the long sword and open sword finals.

I cannot for the life of me recall who was in the top 4 of each of the three parts of the contest, although I do recall that it included Ross, Justin and Bob from ACA, James and Mark from SCA, and Cassian from GLECA. My apologies to anyone I’ve missed, my memory is not what it used to be.

With respect to how PSSF members faired in the tournament:
1) Ben went in the sword tournament only, and got knocked out in the first round in a bout with James/Kenji-san;
2) Delia went in the long sword tournament and got knocked out in her first round by me;
3) Delia went in the sword tournament and got knocked out in the first round by Ross from ACA;
4) I went in the long sword tournament and got knocked out in the third round by Cassian;
5) I went in the sword tournament and got knocked out in the second round by Bob.

I hope to post to other videos and photos later.