PROJECT LEWES

At long last, another unit of my Baronial Rebel Army is painted. This time I've complete a 30 man spear armed unit under the command of John Fitzjohn. John Fitzjohn John followed his father John Fitzgeoffrey into rebellion, who was a former Justiciar of Ireland and a leading magnate. Fitzgeoffrey opposed the King in 1258 after a loss of influence in Prince Edward 'court' and position in the face of rough justice (or no justice) when attacked over his disputed Shere manor (Surrey) by the royal relative and favorite Aymer de Valence. Again, these foreign relatives of the royal family placed another family, this time the Johns in opposition to the royal regime. As a leading magnate, Fitzgeoffrey was a leading rebel so his 'sudden' and untimely death placed his son and heir Fitzjohn as a leading partner with de Montfort. He had married Margery de Basset making him the son-in-law of Phillip de Basset, the Justiciar of England and his opponent in the war. ...

I'm currently finishing the painting of my latest unit of foot and have decided from this point to start making my armies flags. Each unit will have it's own flag to follow as logic and rules convention both dictate. My research has been revisited and at this time it may prove instructive to anyone dabbling in this specific period (mid-thirteenth century) to lay the ground rules for flags. Whilst various flags abound throughout and originating from the medieval period, there are only two types permitted in an army for Lewes (1264). Whilst Standards, Pennons (or pendants), Banners and gonfalons, pinsels and guidons are all types of flags familiar to the wargamer of the broadly defined medieval period, we are only permitted Banners and Pennons . PENNONS are perhaps the simplest to comprehend as they are the smaller, triangular flags attached to the end of a knight's lance for which every knight on the field was entitled to and may very well have carried. It was in fact ...

I suppose the poser here is what's wrong with this image? The short answer is nothing of course. The above image is taken from L'Estoire del Saint Graal & L'Estoire de Merlin ( Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Français 95, c.1280-1290) but this is the rub ... for me. This is the earliest depiction to my understanding of the oft named 'sugerloaf helm' and the earliest date for this illustration as my insert states is 1280. Up to this time, all effigies, illustrations or finds for that matter (precious few) depict the great helm as an essentially flat-topped affair. The above seal of John deMontfort dates from 1270 and clearly shows the flat-topped great helm which is incidentally paralleled by all other surviving and datable evidence up to the abovementioned sugerloaf appearance by 1280. Whilst most followers of this blog are no doubt conversant with developments of arms and armour throughout the medieval period, I have been reminded recently of the co...