What I'm trying to portray is a Burgundian Knight of roughly the same station as say...Waldemar VI of Anhalt Zerbst, whose probable kit is shown on pg 80 of Stephen Bull's An Historical Guide to Arms and Armor, and dated 1450-1508 [I'm assuming this refers to Waldemar's lifespan].

The main problem I face is that I am, at least, hours of driving from any decent historical library [although it's entirely possible there is something closer than I think, to Western NC], and my book-purchase budget is rather limited. I have the S. Bull book referenced above, AAMK by Edge, The Armourer and his Craft by ffoulkes. That's pretty much the entire extent of my reference library, other than pictures.

I'm also far more amply proportioned than the armor I've seen, except some of Henry VIII's later stuff. I'm 6'4" and 275lbs. Not a blob, but no sinous athlete. Is there any other fat-guy armor out there?

And...I'm woefully ignorant as to European history, and Burgundian history in particular. I just like the armor, from what I've seen tagged as Burgundian harness, so I want to base my portrayal around that. I'd like to eventually have appropriate off-the-field garments and equipment, but being an armorer skews my priorities that direction.

I'm suffering from the flu and just took some niquil,so I'm not coherent right now. I'll be home tomorrow, so I'll try to look up some resources when I get a chance after waking up.

When it comes to the armour aspects of a Burgundian portrayal, you have asked a difficult question if you are looking for a native Flemish harness. There aren't a whole lot of surviving harness that has been clearly identified as 15th c.Flemish in origin (by my count less than a dozen helmets, and only a few small pieces of harness. As such, we are forced to look at Flemish art as a source for what a whole ensemble would have looked like, as well as records of purchase by the dukes of Burgundy (they would purchase hundreds of partial and complete harnesses a year, presumably to outfit their household guards and for munition stores in garrisons).

What we have in surviving art is funeral effigies, hundreds of miniatures (the problem with this source is that often more fantastic harness is shown to portray foriegners like 'Scaracens', so it can be difficult to differentiate what is realistic kit from what is fantastic kit). Don't readily dismiss some kit that looks fantastic, as one of the most famous surviving helmets identified as being of Burgundian/Flemish manufacture is a deep chapel de fer with a swirled fluted bowl.

This much we know for a fact. The Burgundian Netherlands was home to a thriving armouring business, centered on Bruges and surrounding territories. The practicing armourers were both native Flemings, and large 'colonies' of Italian armourers enticed into settleing there by Phillip the Good. Hundreds of Northern Italian export harness was imported into the Burgundian Netherlands a year, for both private and ducal consumption.

Most casual students of the History of Armour readily name Italy and Germany as being the center of armour manufacture, but the Burgundian Netherlands should be regarded as the third primary source of armour manufacture available in Northern Europe. Unfortunatly for all of us, very little has been done to study Flemish armour, armourers, and distribution of this armour. You are in luck Gundo, as the best source of coherent information written about Flemish Armour is in AAoMK.

That said, I will give you my obsevations on Flemish armour, for what it is worth. A reoccuring theme in Flemish art depicting armour is bowls of sallets are often depicted with a point at the apex - like those on what would be called 'onion dome' bascinets in the SCA. Known surviving examples I can list off the top of my head are the 'Coventry sallet', and an open faced sallet on display in the MET from their reserve collection - a picture can be found in their special exhibition catalog. It was fished out of the Somme - I suspect a relic of the spring/summer 1472 fighting over the Somme towns between France & Burgundy. There is also a Sallet in the Real de Madrid collection that has the bowl drawn to a point, with flutes on the bowl of the sallet - I suspect this is of Burguindian Manufacture. I have some photos of sculptures on a Hôtel in Bruge depicting the Ghent rebellion of 1452 - most soldiers are depicted weaing sallets with bowls drawn into points. Many miniatures depicting battles painted in the mid 15th - late 15th c. from this region show men at arms and common soldiers in helmets with pointed bowls, swirled bowls. and fluted bowls. Unfortunatly as I've stated before, there are less than a dozen surviving specimens. I firmly believe however, based on the evidence I have cited, that this is a Burgundian fashion. I will try to have Jenn post some pics tonight. Another feature I percieve to be Burgundian mid 15th c. is a fashion for covered upper breatplates. I think you can distinguish these from a plackart over a brigandine, as the full harness with the covered upper breatplates have the full set of lower abdomen/back defences and faulds, or in having no center seam with buckles in the larger more deailed works of art like the Tapestry of Herculese initiating the Olymipc games (pg 122 AAoMK).

As you will read in AAoMK, other noted features of Flemish armour are while being Italian in basic construction (i.e., the hinged breatplates, and smaller numbers of larger plates unlike German harness), there are several unique features. First off couters tended to be symmetrical - roughly the same size, unlike an Italian harness which is larger on the left side than the right. Fluting seems to be a common feature, and last but not least, not only would a Flemish harness have tassets, but might have as well a smaller pair of tassets that covered the side of the hips, and a cutlet plate. A good picture of a Burgundian nobleman in Flemish harness readily available to you is the incised tomb slab of Ritter Dietrich Van Der Merwede - pg 116 of AAoMK. This harness shows another feature of what I believe to be typical of Flemish harness. His shoulder defences are smaller than Italian pauldrons, but are, I believe, bigger than German spaulders. I think this is a hybred form, allowing a greater range of motion to the arms. Note that his right hand besagew is cut away to accomodate a couched lance (and the offset rivit holding it in place). There is no lance rest cut into the slab, but with that feature to the besagew, this is a mistake of the artist rather than a feture of the harness. It would have a arret or lance rest attached with staples and a pin, as an Italian harness. Another mistake of the artist is showing the breastplate hinged on either side - in reality, the hing would be on the left, but a strap would have to be on the right otherwise you couldn't open the breastplate to get in it. This is an object lesson in trusting Medieval art slavishly. He also has plate sabaton rather than the Italian mail ones, as this is a more fashinable form for Northern Europe.

You don't need to be the station of an Elector Count of the Holy Roman Empire to have a complete harness like Waldemar IV - that is a simple field harness for someone of his station (but I'd bet it has the double armourers stamp of proofing along with the stamp of Milan, attesting to it's quality - maybe a bit beyond the average knights means, but armour of that form I'd say not unreasonable). The complete horse harness maybe, but not the armour for a man. A Knight from the Burgundian Netherlands who fought for a living would as likely have a complete plate harness in the 1470's.

I hope this helps. I'll try to post some examples from pictures later tonight. As to the other details of a Burgundian/Flemish knights portrayal, I think you have come to the right place to get questions answered.

The next image is taken from our Die Burgunderbeute und Werke Burgundischer Hofhunst catalog from the 1969 exhibit in Bern.

The last image is from the Reserve Collection at the MET. ©2000 Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibit for European Helmets, 1450-1650:Treasures from the Reserve Collection, runs from January 25, 2000 to January 2001.

Cheers,

Jenn R.

Your welcome. Note in the illumination the frashins I consider to be distinctly "Burgundian" (which works out to be Northern French, Flemish, and even reflecting to some degree English tastes). You have quite a few chaps with sallets & helmets that have pointed & or fluted bowls. You also have several men at arms who have full harness with the upper breastplate covered - probably with velvet and studded with gilded 'nails'. A couple of men at arms are sporting gilded armour, or portions of gilded armour. Lest we dismiss this as pure fancy, we should take into account the sallets mentioned in the Howard household books (when he was plain Sir John - not his grace the Duke of Norfolk) of sallets "garnished with gold". Dave Key has been kind enough to provide a list including such a helmet taken on a naval expedition under the topic "What would a Gentleman carry on campaign?".

As to another part of your question - yes, harness was made for "the big and tall" as well. In the MET I believe, there is the sire Genhouliac's harness - he was close to 7' tall and near 300 + lbs. There is also the "terminator" Maxamillian harness in the hall of armour that makes the normal sized armour on either side look like they were made for a little kid. There is a 'big & tall' harness in the Churburg collection as well - I am sure there were many others.

I'd be careful grouping the Burgunderbeute salet as a purely Burgundian style. If you take a look at the Medieval Hausbuch you'll see lots and lots of helms just like it. However, it is possible that Flemish armor was fashionable in late 1470s Swabia.

What I am defining as "Burgundian" in style is based on two primary sources. Firstly, surviving harness that has been reasonably certainly identified as Flemish/Northern French in origin - there are darned few of these items, but that kettlehat is one of them. Second source is art specificaly produced in Flemish/Northern French workshops. There are hundreds of surviving miniatures, paintings, and statues produced in this region depicting this specific style of harness.

My classification is by no means definitive - it is, I hope educated speculation or my working thesis on the subject. What I present is my evidence - not hard cold facts that say "this is the way it was". There has been very little study done on the subject, and our speculation here is a bit of the pioneering of studying the subject.

Regardless, style and fashion travels. Burgundian styles defined court fashions in England in the 1470's. I have little doubt that fashion in harness traveled as well - certainly into Imperial territory. More than half of the Valois "state" of Burgundy was in Imperial territory, and Charles the Bolds focus on making his territory a physicaly unified entity with a contiguous frontier made him look to the Rhineland as his primary area to influence & mold.

In my opinion, this mania for armour 'fantastique' is more readily identified with the Burgundian Netherlands rather than the Holy Roman Empire proper - at least it is not a common phenomenon in German 15th c. art that I have observed.

Mine Zwei Grooten.