I've been promising to post a couple of pictures of the Master of WA's engravings not commonly seen in books. Here they are !

These images are of enormous importance in that we are pretty certain (99%+) that these are pictures of Burgundian soldiers c. 1471 - 1473. Little is known about the Master of WA except he was working in the Burgundian Netherlands c. 1465 - 1480, and he has left us a series of images signed with the initials "WA" depicting Burgundian soldiers. The images I have are 2 depicting mounted elements, 2 depicting dismounted bowmen, pikemen, and custillours, and an image of a tent packed with lounging soldiers and supplies, and an image of several horses in a tent being watered and saddled.

The above image shows a group of mounted crossbowmen supported by men at arms. This is an interesting combination as Charles raised 600 mounted crossbowmen but they did not figure into the table of orginization of the Companies of the ordinances.

This second image depicts men at arms unsupported by infantry or other cavalry. Interestingly enough, all four images of what I believe to be troops drilling show them drawn up behind a defensive hedge of stakes. Taking into account medieval artists and scale & perspective, the spacing of the stakes may or may not be off. If they are to scale then they are too close together for the mounted soldiers behind them to pass through without endangering their mounts bellies. They are correct in height in regards to scale as they are about breast high to the horses.

I have a whole series of commentary on these regarding observations I have made, but I will let you see them for yourself and comment if you care before I post some of what I have found. Both images were rather dirty about the edges, and the first has gone through adobe photoshop to clean up around the images. The second is in process. Other than dirt removal and the line showing the edge of the plates at the bottom of the stakes the images are unaltered. Sorry for the inconvenience regarding the second image.

Hope you enjoy.

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Bob R.

Well you picked up on the orse armour thing right away ! Interestingly enough, one of the mounted crossbowmen appears to have a demi-chamfron on his mount (rear row extreme right).

In this case however, the only piece of horse armour specified by the ordinances to be had by all men at arms was a chamfron. You don't have it at muster, you do not get paid.

There is plenty of evidence that Charles was anal about the appearance of his men and their equipment (contemporary letters by foriegn observers and mentions in official Burgundian "histories"). Waht I take this as evidence for is that this is a peacetime drill ( the first such regular regulated drills for a standing army since the fall of the Roman Empire), and that soldiers will break regulations for their convience whenever they can get away with it. It sure isn't payday. The fellow front and center in the top image is wearing an obvious brigandine (note the lack of an arret) in direct violation of the ordinances. I have no doubt he had a breastplate with arret in servicable condition - probably worn only on payday to collect his pay.

My thought (speculation) is that a large percentage of the men had chamfrons, but why put whear and tear on an expensive item of equipment when not absolutely necessary? The rest would have had to borrow the necessary item to be paid. This was a common dodge, but the regulations of the Burgundian 'army' would make it difficult to pull off. Perhaps many of them were cuirbolli or brigandine work (and therefore cheaper). Also, how many of the horses would accept it over their face?

Interesting questions.

Probably all, if they were to be used in combat. Bella and Sox have gotten accustomed to everything thrown their way. Horses get used to all sorts of things- blinders, cruppers, bardings, gunshot from their backs, cannons going off unexpectedly. It's part of the training.

After smacking Sox in the face (quite unintentionally) with his sword several times at the last faire, Jeff has decided Bella and Sox both need chanfrons before he and Bill engage in any more mounted combat.

I would expect the men-at-arms (MAAs) horses to be accustomed to the champfrons, especially if it is part of the ordinances. Granted shortcuts might be taken on "off-days" but I would tend to think the horses would be used to it.

When thinking of whether a horse will tolerate a chamfron, remember that the soldiers' lives depended on adequate training of their mounts. It's likely that they worked with their horses everyday, perhaps for several hours at a time. Today, we're all limited on the time we can spend training our horses, which are for all intents and purposes, recreational luxuries, not essential tools, so they tend to take a backseat to our "mundane" lives. Getting a horse accustomed to armour and such is really not that hard if you spend the time it takes to properly introduce them to it.

"Is that a frog-faced jousting helm or a grand bascinet on the MAA 3rd from the right? It looks German."

It looks like an armet with a wrapper to me. Probably Italian, since nearly all extant examples from this period are of Italian manufacture. Frog faced helmets were only used on the tournament field and weren't really en vogue for another 20 years (about 1490). Grand Bascinets were primarily used on foot, and when they were used in a mounted situation it was most often in tournament, see King Rene's tournament book.

It occurs to me that you could be referring to the Ulrich helmet in Churburg when you say "frog faced" helmet. This particular type, of which I think only the one example survives, strikes me as a somewhat atypical piece that is perhaps the beginnings of exchange pieces for converting a field armour to tournament. Though as early as it is (about 1450), it could be a hold over from the early 15th century bascinet, just with an updating of the visor design. Personally, I doubt that a "frog faced" type of helmet like the Ulrich would have been around as late as the 1470's and I certainly don't feel it would be a very common style given the popularity of sallets during the period.

It should be remembered that German armour manufacture really followed the Italian, and didn't reach prominence until the very late 15th century. The Italians had been producing vast quantities of armour for perhaps as long as a whole century when Germany really gained a foothold.

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Cheers,

Jeffrey

Seigneur de Leon, The poses on the first line are very similar, but not identical. The same goes for the percentage of helmet types shown. Each however is an individual in detail. Hauptman has the right of it, those are armets with wrappers - I thought one or two might be bascinets, but on close inspection of an exploded image they turn out to be armets.

I humbly propose that the fellow 6th from left in the single line of MAA may well be wearing an armet of Flemish manufacture, or more likely an armet manufactured by an Italian armourer resident in Flanders for a client of Flemish/Burgundian origin to the local taste.

One of the reasons I believe this series of images is of a Escadre at drill is because of one of the details Glenn pointed out - the men are 'horsing around' in the ranks. Note the fellow in the rear rank second from left appears to be enjoying himself at the expense of the officer struggling with loading a crossbow next to him. I have yet to pour over the dismounted plates in as much detail as I have these two, but I think I have seen similar horseplay in the ranks. Note the fellows front and center in both plates may both well be showing off by making their mounts rear.

Regarding the differing helmet types. The Men at arms seem to have a consistent percentage of helmet styles in both images. Both are remarkably close to Jeff's estimate of types and percentage of helmets worn. In each group of ten men at arms, there are 4 armets and 6 sallets, in the first group two of the sallets seem to be visorless, and in the second image one fellow is in a visorless sallet - all of which have brow re-enforces, and all the sallets seem to be worn with bevors.

The crossbowmen are mostly in open sallets - 11 of them clearly so, two wear examples of what might be described as cevelliers or skullcaps with rondels, one has a fluted kettlekat, and three wear hats - although they may have a simple skullcap beneath. The officer struggling with his crossbow in the rear seems to have a visored sallet.

Vast quantities of harness were bought for Burgundian usage directly from Milan and Lombardy in general. Philip the Good settled 'colonies' of Italian armourers in the low countries - enticing them there with promises of contracts and favorable tax status. Add to that a thriving native industry of armour manufacture (which is unfortunately less well researched than Italian or German armour manufacture), seemingly centered around Bruge, and you have the origin of the majority of harness used by 'Burgundians'. Until the last quarter of the 15th c. Italian armourers dominated the European trade as Hauptman rightly points out. Even in the Talhoffer prints Milanese export harness dominates illustrations of armour.

Oh well, enough rambling for now.

That's why my father took us to Bruges, and how I ultimately met Tristan!!!