Monsieur Geoffrey, I think that what you propose is an excellent idea. The principle value of living history groups to the discipline of History IS precisely that of widening our knowledge through experimental Archaeology. I wish you success, and only wish I could be there myself.

I hate to disagree with you Jamie, but Late Medieval/Early Modern armies carried a monumental ammount of crap with them wherever they went. The slow going in terms of a march an army might make is in part due to the enormous size of the supply train, and the ammount of non-fighting mouths that would follow.

At the upper end of the scale, you had the nobility who would be lugging plate (both to eat off of, impress, and provide a ready source of cash should the need arise) tent hangings, beds, and the impedimentia that made up the household on the move in peacetime, as well as cooking gear that would be an addition in wartime. The Burgundian army of Charles the Bold was provided with thousands of tents a year, of all sizes, and several complete houses that could be knocked down and put up. In 1465, the Burgundian army had for lack of a bettter word, a combat engineer unit - complete with a portable bridge - the floats to be made of barrels (I think they carried them in wagons knocked down as staves & hoops). It actually got used in 'combat'.

At the smaller end of the scale, I seem to remember that for the 1481 expedition against Scotland, the city of York's contingent of 40 (?) mounted archers were accompanied by two carts to lug impedimentia.

I think it safer to say that if you were of sufficent social standing to rate your own pavillion (rather than sharing a double bell wedge with 5 other archers - assuming you to be so lucky), then the space in the baggage for a knock down hoop for a tent would be no problem - you probably had your own cart.

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(the blue and white tents). I used 6' long 1 1/2" X 3/4" ash. I had the sawmill rip them down to 3/8" thick in order to bend them. I left them overnight under a leaky water barrel, then bent each one like a bow with a piece of string an left them to dry. I alternated or overlapped them and drilled holes and ran carriage bolts to hold them in shape. I then glued the pieces, and am replacing the bolts today with brass rivets. It was my intention to make it in two pieces and bolt together for travel, but it went "oval" on me that way, so it is a 9' hoop, just 2" shy of the width of my van's mirrors. THAT should prove an interesting sight on the way to Pennsic! We took a 2" ring for the top of the pole, and Patty sewed 5 pieces of cotton 1" re-enforcing webbing (Panther Prim. supplied) about 10' long. Next, we set up the tent, held the hoop in place and marked the webbing to be sewed on the hoop. This gives us a hoop/pole that supports ALL the weight of the canvas on a frame. The canvas lays over this frame and only requires stakes in the wall to hold it upright. The perimeter ropes are no longer needed. This immediately allows you to have a tent larger in size without ripping the fabric. Necessary if you are going to mount your horse and ride out of the tent at a tournament. (Ever see a horse peering out of a tent in a period illustration? Sorry I've forgotten the sources.) I finished with stain, boiled linseed oil and finally, beeswax melted in linseed oil.