"Welsh and Gascon Spearmen" Topic

Does anyone have any information on shield designs and flags for Welsh or Gascon spearmen during the Hundred Years War? What about War of the Roses for Welsh spearmen?

Thanks in advance!

The flags would likely be the banner or standard of whichever lord they were with.
Otherwise, if they carried anything, they'd have increasingly carried the cross of St George, being part of English armies.

"What about War of the Roses for Welsh spearmen?"

What evidence can you offer for the presence of Welsh spearmen at any battle in the WOTR?

Erm… given Henry Tudor was half-Welsh and Jasper Tudor entirely Welsh, I'd say it would have been a miracle if the Welsh weren't present and some of the battles – Bosworth for one.

Whether they were the traditional unarmoured spearmen is another matter.

"Erm… given Henry Tudor was half-Welsh and Jasper Tudor entirely Welsh, I'd say it would have been a miracle if the Welsh weren't present and some of the battles – Bosworth for one."

Agreed. Pembroke's army at Edgcote (1469) was almost entirely Welsh.

"Whether they were the traditional unarmoured spearmen is another matter."

Also agreed!

I somehow doubt that the Welsh, even though a fairly poor area of Britain, would have failed completely to keep up with military trends to some extent. I'd have thought that the differences between Welsh levies and retinue foot and their English counterparts would not have been that great. Less well armoured and equipped, possibly, but armed in a similar manner – with bow and bill.

"Welsh" in England would have looked mostly the same as the English. And nobody was using shields by the WotR as far as I can tell….

The Briport Roll shows that the "traditional" bill was perhaps not always so common. Pollaxes, glavies and spears were much more common.

With regards to shields the Bridport roll lists 27 bucklers and 23 pavises. There is some interesting material on the English use of the pavise in Wilson's article from the 1997 yearbook of the Royal Armouries.