"French Foot of the 16th C. - Uniforms?" Topic

Are there any records of uniform coats/liveries/cassocks being worn by the french infantry of the XVI century? I've read that red with a white cross was popular with the franc archers of the XV century, but I'm not sure if this was still the case during the italian wars or the wars of religion.

White cassocks for Huguenot Millers? Put this in your pipe and smoke it:

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I don't really do first half 16th century, but I like the 2nd hald. I paint my Huguenots in more somber colors (lots of white, black, gray, brown). Catholics may get a splash of more color.

The information on uniforms from the period is fragmentary, but there is enough to make your armies reasonably historical. Fieldsigns were more important than uniform colors, but Captains and Colonels seem to have purchased uniforms for their men if they so chose and could lay hands on money. It was cheaper to purchase a bunch of similar cut and color coats and trousers than to ask for a variety of even somber colors.

Somber colors were not universal, but they were common. There was a lot of red material showing up on occasion (especially in Catholic armies), as well as yellow. A look at Le Moyne's watercolors from 1567 Florida show anything but somber clothing. It was also considered "cool" to have well kitted out troops in fancy colors if you were a nobleman showing off….

The Foot are unlikely to have had more than a very basic uniform – perhaps an issued coat if they had been in service some time, but even this is not certain.

The horse are more interesting and the white cassocks ('The Millers') is an account of the Troop of the Prince of Conde, whose livery colour (he was Bourbon) was white. The de Gortter manuscript in the Royal Library in Brussels shows a large number of troops of French horse of the 1580-1600 period and each is 'uniformed' with a different coloured cassock or "half cassock" (just the lower part, that is) including the Troop of de Guise which is in lilac, edged with yellow with plumes and lance pennons to match ! This sort of 'matching' is echoed by most of the Catholic Troops with, not surprisingly, the Huguenots being somewhat plainer – although still in some weird and wonderful combinations. It seems that the horse were, for once, more uniformed than the foot !

And would captains and colonels sometimes clothe their foot companies/regiments in their livery?

Also, perfectcaptain, what are some good sources for the red and yellow clothed infantry you mentioned?

The French army in Le Voyage de Gênes par Jean Marot (made 1510-1520) has 3 or 4 figures with crowned porcupines on their tunics, which are not of a uniform colour.

MIRROR SITE
The French army in Le Voyage de Gênes par Jean Marot

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Don Sebastian,
Personal liveries (mainly colors, trims and linings) would exist for Gendarmes companies, because they were the possessions of the Captain (under the crown). Foot companies and regiments were not, although they might be raised by an individual. Foot units were usually short-lived, raised and disbanded for the various wars lasting months to a year or two (before St. Batholomew's Day). Legions and the garrisons of the Rhenish Bishoprics were permanent, but owned by the government.

Red cassocks were common in Catholic armies amongst the Gendarmes. Red field signs were popular with the Catholics in general. I'll have to dig up sources for the red and yellow, though I remember running across them while looking through primary sources.

Perfectcaptain, and would the government provide the clothing to the infantrymen, or would they dress in the clothes they had when enlisted?

Also, could you possibly try to find the source mentioning yellow and red clothes?

Regiments raised by Huguenot's in the early-mid wars would not have government subsidy for clothing, but were raised by the nobility and by contributions from Calvinist churches. Leaguer regiments would have the same deal, as would regiments raised by individuals. I'm not sure about the Legions- they probably had an allowance in good times and in peacetime but it would likely fall on the Colonels to resupply them, probably never getting paid back, especially later in the later wars when the state was broke.

Gendarmes were different- they were paid by the state, even companies that had and would in future fight for the Huguenots, although not during the conflict, obviously.

Concerning the sources. Wow, that's hard work. I can read French but I'm not so good with 16th C. French which is annoyingly different. While Researching the Spanish Fury, Battle 2nd Ed. rules I dove in to the sources for about two years but neglected to record all the locations of the juicy tidbits! I'll try and get a solid quote to back up what I said.

This much I can tell you without spending days whacking through the texts. Red was the Catholic colour. It was almost universal among the Gendarmes (those not in Red had red sashes). It is probably not a stretch to assume the foot would try for red when they could get it (again, sashes and patches for sure).

The yellow appears in paintings and watercolors depicting soldiers from the time. The idea that everyone was in drab colors doesn't really have a foundation- folks like to dress well and sumptuary laws existed because people dressed above their class regularly.

Check out this contemporary painting- not so much drab:

In this one from before the war, you see plenty of jauntily dressed Calvinists:

Lotsa color here too (same artist)

Finally here's a watercolour by Jacques le Moyne of Huguenots in Florida in 1567. Notice the colour- you can bet if these guys dressed like this, the Catholics did too. Warning- some dispute the colors were in fact Moyne's, but look at other contemporary images shows it was certainly possible.

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Wow, those are great pictures! Thabk you very much for your kind help, perfectcaptain! (:

Just one last question, was it required by regulation or written by military writers that the colonels (or captains) were supposed to ressuply their men with cloth? I always see this being mentioned as something those officers were supposed to do, but never found details.

Also, I would like to thank Druzhina, Diomedes and Prince Alberts for their contibutions to the thread (:

Navarre, Maximillian de Bethune, and Aubigny all suppied their men with clothes at one time or another in anecdotes I've read- there was even a rivalry between officers to kit their men out in the fanciest clothes, Aubigny famously buying 200 pairs of red trousers for his infantry… There are other instances where a group of Captains and colonels in a region all agreed to supply their men with clothes of the same color (IIRC it was in south-western France, and the color was light grey). I think I also have a letter from Francois de la Noue written during a campaign asking the Estates of Holland for clothing and equipment for his French volunteers in their service.

Aside from the standing army of Gendarmes, Legions and some Garrison troops, all other units were raised for each individual war or campaign and then disbanded, so government supplied clothes were likely to come in fits and starts if at all. The various factions had to shift for themselves. In the 1580s you had Navarre's army, Conde's army, Mercoeur's, Montmorency's, the League's, Lesdiguières' and countless other independent commands, some of them little more than brigands. None of them had pay or equipment from the state, so they got it from their officers.