"Norman shields" Topic

Does anyone know what the actual mix of shield designs would have been like within a unit of Normans, infantry or cavalry?

Were shields designed on a completely individual basis or were they made to match – for instance to designate individuals as part of a unit or a knights retinue?

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice

I think the consensus is they were completely individual. There were no formal units at the time, just ad hoc groupings of whoever showed up.

Also, google the Bayeux Tapestry and check out the Norman shields--if there is any organization of shield designs there, it surpasses my understanding

Nobody knows. But the Bayeux Tapestry, which contains more shield designs than any other single original source, shows the vast majority of them are plain, a single color with the border, or rim, and a boss or simply the nails that hold the straps. In my Norman army I painted one wavy armed design and one more complex motif like a dragon out of each unit or group of eight or so figures. Sometimes I felt like painting more and the ratio would be out of every five or so figures. But plain, single color shields dominate, and natural colors like dirty browns or tans are the most numerous plain colors that I used….

the tapestry, as a primary source tends to back the idea wargamers worry more about this sort of thing than the actual people who it depicts ever did.

The section of The Bayeux Tapestry with the Battle of Hastings

MIRROR SITE
The Bayeux Tapestry with the Battle of Hastings

Druzhina
11th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

There is a quote from William 1 that has him describing his knights, most likely his household knights as 'red wings'. So that is likely to be a homogenous unit with red shields. William himself, on the tapestry, has a shield with a white face and a golden cross, quite an ornate cross , on the front centred on the boss.
Given that the Tapestry is showing a representative selection of the army then it is very likely that leaders had dragons and beasts and the more ordinary riders plain shields.

Do them however you like, as in all pre-modern periods (and even some very modern) until someone comes up with a time machine or photographic evidence, it's all educated guess work.

+1 for foxweasel.

I try to do my individual units to a common theme but there is always some variation depending on how energetic I feel at the time. If I'm doing a feudal lord's personal guard or a town garrison unit, then I'm more likely to try to have the same pattern of shield design.

Jim

There is a quote from William 1 that has him describing his knights, most likely his household knights as 'red wings'.

Source?

There is an account (Wace, I think) of Rollo having a dream about birds with a red wing which is interpreted as being about warriors with red shields. This seems to be Norse red shields which IIRC are mentioned elsewhere. He is 150 years before William.

The shield with ornate cross in passing out the keys of Dinan

MIRROR SITE
Passing out the keys of Dinan, Bayeux Tapestry

Druzhina
11th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Thanks, Swampster – that makes a bit more sense than Will the C, really.

…" There were no formal units at the time"…

The English army at Hastings had included formal units for over 100 years prior to the battle.

Yes Swampie's right, the source is a description by Dudo of St Quentin of a suppised dream by Rollo . ahowever it is a bit more compkex than that. The dreammight be that of Rollo who reigned as Duke 911-931. However Dudo wrote 1015-1016, by which time Rollo is a figure in the legendary past so Inexpect the story to draw on motifs current in 1020. The essence of the dream is that the birds, who are of different breeds are Rollo's subjects and that them all having red left wings is an indication of different groups finding unity in becoming Norman inhabitants of the Duchy. So adopting the red shield might well be an indication of becoming Norman. That moves it away from Vikings with red shields into the eleventh century. Doesn't particularly relate them to William the C, though, although he is not long after Dudo.

Chaps here in Druzhina's 11 th century collection. from the Echternach Aureus, German 1st half of eleventh century shows guards with red shields

I read somewhere that in A-S England of the period, red was a favored shield color….

Quite likely and it was still the favoured colour of Dublin Vikings in the twelfth century.
I looked in Druzhina's picture file for the picture of 11th century troops standing in a ship where I think they all have red shields.

Here is The Codex Aureus of Echternach or Codex aureus Epternacensis, 1030-1050AD

The Viking invaders in the 'Life of St. Aubin'
The defenders: 'Saint Aubin defends Guérande' from the 'Life of St. Aubin', made in Angers, France, end of the 11th century

Many shields in the Beatus de Saint-Sever, Southwestern France, before 1072AD, are red.

MIRROR SITES
The Codex Aureus of Echternach or Codex aureus Epternacensis, 1030-1050AD
'Saint Aubin defends Guérande from the Vikings' from the 'Life of St. Aubin', made in Angers, France, end of the 11th century
Beatus de Saint-Sever, Southwestern France, before 1072AD

Druzhina
11th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Ah, so its a proportion of red shields and that might reflect the artists palette!
Even so red seems a poular colour, it appears on one at least of Druzhina's Lombard illystration of early eleventh century so I would be happy to give a Norman leader a group of dependent milites with red wings.

Artist's palette, imagination and aesthetic judgement are probably the most important factors. Lots of kit apart form mail and helmets was home-made and a man buying a shield most likely painted with whatever colour he had to hand or if it was already painted left it as it was. It's probably an over-simplification to think in terms of 'no units'. greater lords would gave a habitual posse of tenants, friends, relatives and pals who would be likely to serve together. At a later date – and very possibly already a practice in the 11th century – suit of hunt (the obligation to join your lord in his hunting parties) had something of a military function in that it encouraged the party to stay together at speed in cross-country rides thereby encouraging equestrian skill, leadership and cohesion. Really, do what you like and you won't go wrong, but three good general rules for medieval appearance in almost any context are variety, variety and variety.

Except that there is evidence that tenants only slightly later, in the twefth century, took coats if arms that related to those of their lords. Thus the tenants of the de Mandeville lords of Essex took red or red and yellow combinations for their armorial bearings. The most notable being the quartered red and gold of the de Vere earls if Oxford.That might well indicate that the original grouping around the lord shared something as basic as a common shield colour. After all identifying your group and leader was already not easy on the battlefield as William showed at Hastings.

You're quite right and I was over-simplifying, but the number of tenants/relatives adopting a magnate's colours would probably be restricted to a relatively small number, but that would still have a value.