I occasionally design flags in Photoshop for wargaming the so-called Wars of the Roses.
Normally I struggle with finding original art off the internet but – on a wave of inspiration – I suddenly realised I had been photographing English church windows for years and ignoring the fact that they were good source material for medieval art.
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The above is a livery banner intended to be printed on paper, cut out and then wrapped around a wire flag pole. For 15mm figures each half will be about 18 to 20mm wide – scale up larger for 28mm figures.
The livery colours are those of Richard, Duke of York, the original Yorkist claimant to the throne. His livery colours were blue/white (the reverse of Henry VI and the Duke of Somerset's white/blue).
The device is his falcon in a fetterlock and symbolises how (as allegedly the rightful king) his family ambitions are constrained by the Lancastrian claimant to the throne. After Richard's death his three sons (Edward Earl of March, George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Gloucester) changed the family colours to blue and murrey, this latter colour being a blood red similar to claret. This change almost certainly symbolised 'dipping' the white half of the livery in the blood of their dead father and brother Edmund. Both were killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.
Edward's later version is here: link
Some later versions of this badge show the falcon set free and now sitting ON the fetterlock. This version probably dates to Edward IV's reign and symbolise that the family's ambitions have finally been set free.
