"Medieval Non-Nobility Shields?" Topic

I am looking for ideas on how to paint shields of non-nobility in early middle-ages, Barons War or War of Scottish Independence to be specific.

This would be for things like London Militia and levied spearmen/billmen and Scots.

Also, Foot Sergeants, although I assume they may have some heraldry pattern.

Any advice appreciated.

It's a bit later than your period, but there was a decree of the Scottish Parliament in 1385 that each man in the muster would bear a St Andrew's Cross (white saltire) "before and aft". If the man's jack was white, the saltire was to be on a circle or square of black. If a Scots muster had any commonality of shield decoration, it seems to me a white saltire is as good a guess as any. (Probably no standardization of background color).

Solid-colored shields of an inexpensive paint (white, black, russet-red, or yellow ochre spring to mind) might be a reasonable assumption – but avoiding charges or even divisions of the shield, as that would be heraldic. In truth, the 13th-century period art I've seen shows lots of noble heraldry but doesn't typically depict formations of common troops (unlike art of the late 14th- and 15th centuries, where they show up regularly).

It's the levies and militias that I have been stumped about what to do with. I have 50 London Militia, 30 Scots and 50 Levied Spearmen that I am doing. With so many, I'd like to have something that has some plausible historical look.

What you suggest is sort of my assumption about having just a few basic colors, all solid.

I have about 100 foot knights and sergeants that will have the basic/generic patterns and colors shown here -
link

Plus a few that will have specific individual heraldry.

Thanks for the input. One day I will get this project done. Last of my foot finally going off for commission painting.

Game of Thrones simplified things greatly. Everyone wore the Lord's "sigil". This almost leads me to think that either Martin or the showrunners were frustrated gamers. 😄

Heraldry for knights was in its infancy during the Barons' War period, and there was not yet any concept of livery colours. Foot serjeants were hired professionals who brought there own kit along, so likely had individual patterns and colours.

National saltires and crosses come later, so levy are just a motley lot.

Good blog post here by Andy Hobday:
link

City militia tended to be raised from moderately well-off burgher families, a cut above the general rabble. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if your London militia had quite brightly-painted shields. You could give them the city's coat of arms – which at this date seems to have been an image of Saint Paul on a red ground:

" A reference in Liber Custumarum (COL/CS/01/006) refers to the service of Robert Fitz-Walter, Castellain of London, who died in 1235, in which he receives from the Mayor the banner of the City "of bright red, with a figure of St Paul in gold, with the feet and hands and head in silver and a sword in the hand of the said figure". The saint is also depicted, sword in hand, on the obverse of the Common Seal of the City, which dates from the early thirteenth century, and on two embroidered seal bags of 1319"
from link

English soldiers seem to have been marked with crosses as early as Evesham. Call me a heretic, but I wouldn't hesitate to send my Londoners out with a red St George's cross. Give the levied spears a white shield, and you'd be in business.

If we sometimes make the visual distinctions between the sides a little more obvious than they sometimes were--well, it's not as though we can hear them shouting the field word.

For the London militia, I would go with the London flag, cross of st george with a red sword in the top left quadrant point upwards

The arms for the City of London were introduced in 1381.

Very helpful. Thanks

If the Londoners in the 2nd BW wore a cross, it would be white and probably on clothing rather than shield. The red cross was adopted by the Royalists at Evesham.

This TMP link has comments on livery and shields of the period. As I said there, the only instance I could think of for 13th century rank and file carrying their lord's arms are the Count of Jaffa's rowers which _may_ have been mentioned for being exceptional, and may be because the ship had them displayed while they were rowing.

Quite a lot of my commoners have red shields. It gets mentioned for e.g. Scandinavians which may mean it is more specific to them, though.

Forgot to say…
The pictures in Eboli's Liber ad honorem Augusti show some retinues where the leader has a relatively complex device such as a boar or a lion and his followers have simple bends using one or more of the colours of their leader's 'arms'.
Some of the followers have variants of each others shields e.g. bends sinister and dexter.
The helmets are generally also coloured though the design doesn't always match their shields. Perhaps this represents two levels of allegiance?

These pictures show incidents from the Hohenstaufen conquest of Italy and also Fred. Barbarossa setting off for the Holy Land. This is late 12th century.
The images _may_ give an idea of English practice of the early 13th century for the 1st BW, though bearing in mind it is a) slightly later b) not England c) may be artistic licence to help the reader identify the 'factions'. OTOH, it looks pretty good and at least has a primary source to back it up.

I haven't seen anything showing similar practice for the 2nd BW.

Liber ad honorem Augusti by Pietro da Eboli, c.1197

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers