Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

Does anyone know if any english **units** (knights or otherwise) of the 13
C. ever wore any type of uniform colors to distinguish them???

In general, how did units of this era identify themselves from other units?
How prominent were banners for identifying units???

Although I am focusing on England, the question applies in general to
western europe. I am trying to figure out how to historically distinguish my
units apart.

--Jesse

Sorry for the delay in replying, but this is now the sixth (see previous)
attempt and hopefully it
will be the last otherwise I might be minus one computer as this one finds out
if it's clever enough to learn how to fly in less than 2 seconds.
Anyway, the answers to your queries can be found in Ian Heaths' excellent books
"Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300 and Armies of the Middle Ages Vols 1 & 2". I

think the first one is out of print, but I may be wrong on that, the other two
can be obtained from the, now, world famous 'Caliver Books'. They can be found
on

http://www.caliverbooks.com/HTML/calframe.htm

In these Ian Heath says that, after heraldry came in, the sergeants and
household knights wore the device of their lord on shield, pennon or surcoat and

that the surcoat may have been in a uniform colour, he gives an example of an
outlaw buying cloth for his band being described 'as if he had been a baron or
an earl' (Pg. 62, Feudal Europe). On page 72 of the same book, he describes
infantry from Norfolk during Edward I's reign, being described as
'Blaunchecotes' because of the white surcoats that they wore, these being issued

as part of their equipment. He also writes that other recognition devices and
uniforms such as that worn by the figure he is describing - a cloth armband with

the red cross of St George, worn during Edward's' Welsh wars - are also recorded

on other occasions. He also says that spearmen and cavalry substituted a
similarly marked lance pennon.
The size of the banners is also in the book (Pg 112) - twice as high as broad, 5

ft high for the King, 4 ft for a duke or prince, 3 ft for a baron or knight
banneret. A pennon for a knight bachelor or sergeant was 12-18in long and
triangular or forked in shape.
In 'Armies of the Middle Ages Vol. 1', he states, on page 98, "The first use of
the red cross of St George on a white background as a 'national' field sign
appears to date to Edward III's Articles of War of the mid-14th century.".
I would recommend getting hold of these books, as they are full of really useful

information about medieval armies, including a section on heraldry in 'Feudal
Europe'.
We are trying to spread the word about Warrior.

Les.

"Kurtus A. Brown" wrote:

> Does anyone know if any english **units** (knights or otherwise) of the 13
> C. ever wore any type of uniform colors to distinguish them???
>
> In general, how did units of this era identify themselves from other units?
> How prominent were banners for identifying units???
>
> Although I am focusing on England, the question applies in general to
> western europe. I am trying to figure out how to historically distinguish my
> units apart.
>
> --Jesse
>
>
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