The Barons War - Free book adventure
Shield designs - The command group is completed
I asked the below on The Barons’ War FacePage.
“I don’t mind if things stray from the historically accurate. It’s a game. Acting out a skirmish that never happened this way with toy soldiers.
That said… We know perhaps what the Knights and Barons had shield designs and colours wise because of the snippets of heraldic history from the age… But would the retinue have the same shield design as their lord, or would there be a distinction. I know the colours on their tabards etc. would help link them to their lord, but what about shield design?”
The consensus was that the knights often kept their heraldry strictly to the head of the family / strictly to the person earning their knighthood, but occasionally sons of the Lord / Baron.
The heraldry conventions hadn’t been as formalised as it was later in the period and apparently uniform tabards that matched your Baron’s family colours etc. were also a way off being a convention of war.
The Douglas battle cry was “A Douglas, A Douglas!” which suggests to me that you had better shout who you are for fear of being stabbed by your own side. That the name carried an element of fear that would perhaps make a less determined combatant find someone else to fight or somewhere else to be.
Archibald of Douglas with his pennant and foot sergeants. Archie holds the three star shield, but his men have an additional black band to show they are kin or trusted retinue but they are not The Douglas.
The lion rampant on the blue field is a Lord of Galloway device and there seems to be evidence that if you didn't have a shield of your own family, or something provided from your Baron's armoury, you could carry something related to you region. (That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.)
The black stripe is enough of distinction for me. The Douglas clan didn't really get the distiction of the Black Douglas / Red Douglas distiction until later in the era, but it allows me to have fun and keep close to what I was doing before.
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