Research

The first thing to do in any project is research. Many of my students would look at one page and solely base what ever they did on one source. Since I have been trained to do research and I'm an educator, I want to show my students how involved or how easy research can be.

So, how did I start? Simple, a google search. But first, I need to have my parameters...

Since the idea that I had for this project was born from my student final activity of the year is a medieval tournament, I thought back to my education in particularly my Medieval history professor Dr. Jack Burnhardt's class. His description came from William Marshal and of a tournament and the description of the melee, an even where knights in armor would ride with wooden clubs beating each other for points. Since Marshal was influential during the reign of four English kings, namely Henry II, Richard I, and John, Marshal was considered the knight's knight. He was around for the rise of Arthurian legend under Henry and Eleanor, He saw the effect of the Crusades, and he saw the rise of the Magna Carta. It only seemed fitting that I base my equipment on Anglo-Norman fashion from the late 12th early 13th centuries.

So, how to do the research...


It can be difficult to find images from the 12th century that are accurate, but it can be done. the main thing is to look at the descriptions on various sites. and focus on the garments pictured on contemporary pieces of art.

I simply typed "12th century men's clothing" into google.

The first place I looked was Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1100%E2%80%931200_in_European_fashion

based on what I read, I looked into other images and websites. I focused my searches on images dating from near or around that time period. focusing on the specific garments.

I also looked in my library for images of  12th century knights and one of the best results was from Medieval Military Costumes Recreated in Colour Photographs by Gerry Embleton. I focused on the pages on the 12th century and the crusades. In looking at the book I was able to find that knights wore a fabric garment over their armor that became part of the standard fashion. this was called a surcoat. This idea intrigued me as some of the images from my other pasion the late iron age seem to display Gallic armor covered in a possible surcoat... this is another blog entry for later.

As a knight, the garments would be: a tunic, surcoat, braies, and chausses,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surcoat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chausses

It can be difficult to find images from the 12th century that are accurate, but it can be done. the main thing is to look at the descriptions on various sites. and focus on the garments pictured on contemporary pieces of art.


I then proceeded to search for patterns to use for each on of the garments. This was somewhat challenging as my shoulders and legs can be difficult to fit into standard purchased patterns. I decided to go with Period Patterns 16 and Period Patterns 101 for the tunic and surcoat respectively.

The braies and chausses I decided on La Fleur de Lys, MAA 1101 Medieval Accessories from the 11th-15th centuries.

I published before I even completed the story of the research...

Anyway, I looked into several sources on Crusader and Anglo-Norman clothing, weapon's and armor. researching several items such as belts, swords, shoes, shields, armor, helmets... anyway I dove into a brand new time period. (my first love is the Iron Age)...

I also started looking into purchasing the items I can't produce on my own right now. I hate not having my own foundry and forge. anyway, Putting the information together, I decided on a red linen tunic, and a tanish-orangish surcoat, red and blue woolen chauses, and white braies, turn shoes (i already own), silver spurs the symbol of a knight, an Oakshott XII single handed sword, and belt (again purchased from another project).

A sketch I made of the basic Idea of what It will look like.

Next up construction...