Monday 18 July 2016

Sandwich filling.

Sandwich medieval fayre was a two day event but I was only going up on Saturday evening for the second day. This would be my first proper medieval War of the roses type show and more of a reenactment event like the Napoleonic ones, with a living history camp and set battle times. I had been intent on 'Landskneckting' my stuff up before and so was kindly lent a more suitable (i.e. dull English) hat, a padded jack and a long spear for this occasion.

There was a trebuchet and archery/gunnery display and then some jousting. I was reminded that a few years ago I looked into the plausibility of doing jousting myself, unsurprisingly it wasn't that plausible, although if your very very lucky and know the right people you might be able to start out shoveling horse dung and work your way up to a squire.. and get some goes on the horsey stuff. I had been on a horse once.


                            ..and the horsemanship was amazing, these Knights of the damned do all sorts of film work and base the show largely on 'A knight's tale' (which they worked on) complete with rock anthems for each of them. Having seen plently of Napoleonic near misses with horses going all over the place it was quite a change. I don't think the 'Maces of fire' were that historically authentic though.

We were actually on the French side who raided Sandwich (Baguette?) in 1457 and set fire to the town before English reinforcements came up. The medieval siege society were the hosts and read out a disclaimer about having no legal/insurance liability to anyone setting foot on the battleground and a series of rules of combat (no sharp items on the field, no head strikes, acknowledge hits, aim for padding/armour, etc), then it was the off!


Both the days battles seem a little confusing to me now, a series of advances, clash of arms and retreats, but as a newbie I was mainly concentrating on those rules, whilst some were bodily throwing themselves at people with abandon I was almost polite in my approach, trying to wordlessly communicate 'Excuse me! Im going to attack you there, okay? is it alright to hit your elbow?'  I did hit one guy in the elbow and was told to be careful of head strikes. I assume he was talking to me?
I was also trying not to thrust by running the polearm through my forward hand from the rear hand.. which is how I would naturally attack with one but is a no no.



Everyone was good natured but I confess I considered taking up a non combat role, which might seem odd for me, like being a monk going round assisting the injured, giving spiritual solace and also being practical as a water carrier.. maybe I still will.

The archery was interesting, occasionally a line of them would rain down a dozen shots on us and seeing them sail up in the air and level out, coming at you, gave me the same disconcerting feeling I get when standing opposite a cannon at a 45eme show. I seemed blessed though that many hit nearby but not me, infact few were hits except on a 'dead guy' who seemed an arrow magnet. You certainly don't want to get one in the face.

Sandwich was ours though! what could possibly go wrong in the afternoon battle? (part deux).

I was also surprised that I didn't get that hot being in the sun in a padded quilt, gloves, and coif (cap) under a metal helmet. After the show I kept it all on, just as I have the habit of doing with Napoleonics, as did Mr Denyer who I got the lift up with, and we chatted to the public a fair bit.

Medieval shows are a bit more general interest and family themed than most reenactments, I suppose because it is a broader time period and is backed by a lot of media from Braveheart, to Robin hood, To Henry VI to King Arthur to wolf hall (which is about 400 years..) not to mention Monty Python and the holy grail for a descent into silliness. Everyone has an idea of what they think it is all about.  People don't say 'There is an age of enlightenment show on at the weekend dear, shall we take the kids?'

                                                            Insert dog + tinned food joke here.

The second battle was a reverse of the first with some screaming ladies and smoke rising from the town (The south tent lines) as the Eeenglish approached. after several clashs we started to leave a smattering of dead with each push and as I turned to run back to the ships I met my end as a swordsman slashed me across the back.

I had an ice cream and won some Belgian chocolates on the tombola and so the day drew to a close. I felt I'd learnt a lot and ordered a padded gambeson of my own this afternoon and have a fleur de lis to add to it, I'm thinking of going for being a stranded Frenchmen in English service after his master has died (assuming I don't become a monk, Medieval gives you some scope for your own portrayal) although I shall be campaigning in France when the Free company do the next show at Hever castle.

Onwards and upwards!








Wednesday 13 July 2016

& now for something completely different (Twie)

July the first was finally upon me!  

 I would be finishing the last day (early shift) of my current job on Thursday and coming home to get ready to go and catch a coach off to S/W Germany with many other members of the Free Company, who have been attending since 1996 and are something of a fixture.
 This would not only be my first non-Napoleonic event but also my first Brettan, fifteen or so hours on a coach away, with a brief pit stop in Luxemburg.

                                    The more simple travel attire.

First business on arrival was a supermarket for group food and beer, we would have our own bar set up in camp so crates of German beer made a goodly chunk of the shop, once at the site, a green space outside the original town walls we formed a human chain to unload the bus. A few of us first timers were given a brief tour of the town, though everything is pretty much in a ten minute walk of everything else.



Official duties that day included a practice parade and battle rehearsal, the battlefield is just a small park and different groups come on and off, it isn't that the festival is around the reenactment, there is so much going on.
 As a newbie I was asked to be a casualty who would then be treated, we would go on and fight a round when it was out turn then after that would be a scene with me as a walking wounded. Dusk was falling, I put on my sallet (enclosed helmet) as advised and fought our tussel, could I see 'a woman with a flag' who I was meant to stagger over to? No, could I see much of anything.. not much, was I sure this was 'After the first battle'?
I had practiced fighting with the helmet on but doing it when looking for someone in a park, with bodies and debris on the ground to avoid treading on, and no peripheral vision certainly made me see why few people have a visor down on a helmet.
So basically I missed the cue, but nevermind, all would be alright on the night.

I had been surprised that most of the group sleep in a gymnasium at the school just round the corner, all laid on by the town, but I predictably choose to remain in the camp.
                                            A proper hat.

I slept fairly well once the occasional beat box boy racer had gone home to mother and awoke with breakfast on my mind. 
We all got breakfast laid on although I had not seen where.. I set off clutching my wooden bowl and hoping my natural sense of free-food location would guide me. It did, and I was surprised at how few people had arrived, they were all still asleep but began filtering through by my third coffee.

I was on duty from one, split into two shifts, one will look after camp and run errands, tidy up, prepare food, etc etc whilst the rest are free, on the Sunday it changes to shift B. 
I still had time in the morning to buy some bells and get them sown on, which was also my first go at sewing, a hugely useful skill for any reenactor, only one bell fell off over the weekend so it can't have been that bad. I also got some on a leather band to tie around my ankle. 



Strangley I usually HATE jingly things, I have to re-arrange loose change in my pockets normally but in this role I actually wanted more such jingling.


           A marksman's competition and the sherperd's leap were local events now part of the festival weekend.
                               
In the afternoon the on-shift went to help with a childrens fayre, tilting at targets, crossbow range, pretend drill, etc and I found myself in charge of the balloon-pig spearing. A balloon is tied to a board with a wild boar on it, and lots of dents. Some kids charged and popped the balloon first time, some just pushed it about for a while as it squeaked and wobbled. It does take a special sort of resolve to stand still holding a wooden board that a spear waving child is running at, but I survived, unlike about eighty balloons.  My enthusiasm for cheering was waning after the first fifty or so. Still good fun.

Before the battle I had to go and get a prostetic wound made up, this was actually made almost entirely of pork, a blood bag and some string and paste. It might not have been entirely fresh pork by saturday afternoon. I also had two halves of an arrow to place in position when a volley came over in the battle.



and so we kitted up and awaited out turn, bish, bash, bosh! being a Swordsman against bills and halberds I decided it was best to reverse the blade and stab downwards, two handedly, which was a traditional style but also meant I could join in the pike fighting as no one makes head height attacks for obvious reasons.
We fell back and over came a volley of arrows. Aaaaaah! I was down and the arrow stuck through my arm, I wondered the field as everyone diappeared and a lady from the surgeons led me away, my arm was braced in a rack as I sat across a bench and the arrow snapped and removed, Screams! und Gott in Himmel! then came the red hot iron, an actual hiss and smell of burnt flesh as it was cauterised, more screams 'Es tut mir Leid!' (I am sorrry!) and I was being led away.  I got a good view of the rest of the battle though and everyone formed up and the drummers hammered away with such a rythme that everyone was stamping or clapping along to it, it was like that bit in 'A knight's tale' with 'We will rock you' playing. Then there was some cheers and thank you and goodnight!



Next day there was only a parade in the early afternoon for us, it got underway quite quickly (having done several such they usually run late with many stops and starts) but after a short time we came off the road and waited whilst much of the parade passed us, there were leppers, dogs, charcoal burners, farmers throwing carrots and radishes into the crowds.. several troupes of flag hurlers, several bands very big on drums and trumpets, goats, horse drawn wagons, washerwomen, and of course bands of landskneckts.. whom we joined in behind and had a bit of a rumble in the main square, before tromping on to another square where we formed a pike/halberd block facing outwards... and back to the Brettan camp for a photo of all of everyone together.



Back to camp and a sit down for a while and an early dinner of cheese and bread and corn on the cob and a rest up, followed by a spot of packing up the camp by those on shift. I wondered into town to spend my last beer token, and found the Brettan camp once more, which is a space only for those in pretty full on kit and a hat, the reenactors bar really. 



Free food was put out and a barrel opened up for all, Hurrah! We were then entertained by a comedy circus-skills type duo with juggling, songs, balloon shapes, and some acrobatics performed on a grid made of pikes hoisted on the shoulders of a dozen landsknechts. 



More of the Free company arrived and we took over the big main table under a canvas, one of our bearded veterans, Keith, was proclaimed king as he had found a crown somewhere. Later in the evening our youngest trooper was accused of soiling the royal tablecloth without due respect or repentance and I was clerk of the court as a charge was brought up, he was sentenced to running the gauntlet and grew upset. The sentence was suspended until next year. 

At this point signs went up at the bar 'Queue here for EU citizens' and 'Queue here for non-EU citizens (back in half an hour)' , I told them we came from Austria which they seemed to find highly amusing, and we got served (that was never in doubt). I may have stood on a bench and given a short speech in my fantastic German at this point about how much I love Germany and Europe and many of us wanted nothing to do with Brexit. 'Nicht in meinem Namen' (not in my name) has strong connotations in Germany.  My oration did at least get me bought a drink from a local fraulein. Probably out of pity. 


          Due to my phone getting cracked on Saturday evening, here is an artist's impression of events.

Another highpoint of the weekend was that we were then officially presented with a full size Brettan flag as a sign of gratitude for the group supporting the event for the last twenty years and I spent the rest of the evening glued to it, and shielded it when we came under attack from flying bangers! 
By now dawn was in the air, the sky turning blue, this is also something of a Brettan tradition for some of the Free company as it means you can then sleep really well on the coach and be oblivious for a good portion of the long return journey. It worked for me. 


                             I save having a bath until I get home!

oh lovely Brettan! the date of next years event is already out so I might have to book as soon as I am able. Definitely going to become a regular thing and maybe the only chance I get to bring out the full on Landskneckt kit once a year, bells and all. 

Memories are made of this. 


















Tuesday 5 July 2016

& now for something completely different (Ein).

Well, not completely.

In the lull after Waterloo last year and accompanied by seeing several events I could not get to I began to think of extending my reenacting to doing another era, a new interest and a host of different shows I might be available for.


What though?  Nothing black powdery because it would be too similar and I cannot get another firearm without getting a gun cabinet, World war two? Maybe a bit too recent, English civil war? Very popular and I knew someone who was involved who offered advice.. but it didn't quite float my boat, bit too linear and with a lot of politics and turnips. Medieval? certainly different and a bit more free reign, and some friends in the Sappeurs do it and so here was information and events I could share. Yeah, go!

Slowly buying stuff.. as with starting in Napoleonics it was good to have someone to ask and I was soon pointed to Sir William Harrington's companye whose website has a PDF of source material and information on everything from headwear to pants, and how to wear them.

It was still a tricky path and I had already impulsively bought a pair of stripey breeches that will have to go and live in the fancy dress fun box. Half the problem was the freedom. No uniforms, no social/rank order that says you are a peasant, no regulation book, and often a wider period, with the French I have a window of 1806-1812 ideally, the wars of the roses went on for thirty years and saw regional differences and foreign troops enter the fray, with a few changes it can also do for the Hundred years war.
English trade was built on wool and the law encouraged all good English folk to wear it..  so think twice about buying linen.. black dye seldom took and was expensive.. red was a traditional soldierly colour, especially for soldiers trousers.

Another problem was LARP. So many online stores advertise themselves as Medieval reenactment/larp shops (Live action role play) and whilst a fantasy warrior can certainly turn up in authentic hoes and kettle helmet a Wars of the Roses guy can't turn up in a wolf faced knights helmet with a pair of scimitars over his spiked leather shoulder pads.

  
         'What?  is it the bootlaces? damn, it said it was a reenactment site where I bought them, would they be okay if I was Lancastrian?'

After a few months I had gathered a basic outfit, complete with red wool hoes, pointy shoes and a Sallet helmet from reenactment supplies but it seemed likely my first event was going to be the Peter und Paul fest in Germany, a town besieged in 1504 and defended by a small army of mercenary Landskneckts. I do love the look of landskneckt garb, it make the war of the roses look positively drab.

Feathers, big hats, stripes, slashed sleeves, bright colours! at a time when peoples dress code was just that, limited by class and profession, the landskneckts.... whose lives were deemed quite rough and often short were granted the freedom to wear jolly well what they wanted and they certainly took advantage of it in the showing off department.



A hat! a big feathery hat would come first, although I ended up buying a pack of ostrich feathers separately.. I stumbled upon this trader kokoszowa maufufaktura who had a good range, later I would buy a wappenrock, a knee length, quartered, slashed sleeve surcoat.

Roll on July..