Thursday 28 April 2011

crusader serjeants

Guy de Lusignan’s serjeants

A formation of serjeants in the pay of Guy de Lusignan, king consort of Jerusalem, led by one of his household knights.
Guy was the one who suffered the major character assassination in Kingdom of Heaven and was, in my opinion, a pretty good egg.

On 4th October 1189 he faced Saladin in battle once more – this time on the plains of Acre. The battle was a one-all draw tactically, but in forcing Saladin to withdraw, he achieved a position of strategic advantage (I’ll save you too much more detail).

Anyway, whilst Guy was leading the reserve to pull his assault force’s arse out of the fire (including saving the life of his archrival Conrad of Montferrat). The garrison of Acre sallied forth to try and take his camp. Not all was lost, however, as Guy had left his brother, Geoffrey and James d’Avesnes with a strong force of infantry to hold it. In meantime, Guy coming galloping back and helps to drive them Muslims away – hurrah!

These serjeants are dressed in the house colours of the Lusignan family and the knight wears Guy’s personal heraldry, as was the norm in the late 12th century.




3 comments:

  1. Interesting use of shields, so they used to mix and match them?

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  2. In the days before state armouries these things were knocked up by various artisans - either independent traders or (rarely) the lord's own armourer. So whilst there would have been a degree of uniformity in a retinue, even in a royal household you might see several styles on issue. I can perfectly imagine some particularly pedantic monarch wanting all their bodyguards identically dressed and armoured while on duty in the palace, but uniformity soon goes by the by in the field: shields replaced, clothes wearing out etc.

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