Research Cheater

[hsifeng]

O Great LJ Hivemind...

I come to you with a request for information. A friend has recently been being pestered to produce evidence showing that 16^th C German men *did not* wear netted gold cauls under their battle helmets.

My initial thought upon hearing this was, “Are you crazy? Who would wear an item THAT EXPENSIVE under their helm?” I mean… gold…netted…re-embroidered over…? Are you nuts?

My second thought was, “I thought we normally tried to prove that someone *did* wear an item rather than the opposite? I mean, prove to me that 16^th C German men didn’t wear fairy wings under their backplates!”

*eye roll*

Then I realized; I have seen dozens of Landsknecht re-enactors wear these things around during the day while in their breastplates over the years. I don’t think I’ve seen any of them smash a helmet down over the top…but maybe that is where this guy got the initial idea. OK, so it may just be an issue of monkey see, monkey do. As for actual evidence of this taking place in the 16^th C on the other hand, if there are 16^th C images of un-helmed but armored men wearing these in portraiture, my guess would be that the images in question are “I’m Showing Off My Armor” shots; the addition of the “gelbhaube”/caul as a way to enhance the overall look-at-me-and-my-pimp-gear image, rather than to indicate that the caul was part of an armor rig in some way.

Then again, I don’t know that this particular re-enactment-ism has ever been really researched.

So I put it to ya’ll; anyone out there have any details (wardrobe inventory items, images of extant woolen arming caps, narrative descriptions, etc.) that might help clarify this issue with some data?

Comments

Re: What this discussion needs is some image links!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me about the Landsknecht hairstyles link at St. Max. I will have to go check that out when their site it back up!

Almost all of the soldiers wearing helmets were also wearing full armor (gorget, breastplate, pauldrons, vambraces, and cuisses), so I would assume that they’re probably officers.


This is what I was thinking as well; that most helmets are on folks in full armor and that full armor tends to be pricey. Even so, wearing a gold caul under a helm seems like taking a Porche to a motocross event. Someone might do it, but it isn't likely...

Re: What this discussion needs is some image links!

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about the hairstyles link myself. But it came up somewhere recently. The reason I mentioned it was because I seem to recall that the majority of the hairstyles were short. *Checks my PDF backup of the site* Yep, the vast majority of hairstyles are short. Too short to require a hair net.

Which would make sense, as short hair is easier to care for. Especially when you've got large numbers of people living in close quarters. Less lice etc.

Re: What this discussion needs is some image links!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

*psst* Could you pass me that PDF backup? I can message you with my e-mail address if needed....

;)

Re: What this discussion needs is some image links!

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

It's huge (1,200 pages, 50 MB file), so e-mail might choke on it. But we can try if you want!

Re: What this discussion needs is some image links!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Sent you a message...