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Author Topic: Gendarme 1520s
Dragon Argent
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Member # 937

posted 11-20-2008 10:11 PM     Profile for Dragon Argent     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
I am doing a southern French Gendarme of the Battle of Pavia (1525) campaign. Amazingly they had French Gendarmes on both sides! Although the majority fought for the French Crown of course.
I realise this is a big project and I am allowing the time and resources to do it as well as I can. Any advice/suggestions/links etc. would be most welcome (apart from "are you bonkers! pick something easier...")
I used to live in Oxford and spent many a lunch hour staring at the famous painting of the Battle in the Ashmolean...

Registered: Nov 2005  |  IP: Logged
chef de chambre
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posted 12-07-2008 06:17 AM     Profile for chef de chambre   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Hi Dragon Argent,

Well, this will be a fascinating project to watch unfold. I happen to be fond of the armour a generation earlier, right when a lot of experimentation is going on.

Your arming doublet will be the most important acquisition, the trouble is, I can't think of any images of arming doublets from the era specifically. That said, the place to begin would be those two portraits of men at arms in arming doublets from 15-20 years later (Italian artist, can't remember the name), which show a garment remarkably similar to the later Medieval examples I have seen in art, still supporting voiders, for instance.

I will try to hunt down those images for you. Fortunately, there is a wealth of surviving armour from the 1520's, a complete suit, with a late armet, or a close-helmet armet cross, would be what is needed. You would also likely be wearing bases over the armour as well.

--------------------

Bob R.


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Gwen
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posted 12-07-2008 09:11 AM     Profile for Gwen   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
Hey Dean-

Sorry I didn't get back to you with the images I collected for Matt. They're on my work computer and I hadn't planned to go to the shop today, so I'll send them over tomorrow, promise.

The stuff you sent me is pretty comprehensive. Jeff says in the 1520's the arm harness sometimes attaches to the straps of the breastplate, but the leg harness always ties to the arming doublet. I've not sorted out how that would work, as doublets stop at the waist by 1520. Maybe arming doublets are longer? Dunno, haven't seen any evidence either way so i couldn't say.

The Moroni is much later (30) years, which is significant. it is also Italian as opposed to German, which may be significant.

I'm interested in the image you sent of the armour in the Madrid Military Museum-

I don't know anything about it, so I've sent it off to Toby asking what he knows. If the trousers are contemporary with the rest, it's in the ball park and bears further investigation. If any of that stuff has been published, Toby's know where we could find it.

Gwen


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Flittie
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posted 02-10-2009 08:08 AM     Profile for Flittie     Send New Private Message   Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote
The Osprey book on Pavia mentions (and reproduces in part) many, many contemporary depictions of the battle, not only paintings and engravings, etc., but tapestries. I don't know if the French gendarmes were wearing German-style armor or Italian-style, but the paintings of the battle might help indicate that. Have you looked at portraits of French notables from that era such as King Francois I and the Chevalier de Bayard?

There's a fellow on the Armour Archive named Wade Allen (allenantiques.com) who collects and reproduces 16th-century armor. He might be a knowledgeable contact.

I'm interested in early-16th-century armor and costume myself. I look forward to reading about your research and reconstruction. (P.S. I want to learn more about those "shorts" in the Madrid illustration.)


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