Welsh archers

Work on my Welsh continues apace. I've done the archers of Llewelyn's household as standard medieval longbow, 4 elements. The other 4 I want to do as Welsh levy. Bear in mind these were not serfs, as bearing arms was the privilege of freemen (I believe in neighbouring England the ability to bear arms was one of the proofs of being freeborn), so the question is, what colours? Are they a bit brighter than the standard undyed linen or wool? Also, and this is puzzling me, are they bare legged or do they wear hose?

The figures I have are the Essex miniatures Dark age archers and they appear to have hose but its not very obvious. These figures came in the Welsh DBA pack and they are not "Welsh archers" as such but I like them better than the "Welsh" that Essex do and they seem an easier pose to paint. I've looked at the "Welsh" on their website and the archers there seem bare legged but I'm not sure of the realism of this. These were real people and are real people likely to be capering around the Welsh mountains with no trousers (pants)on? It's cold quite frankly......!

Any opinions anybody?

[ February 23, 2005, 13:14: Message edited by: AlanYork ]

I think the HSA range has a bow pack that actually looks like it will mix well.

Hi,

I've also used Essex for the basis of my DBM Welsh but was not satisfied with them. The majority of my army now comes from Museum Miniatures and some of the archers are bare-legged. I believe this is based on an MS illustraion from Gerald of Wales. Will check source if poss.

Er.. we are talking 15mm here?

Sorry, yes, they're 15s. So you have some barelegged and some not then?

How about Gladiator's WOR 8 Shire Levy Longbowman?

Yes, I've got a mixture of bare-legged and trousered!

I'll check the ratio next week and let you know.

I've also upped the cavalry (uchelwyr) contingent a bit, following something I read on a website. Will check this too.

Tigris, re the colors of the costume worn by the Welsh archers, the WRG book "Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300 AD" describes those serving with Edward I's army as wearing red linen tunics. They also describe them as wearing only on shoe on their left feet only, and bare legs were common, and moslty unarmored. But the uperclasses, might wear helmet, light mail, circular shield and occasinally mail hosen" Hope this helps, Terry