Early Crusader Shield Patterns

Please help.

Suggestions or Early Crusader Shield Colors/Patterns.

All I am able to find is red and white with a red/white or black cross.

The Early Crusader list pre-dates the widespread introduction of heraldry. Crosses were used as badges on clothing, and may also have been carried on shields but I know of no direct evidence for that. Crosses were often colour-coded for nationality by later Crusaders.

Generaly, I would use the kind of proto-heraldic symbols and animals shown e.g. on the Bayeux tapestry.

Hope that helps

Andrew

Exactly as Andrew says -- First Crusade is right around the time that the Bayeux tapestry was embroidered (it was done nearly a generation after the conquest). There are fifty or a hundred different shield patterns shown. Some search with google and I'm sure you can find lots and lots of B.tap images in colour.

One thing to remember about the early crusaders, is that the cross was a common shield design, but not necessarly in the traditonal colors that we think of, i.e. red on white for English and white on blue for French, etc. In fact any color combination seems to have been pretty common - blue on buff, red on mauve, etc. Terry

Any ideas for the Seljuk/Syrian opponents shields? I've a good 100 figs to do (recently completed the early crusaders themselves); the Osprey book didnt seem to help too much and WRG didnt either (or did I miss something?)

Here is a great site for 11th - 13th century heraldry:

http://www.earlyblazon.com

Even though it focuses on the 3rd Crusade, there is some interesting heraldry used in the game Crusader Rex:
http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin...roduct_id=3226

Check out the "Labels" link for the images.