Historical Question Regarding Uniforms

[Lord Golog]

I was wondering what kind of uniforms Western European soldiers actually wore historically. Most people say that the uniforms in M2TW are inaccurate (Too colorful). How were uniforms actually handled in 1100-1500? If they did not have a "uniform" then how did they differentiate between their allies and enemies? This is really bugging me.

[rebelyell2006]

Twigs in helmets, strips of cloth, shield devices, special patterns sown into clothes, and so forth. For the most part the soldiers would wear their everyday clothes, unless they received armor from their local armoury, which would range from thick jackets to light coats of mail. Sometimes the typical peasant costume of one opponent would be different enough from another than confusion would be minimal.

[Lord Golog]

Besides the historical curiosity, I was also wondering if any mods or submods properly incorporated realistic uniforms. Recommendations would be appreciated.

[PrestigeX]

I was wondering what kind of uniforms Western European soldiers actually wore historically. Most people say that the uniforms in M2TW are inaccurate (Too colorful). How were uniforms actually handled in 1100-1500? If they did not have a "uniform" then how did they differentiate between their allies and enemies? This is really bugging me.

The main thing was Heraldry. So with a Feudal army, when the knights and their retinue formed up for battle - soldiers would be able to distinguish friend from foe by the heraldic symbols on their tunics or by the standard bearer...

In certain battles, an army might don a special symbol like.. the lombards were famous for wearing long white socks. The english sometimes put red crosses on themselves to identify themselves.

I even read that in Scotland, the gaelic nobles would wear bright yellow boiled leather tunics - despite our image of plaid and woad facepaint (which gibson was inspired to use based on Native American warriors, rather than some celtic tradition)

I can't speak for other countries, by I know that in England the "red coat" uniform came about as a result of the parliamentarian "New Model Army" - red was the cheapest dye, and ever since the standing armies used red...

Using standard colors in the game, is more of a practical thing and far from historical.

[rebelyell2006]

Along with a feudal lord's heraldry would be city seals and heraldry. Cities that were large enough or important enough would provide (or require) shields or jackets with their city emblems. If you want to, you can find information on this in Osprey military books as well as a plethora of other sources.

[Silverheart]

Actual uniforms depended completely on whether or not your lord had the money to afford it.
In the feudal system, soldiers often had to supply their own weapons and armor, but if their lord/knight/mayor had the money, they would usually buy uniforms for their soldiers. An example is how the Templar knights were always dressed in their characteristic white robes with red crosses.
And commanders recognized their friends simply by standards and symbols, and some factions deliberately chose to wear some form of small, but noticeable symbol, as has been explained.
However, there were of course no universal uniform in any country, because that would have required the king himself to pay for several thousand uniforms - not very likely to happen.
The king usually only payed for uniforms for his own personal guard.

[wowbanger]

Even as late as the late 17th Century there could be much confusion regarding uniforms.

During the Jacobite retreat from the Battle of the Boyne in 1690

There was a sharp fight when they met William and his Cavalry at Donore, but after half-an-hour, James's men were driven back and retreated safely to Duleek. In the confusion William was nearly shot by one of his own men-the only distinction between the armies was that the Williamites wore a sprig of green in their hats and the Jacobites a piece of white paper

Quote taken from http://www.battleoftheboyne.ie/

Here the confusion arose because William had English, Scottish, Protestant Irish, Dutch, Danish and French Huguenot troops and James had Catholic Irish and French troops. Therefore, there were so many different uniforms in both armies and some units (primarily the Irish ones) didn't have uniforms.

[rebelyell2006]

The Thirty Years War was particularly awful as each regiment in the Imperial and Swedish armies officially had their own uniform, but over the course of campaigns uniforms would fall apart, officers would embezzle uniform fitting money and deserters would wear their old uniforms in their new regiments.