Equestrian Equipment used in Tournament and Battle Display

The following paper was written for an Arts & Sciences display I did several years ago as part of the Kingdom A&S competition. The original has been edited and updated.

The following collection is meant to display the types of equipment or accouterments that would have typically been used by a warrior or knight on the Tournament Field or the Battlefield from the period approximately 12th to 15th Centuries throughout Europe.

The Collection includes:
**  Clothing for the warrior, consisting of a surcoat.
**  Clothing for the horse, including a saddle pad and bridle.  Additional trappings for the horse include the barding styles displayed by the miniatures.
**  Banners to mark the identity of the warrior.

Each piece included its own documentation and this paper served as a summary of the materials included in the collection.

SURCOAT

Surcoats were used to protect the rider from the effects of the sun as the armor worn by the rider would quickly heat up and become very warm, especially in the hot climates of the Holy Lands where knights and men-at-arms would fight in the Crusades. Heraldry would later be added to surcoats to identify the owner.  The photograph to the left shows an example from the Manesse Codex, a medieval manuscript.  The photo below shows the author wearing a linen surcoat made in this style, typical of the 12th Century.

12th C. Linen surcoat worn by the author.

BARDING

(For this paper, the term barding was used as this was the most commonly used and recognized term in use in the SCA at that time.  A more appropriate term would be caparisons or trappers.  The term is left in the document for brevity and simplicity.) Barding is covering for the horse that serves a similar purpose as surcoats for the rider. Barding provides protection and identification. In the confusion of the battlefield, the large barding cloths marked with the owner's heraldry was clearly visible. On the Tournament field, barding provided a similar function but also greatly adds to the pageantry and fantastic display on the Tourney field. In the SCA, barding also greatly adds to the pageantry of our events. The display below, which contains several model horses, depicts various types of barding used throughout Europe and Asia.

Barding styles displayed on miniature horses.

Barding types from the 12th Century are shown in the photo below from the Maciejowski Bible (another medieval manuscript).

The barding made and displayed as part of this entry was made on two layers of linen.  The outer part is red and white, which comes from with the author's heraldry.  rec is the primary "color" and white is the primary "metal."  The main charge, the eagle displayed, is on the front and rear sections.

Barding, or caparison, shown on the author's war horse Rex.

SADDLE PAD

Saddle pads were used to protect the horse's back from the saddle and cushion the rider's weight. In the absence of barding, saddle pads are visible in many period sources.  The example below from the Maciejowski Bible show that saddle pads were in use during battle.

Below is the saddle pad created by the author in the style found in use in the 12th century.  It is made of wool cloth, quilted and filled with wool sheared from period type sheep raised by the author.

BRIDLE

The use of bridles dates back to ancient times. The bridle in this collection was developed from the type found in use in the Bayeux Tapestry and later sources. This bridle is characterized by the presence of a noseband (which encircles the horse's nose) and the lack of a throatlatch (a strap which passes underneath the horse's jaw and is commonly found in modern bridles and in later period examples). This style of bridle was in use in the early medieval period.  Bridles, of course, were essential equipment for the mounted warrior, in order to control his mount. 
 
  


The picture at right shows the use of an adjustment buckle at the top of the bridle, behind the horse's ears.  This type of adjustment was used for the bridle created by the author. This picture comes from Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons by Wagner, Drobna, and Durdik.  The photograph to the left shows the bridle in use on Rex, the author's war horse.


Bridles used in the later period during Tournament and Battle became much more elaborate. Many included elaborate rein covers, and studded leather. But early examples show a simple construction as represented in this display.
 



BANNERS

Banners were used to identify the rider/warrior and are common throughout the period. These consisted of various styles including the pennon style displayed on the right. Other styles were shown in the banner documentation. 

The display included a heraldic banner representing the author's arms.  The photograph below shows this banner in use at the 2013 Æthelmearc Kingdom Equestrian Championship.

The display includes a bridle, saddle pad, barding, surcoat and banners. All are essential equestrian related equipment for the Battlefield or Tournament. With these items, a knight or man-at-arms was well on his way to being prepared for the battlefield. Of course, he is still lacking his armor, weapons, horse and saddle. This later equipment is the subject of a later project by this author in order to complete the ensemble.

Complete 12th C. Equestrian Kit

SOURCES:

Barber , Richard & Juliet Barker.  Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2000.
Boas,  Adrian J.   Crusader Archaeology: The Material Culture of the Latin East.(Routledge, 1999) available on GoogleBooks at  http://books.google.com/books?id=IKsJ‑aVmc1EC.
Bruhn,  Wolfgang, and Max Tilke.  A Pictorial History of Costume from Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century: With Over 1900 Illustrated Costumes, Including 1000 in Full Color, Courier Dover Publications, 2004, Available on GoogleBooks at http://books.google.com/books?id=m_r1PXTTkkYC
Dent,  Anthony Austen. The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974.
Illuminated Manuscripts, Medieval Hunting Scenes ("The Hunting Book" by Gaston Phoebus), trans. J Peter Tallon. Barcelona: Printer Industria Grafica, 1978.
Prawer,  Joshua. The World of the Crusaders. Quadrangle Books, 1972. Available on GoogleBooks, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Jun 9, 2008,
http://books.google.com/books?id=KslmAAAAMAAJ&q=crusader+surcoat&dq=crusader+surcoat&pgis=1.
Racinet, Auguste. "Le Costume Historique" and Racinet, Auguste Full‑Color Pictorial History of Western Costume: With 92 Plates Showing Over 950 Authentic Costumes from the Middle Ages to 1800. Aavailable from amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/048625464X/thecostumersmani
Wagner, Drobna, and Durdik.  Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 2000.
Website: Banners and Flags, March 2010, http://web.archive.org/web/20041109143141/http://homepage.mac.com/rhook/sablerose/grimoire/12_2.html
Website: :Clothing and Appearance of the Pagan Anglo‑Saxons, :24 Jan 2010, <http://mahan.wonkwang.ac.kr/link/med/england/anglo‑saxon/culture/dress.html
Website: Manesse Codex, Jan 2010, <http://www1.tip.nl/~t401243/mac/mac41rB.jpg
Website: Maciejowski Bible, Jan 2010,  http://www.keesn.nl/mac/mac_en.htm>