Historical Reenactment

Writing with DeafNala about Teutonic Knights in my "Knight of the light" topic reminded me that some of the wargame's players (especially from historical wargames) are reenactors too. The owner of Mirliton Miniatures and twins from perry miniatures are reenactors too. And probably many others I don't know. Also I'm a reenactor, from 2009.

I reenact medieval from XII-XIII century. I'm member of the "Speculum Historiae" group which adheres to the "Coordinamento Milleduecento" a coordination of the group with more historical accuracy.
http://speculum-historiae.org/
http://www.coordinamentomilleduecento.it/

Here some pictures of my reenactment costumes:

Knight Hospitaller from 1180-1206

more pictures here:
http://fratersinister.deviantart.com/gallery/11010154

North-West Italy crossbowman (Montferrant-County of Savoy) about 1250

more pictures here:
http://fratersinister.deviantart.com/gallery/24769637

There are other reenactors in this forum too?

VERY COOL! Anyone who lays claim to being a War Gamer should hook up with a Reenactor long enough to swing a sword, wear some armor, load & fire a musket/blunderbuss/crossbow just to disspell some of the misconceptions that are all to prevalent in games. Years ago I was involved with the Brigade of the American Revolution...an enlightening & enjoyable experience.

That aside, the uniforms look SPECTACULAR. We had a few Guys on the Forum that were into Norse Reenactments. Having seen the Society of Creative Anachronism in action, I often wondered how some of them survive the weekends.  

Here a video of an event in Altopascio, near Lucca (Tuscany) where I was a crossbowman (you can see me in the middle of the video, on the right, while shooting during the battle):

That brings back memories for moi. Thanks for the post!  

Cool stuff! Thanks for posting.

Here a picture of myself with my friends of "Speculum Historiae" during a medieval reenacment event in Cassano D'adda (near Milan, Italy). I'm the guy with painted helm. There was a reenacment battle.

No matter when, where, or what period is involved, there is something very similar about all reenactment encampments...it probably has something to do with sleeping on the ground.
I wish I could show you some return photos, but I haven't been involved in the shows for more than 400 years...God that makes me feel old.  

And a picture of me during a roman event, like a pretorian of the first century (about 80 A.D.) of the Roman Empire. I'm member of "Associazione Culturale Cisalpina" that reenact pretorians from the COHORS III PRAETORIA thehttp://www.cisalpina.net/

I always associate Romans with red tunics; the white comes as a shock. I also associate Romans & suffering through translating Cicero...the Roman soldiery has unjustly been despised as a result. That aside, you are LOOKIN' GOOD! The shield is BEAUTIFUL!  

I always disliked how clean those clothes look.
it's like those outfits (inlcuding shields) just came out of the laundry

Captain Bernhardt wrote:

I always disliked how clean those clothes look.
it's like those outfits (inlcuding shields) just came out of the laundry

You would have love the Corps of Light Infantry Coy. I was once a part of. One of my first reenactments was at Short Hills, New Jersey...two days in the rain; camping on ground with a heavy base of clay. We were forever after referred to as The Mud Hens.  

That ancient or medieval warriors were always dirty is exaggerated. In those times it was really important to care about military equipment and clothes too... for discipline, hygiene, good morale (a clean warrior is always happier than a dirty warrior) and preservation of armaments. Especially romans care for be clean during and after battles. Only if they could be have no time for it they were with long beard and dirty clothes. But after a battle at least they tried to clean the weapons and armors... in medieval times too (but a little less). The pretorians were richer that the common roman legionary, so have usually different shields and tunics. For example the focale (the scarf) often was done in chinese silk, bought usually from parthians that trade with chinese.

Agreed. I'm not claiming that because they are medieval that they should be coverd in mud.
WHat you say about weapons and armour is even more true. It is important that they take care for it.

What I regret is the other end of the spectrum. That Roman linen looks like it's been washed with a 'whiter than white' formula and the shield looks like it's straight out from the factory. It looks 'new' to me. That stuff can look clean without looking new if you get what I mean? The colours could be muted, it could be frayed at the edges. Don't get me wrong I think those are beautifull outfits, I just think they could look better if they looked a little more 'used'

as an example: take a look at the middle crossbowman: his leathers are smooth and without wrinkels, his linen are bright colours (that green is just awefull) and the white is speckless. The guy on the far right in contrast doesn't look like he just bought a new outfit.  The colours are muted, the helmet looks older but he still looks well groomed.

Only after several events the clothes and equipment have a look less "clean" but the dirty come only during a fight, with sweat and dust (my shoes were really dirty after the battle, so the clothes). Remember however that medieval age was a colorful age, in a time with few people writing and reading colour was really important for its symbolic meaning. Just look on the Maciejowski bible or code manesse for have an idea of it, like this picture:

The painting of helmets was common too, for heraldry needs and protecting of metal from rust.
Maybe the green of the Chausses are a little too bright for my medieval crossbowman, I could do it a little darker. And for the gambeson, well I washed it because it was too dirty after using a chainmail with too much oil. But it will be to a tolerable level of dirt soon
I suggest some books about medieval reenacment of high level:
"La vie d'un chevalier 1171-1252" trad: The life of a knight, 1171-1252 (available in french or english language)
http://livres.histoireetcollections.com/en/publication/2123/the-life-of-a-knight-1171-1252-from-philippe-auguste-to-saint-louis.html
and "Adla Magione del Tau" only available in italian language, but with many pictures:
http://www.coordinamentomilleduecento.it/coordinamento-mille&duecento-progetti-M&D-adla.asp