[Regia-NA] Those pesky Normans

[list-regia-na@lig.net]

Hi,
I'm sure there are others with more detailed opinions
on Normans around, but I'll share a few thoughts:

>   Would he have used a round or kite shield? and 
Much of the pictorial evidence indicates that by the
later 11th century most soldiers, maybe you could
qualify it with most 'professional' soldiers were,
using kite shields.  

> and were phrygian caps strictly Saxon or would they
worn by Normans as well?
A number of people who have looked into the origin of
the phrygian cap assert that it is an artistic
convention.  My opinion is out on that, these days. 
There are some pictures of them, but almost always in
military situations (that is, it doesn't seem to be
something you wear around the house).  Also all the
illuminations I can think of predate the battle of
hastings by several hundred years, so I'm not sure that
even if they had been a fashion at one time, that they
still were by the mid-late 11th c.

What do you think?

Tom