Interesting Article

**jgcunningham** · 29th June 09, 05:22 AM

Here's an interesting article from today's London Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...art-kilts.html

The article in full:

Historian Fergus Cannan states that the Scots armies who fought in battles like Bannockburn, and Flodden Field would have looked very different to the way they have traditionally been depicted.

Instead of kilts, he said they wore saffron-coloured tunics called "leine croich" and used a range of ingredients to get the boldest possible colours.

"What the Scottish soldiers wore in the country's greatest battles is an area that, up until now, has not been properly studied," he said.

"A lot of historians quite rightly stated that the film Braveheart was not terribly accurate, but what they didn't admit was that they didn't have a clue what would be accurate."

Mr Cannan, a military history specialist, who has traced his own roots back to Robert the Bruce, scoured original medieval eye-witness accounts, manuscripts, and tomb effigies.

Using these and other sources, he built up a picture of what members of Robert the Bruce's forces would have worn in 1314.

Numerous accounts cited by Mr Cannan in his new book, Scottish Arms and Armour, refer to the distinctive linen tunics, usually worn with a belt round the middle.

"Forget about the plaid and tartan," he said.

"The yellow war shirt is never shown in any film or popular image and yet it is something that all the original writers comment on."

Highlanders wore the tunics throughout the Middle Ages and right up until the end of the 16th Century, he said.

Because Saffron was expensive, poor clansmen dyed the linen with horse urine or bark and crushed leaves to get the rich yellow colour.

On top of the leine croich, they would wear a deerskin or cowhide jerkin, which would be waxed or dipped in pitch to make it waterproof.

Angus, Chief of Clan Chattan, recorded in 1572 that the "yellow war shirt" was still venerated by his people as "the badge of the Chieftaines".

Dr Clare Downham of Aberdeen University said that Mr Cannan's analysis fitted with her own knowledge of Celtic Scotland.

She said: "The tartan kilt as we know it today is part of a romantic and more modern imagining of Scotland's past."

The Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314, when Robert the Bruce's forces defeated a far larger invading English army, is widely seen as Scotland's greatest military triumph and secured the country's independence for centuries.

However, the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513 saw James IV's troops routed, with the king himself among the huge numbers of casualties.

**CactusJack** · 29th June 09, 05:31 AM

Actually, that is the much more common organized military organization's uniform.
The soldiers looked similar to the rest of western Europe, expect the Spanish who ALWAYS look different than ANYONE else. In eastern Europe, other eastern influences made the armour and arms take on a different look.
The Scots were one of the advanced nations of western Europe, even being called on for assistance by larger fellow nations.

The Scots were known and famous for their "saffron shirt," even though historians debate:
1) Was it actually saffron dyed , or was it just a yellow dyed shirt (what we would calll faux saffron)?
------ Some argue that saffron itself was heavily grown in Scotland, esp. as it was likely warmer there in the 800-1100/1200 than today (Greenland has farms with plowed fields from that period in what is now permafrost). So, actual saffron might not have been rare or imported in Scotland, just reserved for the domestic usage.
2) What shade would they have been? Mustard/Orange-ish brown? School bus/DOT yellow? Lemon yellow? Pale yellow?

The belted plaid is first recorded with certainty in the 1590s, almost 300 years after the Battle of Bannockburn.
The Woad/blue face paint was a feature of the Celtic peoples that fought the ROMANS in the first centuries AD. It was nearly a thousand years out of date for William Wallace and Robert Bruce.

The "revisionism" now is a return to a more traditional interpretation of history. The idea of kilted warriors emerged in the 19th century Romanticism writers, such as Sir Walter Scott and popularized enough to reshape popular imagination. "Braveheart" added the blue face paint and a NEVER before seen form of belted plaid in 1995. The costume person was hired SPECIFICALLY because they ignored tartans (see DVD commentary), though they seem to have also thought of Scotland as a severely backward and shabby third-world country . . . all of which has little to do with reality.
So, we have the fact-based histories, then 19th century revisionism that dated "modern" kilt ideas WAY too far back, then another revisionist layering after Braveheart (among popular writers, not historians), and now a "revisionist" movement that is actually quite close to 18th century and earlier writers . . .

The leine croich was replaced by other garments in the 1500s, as armour was replaced all over Europe. The fued-warriors wore practically modified variations of their normal civilian clothing.
In the 1600s and 1700s, the Clan Wars take the form we think of with swords, massive claymores (more symbolic than effective), muskets, and later with baskethilts and so forth wielded by kilt-clad warriors.

That said, there is plenty of evidence for tartan patterns used in fabrics from scraps and remnants found in digs. So, I wouldn't say that tartan didn't exist or wasn't used. Rather, I would say that it wasn't the main symbol used for Scots in war. THAT was the "saffron" shirt.

**Scotus** · 29th June 09, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by London Telegraph

A lot of historians quite rightly stated that the film Braveheart was not terribly accurate

I am shocked!

Shocked, that is, that it only states, "A lot" instead of "All."

Well, maybe the article will help to further educate the public when it comes to Highland dress in the Middle Ages.

**KFCarter** · 29th June 09, 12:33 PM

This is my daily "...a day never goes by without learning something interesting on X Marks" post!

**O'Callaghan** · 29th June 09, 03:07 PM

No great surprise. The leine croich was brought from Ireland by the Gaels, and the kilt eventually developped from the tartan cloaks they also wore, but with the pleats of the leine. They didn't wear any cloaks in battle, which would be why there is no mention of tartan in the accounts. This didn't cause any problem in identifying friend/foe, as they wore plant badges in their bonnets for that purpose. Most clan tartans were only established centuries later.

The colour of the leine croich would have been some shade of yellow, as linen absorbs dye poorly, and saffron was used because unlike other vegetable dyes it will impart a colour to linen, as opposed to doing nothing much atall. How bright it would have been I'm not sure. Someone should do an experiment with some saffron and some old linen tea towels! OTOH, the same substance turns other, more absorbent, fabrics an orange/brown hue.