Re-enactment / historical question

[LANCER1562]

Tetley,

I am a member of a living history re-enactment guild, as noted in my signature. We recreate the court of Mary Stewart circa 1562 and are fairly relaxed as far as being historically acurate. For example: alot of the men in our guild who portray soldiers of the Queen"s military wear great kilts (usually solid black, which was hard to come by in the 15th and 16th centuries), our Guild Master refers to himself as the Queen's brother, James Stewart, Prince of Scotland (James Stewart, the Earl of Moray was her ilegitamate half-brother and would have had no claim to the throne), the woman who portrays Mary is 46 years old (historically speaking, at this age, Mary has been dead for at least two years).

On the other hand, we play whith guilds that are part of SCA and they are rabidly historically acurate. ie: Only the Queen wore purple, the kilt wasn't worn until MUCH later, etc. As has been suggested, go and have fun.

Robert

[Woodsheal]

Talk to these fine folks:

http://www.fireandsword.org/home%20page.html

[sirdaniel1975]

Fashion changes over time for all kinds of reasons. Many things contribute to the reasons for people whom wear what it is what they wear...

From W.H Murray's "Rob Roy MacGregor" Chap 3 The Barefoot Years 1673-1684 page 31:

Section on Spring

"The Springs came late, for Scotland was suffering an oscillation of climate that had brought the greatest cold since the Ice Age. It reached the worst between 1550 and 1700 with a vast expansion of Arctic pack ice. The sea-temperatures off Scotland in Winter slumped to 3°C (5° below present).

copyright is from 1982

Not saying this is the reason for the belted plaid, but I'm sure it is a major contribution to the use.

[PGH]

I am a member of a living history re-enactment guild, as noted in my signature. We recreate the court of Mary Stewart circa 1562 and are fairly relaxed as far as being historically acurate. For example: alot of the men in our guild who portray soldiers of the Queen"s military wear great kilts (usually solid black, which was hard to come by in the 15th and 16th centuries), our Guild Master refers to himself as the Queen's brother, James Stewart, Prince of Scotland (James Stewart, the Earl of Moray was her ilegitamate half-brother and would have had no claim to the throne), the woman who portrays Mary is 46 years old (historically speaking, at this age, Mary has been dead for at least two years).

I don't mean to be contentious here, I'm finding this thread quite interesting, but isn't it a contradiction to say you are a "living history re-enactment guild" and then state you don't care too much about accuracy?

Do you tell your audience which bits are fibs so they don't go off thinking the inaccurate bits are, well, accurate? Isn't the purpose of these groups to dispel the myths and inaccuracies that have made their way into popular culture?