Gerry and Julie's Landsknecht Site
14th-16th c. Military Tents
by Julie Adams
European Military Tents 14th - 16th centuries
This was a from a thread on Period Tents from the rec.org.sca newsgroup:
I have been researching "just the right" tent for my family.
We are interested in a large rectangular or oval tent
suitable for 15th and 16th century re-enactment. We have been
shopping for a new tent for ourselves, and there are some
things we want in a tent which is not available in any of
the commercial styles we have found so far that would be more
in keeping with the more popular styles of Renaissance
tentage. We prefer a tent with a roof that is close to 50% of
the height of the structure, while most commercially
available tents have a roof that is about 1/3 the height of
the entire structure thus making the roof angles not as steep
as we desire. The other difference that I noticed was that
most of the commercially made large oval or rectangular tents
have a roof ridge beam that is shorter than is shown in most
period examples of this type of tent. There also are several
tent styles which I haven't seen available in commercial
tentage at all, so I think we may be sending out design plans
and asking for bids for a custom tent.
There was a discussion on nylon vs canvas. I have seen a lot
of people make nylon "pavilions" in the SCA. Someone once
told me that it was "simulating silk". I just wanted to point
out that the silk used for tents would not likely have been
the weight or drape of nylon. The one silk tent I saw in
person (in an Ottoman Turk exhibit) could just as well have
been made from cotton canvas. Two reasons I did hear for
avoiding nylon was weeping in rain and the heat I am in total
agreement with. Also I wanted to point out from experience
that people can sunburn right through the lighter colors of
nylon and that nylon just doesn't last as long as canvas. I
have known canvas tents to last for 20 years with decent
care. I have seen nylon pavilions with much less and easier
duty sometimes last only 1/3 of that time in our Southern
California heat and sun.
This information was gleaned from personal library. I don't
have that much information on Military Tents prior to the
14th century or from areas outside central Europe, though I
did see some examples which are noted. Noticeable absent in
my library was an example of a simple single-peaked square
tent.
The following styles were found in various single-leaf
woodcuts, illuminations, and paintings of warfare in the
Middle Ages and Renaissance. The most comprehensive
selection was found in "Medieval Warfare", (MW) by HW Koch,
1995, Barnes and Noble Publishers and "Artists and Warfare in
the Renaissance" (A&W) by J.R. Hale, 1990, Yale University
Press. Unless otherwise indicated, examples of this tent
style were found in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in
central Europe.
Most roofed styles were found with and without tension ropes.
When there are ropes, each one staked to the ground comes out
of the roof at 2 to 3 points usually looking like a "Y".
* = Very common
Conical-Roofed Round Tents - These are the most common tents
shown in all periods and have one center pole. The tension
is either created via ropes going from the edge of the roof
to the ground or via and internal or external stiff structure
going around the edge of the roof. The sides are sometimes
sewn to the roof, but sometimes they are clearly separate
pieces, as shown in "An Army Breaking Camp", Giovanni
Bettini, A&W, page 79.
- with taught sloping sides * (also 13th cent. & seen in
Ottoman Turks)
- with taught straight sides * - Commercially available
- with draped sloping sides (lots of gathered fabric)
- with draped straight sides (lots of gathered fabric)
(also 13th cent.)
(The tops for any of these can be purchased separately from
some manufacturers.)
Conical non-roofed Tents - These tents also have one pole.
They are kept taught from the tension of the sides staked to
the ground. Some of these tents are short and wide and look
like the roof of the one of the tents described above staked
directly on the ground. Some are tall and narrow and have a
similar profile to American Indian teepees, but they do not
have the smoke hole/flaps common to that style of tent. It
might be pretty cheap to get a commercial manufacturer of
Teepees to modify one into this style.
Oval Tents - Commercially available, but commercial ones
require many side poles.
Rectangular Tents -
- Straight sided Wall tents - Commercially available in the
low roofed model, but requires many side poles. This style
has a roof with two sloping sides and two flat sides.
- Sloping sided Wall tent *- This tent has two sides where
the roof and the walls slope out and two sides which are flat.
(13th Cent.)
-Trapezoid *- This style has a very long ridge, but all
sides slope out.
Other Marquee styles -
- Rectangular center section with rounded ends *
- Rectangular center section 5 sided ends
- Rectangular center section 3 sided ends
A-Frame Tents -
- A-Frame with short wall - Commercially available
- A-Frame to ground * - shown with walls straight from beam
to ground and with an internal structure pushing the sides out
about 2' from the ground. Commercially available
- French Officer's Bell - (shown in MW pg. 170 late 15th
cent.) Commercially available.
- Baker Tent - (shown in A&W pg. 20, from "The encampment of
Charles the IV at Ingolstadt" Hans Meilich, 1549)
Commercially available
- Lean-to - Basically a tarp hung or draped over a stick.
Some Styles which would be really hard to engineer -
- Onion Dome Roofed Round
- Dome Roofed Round
- Layer-cake Rectangular or Round - This style looks almost
like two tents on top of each other from the side. The roof
section is in 3 "layers". They would be complex to
engineer.
Not Seen - Square tents with a single pointed peak (but are
commercially available.)
Cloth sunshades are shown on boat decks in "Battle of
Lepanto" 1571, MW, pg. 214/215 with lovely scalloped and
upside-down minaret dags on the sloped sides. These sunshades
have a center beam and two side beams which give an internal
structure. There are also is one rounded one in this picture
and some rounded ones which look to have an internal
structure something like the top of a covered wagon in
another woodcuts I have in my library.
None of my examples show any indication of using upright
poles around the roof edge which is commonly seen in
commercial "period" tent manufacturer and SCA designs. The
most common tent shown is the round tent using one center
pole. Most of the tent styles were depicted with both sloped
sides and vertical sides. The slope ranged from almost
vertical to an angle steeper than the roof slope. Because many parts
of mainland Europe have pine trees available, it is possible
that armies may not have carried all the poles needed for the
whole camp with them. Other weather protection shown are
many A Frame and lean-to structures made of pole or plank
wood.
From the color pictures I have, the most common color for a
tent is a white or natural (undyed) color. Semi-common are
red, pink, light blue and cobalt blue. Less common are
green, dark blue, brown, black, gray, maroon/rust, and
multicolored. Many are painted with elaborate designs,
usually at least running along the seams, but often with
ornate scrollwork around the top and bottom edges of the roof
and sides. The most common edging on the roof was a straight
strip of cloth, often ornately decorated or painted. The
second most common was no edging on the roof (where sides and
roof was attached), but this was often elaborately painted.
The next most common was rounded dags or scallops. These
ranged from very wide scallops (about 2' wide) to very narrow
(about 4" wide). These ranged from about 4" to 1' deep. No
examples of the undulating scallops available from most
commercial manufacturers was seen. Fringe, tassels and
filigree woodwork or metalwork was also shown extensively
around the roof edge and sometimes along the ridge.
There are finials shown on the peaks of round style tents and
at the ends of the ridge beams. Finials are most often cone
shaped with a round tip, but are also shown in more complex
designs. Often a decorative filigree runs along the top of
the ridge beam.
Julianna
Copyright ( Julia A. Adams, 1996 All Rights Reserved
This document may be distributed in entirety or in part as
long as reference to the author is retained and the copies
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