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successful decades of the later 14th century. Armies consisted of companies recruited by lettres de retenue, supported by similarly Professional crossbow-armed infantry and by militia units from selected towns. Local infantry also tended to (lock to the colours to protect their own region. Meanwhile parallel military structnres had developed in autonomous duchies such as Brittany and Burgundy.

Symbols and livery

ABOVE LEFT Early 14th century French sword (Daehnhardt Coli.) ABOVE 14th century French knife (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg)

LEFT Mid-15th century Italian sword (Sullivan Coli.)

One of King John’s ideas which was not revived was that of secular military orders as a focus of loyalty. His successor Charles V had little interest in chivalry, while Charles VI developed other methods of cementing loyalty. Meanwhile there was a slow movement towards some form of ‘national’ military insignia. At the start of the Hundred Years War insignia were still strictly feudal; hut only a few years later Jean, Comte d’Armagnac, ordę red all nobles and their followers to wear a white cross on their clothes. This white cross was again mentioned later in the 14th century, and was worn by French Royalist forces against the Burgundians in 1414. It appeared even morę frequendy by the mid-15th century, when it was contrasted with the red cross of the English and the black cross of the Bretons. In the 1370s the long-established emhlem of the French Royal family, the jleurs-dedys, was reduced to three flowers (the arms of ‘France modern’) instead of the previous scattering of many across a shield or banner.

Another very important ensign was the ońftamme, a plain blood-red banner which served as the almost sacred flag of France itself.

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