From the Workshop

Medieval Shield Research

Research notes on how medieval shields were actually built, grounded in surviving evidence.

Detail of a nineteenth-century engraving of a medieval equestrian seal: a rider in a flat-topped helmet carries a triangular shield bearing a lion and a lance with a pennon, above a horse's head and part of the Latin lettering of the rim.

Přemysl Ottokar II: The Lion of Bohemia on a King's Seal

Přemysl Ottokar II, King of Bohemia, died on the Marchfeld in 1278. His two-sided seal shows him riding with a lion shield on one face and the Austrian band on the other. What do the seal and the armorials establish about his shield, and what must a reconstruction leave open?

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Old black-and-white photograph of a round wax seal: a standing duke in a mail coat and pointed helmet holds a banner on a long staff and carries a shield at his side, inside a ring of Latin lettering.

Henry I the Bearded: The Shield of a Silesian Piast Duke

An early thirteenth-century seal preserves the shield emblem of Henry I the Bearded (c.1165/70–1238), one of medieval Poland's most powerful rulers: a crescent with a cross. What does the seal reveal, and how much of his shield can responsibly be reconstructed?

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Matthew Paris's drawing of William Marshal's shield, turned the right way up from his inverted original: a red lion rampant on a field divided into pale and green halves, cropped from the manuscript page and set on a plain parchment-coloured background.

William Marshal: Reconstructing the Shield of the Greatest Knight

What did the shield of William Marshal (c.1147–1219) actually look like? Matthew Paris's drawings, Marshal's own seal, the Temple Church effigy and the surviving shields from Oña, Seedorf and Szczecin show what can be known about his gold, green and red lion arms, and what a maker has to interpret.

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Black-and-white detail of the shield of Konrad von Thüringen, c.1230–1240: the head, raised forepaws and curling tail of a relief lion on a worn surface with cracks, losses and small holes.

Protective Coatings, Repair, Ageing and Wear of Medieval Shields

Were medieval shields varnished, oiled or waxed, and what happened when their paint cracked, their edges broke or their straps wore out? The Seedorf, Konrad von Thüringen and Behaim shields show how hard it is to separate medieval use from centuries of later deterioration, repainting and restoration.

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Reverse of a modern shieldwright.eu shield lined in red linen: two crossed leather straps (the enarmes) fixed through square metal washers, over a broad leather arm pad tacked along its edges, with the iron-bound rim at the edge.

Rear Straps, Guige, Padding and Attachment Geometry

The reverse of a medieval shield connects its wooden structure to the bearer. Surviving straps, leather bridges and attachment traces on the Seedorf, Marburg and Karl von Trier shields reveal parts of that system, but complete layouts and padding details often require interpretation.

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About twenty modern square iron washers with hammered, bevelled faces and a round central hole, scattered on a pale stone surface.

How Were Medieval Shield Washers Made? What the Surviving Fittings Can and Cannot Show

The small iron plates fitted over the leather straps on the backs of surviving medieval shields: what they were for, the square sheet-iron plates described at Seedorf, the round washers recorded at Marburg, what medieval metalworking sources say about cutting and piercing sheet metal, and what no one has yet established about how any of them was made.

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Late-12th-century wooden shield from Szczecin, built from several vertical planks with traces of red paint, shown whole on a museum display mount.

What Were the Parts of a Medieval Shield Actually Called?

Escu, guige, enarmes and boucle are shield words found in 12th- and 13th-century Old French; umbo is the Latin term for the boss. "Core", "facing", "ground", "cushion" and "edge binding" are modern labels. Traced through the Chanson de Roland, Wace and Chrétien, the Anglo-Norman Dictionary and surviving shields from Szczecin, Sion and Innsbruck.

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Nineteenth-century line drawing of strap remains on the back of a medieval shield: leather strap ends held by nails whose points are bent over small square iron plates, beside rows of nail holes.

How Were Medieval Shield Handles Fixed? Nails, Rivets and Washers on Surviving Medieval Shields

How the leather straps of medieval shields were actually fastened, traced across surviving shields from Seedorf to Steinau-Steinrück: front-entering nails, square and round washers on the reverse, gilt rosette washers under the heads on one shield's face, clenched and peened ends, and leather covers over the metal — and why there was no single medieval shield washer.

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Nineteenth-century black-and-white photograph of the Stromberg shield from the Elisabethkirche in Marburg, around 1300: three birds modelled in relief on a diapered upper field, a vine scroll with large rosettes on the lower field, and much of the decorated ground flaked away to the smooth surface beneath.

How Was a Medieval Shield Actually Painted? From Ground to Finished Heraldry

From wooden core to finished heraldry: how surviving medieval shields were actually decorated, tracing facing, ground, relief, metallic leaf and paint across the surviving shields from Seedorf and Marburg to Sion and Oña — and why "painted shield" understates the craft.

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Nineteenth-century black-and-white photograph of the upper left corner of the Helfenberg shield from the Elisabethkirche in Marburg, around 1300: relief scrolls and a diapered ground end at a worn edge, where the surface layers have broken away and what appears to be wood grain shows at the corner.

How Were the Edges of Medieval Shields Treated?

A chronological study of shield-edge and perimeter construction across the surviving shields I have researched, from the woven organic reinforcement at Lenzen to the mitred and nailed parchment turnover at Welfenberg-Helfenberg — and why "rim" may be the wrong way to picture the medieval shield edge.

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Detail of the late-12th-century Szczecin shield: dark vertical wooden planks with patchy traces of bright red paint across their surface.

How Were Medieval Shields Painted? Paints, Pigments and the Medieval Shield Surface

What paints and pigments were used on medieval shields? Follow surviving shields from the 11th century to the end of the Middle Ages through red paint, chalk grounds, vermilion, orpiment, blue fields, silver leaf, gilding and relief decoration.

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Nineteenth-century black-and-white photograph catalogued as the Steinau genannt Steinrück shield from the Elisabethkirche in Marburg, around 1300: three wheels modelled in relief, two above one, on a diapered ground with small medallions, with much of the decorated surface flaked away.

Did Medieval Shields Use Gesso? Grounds and Preparation Layers on Surviving Medieval Shields

A study of chalk grounds, gypsum, gesso, stucco and modelled relief across surviving medieval shields — testing what actually lay beneath the paint, from the painted Szczecin shield's lime-white layer to the modelled chalk grounds of the Marburg shields.

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shieldwright.eu diagram, "What Lay Over the Wood? Four surviving shields. None was universal.": four exploded stacks of layers over wood, one for each named shield. Paint on wood (Szczecin): black, white and red layers on the wood. Parchment (Keseberg): parchment, a white ground and black paint over linden boards. Leather (Steinau): leather, a white ground and painted heraldry over linden boards. Linen (Bartolomei): linen over two crossed willow layers, a dashed outline where a ground is not established, and red-and-gold checky arms.

What Covered Medieval Shield Wooden Cores?

A chronological history of medieval shield-covering evidence across surviving shields, from the unfaced 11th-century core at Lenzen to the re-covered 15th-century pavois at Sion.

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Diagram titled "How the Boards Met" showing two plank joints in cross-section, one above the other: above, two boards meeting on a sloping glued edge, labelled "Bevelled and glued, Seedorf, angle not recorded"; below, two boards meeting on a square edge, labelled "Square edges, Szczecin, no dowels reported".

How Were Medieval Shield Planks Joined?

A chronological study of surviving shields, from the 11th-century laminated core at Lenzen to the late-medieval Oña shields, testing what square edges, bevelled edges, dowels, tenons and cross-lamination actually prove.

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Generated illustration, not a photograph: a kite-shaped shield core made from several vertical planks, before facing or paint, leaning against a workbench.

How Did Medieval Shield Core Construction Develop?

Wood species, board counts, thickness, grain and curvature in surviving medieval shields, from the 11th-century laminated core at Lenzen to the 15th-century pavois at Sion and the Oña shields, possibly later still.

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