Hi
I’ve seen plenty of definitions for ‘livery’ online but none for ‘livery soldiers’ which I’ve read about.
I presume they were medieval soldiers wearing their lord’s livery(emblems/colors). Is there more to it than that?
I look forward to your feedback
definition of livery:
http://steventill.com/2009/07/31/medieval-history-term-of-the-week-livery/
The tunic worn by a servant or follower of a lord, being in the colors of the lord’s arms and bearing his badge. (Wise, Terence. Medieval Warfare, 249)
IDK, but it seems to me it would be akin to the Calvary.
The question is complicated by the fact that “livery” on its own has a couple of different senses.
There’s livery, distinctive clothing or uniform as worn by, e.g. the servants of a particular lord, the members of a college or one of the City of London’s livery companies. Obviously a soldier in uniform can be considered to be wearing livery.
There’s livery, the food, provisions or clothing provided to retainers/servants, or even the lodgings provided for them. Military rations/barracks accommodation would be a military analogy.
There’s livery, the act of delivering something. This is obsolete in English - it still turns up in a few archaic legal phrases - but I’m guessing that the other sense are derived from this one. Your uniform is livery because your employer supplies it to you; likewise your rations, work-related accommodation, etc. “Livery stables” are so called because they provide stabling, fodder etc to your horse (for a charge to you, obviously).
So, putting all this together, “livery soldier” could refer to a a regular/professional soldier, one who is issued with a uniform and weapons, is accommodated in barracks, etc., as opposed to a temporary fighter who participates (or is pressed into participating) in a particular action or campaign, who fights in his own clothes and supplies his own sword/club/pitchfork, and who will depart as soon as the action is over (or sooner, if he gets the chance).
I doubt that it refers to cavalry in particular; allthough livery stables are (obviously) associated with horses, never with cavalry horses, since cavalry units will have their own stabling arrangements and will rarely if ever have recourse to livery stables.
I believe in medieval history it specifically refers to a soldier in the retinue of a Lord. Basically they weren’t all that different to modern gang colors. When rival lords were in town at the same time, thier livery soldiers of the different lords would often get to fighting. This is also the origin of many English pub names, that refer to the livery of a particular Lord (and so avoid that kind if trouble by ensuring only that lords livery soldier would go there)
The only way I ever see livery being used today is for race cars where you are referring to the colors or logos of their sponsors. i.e. a Ford GT40 wearing Gulf livery. Thus, wearing the colors of your sponsor.
Dennis
Thanks UDS. Could ‘livery’ soldier be a variation or perhaps a misspelling of ‘liveried’ soldier?
A livery soldier would just be a soldier wearing their lord’s livery. Probably the most iconic extant example would be the uniform of the Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London.
ETA - It’s not a misspelling, just variant usage. See also: livery company.
Yeah, it’s simply using as an adjective a word which in other situations would be a noun. English words tend to be much more grammatically-flexible than those from other Indo-European languages; it’s quite common to have words which are noun and verb, adjective and adverb, or as in this case, adjective and noun.
Any vehicle which has branding on the side - even your local plumber’s van - has ‘livery’ on it. It’s just a uniform, which has now morphed in branding.
I always remember from history classes at school that Henry VII firmly established his rule at the end of the Wars of the Roses by restricting the number of ‘liveried servants’ any baron could retain (I want to say 12) - effectively breaking up rival armies (read: threats) amongst his warring nobles.
One Lord got into trouble with him when he showed off an impressive liveried guard of honour, I forget who.
davidmich, could you quote the passage from the book/article/blog/talk with someone/whatever that you found the phrase “livery soldiers” in? Also give us the reference to the URL/book and page/magazine and page/place and time of the talk/whatever so we can put the phrase in context? That would be very helpful.
The point about medieval livery soldiers is that they were full-time professional uniformed soldiers, loyal to one particular lord. Their lord supported and paid them, and they would fight for him against anyone, including the king.
The old west “Livery stable”, horse/animal care!
Some codes, like Ohio, renamed now, but “Defrauding a Livery or Hostelry”.
Livery soldier, to me would mean a Stable/tack person (s), in charge of the King’s Horses, gear, etc.
One point that hasn’t been made yet is that many soldiers in the Middle Ages were mercenaries, fighting for whoever paid them the most. Someone else comes along with a higher offer, they’d go and work for that fine gentleman. Soldiers in livery would be (theoretically) loyal only to the lord whose colors they were wearing.
Yeah they were a sign of the strength of the aristocracy over the monarchy (as their loyalty was to the lord represented by their livery, not to the king), as well as being a cause of instability and violence (as rival retinues would regularly devolve into violence). So whenever the monarch was in a position of strength they would crack down on them, ultimately the Tudors were strong enough, for long enough, for do away with them, for the most part, permanently.
They connection with a horses and horse racing is a later invention. Long after aristocrats were no longer allowed to have actual military retinues, their horses and carriages would still carry their livery. This is also why the term is used in motor racing (and vehicles generally)
I’ll buy that!
No, the sense in which “livery” is used in “livery stable” has nothing to do with “livery” as in “insignia”, other than coming from the same root sense of livrée. It derives from a term for a measure of horse feed.
Of course, we are overlooking that a livery soldier could just be a soldier who was very sanguine…
Yo, medieval soldiers gotta represent!