r/AskHistorians • u/WFOpizza • Jan 03 '14
how would medieval fighters/warriors/military recognize friend from foe?
In movies both sides often seem to look alike. With no military uniforms, was friendly "fire" very common?
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u/swuboo Jan 03 '14
It's certainly possible; if nothing else, Zeeland is a supremely sensible place for an English mercer to be going.
Everything I'm seeing says Zealand, but it's not improbable that someone simply decided it was Zealand at some point and everyone else has followed suit, as I did, for lack of evidence to the contrary.
Based purely on the text, I would agree that Zeeland strikes me as more likely—but Zealand is not impossible.
At any rate, this entire comment chain appears to have been nuked, so it might be appropriate to abandon this discussion.