Western medieval army kits 9th and 10th centuries

[legado]

Hey everyone!

I was watching the history channel series “Vikings”, and although I’m aware of its many good points, there are some historical inaccuracies I just can’t forgive.
My main gripe is the lack accurate armor and helmets in the Viking inventory.

Thanks to the abundant material available (books, illustrations, museums) It’s a very easy to spot the mistakes.

Recently I watched the episode were they attack Paris and you see 9th century Frankish infantry but to me they look a bit to “normandish” :errr: and that made wonder…
Images of the equipment:

http://imgur.com/a/ggsB8

Do we have any real idea of how 9th century and 10th century mainland western European armies equipped themselves?

Most reconstructions I can find are for Saxon, Viking and Byzantines troops but I really never find anything on Franks or Italians for example.

I always wanted to know if Italian troops from byzantine Sicily looked different from the Carolingian influenced part and if the “papal guard/armies” had any special equipment.

So I’m basically asking for info on any books on the subject, reconstructions or drawings.
My emphasis is on Italian and Frankish infantry.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks! :-)

[Dan Howard]

There aren't many books worth reading. None of the Osprey material is much good. There are a few prmary texts worth looking at: the Capitulare Missorum, and the Capitulary of Aachen are the main two. Basically armour included mainly mail and a little scale. It was restricted to wealthy landholders and a few favoured officers. The rest wore no armour at all. FWIW this was the situation in Scandinavia at the time as well so both sides are wearing essentially the same gear. Most of the mail was made by the Franks and sold north. Charlemagne tried to keep mail for his own troops and prohibited it from being sold without permission