This Is How You’d Tell Friend From Foe in the English Civil War

In this video, Louee from Survive History explains how coloured sashes or scarves were used to designate allegiance in the English Civil War. Still, the system wasn't perfect. While Parliamentarian soldiers wore orange, the Royalists generally chose red.

[Quincy_Morris]

“Well he’s either a royalist or a wounded Parliamentarian”

[levijackson]

Soldier: Officer! There are men rallying upon the hill!
Officer: Oh, what color are their scarves?
Soldier: Uh, something like a vermilion... or maybe a cinnabar? Red-ish orange or maybe an orange-ish red.

[Dead_Again]

You wash your sheet one too many times and immediately catch a sword from one of your boys.

[ChocorocK]

Must have been hard for a colorblind soldier.

[Ulubai]

Worrying about friendly fire in a civil war is somehow amusing and i can't really put why into words

[captainbackflash]

I would have choosen other colours. I think Orange and Peach would have done the trick!

[silvermann]

I'm always surprised that English Civil War rod face protection wasn't widespread. It seems like an efficient and super cheap way to protect your face against cutting attacks. Not for lunges, but it would be a way to provide considerable facial protection to many troops without spending too much money.

[rogerd.]

Reminds me of how Ukrainian and Russian soldiers use coloured tape today. Both sides are using similar equipment and camouflage is hard to distinguish when they can get worn out, dirty, and in the heat of battle.

[thomasdenkers]

Imagine your commander going “so i got this book everyone keeps talking about. Lets give it a go shall we? Maybe we can find something they wont expect!”

[hellcat]

Why would they pick two of the most easily confusable colors? Like some reds are barely indistinguishable from orange.

[nonameronin]

The uniforms of the American Civil War produced a similar problem. Both sides used a similar design and blue and gray look very similar while you're fighting in a haze of gunpowder smoke or the dim of twilight.

[void-creature]

I adore the little headshake after "...chose red."

[bakersmileyface]

Given enough time I imagine both sides would be wearing red anyway

[EnglandVersus]

Fun fact: In proportion to population, the English civil war was more deadly than WW1.

[AnEnemySpy]

It was always my understanding that Cromwell's side had the round helmets and the Royalists all wore fabulous hats.

[hatuletoh]

Reminds me of the American Civil War, in which the Confederate States went through...six, I think? iterations of a national flag in part because their initial designs looked a hell of a lot like the US stars and stripes flag carried by Northern units, especially when observed through field binoculars at artillery distance by a nervous junior officer, and probably even more so when coated in the dust kicked up my thousands of marching men. The desire to avoid the friendly fire incidents of the early war also lead to the development of the Southern "stars and bars" battle flag that is now much better known than the actual Confederate national flag(s), and is distinctly dissimilar to the American flag.

[roguishpaladin]

Armigers: "We TOLD you that orange as a heraldic color was a bad idea!"

[Feuerspray]

I would've thought purple for royalists, but that's just me.

[gsp]

The wives definitely picked the these are the same colour as the Earl's forces!" "POPPYCOCK!! This is 'Ginger orange' and thine enemies are clad in 'Coral'!"

[OnePlusOneEqualsOnePlusOne]

The one with the purple gone bankrupt first before any battle was able to be done