Blast from the past

After the previous, somewhat cryptic entry (although cryptic only to the poor sods who didn't see Shaun of the Dead, an error they must immediately rectify), I felt it was time to write something here again.

In the past week I spent a lot of time at the municipal library researching the details of the sieges of Maastricht in 1407 and 1408. On Tuesday I borrowed two books there concerning the military history of Liège, which had to be called up from storage. I could only borrow them for three weeks, however (normal borrowing length six weeks) because no doubt they just love gathering dust. The books are both in French and make up lessons three and four of my DIY French course.
Anyway, I gathered a considerable amount of data, and now know that, for example, the citizen-soldiers in the militia (schutterij) of sint Joris in Maastricht had to wear yellow leather trousers (probably hoses), a cloth, long-sleeved shirt, a leather tunic over it (as body armour) and a leather or metal helmet. All in all, that's not terribly good protection and I can only pity these poor men - however, as they had to pay for the equipment themselves it was probably best for their purses that expensive iron armour was lacking.
I also browsed through a list with all the mayors of Maastricht (they used to change annually and there would be two each year, one representing Liège and the other representing Brabant), and apparently one of the mayors was called God. Although perhaps the scribe just shortened his name from Godaard or something. In any case, he must have made some impression. At least with me.
I also discovered that in 1407 the ridge from the castle Lichtenberg to the Maas was not yet steep, which means that there'll be no abseiling done after all. Sorry lads.