Hello beautiful hive-mind of the inter-webs!
Context : I've been a reenactor for 2 years and my group is doing 14th century (1375-1390 but flexible) Italian mercenary company, meaning we can do basically any cultural group because of the cosmopolitan nature of the country at the time. I want to move towards archery and I've got myself a recurve bow and might be getting into mounted archery soon!
Question : of all the archery and mounted archery culture, is there one at the time which uses pants? rather than the typical hose-braies combination that I see everywhere in the illustration?
I started looking into hungarian but I have a hard time getting good images of the time period. I'M looking for depiction of the time period or even written manuscripts. If you have pictures or a Pinterest Library you could direct me towards, that'd be awesome! I'll be getting into the rest of the clothing as well as armor soon enough, so if you've got info on that as well, I'll gladly take the help! Fabric type would also help me sew the thing together.
I'll keep trying to make internet magic happen, but if you can give me a hand, I'll give your comment bunch of fake internet points!
PS : I know reenacting is not finding ONE image which proves you are right, but i'm really uncomfortable for a full weekend wearing braes and hosen. I also want to do something a bit different than the rest of my group.
I'm going to be straight up with you. Normally we don't tell folks to ask better questions, as long as they are within the rules, but as someone who on occasion puts on funny clothes I feel the need to interrogate your question as well as answer it. By deciding that you're looking for something (pants wearing archers) and then asking for justification, you are going about things backwards. If reenacting is going to be an exploration of history, then it needs to be about deciding upon a portrayal and then building a portrayal from the bottom up, based on the best available evidence and your reasonable interpretation. By starting from the reality of a historical portrayal and then working our way out, we educate ourselves - not just learning facts about the past, but challenging our modern assumptions about how people can live and what they can wear and what they can eat. Going outside of your comfort zone as a modern person is essential for doing this. If you start with the facts as you see them and then base your portrayal on this, you will challenge yourself and encounter history in ways that you never will if you constrict yourself to your modern comfort zone. I don't know how many times I assumed something would be uncomfortable, or taste terrible, or feel weird, and then, when I tried it, it was fine, or even wonderful. Which is all to say, no, there weren't really people wearing 'pants' in Western Europe in the later 14th century. The mid-15th century sees the introduction of joined hose, which aren't -exactly- pants (more like woven leggings). My advice is to embrace the weirdness of the past and wear the hosen and braise and gown. You might be surprised to learn that you like it!