Fiction Fixation: Collecting treasures of civil war that only took place on screen
Spotlighting the fictional military uniforms, Mk4 helmets and fascist-inspired imagery of the 1995 film Richard III, starring Ian McKellen.
The 1970 film Cromwell chronicled the 17th-century English Civil War fought between the Royalist faction of King Charles I and the Parliamentarian forces. The costumes were critically acclaimed and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, yet were actually historically inaccurate in several ways. In the film, the Royalist forces were dressed largely in red, even as those troops rarely had standardized uniforms. It was actually the Parliamentarians’ New Model Army that famously first wore the standardized “red coats” that are now so iconic with the British military.
However, another film depicting the final phase of an earlier English conflict also has striking uniforms that are all the more impressive as they were entirely fictionalized, yet still maintain some ties to the actual history. This is the 1995 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s famed play Richard III.
Directed by Richard Loncraine, the adaptation transplants the 15th century’s Wars of the Roses to the 1930s, blending Art Deco style with visual parallels to the aesthetics of the fascist movements of the era, notably Italy and Nazi Germany. Although some might find the reimagining of the conflict to the era to be unfaithful to the source material, it should be noted that Shakespeare took numerous historical liberties with the play – as well as with the preceding Henry VI Parts I & II.
There is a very good reason for this.
The Bard wrote those plays about the war for the English throne during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the granddaughter of Henry Tudor who infamously defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to become King Henry VII. Shakespeare carefully crafted the narrative to align with the accepted Tudor view of history at the time, and the play even served to legitimize the queen’s right to rule.
From Major General to Fascist Chic
In the opening scene of the movie, which doesn’t appear in the play, King Henry VI and his son Edward, Prince of Wales, of the House of Lancaster are depicted wearing uniforms that closely resembled those of British general officers of the period.
As the Wars of the Roses were a dynastic struggle for the throne rather than a civil war that resulted in an entirely new form of government, not much changed in the way the average soldier or knight dressed when the throne passed to King Edward IV, the son of Richard, Duke of York, Henry’s first cousin once removed (with both tracing their lineage to King Edward III). The 1995 film plays into this very well, as Richard, Duke of Gloucester – brother of King Edward IV and later himself King Richard III – initially wears a British-style
military uniform.
Later, as he plots his rise to power, his faction’s uniforms subtly mimic that of Nazi Germany, notably the SS. This allows the characters to strut in tailored wool jackets, jack boots, and even leather greatcoats that replace the historical medieval armor. Ian McKellen’s portrayal of Richard III also served to mirror that of Adolf Hitler, with a slicked-down side-part of his hair and a thin mustache.
By contrast, Henry Tudor’s forces are outfitted with British World War II-era and early Cold War-era uniforms. Dominic West, who played Henry Tudor, can be seen before the climactic Battle of Bosworth Field wearing the British Royal Navy’s No. 3C dress with a beret.
The striking 1930s military aesthetic was brought to the screen by costume designer Shuna Harwood, who received a BAFTA nomination for Best Costume Design for her work on the film.
The design elements continue to the iconography, with Richard III’s banners mirroring that of the Nazis, but with the swastika replaced by an English boar, which was the symbol the real Duke of Gloucester adopted as his personal emblem and coat of arms.
What is noteworthy in the design is that wasn’t any effort made to capture the look of the real-world British Union of Fascists (BUF) movement of Oswald Mosley of the 1930s. Mosley – despite being a former British Army officer, who was commissioned into the 16th Lancers and served on the Western Front during the First World War – sought to make the BUF seem less like a paramilitary force and scaled back uniform wearing significantly, reserving them only for formal duties.
Moreover, Harwood didn’t seek to adopt the red/white/blue colors of the Union flag, which Mosley did employ. This ensured that the Yorkist symbols evoked the look of the Nazis while still respecting the symbols adopted by the real Duke of Gloucester and later during his brief time as King Richard III of the House of York.
The Tudor forces, by contrast, resemble the British Army as it did at D-Day, which is fitting in that Henry Tudor invaded England from France. In our real-world timeline, he set sail from the French port of Harfleur with a mercenary army funded by the French monarchy (something not mentioned in the play for the reasons already noted).
Henry Tudor successfully crossed the English Channel and landed at Mill Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in part to rally local support. The Tudor forces marched inland, where they met the Yorkist Army at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
The film presents the engagement as a modern battle with modern British small arms, tanks and even combat aircraft. King Richard III still calls for a horse before his eventual defeat, but it comes as his modern command car becomes stuck.
A “prop” helmet from Richard III. This is a real British Army Mk4 from the Cold War. Courtesy of Peter Suciu
The MKIII Helmet
Being that this fictionalized Wars of the Roses was still very much a civil war, much of the equipment and headgear is similar. This is most notable as both factions are seen wearing the British Mk4 steel helmet, which is a bit of anachronism in this work of fiction as it wasn’t developed until late 1945 and only officially entered service in the late 1940s.
The Mk4 “Turtle” helmet was an improved version of the British Army’s Mk3 helmet that saw use in the final years of the Second World War in Europe. The Mk4 was widely used in the Korean War and remained the staple of the British military through the Cold War, and it was used as a riot helmet in Northern Ireland beginning in the late 1960s.
The removable liner from the Mk4 helmet, dating to this to the late 1940s to the early 1960s.
The helmet was updated in the 1970s with a new liner system, designated as the Mk5, and these helmets were widely used by British Army infantry and Royal Marine units in the Falklands War of 1982.
In Richard III, the Tudor forces wear a plain helmet, but interestingly, the Yorkist forces under King Richard III are spotted in several scenes wearing the helmet with a decal of the White Boar on the front. This is also likely meant to mirror Nazi Germany’s use of decals on the M35 pattern helmets.
Collecting From the Faux Wars of the Roses
As a result of the 1937 Public Order Act that banned political uniforms, combined with the items being destroyed during World War II, original British Union of Fascists items are extremely rare, and only occasionally turn up for sale.
However, some props from Richard III have shown up for sale over the years. The Prop Masters in the UK have in the past offered tunics and other costumes from the film.
Among the more “common” items that have shown up on the market in the past three decades have been the Mk4 steel helmets with decals or printed stickers on the front.
The UK-based MovieBits, which specializes in movie memorabilia, has offered both original Mk4 steel helmets and fiberglass versions that were each used in the film, featuring the distinctive boar’s head decal on the front.
“These fibreglass variants typically would have been used for stunt work,” Moviebits explains. Such lightweight helmets are often used by stunt teams in films, where the lighter helmets reduce the risk of injury.
Although not exactly “militaria” in the truest sense, these items are collectibles for a very interesting take on “alternative history.”
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Peter Suciu is a freelance journalist and when he isn't writing about militaria you can find him covering topics such as cybersecurity, social media and streaming TV services for Forbes, TechNewsWorld and ClearanceJobs. He is the author of several books on military hats and helmets including the 2019 title, A Gallery of Military Headdress. Email him and he'd happily sell you a copy!
