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In a slight introductory sketch it was shown, that 

 prior to the Norman Conquest the nations who successively 

 became masters of our island introduced a variety of arms 

 and armour,, traceable to many of the nations of antiquity, 

 while the influence of the Romans was such that the Anglo- 

 Saxon soldier, as depicted in the illuminations, scarcely 

 differed from the Roman soldier in the abolla, or short 

 military cloak. 



The earliest occurrence of the gehringed byrne, or mail 

 of rings sewn on a flexible garment, is in an illumination 

 of a Saxon King and Knave, or shield-bearer. The weight 

 of this species of armour impeding the soldiers in following 

 their enemies into boggy ground, Harold, in his Welsh 

 wars, introduced lighter arms, and armour of leather, 

 (corecim, or corietum,) with overlapping scales or flaps, 

 to the lightness of which he owed his successes in those 

 wars. 



The subject of English denfensive armour was classed 

 into three great eras. That in which annour consisted of 

 rings, or small plates of metal sewn on a flexible under 

 garment of cloth or leather — extending through the reigns 

 of the Conqueror and William Rufus, Henry I., Stephen, 

 Henry II., and, perhaps, through the reigns Richard I. and 

 John, to the time of Henry III. To this rude and cum- 

 brous mode of defence succeeded- the second era, that of 

 armour of interlaced rivetted rings, which gradually became 

 mixed with plates of metal to protect different parts of the 

 body, until, in the reign of Henry IV., defensive armour 

 consisted entirely of plate, which formed the third era, and 

 prevailed till the last relics of armour disappeared under 

 the flowing curls of the enormous wigs at the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century. 



Few specimens of actual annour of a time earlier than 

 the reign of Henry VII. remain, the specimens in the great 

 armouries being generally of a date subsequent to that 

 period. 



But little assistance can be obtained from monumental 

 sculpture, in tracing the history of armour, during the 11th 

 and 12th centuries; but we have remaining, to the present 

 day, a record of social and military life, at the period of the 

 conquest, in the famous tapestry of Bayeux. This elaborate 

 pictorial life of William was worked, it is said, by Matilda, 

 wife of the Conqueror, and, if not her work, is at least con- 

 temporary with her, and gives a most vivid and interesting 

 idea of the habits, manners, and customs of the Norman 

 conquerors. Great seals, illuminated MSS, and the early 



