EARLY HISTORY OF HORSEMANSHIP 225, 



natural result of this increase of weights, after the tree had 

 furnished it a point d'appui and another, fastened upon the 

 opposite side, to keep the balance of the rider, and to support, 

 between the two, his burthened feet, was afterwards introduced. 



Many writers upon the history of the horse insist that the 

 earliest mention of the stirrup was made by Eustathius. They 

 are so far wrong, in that the stirrup was not only described by 

 several writers some centuries before that author flourished, 

 but it is even represented in drawings of the eleventh century, 1 

 and in the well-known Bayeux tapestries, the latter having been 

 worked nearly a hundred years before Eustathius wrote. 



In a work ascribed to the Emperor Maurice in the sixth 

 century, but published in 1664, the stirrup is spoken of. 2 The 

 same words are used by the Emperor Leo VI. in two places in 

 his Tactics, 3 supposed to have been written in the ninth cen- 

 tury, but first printed in 1612. I have verified these quotations, 

 and have also read the French translation of the passages from 

 Leo's Tactics, made by M. Joly de Manzeray. In the second 

 reference to Leo it will be found that the two stirrups were 

 placed upon the left side, one at the pummel and the other at 

 the cantel, to enable the rider to take upon the horse a dis- 

 abled man. But the custom of having a stirrup upon each 

 side must have been very shortly introduced, for Berjeau gives 

 an example in a drawing of the same century. 



Eustathius says, according to Beckmann, that in his time, 

 1 1 60, stirrups were not in general use, and they were probably 

 employed by only the knights and mounted soldiers. 



From the time of William the Conqueror 4 all armed horse- 

 men are represented with stirrups. At first with such long 



1 Berjeau's plates. 



2 MauriciiArtisMilitaris ( ' Tactica Arriani '), p. 22. e^eu/ fy els ras tre'AAas 



3 Leonis Imp. Tactica (Lugduni Batavorum, anno 1612), cap. vi. sect. 10, 

 (is Se TO.S creAAos 5uo cr/caAas (TtSrjpos, Kal Acop^cra/cai/, and cap. xii. sect. 53. 



4 Bayeux Tapestries, nth century. Painting of i2th century. Abbey of 

 St. Denis. Window of Chartres Cathedral, isth century. English MS t 



i3th century. Berjeau's Plates. 



Q 



