637 



ARMOUR. 



ARMOUR. 



633 



cylindrical helmet of a more perfect form, the aveutaille, which contains 

 both the before-mentioned conveniences, being apparently made to 

 open and shut by means of hinges and a clasp. This seal of Hemy III. 

 also represents him in a surcoat. A remarkable monumental effigy oi 

 ;; knight in this reign, in the armour of rings set edgewise, occurs in the 

 church of Malvern in Worcestershire. The monumental figure oi 

 Richard Longespe'e, Karl of Salisbury, who died in 1224, is another 

 specimen. " The horse soldiers, at this time," says Sir S. Meyrick, 

 " consisted of the heavy cavalry, who were the knights, and completely 

 covered with mail, or, as Matthew Paris expresses it, ad unyitetii armatoa, 

 the face and left hand excepted." In a manuscript, entitled ' The Lives 

 of the Offas," written by Matthew Paris (MS. Cotton. Nero, D. i.), and 

 of the time of Henry III., the knights appear generally in gamboised 

 armour (padded work, stitched), with surcoats, and wearing shin- 

 pieces or greaves of steel. One, however, is in a hauberk, with hood 

 and chausses of flat contiguous rings, and probably this is the latest 

 example of such armour being worn. Some appear with visors, 

 t ing of a convex plate of steel, on which is a cross, with per- 

 forations for the sight, and punctures for the breath, tied upon the 

 hood. Others have a nasal skullcap, though not the latest represen- 

 tation of thia defence ; and others the cylindrical helmet common to 

 this period. The helmets of the kings are distinguished from the rest 

 by a crown at top. They have all, too, those coverings for the knees 

 called poleyns. This word is often erroneously confounded with 

 poulaines, which were the long points at the toes of shoes, worn in 

 Richard II. 's time, as well as anterior; but we learn from the following 

 pa.-w.ige from C'arolus Blessensis, in Lobineau's ' Hist. Bretagne,' vol. ii. 

 p. 566, that they were for the knees : " Fecit sibi per Oliverium auferri 

 a genibus ]x>lenas, et antebrachia a brachiis : " He caused Oliver to 

 take the poleyns from his knees, and the vambraces from his arms. 

 I 'inn-pointing, or elaborate stitching, it appears, became at this time a 

 trade, and there were several pourpointers in Paris and London. The 

 use of the pourpoint seems greatly to have gained ground, and the 

 military in the delineations of this and the next reign are almost con- 

 stantly depicted in it. Sir Samuel Meyrick says, " it has been observed, 

 that in the illuminations of this period, the archers are represented 

 wearing leathern vesta over their hauberks of edge-ringed mail. These 

 appear to have been the jack in its primary form, which originated 

 witli the English, and which afterwards assumed a shape so cumber- 

 From the ' Chronicle ' of Bertram! du Guesclin, composed 

 about the time of Richard II., we learn that it continued to be worn 



' lie hauberk, for he says, " S'avoit chascun un jacque par dessus 

 son haubert,' each had a jack above his hauberk. The small vest 

 was called jacket, and in the Latin of the time jtujuetanus, as was the 

 ./""/'"% jaer/uemardus and jacoliwi. The monument of Eudo de Arsic, 

 who died about the latter part of this reign, seems to represent him in 

 the jacque. He is clad in mail, and wears this garment, which is 

 made with sleeves, sits close to the body, is buttoned down the front, 

 and has a puckered skirt reaching to the knees. In later times it was 

 generally of leather, for Coquillart, an old French writer, ' sur les 

 Droits nouveaux,' describes it as of chamois, extending to the knees, 

 and stuffed with flocks, so as to be a kind of pourpoiut. During the 

 latter part of this reign, the shape of the helmet underwent a partial 

 change, biking the form of a truncated cone on the top of a cylinder : 

 the apertures for the sight were horizontal, and pierced in the trans- 

 verse part of a cross that ornamented the front, covering the whole 

 head and resting on the shoulders. The crusade in this reign, says 

 Sir Samuel Meyrick, seems to have introduced a new and most inge- 

 niniM species of armour, probably of Asiatic discovery, and still worn 

 by those nations at the present day. This was the interlaced rings, 

 which, as dependent on each other, did not .require to be sewn to an 

 under garment. The earliest specimen he considers to be the monu- 

 mental effigy of De 1'Isle, in Hampton church, Cambridgeshire, which 

 exhibits him in the flat coif worn during the greater part of this reign, 

 but made, as well as his hauberk and chausses, of interlaced chain. 

 The shape of his shield, however, is that of the close of Henry III.'s 

 reign, and, with his surcoat, is ornamented with his armorial bearings. 

 The shields, however, had generally become flatter, the top was straight, 

 and the custom of emblazoning them was coming rapidly into use. 

 The cttapelle defer continued to be used in this reign. The chanfron, 

 or armour for the horse's head and face, first occurs in the clause-roll 

 i if the fifty -fourth Henry III. 



Considerable improvements were made in armour during the reigns 

 "f the first three Edwards. Ailettes, or shoulder-pieces, appear to 



iven introduced in that of Edward I. In Edward II. 's time, 

 armour appears to have assumed a mixed character, being neither alto- 

 gether mail nor wholly plate. Armures de fer, towards the close of 

 this reign, became the distinctive term, among the French writers, for 

 pl;ite-arrnour. The Florentine annals, says Sir Samuel Meyrick, con- 

 cider the year 1315 as remarkable for a new regulation in armour, by 

 which every horseman who went to battle was to have his helmet, 

 breastplate, gauntlets, cuisses, and jambes all of iron, a precaution 

 which was taken on account of the disadvantages their cavalry had 

 suffered from wearing light armour at the battle of Catino ; but this 

 usage did not find its way into general practice in Europe for at least 

 ten years after. The seal of Edward Prince of Wales, afterwards King 

 Edward III., represents him with ailettes on which are his arms, in 

 the ame manner as Edmund Crouchback is exhibited in Westminster 



Abbey, and in a missal belonging to the late Francis Douce, Esq. 

 What is curious in this is the early representation of the mamelieres, 

 or pieces put on the breast, from which depended chains, one of which 

 was attached to the sword-hilt, and the other to the scabbard. The 

 armour at the close of this reign may be seen in an initial letter of a 

 grant from King Edward II., constituting his brother, Thomas de 

 Brotherton, Marshal of England. (See the MS. in the Cottouian 

 Library, Nero, D. vi.) In the chancel of Ash church, in Kent, is the 

 monumental effigy of a knight which exhibits still further the progress 

 toward plate-armour. The helmet was still conical and frequently 

 surmounted by a crest. The shield had become triangular or pear- 

 shaped. 



The helmet on the seal of Edward II. is of a cylindrical form, with 

 a grated or pierced aventaille and visor attached : a clasp which fastens 

 this on the right side is very visible, and it is probable that on the 

 other it was retained by hinges. It was very much the custom during 

 this reign to wear over the armour the cointisse, or surcoat, ornamented 

 with the warrior's arms : this was sometimes shorter before than be- 

 hind, as is shown in a brass in Minter church in the Isle of Sheppey. 



The monumental effigy of John of Eltham, who died in 1329, ex- 

 hibits the fashion in which armour was worn at the commencement of 

 the reign of Edward III. ; similar to which is the figure on the monu- 

 ment of a knight in Ifield church, in Sussex. The splendid manner, it 

 is observed, in which some of the knights of this period chose to have 

 their armour made proved sometimes fatal to them. Froissart tells 

 us, that " Raymond, nephew to Pope Clement, was taken prisoner, but 

 was afterwards put to death for his beautiful armour." The monu- 

 ment of Sir Oliver Ingham, at Ingham church, in Norfolk, who died 

 in 1343, shows the further gradual progress of mixed armour. Tlis 

 monument also affords us one of the earliest specimens of the justing 

 helmet of this time, surmounted by its crest an owl with wings 

 expanded. The equestrian statue of Bernabo Visconti, at Milan, 

 engraved in the ' Arehjeologia," vol. xviii. pi. xii. xiii. xiv. with its 

 details, affords a magnificent specimen of the mixed armour used at 

 this time upon the continent. Moveable visors attached to the bacinets 

 (or skull-caps in the form of a bason) appear to have come in about 

 the middle of the reign of Edward III. The Black Prince's monument 

 at Canterbury, who died in 1360, is another specimen of the period. 

 The monument of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, in 1367, Sir 

 Samuel Meyrick observes, is the earliest specimen of plate-armour with 

 taces, or overlapping plates to envelope the abdomen, at the bottom of 

 the breastplate, without any surcoat. It was not till the reign of 

 Henry V. that this practice became general. The surcoat about this 

 time began to give place to the jupuu, which was richly ornamented 

 with heraldic bearings. Humphrey de Bohun wears plate over the 

 insteps, but the rest of his feet is covered with chain. The leathern 

 gauntlets were furnished at the knuckles with knobs or spikes of iron, 

 called gadlinys, which were often used to good purpose on an adversary, 

 and seem to be the precursor of the barbarous modern American 

 knui-kle-duiter. The gauntlets of Edward the Black Prince, thus 

 armed, are hung above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. 



The reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. were still more distinguished 

 by the increased ornament of armour. The armourers of Italy were 

 much employed at this time by the English nobility. When Henry, 

 Earl of Derby, proposed to combat with the Duke of Norfolk at 

 Coventry, he sent to Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, for armour, who gave 

 the knight who bore Henry's message not only the choice of all his 

 armour, bxit sent with him to England four of the best armourers of 

 Milan to give personal attendance upon Henry for his equipment. 

 Chaucer, noticing a tournament at this period, says, 



" Ther mayst thou see devising of harneis 



So uncouth and so riche t and wrought so well 



Of goldsmithry, of browdying, and of stele ; 



The sheldes brightc, testeres, and trappurcs ; 



Gold-beten bcluics, haubcrkes, and cote-armures." v. 2498, 



Soon after the year 1400, chain-mail seems to have been entirely 

 disused ; and the complete armour of plate adopted. Henry V. is so 

 represented on his great seal, as well as in one of the illuminations of 

 the celebrated Bedford Missal ; in the latter he is represented being 

 armed by one of his esquires. Black armour was at this period often 

 used for mourning. Henry IV. is constantly represented in black 

 armour in the illuminations to the celebrated manuscript on ' The 

 Deposition of Richard II.,' preserved in the Harleian Collection. The 

 vizor of the basionet assumed fanciful shapes, and was sometimes 

 formed so as to resemble the beak of a bird. In thetime of Richard II., 

 and under Henry V. the panache or plume of feathers was placed upon 

 the helmet as an ornament. 



A more splendid specimen of armour of the reign of Henry VI., 

 than that represented on the effigy of Richard Beauehamp, Earl of 

 Warwick, in the Beauehamp Chapel at Warwick, will not be found any- 

 where; he died in 1439. Armour was becoming lighter by degrees. 

 The ja/.erine, a jacket composed of small overlapping plates of iron 

 covered with velvet, frequently supplied the place of the breast and 

 back-plates. 



The fashion of armour prevalent through the reign of Edward IV. 

 may be judged of from that monarch's great seal, and from the monu- 

 mental effigy of Sir John Crosby, in the church of St. Helen, without 



