ARMS. 



BIO 



Btapopagate, in London. The Utter died in n after this 



time, numerous specimens of armour occur with immense elbow-plates ; 

 these continued till the time of Henry VIII. 



The perfection of plate armour ID supposed to hare been attained in 

 the reign of Richard III. The effljry of Sir Thomas Peyton, in 

 Isleham church. Cambridgeshire, furnishes an excellent specimen. The 

 head defended by the casque, and the shield had become nearly 

 pentangular. 



Fluted armour was sometimes used in the rviirii of Henry VII. : Hit* 

 fashion is supposed to hare coin'- from ( iennanv. The helmet assumes 

 the form of the head, but presents a salient angle in front. The breast- 

 plate U globular ; and iambayt, or steel plates to protect the thighs 

 when on horseback, have Iwn adopted. 



Drawings of various military figures of the middle of King Henry 

 VI 1 1. ' reign, made at the time, occur in the Cottonian manuscript in 

 the British Museum marked Augustus II., and amongst them llcmy 

 himself in armour. A great deal of the armour of this period had 

 devices, arms, 4c. stamped or engraved upon it ; ami com.- was ilamat- 

 </ *i*tt, or inlayed with gold. The alterations were chiefly those of 

 ornament 



In the reign of Edward VI. a slight change took place in the form of 



the breast-plate, which was again a little changed in the reign of Mary. 



During Eliialieth's reign, no great alteration took place. " But armour 



i, 1 Meyrick, " began to fall into disrepute soon 



after the accession of King James I., and in the latter part of his reign, 

 the jambs or steel coverings for the legs were almost wholly laid aside." 



King Charles I. is continually represented in armour; and he took 

 great pains to bring about a uniformity in the fashion of nrmour 

 among his officers and soldiers. But the troubles of his reign, and the 

 success of the levellers of that period, caused a material alteration, so 

 that soon after the establishment of the Protectorate we find the helmet 

 and cuirass only worn ; the latter consisting of a breast and back plate. 

 The wearing <>f armour to the knees continued only to the time of 

 Cromwell. The cuirass and a kind of helmet, however, are still 

 retained amongst us for the royal regiment* of Life Guards; and 

 have, likewise, been resumed in the armies both of the French and 

 Germans. 



The reader who wishes for further information may consult Sir 

 Samuel Meyrick's ' Engraved Illustrations of Ancient Armour from the 

 Collection at Ooodrich Court,' 2 vols. fol. Oxford, 1830, where (pi. iv. 

 to x.) a series of tournament armour of successive dates, from 1458 to 

 1586, U exhil.il. .1. 



Bordeaux steel is frequently mentioned by Froissart as excellent for 

 armour. Felip|> Ncxroli. of Milan, was the eminent armourer who 

 worked for Fran. nee, and the Emperor Charles V. 



Some remarks on the ancient mode of putting on armour, communi- 

 cated to the Society of Antiquaries by Sir Samuel Meyrick in 1821 

 (Archrcologia,* vol. xx.), unravel, by the h-lp of an ancient document, 

 what was previously an enigma. The knight began with hid feet and 

 clothed upwards, namely; 1, his sahutynes, or steel clogs; 2, the 

 greaves, or ahin-pieces ; 8, the cuisses, or thigh-pieces ; 4, the 1 .1 

 mail ; 5, tie tuillwttes, or overlapping pieces below the waist ; 6, the 

 breast-plate, or cuirass; 7, the vambraccs, or covers for the arms; 

 8, the rere-braces, or arriere-bras, the covering for the remaining part 

 <>f the arm to the shoulder; 9, the gauntlets; 10, then the dagger was 

 hung; 11, the short sword; 12, the cloak or coat, which was worn 

 over the armour; 13, the bacinet; 14, the long sword; 15, the pen- 

 nonce), held in the left hand ; 16, the shield. 



For this account of armour, various works have been consulted 

 OroM's 'Treatise; 1 Cough's 'Sepulchral Monument*,' &c ; but the 

 chief outline has been Uken from Sir Samuel Meyrick's ' Critical 

 Inquiry into Ancient Armour as it existed in Km. )..-. but particularly 

 in England, from the Norman Conquest to the Keign of Charles II.' 

 The collection . f am ,-ient armour ]>og8osed by that gentleman's son at 

 Uoudrich Court, in Herefordshire, and his own extensive researches, 

 have supplied more informal ion upon the subject than it is p 

 could have been given by any other writer. 

 (PUnchfs History nf ftrltiiti ( V(K.) 

 ARMS, from the Latin arnui, in a general wn-. , in. lu. !..- all kinds 

 of weapons, whether of offence or defence, about the earliest of 

 which we have any mention l ing the bow ami arrow, h 

 Rsau to take his quiver and his l.w ami go out to tin- lie 1.1 ami take 

 on* venison (about 1760 n.. '-' man to kill v. il.l 



f.-r f--<l before iU use was required as a weap As a military 



weapon, it was probably succeeded by the sling. Lucretius says, 



" Anna anMqna, miaui, nnfrac*, drntrqae lucre," tie, 

 ****** 

 Man'n rallies! arms were flnirrrn, tetth, and null", 

 An* Monti, and (raiment* from the branching woods. 

 Tkm flrn >nd flamn thfj- jolnrd, detected won | 

 Thn toppfT nrxt ; sod last, at latot traced, 

 Tb* tyrant Iron, than to* copper rein 

 Leas (rttljr found, and sturdier to inbdue. 



Homer and lleaiud tell us, that in the early ages, the arras and 

 instruments of the heroea wen ci.tiip... .1 entirely of xoAiro'i 

 Mrba| hardened with tin. The word w commonly translated Itrnu 

 but is more properly speaking bronze. Defensive arms have been 



already treated of under Attxorn. The present article is confined 

 chiefly to weapons of offence. 



The Jews appear to have had swords, daggers, spears, javelins, bows, 

 arrows, and slings : axes or mace* were also used by them as weapons 

 of war. According to Josephus, the use of iron anas was first taught 

 i>y Joseph, who armed the troops ..f Pharaoh with casque and V." 



Herodotus (vii. 61-80) gives a minute description of r 



imwt of the dirt- med the great ar 



Xerxes. Amongst these, the M. dos and Persians had short spears, 

 bows, arrows made of reeds, and daggers ; the Assyrians, besides spears 

 uid daggers, had wooden clubs knotted with i: 

 Part hians, bows made of reeds, and short spears ; i ' 

 bows, large, flexible, and curved at the ends ; the Ethiopians, 



>m the spathe (ffirofli)) of the palm, four x feet, long; 



their arrows were short, and pointed with sharp stones instead of 

 they had spears headed with the sharpened hon 

 LOPE, in NATITIAI. HISTORY DIVISION], and knotted chilis. The Libyans 

 had their spears hardened at the . nd 1 v fire The Paphlag. 

 Phrygians, and Thracians, had spears, javelins, :tml daggers. In tin- 

 Persian army at the Kittle of I'unaxa, we find chariots armed with 

 scythes mentioned. iX. n..|ihon, ' Anab.' i. 8.) 



The Grecian armies were composeil of various sorts of soldiery. Tn 

 the earliest ages, as we sec from Homer, the chief personage* 

 fought in chariots ; but this practice seems not to have existed in 1 1n- 

 historical ages. The cavalry of Thessaly and that of Macedonia ob- 

 tained the highest reputation among the Greeks. It w:. 

 cavalry that Alexander mainly defeated Loth the troops of the Persian 

 king and those of the rulers of the Punj-ab. With ' 

 Alexander elephant "^ht into use, and they wct- 



both by Pyrrhus the Greek King of Epirus, and by Hannibal, in their 

 invasions of Italy. The Greek foot soldiers were distinguish'-.! ' 

 terms <5n-A?Tcu (hojJitai), those who wore armour, and carried broad 

 shields and long spears ; and i^iAo! (ptilai), the light troops, who, with 

 no other protection than a helmet, were armed with darts, lw 

 arrows, or slings. The irf\racrrai (/ ho carried tlie ]x 



narrow-pointed shields, an<l spc.irs. \vei-e a species of light trooi 

 considered as an intermediate kind. The heavy-armed foot were the 

 chief strength of the Grecian armies. 



The Greek e generally of ash, with a leaf-shaped h. 



metal, and furnished with a pointed ferule at the butt, with which 

 they were stuck into the ground. Pausanios saw a spear in the temple 

 of Minerva at Phaselis, said, according to the legend, to have belonged 

 to Achilles, the blade and ferule of which were of copi>er. Th game 

 diligent and credulous observer saw a knife at NicomiHlia. made wholly 

 of copper, reputed to have once belonged to Memuon. Th. 

 donians had a particularly long s(H'ar colled aAfiaaa (tarism), which 

 was fourteen or sixteen cubits in length. (See Polybius for this 

 extraordinary length, and the notes to the ' Onomasticon ' of Julius 

 Pollux, v. aifuran.) 



Swords, spears, javelins, bows, and slings, were the offensive arms of 

 the Romans, whose infantry soldiers were divided into Imtititi, who 

 fought with spears ; principes, who led the van ; triarii, the third line ; 



the light troops; futlditoret, the slingcrs; and < 

 archers. Their cavalry used the javelin on horseback. The an 

 the saggittorii had not only their pikes barbed, but were furnished 

 with little hooks just above, which easily entered the flesh, but toie it 

 when an attempt was made to draw them out. What great! 

 tributed to render the Romans masters of the world, was, that as they 

 successively fought against all nations, they renounced their owi. 

 and methods of fighting, introducing any improvement*, they met with. 

 K'.nmlus, after the war with the Sabiues, is said by Plutarch (Komu- 

 lus, 21) to have adopted the brood buckler of that nation, in.-' 

 the Argolic buckler (omit Argolica), which the Romans had used till 

 that time : a story of little historical value, but confirmatory of the 

 opinion that the Romans improved their military art by adopting the 

 , and that they traced this policy to the 

 supposed origin of their national existence. 



The early Saxons, previous to their arrival in Britain, l.e-ii ! - 

 buckler and dagger, used a sword bent forwards like a scythe; but 

 ih.ii descendants soon changed it for one. that was long, brood, 

 straight, double-edged and pointed. The ordinary w eaj - ixons, 



after their arrival in our island, for the infantry, wen- spears, axes, 

 bows and arrows, clubs, and swords. Few of tin- infantry hail any 

 other defensive armour than small round shields with spikes in the 

 centre. The cavalry were more uniformly armed with long spears 

 which they carried in their right hands, and swords -,-. hi. h hung by a 

 belt on their left sides. 



The arms of the Normans differed but little from those of the 

 Saxons ; their spears or lances were usually made of some light 

 wood, with a well-tempered steel point : to these, with the SWIM 

 dirk, they added the crow-bow, a* baa been already shown in the 

 article ARCHERY. The Normans ahw appear to have introduced a kind 

 of field artillery, consisting of machines from which darts and stones 

 were thrown to a considerable distance : some of the arrows were also 

 headed willi combustible matter for firing in- and -hippim:. 



Our military we.i|>ons were probubf but little altered till the time 

 of Kdu.inl I. when the English long-bow seems to have been d..pti .1, 

 or rather perfected and confined to the use of infantry. 



