ON THE ROWEL SPUR 



[he transition period, between the first appearance of 

 the rowel spur and the final disappearance of the prick 

 spur, lasted a long time — about one hundred years. 

 The earliest example known of a rowel spur in this 

 country is to be found on the second seal of Henry HI., 

 A.D. 1240. The first seal of Henry HI. represents the king 

 wearing a prick spur, and on the second seal he has a well- 

 defined rowel spur of six points. Nothing is known as to 

 who invented the rowel spur, or who introduced it into this 

 country. Presumably it came here from abroad, since the 

 continental armourers, especially the Germans, were always 

 ahead of ours during the Middle Ages. Henry HI. married, 

 in 1236, Eleanor of Provence, who came to England with a 

 large retinue of French nobles, who for the most part married 

 and settled in England. Most probably one of these introduced 

 the rowel spur. In 1238 there came over from France Simon 

 de Montfort, the son of a French Count de Montfort and the 

 Dowager Countess of Leicester. Simon claimed the Earldom 

 of Leicester in right of his mother, and married Eleanor, 

 sister of Henry HI., and at once began to take a very leading 

 part in English affairs. He is a very likely person to have 

 introduced the new-fashioned rowel spur to the notice of his 

 brother-in-law, the king ; and its appearance on the new seal 

 in the following year lends additional possibility to this 

 supposition. It is true that there is in existence a seal of 



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