authorities give the period of mixed chain 

 and plate armour as from 1300 to 14 10. By 

 the latter date this had disappeared in favour 

 of complete armour of plate, the use of which 

 continued until the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century, growing heavier and stronger 

 in ratio with the increasing efficacy of offen- 

 sive weapons. We need not follow the 

 decadence of armour through the age when 

 buff coats and jerkins, under ''demi-suits of 

 plate," were in vogue, to its final disappear- 

 ance far on in the seventeenth century. Our 

 concern lies with those ages during which 

 heavy armour was in use ; for this was the 

 long period when the development of the 

 Great Horse was continuously the anxious 

 care of kings and parliaments. The steady 

 increase in the weight of armour is a factor 

 of the first importance in our present investi- 

 gation ; for therein we find the sufficient 

 motive which impelled our ancestors to 

 develop to the utmost the size and strength 

 of the only breed of horse which could carry 

 a man-at-arms. When we find that the 

 weight a horse might be called upon to bear 

 amounted to 4 cwt. — 32 stone — at the period 

 when plate armour reached its maximum 

 strength, no further stress need be laid on 

 the power of the animal required. We 



