WARFARE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 39 



these horsemen were called cataphracti. The oldest form of the cuirass is 

 represented in pi 16, j^^. 8, where the scales are secured upon a leathern 

 under-coat. This harness, from the Dresden armory, is said to have 

 belonged to King John Sobiesky of Poland. The form of the helmet is hke- 

 wise the very oldest of all, that of a round cap fitting over the head-piece of 

 the cuirass, by which the cheeks were protected. The feather-plumes and 

 Maltese cross are doubtless additions of a later time ; the feathers, indeed, 

 were most probably added only to give the harness a better appearance 

 when it was set up. In the 10th and 11th centuries the ring-cuirass (hau- 

 berk, jig, 16) became common. It consisted of iron rings linked one in 

 another, which were fastened upon a leathern under-coat ; among the 

 Normans such cuirasses appear very frequently. At first these hauberks 

 came only to the hips, afterwards they covered the thighs to the knee, 

 where they were met by a similar covering for the leg ; according, indeed, 

 to representations in the Bayeux tapestry, there were such mail-suits of a 

 single piece, which were drawn on from below. In the oldest harness of 

 this description the rings were only laid close together, but not inter- 

 linked. Upon old monuments we find also woven mail, one, for example, 

 of the year 1100, where the whole looks like basket-work, whence it has 

 been concluded that this mail was braided with strips of leather; yet it 

 might as easily and much more probably be small iron wire sewed upon 

 leather in the horizontal and vertical position alternately. Underneath 

 the cuirass was a quilted woollen jerkin reaching to the knee. The horses 

 also were provided with such ring and scale mail, and carried on the head 

 a plate of iron with a spike projecting from it in front (charfron). The 

 ring and scale mail was gradually displaced by that composed of plates, in 

 which the upper arm, for instance, was covered with a single plate, and the 

 divisions were only at the joints, where still other plates were fitted over 

 these divisions, so as to give the power of motion. At first the upper part 

 of the body was clad in the ring or scale mail, and only the lower part 

 covered with the plate, as shown by the corresponding parts of a knight's 

 harness in pi. 16, figs. 16 and 17. By the end of the 15th century, how- 

 ever, the plate or iron band armor had become general, although light ring- 

 cuirasses were still worn under the plate harness in the 16th century (^^^5. 

 9, 10, and 12). At the same time with their riders, the horses also were 

 provided with mail, which on the head, breast, and hind-quarters consisted 

 of plates, but on the neck of iron bands (fig. 23) ; frequently, however, the 

 croup and hind-quarters were protected against cuts by separate bands 

 only (pi. IS, fig. 2). 



PL 16, figs. 9, 10, and 11, show mail composed chiefly of iron bands such 

 as was used in and after the fifteenth century, the armor represented being 

 that of the Elector Joachim II., of Brandenburg. Figs. 12, 13, 14, and 15, 

 belong to this kind also. The complete plate-mail arrangement, however, 

 appears in pi. 23, representing the state equipment of Christian I., Elector of 

 Saxony, which is to be found in the Dresden armory. It is of polished 

 steel, and richly inlaid with gold. Here, too, belongs the suit of armor of the 

 Emperor Charles V. {pi. 17, fig. 1), of the Elector John the Steadfast of 



