Armour & Weapons in the Middle Ages

& I, Ube 1bome Hnttquarg Series ARMOUR AND WEAPONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES t Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/armourweaponsinmashd PREFACE There are outward and visible signs that interest in armour and arms, so far from abating, is steadily growing. When- ever any examples of ancient military equipment appear n in sale-rooms a keen and eager throng of buyers invariably | assembles ; while one has only to note the earnest and ' critical visitors to museums at the present time, and to compare them with the apathetic onlookers of a few years J ago, to realize that the new generation has awakened to j j the lure of a fascinating study. Assuredly where once a single person evinced a taste for studying armour many | now are deeply interested. t The books dealing with the subject are unfortunately ' either obsolete, like the works of Meyrick, Planche, Fos- broke, Stothard, and others who flourished during the last L century, or, if recent, are beyond the means of many would-be students. My own book British and Foreign Arms and Armour is now out of print, while the monographs of I Charles ffoulkes, the Rev. Charles Boutell, and | Mr Mr Starkie Gardner are the only reasonably priced volumes j now obtainable. It seemed, therefore, desirable to issue a small handbook which, while not professing in the least to be comprehensive, would contain sufficient matter to give the young student, y the ' man in the street,' and the large and increasing number of persons who take an intelligent interest in the past just j that broad outline which would enable them to understand more exhaustive tomes upon armour and weapons, and 5 ARMOUR AND WEAPONS possibly also to satisfy those who merely wish to glean sufficient information to enable them to discern inaccuracies in brasses, effigies, etc., where the mind of the medieval workman—at all times a subject of the greatest interest—has led him to introduce features which were not in his originals, or details which he could not possibly have seen. Such inaccuracies are of fairly common occurrence, and an illustration is seen in Fig. I. It is from the brass of William Robins in St Stephen's Church, St Albans, and is dated 1482. Upon the outside of the right-leg genouilliere, or j knee-cop, is a piece of ornamental work embellishing the external flange, but, as j the figure is turned to the left front in j order to face the representation of the lady (not shown), the companion ornament could not be seen upon the left leg, being hidden by the genouilliere. The conscientious medieval engraver, re- membering that he had to represent all details of the armour, transferred the left-leg ornament to the inside of the leg, as the figure shows, quite oblivious of the fact that the unfortunate William Robins could, with i such an impediment, have progressed only with an un- I dignified straddle—a most unknightly procedure. This ] bold transference of detail is a species of licence com- parable to that associated with poetry, but probably not 1 quite so justifiable. j In many of the treatises extant upon armour only the equipment of the rich is dealt with, but as the defences and f arms of the ordinary combatant are of equal importance they have also been carefully considered in the compilation I of this book. The student must be on his guard against PREFACE \ the picturesque but quite impossible armour depicted k illustrated manuscripts of the fifteenth century, chiefly m connexion with romances of King Arthur and the life of St George. Possibly a comparison of the actual with the fanciful may lead to the disturbance of treasured notions, ' but truth is not less interesting and attractive than fancy. Tlle stud of brasses has . 7 become of redoubled interest since the Great War, inasmuch as many examples on the Continent disappeared during the War years. In number these memorials were never very great, and could not bear comparison with those in the British Isles ; to-day, therefore more than ever, England's proud position of being the home of sepulchral brasses, and the only country where they may be studied in their full development, is unchallenge- able. The fact only needs to be stated to ensure that every patriotic child of Britain who sees a brass in danger of injury or destruction will make an effort to preserve it. With regard to historical manuscripts, a few words of explanation respecting their classification may not be out of place, since it may be assumed that many do not know what is meant by, say, 'Cott. MS. Tib. C. VP or 'Roy. MS. C. IV.' The first reference signifies that the manuscript in question formed one of the volumes in the library of Sir John Cotton in < ' 1700 ; Tib.' signifies Tiberius,' and refers to the fact that the bust of that worthy stood over the bookcase which m the particular manuscript was placed The letter 'C indicates the third shelf in the bookcase in alphabetical order, and 'VI' is the place upon the shelf occupied by the book. Similarly, 'Roy. MS. C. IV indicates that the manuscript came from the bequest of King George II in 1757. 'Add. MSS.' refers to the large addi- tional collection formed by Government grants. The Harleian manuscripts were sold to the British Museum in 1742 upon the death of Edward Harley, second Earl of ARMOUR AND WEAPONS Oxford, and in the same way the manuscripts collected by Sir Hans Sloane were purchased for the British Museum in 1754. It should be clearly borne in mind that the illuminators of the Middle Ages had little knowledge concerning any costume except that prevailing when they lived, and that consequently they were compelled to depict their characters in the dress familiar to them. As the majority of the manuscripts deal with sacred subjects this fact explains why Joshua is shown in one manuscript as a Saxon thane, and in another in full plate armour of the fifteenth century. Moses appears as a Norman noble, and again as a knight of the thirteenth century on horseback couching his lance. If a modern artist depicted Julius Csesar as a bemedalled general in khaki, or Pontius Pilate in Lord Mayor's costume, it would probably provoke criticism ; the medieval limner, however, would perceive nothing incongruous in either. This custom prevailed until the close of the fifteenth century, and one of its effects has been to preserve for us a faithful representation of the costume of the Middle Ages with practically every minute deviation it underwent. C. H. A. 8 I CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Saxon Period (to 1066) . 11 , II. The Norman Period (1066-1180). ... 22 1 III. The Chain-mail Period (1 180-1250) . 40 \ IV. The Chain-mail Reinforced Period (1250-1325). 53 V. The Cyclas Period (1325-35) .... 70 VI. The Studded and Splinted Period (1335-60) . 78 VII. The Camail and Jupon Period (1360-1410) . 96 r V III. The Lancastrian or Surcoatless Period (1410-30) {113 IX. The Gothic or Tabard Period (1430-1500) . 137 X. The Transition Period (1500-25) . 163 I XI. The Maximilian Period (1525-1600) . 171 XII. The Half-armour Period (1600 and afterward) 180 SHI. The Tournament 185 XIV. Horse Armour ....... 197 Bibliography . .201 Glossary ........ 203 Index ......... 215 i 9 PUBLISHERS NOTE Owing to the death of the Author while this book was still in manuscript, the task of placing the illustrations, compiling the Glossary and Index, and seeing the book through the press was undertaken by his widow, who was closely associated with her husband in all his literary work. On certain points Mr S. J. Camp, Keeper of the Wallace Collection, London, was consulted and kindly gave advice. Acknowledgments and thanks for permission to reproduce copyright drawings are hereby tendered to Messrs G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. ; the Clarendon Press, Oxford ; Messrs Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. ; Mr William Reeves ; and Mrs E. R. Suffling. The frontispiece is reproduced from J. R. Planche's Cyclopaedia of Costume, by kind permission of Messrs G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. Several imaginative sketches of historical scenes by Mr M. Meredith Williams have been included in this volume by way of illustrating certain features referred to in the text. 714799 3 ; ; ARMOUR AND WEAPONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES CHAPTER I THE SAXON PERIOD (to 1066) Battles, Sieges, etc., during the Period 635. Heavenfield. 871. Ashdown. 642. Maserfield. 878. Edington. 655. Winwood. 937. Brunanburh. 685. Nectansmere. 1066. Stamford Bridge. 821. Ellandune. 1066. Fulford. 837. Hingston Down. The sources of our knowledge respecting the military equipment of our Saxon forefathers are almost wholly Olerived from ' (a) the contents of Saxon barrows, or burying-places (b) the writings of the period \ ' (c) the illuminations in Saxon manuscripts. From the evidence supplied by these a very complete knowledge of Saxon arms and armour has been acquired, because details lacking in one instance have been furnished by other discoveries. The various Scandinavian countries peopled by the sons of Odin, c. 120 B.C., all developed a similarity in military equipment, the bodily defence in each case consisting of the byrnie, helmet, and shield, while the weapons com- prised the spear, javelin, sword, scramasax, and axe. The Byrnie or Battle-sark.—In the early days of the axon Period in England apparently none wore body ARMOUR AND WEAPONS armour except the leaders, and even at the time of thel Norman Conquest the rank and file were content with a I coat of thickJeather, girded round the waist.

Load more