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The Representations and Roles of Armor in Late Fourteenth-Century Texts and Images

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The Representations and Roles of Armor in Late Fourteenth-Century Texts and Images A VERSATILE STEEL SKIN: THE REPRESENTATIONS AND ROLES OF ARMOR IN LATE FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TEXTS AND IMAGES Robert C. Williamson A thesis submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: Marcus G. Bull Brett E. Whalen Jessica A. Boon © 2021 Robert C. Williamson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Robert C. Williamson: A Versatile Steel Skin: The Representations and Roles of Armor in Late Fourteenth-Century Texts and Images (Under the direction of Marcus Bull and Brett Whalen) This thesis is a contribution to the study of late medieval English and French martial aristocratic culture. It uses transitional plate armor – a hybrid assemblage of iron, steel, leather, and cotton – and its representation as a point of analytical entry to understand what forms martial masculinity might assume in the late medieval world, and consequently how the knight’s equipment augmented his identity. In texts and images, armor appears as a conspicuous emblem of martial acumen; the knight’s equipment became a vessel through which the warrior might assert specific qualities of his individual and corporate identity. Though the lens of semiotics, a look at armor in narrative – complemented by visual examples – reveals its myriad roles in the process of identity-making. This paper proposes that armor operates, in text and image, in four major functions to index the knight’s nobility, his capacity for transformation, his violent prowess, and his homosocial aptitude. iii To my mentors and family, especially Aunt Patty, Aunt Jo, and Chuzie. Your love of history and art was a mentorship of its own. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 SECTION 1: ARMOR AS A MARKER OF VIRTUE .............................................................................. 19 SECTION 2: ARMOR AS A VEHICLE FOR TRANSFORMATION ..................................................... 27 SECTION 3: ARMOR AS A REGISTRY OF VIOLENCE ...................................................................... 37 SECTION 4: ARMOR AS A GIFT IN MASCULINE BONDING ........................................................... 46 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 55 APPENDIX: IMAGES ............................................................................................................................... 60 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 87 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Brass of Sir Mathieu de Montmorency ...................................................................................... 60 Figure 2: Brass of Sir Miles and Lady Stapleton (Joan de Ingham) .......................................................... 61 Figure 3: Brass of Sir William de Breyene ................................................................................................ 62 Figure 4: Detail from the Tomb Effigy of Sir Ralph Neville, First Earl of Westmorland ......................... 63 Figure 5: Detail from the Tomb Effigy of Sir Ralph Greene ..................................................................... 64 Figure 6: Tomb Effigy of Sir John Wyard ................................................................................................. 65 Figure 7: The Four Horsemen, from The Apocalypse Tapestry ................................................................ 66 Figure 8: Detail from Left Panel of the Thouzon Altarpiece ..................................................................... 67 Figure 9: Funerary Achievements of the Black Prince .............................................................................. 68 Figure 10: Helm of the Black Prince ......................................................................................................... 69 Figure 11: Tomb Effigy of Sir Humphrey Littlebury ................................................................................ 70 Figure 12: Tomb Effigy of Tewkesbury Cathedral Knight ........................................................................ 71 Figure 13: Tomb Effigy of Sir Hugh Calveley .......................................................................................... 72 Figure 14: Tomb Effigy of Sir Robert de Bouberch .................................................................................. 73 Figure 15: Surprise at Fougeray ................................................................................................................. 74 Figure 16: French Destroying Genoa ......................................................................................................... 75 Figure 17: Hounskull Visor ....................................................................................................................... 76 Figure 18: Bascinet .................................................................................................................................... 77 Figure 19: Jupon of the Black Prince ......................................................................................................... 78 Figure 20: Brass of Sir Thomas de Beauchamp and Lady Beauchamp (Lady Margaret Ferrers) ............. 79 Figure 21: Brass of Sir William Willoughby and Lady Willoughby (likely Lady Joan Holland) ............. 80 Figure 22: Achilles Kills Hector ................................................................................................................ 81 Figure 23: Cuisse and Poleyn .................................................................................................................... 82 Figure 24: Harness Assemblage................................................................................................................. 83 vi Figure 25: Gauntlet .................................................................................................................................... 84 Figure 26: Gauntlet .................................................................................................................................... 85 Figure 27: Minerva Presenting Armor to her Followers ............................................................................ 86 vii INTRODUCTION In his landmark work Medieval Chivalry, Richard Kaeuper portrays the late medieval nobility as a complex and constantly shifting organism. Kaeuper describes the nuances of chivalry – the ethos of martial aristocratic culture – and how different knights might formulate and articulate their martial ethos in myriad ways.1 Yet, in a humorous tone, he remarks that “no known suit of armor included an ironclad pocket to accommodate a handy tome laying out ‘The Code and Settled Rules of Chivalry.’”2 In part, Kaeuper is correct; ‘chivalry’ as a concept was and remains a hotly debated topic, by no means cut and dry, no “singular code or detailed list of inalterable practices.”3 But what if armor did indeed provide a “handy tome?” What if the harness, in its narrative and figural representation, was itself a tome – itself an instructional manual on desirable (and undesirable) behavior for the masculine martial elite? As will be apparent from much of the evidence cited in this thesis, these representations lead us not to a list of chivalric qualities, but a set of paradigmatic examples of character and actions from which knights may draw value. Thus, even in a single text, a protagonist might wear many faces. A knight, through his armor, may appear as the responsible steward of his property, an animalistic 1 Richard W. Kaeuper, Medieval Chivalry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 8-10; Kaeuper introduces three possible forms chivalry could take, none set in stone: chivalry might be considered the literal body of armored knights, as in the collective group of warriors; it might be the deeds enacted by knights on the battlefield; it might be their “desired sets of ideas and practices.” 2 Kaeuper, Medieval Chivalry, 10. 3 Kaeuper, Medieval Chivalry, 10. 1 warrior, an intelligent gift-giver. Perhaps the knight’s steel skin was more alive than historians imagine. This thesis is primarily a contribution to the study of noble culture in late medieval England and France from roughly 1350 to 1410. It argues that assemblages of armor, known as “harnesses,” augmented knightly identity in four ways in texts and images; they were expressions and indices of noble virtue, character transformation, bodily violence, and homosocial bonding. These four functions offered the fighting aristocracy a conspicuously martial and masculine symbolic language to comprehend the shifting social fabric of the late fourteenth century. The representation of armor shows that knights not only actively addressed adaptation in their own coded way – questioning what made men more or less virtuous, which was the right path to manhood and knighthood, how knights might embrace violence and advertise their skills, and how to best maintain and elevate homosocial relationships – but they did so through one of the most atavistic
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