CHAIN-MAIL AND MIXED ARMOUR.
Remarkably little is known of Britain during the centuries immediately
following the Roman occupation, and the question as to when real
chain-mail was first used in Europe is both difficult and obscure.
There is a representation of loricas on the column of Trajan that
looks remarkably like chain-mail, and it is almost certain that the
Romans used iron chain-mail in Britain. The bronze scales of a lorica,
or Roman cuirass, found at Æsica, do not help us;[2] but interlinked
bronze rings of Roman origin have also been found, and if in bronze,
why not in iron? This question is adequately answered by the masses
of corroded iron rings of Roman times found at Chester-le-Street, and
referred to in the report of a meeting held by the Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Society of Antiquaries as far back as 1856.[3] These rings could
hardly be massed together as they are without having been interlinked.
The extract from the report of this early meeting of the Society runs
thus:--“The Rev. Walker Featherstonhaugh had presented two pieces of
chain armour, corroded into lumps, from Chester-le-Street.” Similar
masses of rings of Roman date have been found at South Shields, and
may be seen in “The Blair Collection” at the Black Gate Museum. These
are of a date certainly not later than the fourth century. We may then
reasonably conclude that these masses of corroded iron rings were once
loricas of iron chain-mail. But the Romans were not the first to use
chain-mail, for they got it probably, like so much besides, from Asia.
In the British Museum are some corroded masses of links brought from
Nineveh, similar in character to those found at Chester-le-Street, so
it may be taken that this kind of armour is of a remote antiquity.
The Dano-Anglo-Saxon epic poem of “Beowulf,” written doubtless during
the second half of the eighth century, bears frequent reference to the
hero’s arms and armour:--
Beowulf maœlode, Beowulf spoke (or sang?),
On him byrne scan, He bore his polished byrnie,
Searonet seowed The war-net sewn
smipes orpanum. by the skill of the smith.
This poem has been cited as proof that chain-mail was in use in early
Saxon England, and by the Vikings also, and there is some supposed
confirmation of this idea as regards the latter in the finds of chain
armour in the peat mosses of Denmark, which have been freely ascribed
to the fifth and sixth centuries; but this mail is of such excellent
workmanship, and so similar to that made at a much later period, as
to cast grave doubts on this deduction, and there is really nothing
whatever to show that it was of so early a date. Every ring of the
Danish mail is interlinked with four surrounding rings, and so on
throughout the garment. This is the prevailing fashion of all periods,
and there is a great variety of mesh. It would seem that the “war-nets”
alluded to in “Beowulf” were not chain-mail at all, but leathern or
quilted armour with pieces of iron, shaped like the drawn meshes
of a net, or steel rings sewn on to it, and that this combination
constituted the “bright byrnie”[4] referred to in the poem, and that
the chain-mail found at Vemose, Flensburg, and other places, was made
much later. Quite independent of other evidence, the line in the poem,
“The war-net sewn by the skill of the smith,” would point to the
leathern or quilted tunic being fortified with rings or scales sewn on
to the garment; and this was the general method up to and even beyond
the time of William the Conqueror.
There are, however, other words in the poem referred to, such as
“hand-locen” (hand-locked), and “handum gebroden.” The latter words
might well read either twisted or embroidered with hands, while both
might point to interlinked mail, so it clearly cannot be affirmed with
certainty that there were no instances of real chain-mail in use in
Britain at this very early period after the Romans; but if there were
any hauberks of the kind it might indicate a much greater continuity
from the Roman occupation than the historians of those shadowy times
have hitherto imagined. Possibly chain-mail was introduced from Asia,
through the Vikings, and that the byrnies mentioned in Beowulf were
really made of interlinked rings; but it is probable that there was no
real chain-mail in Northern Europe between Roman times and the ninth
or tenth century. That it was in use in the East at an early period
is shown by the discovery of a chain-mail tunic in a “barrow” in the
Ukraine.[5]
The Arab hordes which were driven back by Charles Martel at the
decisive battle of Poitiers in 732 were despoiled of their body-armour,
which was of a rich Saracenic character, by the conquerors. This was
probably of leather or quilted stuff fortified with small plates or
scales; and such armour was henceforth adopted by the Franks, while
Charlemagne grafted Roman fashions and traditions on to the armament.
Up to the later middle ages the sizes of the links of chain-mail, which
are of hammered iron, vary considerably, extending from one-sixth of
an inch to an inch in diameter, and they were soldered, welded, or
butted in the earlier times, and often riveted in the later. Most
of the earlier Oriental mail is riveted. It is said that the art of
wire drawing was discovered by Rudolph of Nuremberg in 1306. At all
events its application at this time rendered chain-mail much cheaper
and more generally used than when each ring was separately wrought.
This discovery was possibly only the revival of an ancient art. Very
much was lost during the “dark ages” which followed the disruption
of the Roman empire, when so many landmarks were swept away; and
the same kind of thing has happened often before in the cycles of
obscuration that preceded it. Much was preserved in “Chronicles,”
as was also the case in the earlier periods of obliteration, when
hieratic writings on stone, papyrus, or parchment restored so much to
the newly-awakening times. Double-ringed mail is mentioned by some
authorities, but the author has never seen any, and it seems probable
that the indistinct drawings on manuscripts, brasses, or tapestry gave
rise to the idea--very small ringed mail might easily be taken for
double; still, many effigies show what looks very like double-ringed
mail.[6] The Danes of the eighth century generally adopted the
Phrygian tunic, reinforced with steel rings, probably obtained through
their intercourse with the Byzantine empire; and both Meyrick and
Strutt agree that such a tunic was then in use. The paladins of
Charlemagne wore jazerant and scale armour of strongly marked Roman
characteristics, and, according to the monk of St. Gall, the emperor’s
panoply consisted of an iron helmet and breastplate of classic form,
with leg and arm armour. This period represents to a certain extent a
classic revival, and such forms were clearly then reverted to. It was
under this reign that heavy cavalry attained the pre-eminence which
sustained its first check with the successes of the English yeoman with
the longbow. Charlemagne adopted the service of the ban, and formed a
standing militia of his own vassals.
The real mediæval coat of chain-mail was probably somewhat of a
rarity in the tenth century, but that it was in general use by the
greater knights late in the eleventh is clear from the testimony of
the Princess Anna Comnena, daughter of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus,
who says, in describing the body armour of the knights of the first
crusade, “it was made entirely of steel rings riveted together.” She
further remarks that this kind of armour was unknown at Byzantium up to
the time of the first crusade. Mail armour is mentioned by a monk of
Mairemoustier (temp. Louis VII., a contemporary of Stephen, 1137), in a
description of the armament of Geoffrey of Normandy.[7]
The inception and principles of chivalry were the romantic outcome of
the lessons of Christianity as taught in the earlier “middle ages,”
though confined to a narrow and privileged class; which class assumed
a concrete form under Charlemagne, who did his best to divide society
into “the noble” and “the base”; thus promoting the feudal system, the
symbol of which became the sword. The earlier stages of the movement
were characterised by great fervour and self-abnegation, operating
in various ways according to the modes of thought of the different
nations brought under its domination. It gradually declined, and by
the end of the thirteenth century had degenerated into a fantastic
fashion rather than a principle; and culminated, like the church of
the period, in licentiousness and frivolity. Froissart alludes to it
in this sense. The influence exercised by the laws of chivalry was on
the whole beneficent in subjugating the rude passion of combat to some
of the limitations of Christian ethics; and the knightly watchword
“God and his lady” raised the social status of women of the privileged
class. The conquest of England by the Normans, the stirring incidents
of the first crusade, when we have the shrewd account of the arms and
armour of the crusaders by the Byzantine Princess Anna Comnena, and
the general martial spirit of the age, lent an immense impetus in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries to warlike equipment of all kinds; but
this was more in the direction of improving old forms, rather than in
the introduction of new ones.
The Bayeux tapestry--worked, there is little doubt, in the middle of
the eleventh century, but whether embroidered in England by order
of Matilda for an English cathedral, or in Normandy by noble ladies
or hirelings--is of comparatively little moment so long as its
authenticity as an approximately contemporaneous monument of the reign
of the Conqueror is generally admitted, and this is happily the case.
It shows that the Conqueror’s chivalry wore conical helms with the
nose-guard and hood of mail for protecting the neck, shoulders, and
part of the face. The hauberks reached down over the thighs, with a
slit in the middle of the skirt for convenience on horseback; and the
mail on the arms usually came nearly to the elbows, but sometimes to
the wrists; and the continuous coif occurs frequently. The hauberk of
this period had no division down the front, but was drawn on over the
warrior’s head. The Norman knights bear pear-shaped, convex shields
with a point at the bottom, secured to the arm by a leathern strap,
and large enough to cover the body from the shoulders to the hips; some
with a rough device. Some of the shields shown are polygonally formed,
with a central spike. The Saxon shields on the tapestry are round or
oval, with a central umbo. Maces are shown in the hands of some of the
figures. With the exception of William himself, whose legs are encased
in chausses, probably of leather, with reinforcing scales or rings,
the limbs of his knights are simply swathed in thongs. Probably only
the richer knights wore chain-mail, the majority having hauberks of
cuir-bouilli (boiled leather) strengthened by continuous rings sewn
on to it, side by side or overlapping. Some also had the pieces of
lozenge-shaped metal already mentioned, called jazerine or jazerant; or
scales, which were occasionally of horn, fixed on to the leather. It
is impossible to determine these details absolutely, as all the armour
looks very much alike on the tapestry in its present condition, this
being especially the case where rings were used; and it is only by
careful comparison with other contemporary evidence that any reasonable
certainty can be assured. This has naturally given rise to a great
diversity of interpretation; and the same difficulty arises with seals.
The knights wore no surcoats over their mail. The great seal of William
the Conqueror shows him in a hauberk coming down to the knees, with
short sleeves and no leg armour. Under the hauberk was the gambeson
and tunic. The helm is hemispherical, and fastened under the chin. The
Germans were probably before us in the general use of real chain-mail,
for the epic poem of Gudrun, written in the tenth century, states how
Herwig’s clothes “were stained with the rust of his hauberk.”
The panoply of knights was very much the same during the century
preceding the Conqueror’s time, as shown in the illuminations of a
“Biblia Sacra” of the tenth century. Helms with rounded crowns were
worn then, and this is all confirmed by the “Martyrologium,” a MS. of
the same period in the library at Stuttgart.
Defensive armour continued much the same during the reign of Rufus,
whose seal shows him in a long-armed hauberk without gloves of mail,
and a low conical helm with the nasal; but in the reign of his
successor, Henry I. (1100–1135), the reinforcing rings of the hauberk
were sometimes oval and set on edgeways, “rustred” mail as it was
termed; and this fashion became common in the next reign. The seal
of Henry I. shows a conical cap without nasal, and that of Stephen a
kite-shaped shield with a sharp spike in the centre. The king wears a
hauberk of scales, sewn or riveted on the gambeson. The nasal first
appeared in England about the end of the tenth century, and the
Bayeux tapestry shows it to have been common among the Normans in the
eleventh. Among the seals of the English kings, that of Henry II. is
the first to show the hood of mail. The hauberk of the Norman kings was
in one piece from the neck. Under Richard I. the hauberk is somewhat
lengthened, and armorial bearings become general. The sleeves of the
hauberk are lengthened, and terminate in gloves of mail. The first
seal of Richard Cœur-de-Lion shows the king on horseback in a hauberk
of mail. His spiked shield, shaped like half a pear cut lengthwise and
pointed at the bottom, is ensigned with a lion rampant. The arm is
mail-clad to the finger tips, and brandishes a simple cross-handled
sword; the chausses are of mail, and terminate in a spurred solleret.
Over the continuous hood, which is in one piece with the hauberk, he
carries a high conical helm without flaps or nasal, bound round with
iron bars. On Richard’s second seal he bears the great helm with a
fan crest, ensigned with a lion; his hauberk is rather longer than in
the first seal. The shield on this seal is ensigned with three lions
passant gardant, and this is still retained on the royal escutcheon
of England, which becomes quartered with the lilies of France in the
royal arms of Edward III. Both seals show the plain goad spur. There
is a good example of an undoubted suit of chain-mail on an effigy of
Robert de Vere (died 1221) in Hatfield Broad Oak Church. This suit
was probably made in the reign of King John. An effigy in Haseley
Church, Oxfordshire, of the reign of Henry III., shows a hood somewhat
flattened at the crown, hauberk reaching to the knees, and surcoat
coming nearly to the ankles.
It is stated that Richard sent home from the crusade numerous suits or
rather hauberks of chain-mail. There is a riveted sleeveless shirt of
chain-mail, with a fringe of brass rings, dating from the thirteenth
century, in the Rotunda, Woolwich; these brass rings are a common
feature of the period.
The question as to when coats of arms were first introduced is very
uncertain, but it is thought that the custom had its origin in the
first crusade, when distinguishing marks among such a motley crowd
of warriors were more especially needful. During this crusade the
several nationalities taking part in it were distinguished by different
coloured crosses sewn on to their garments, each leader displaying his
own colour and device; but heraldic bearings first became generally
hereditary in the reign of Henry III. His seal shows the king with
the fingers of his chain-mail gloves articulated, and wearing the
great helm. An early example of a helm with a heraldic device occurs
on an effigy of Johan le Botiler about 1300. It is figured in Hewitt.
The shield on the brass of Sir John Daubernoun bears a distinctly
heraldic device. Heraldry seems to have been most studied, prized,
and practised during the fourteenth century. An illumination in the
Loutterell Psalter, dating from the middle of the same century, shows
heraldic devices spread over the entire person of a knight; being
emblazoned over the body, ailette, banner, pennon, saddle, shield,
and on the housings of the steed, as well as on the dresses of the
ladies of the knight’s family. The numerous tournaments of this period
encouraged its use and development, mainly in the sense of ostentation
and pride of birth. In the Tower collection is a figure on horseback
clad entirely in chain-mail. To the hood is attached a fillet of iron
round the head. The hauberk has long arms terminating in gloves of
mail. A leathern belt with strong iron clasps encircles the waist.
Excepting the legs the horse is fully barded with leathern armour,
fortified with iron scales. The armour on the figure is labelled
“Indian,” and the horse “Persian.” There are two hauberks at Carlsruhe
of riveted chain-mail, hood and tunic in one piece, but the head bears
no fillet. On the breast, over nipples and navel, are three small
palettes inscribed with Oriental characters; and inscribed clasps at
the waist fasten the tunic. These suits are chiefly remarkable for the
presence of the hood, and the date of the mail is about fourteenth
century. There are two shirts of mail at Brancepeth Castle, Durham,
which are riveted, and probably of early fourteenth century date. It
was not uncommon for hauberks to be provided with reinforcements of
leathern thongs, which were intertwined through the rings; there is an
example of this kind in the Rotunda at Woolwich. This description of
reinforced chain-mail is referred to later under the paragraph dealing
with “banded” mail. An effigy of a knight in the Temple Church, that
of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex (1144), in the reign of King
Stephen, engraved by Stothard, shows the warrior armed completely
in chain-mail, having a hood of mail over the head and shoulders,
surmounted by a cylindrical helmet without nasal. The hauberk is in
one piece with the arms and gloves, the last without any articulation;
this form of gauntlet is the earliest. Chausses going above the knee,
in one web with the demi-poulaine or slightly-pointed shoes; globular
triangular shield extending from the shoulder to the hip; and the belt
of knighthood above the hips. There is a singular point in connection
with this and two other effigies in the church, viz., that the sword
is worn on the right side. This peculiarity is noticeable in other
figures of the period. The effigy of a knight in the same church,
that of William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury (1200–1227), wears mail
gloves, the fingers of which are articulated; the sword is on the left
side. Both figures wear surcoats. Like most continuous hoods of early
thirteenth century date, this example is somewhat flattened at the top.
They were usually rounded in the second half of the century, as shown
on the Daubernoun brass; and the gloves generally divided into fingers,
as may be seen on two of the sleeping guards in Lincoln Cathedral; this
form continued well into the fourteenth century; The “Coif de mailles,”
or separate hood of chain-mail, followed the same lines as the
continuous one, and examples of all may be seen in Stothard’s series,
and one of the effigies in the Temple Church shows how they were lapped
round the face and fastened. What the separate hood perhaps gained in
convenience, it certainly lost in invulnerability, as it left the neck
less adequately guarded against a thrust from below. The effigies in
the Temple Church are perhaps the most artistic, as well as the most
interesting, of any series existing. It is not known that any of them
really represented a knight templar, although several of them did
crusaders. The only effigy of a knight templar that is known to have
existed is that of Jean de Dreux, who was living in 1275. The figure
was unarmed, but bore the mantle of the order. The effigy was formerly
in the church of St. Yved de Braine, near Soissons.
A knight in Walkerne Church, Hertfordshire, wears the great helm,
rising slightly at the crest, pierced with eye-slits, and showing
breathing holes over the mouth.
Coutes or coudières for the elbow are seen but rarely in the thirteenth
century; but genouillières (knee pieces) began to appear over mail
towards the middle of the century. Examples of both pieces, dating
about 1250, may be seen in Stothard. Genouillières occur on the
Daubernoun brass (1277), while both pieces appear on that of Sir
John D’Argentine (1382). The adoption of these defences and the
plastron-de-fer was the first step in the direction of plate armour.
Something of the kind had become absolutely necessary by reason of the
number of casualties caused by the general use of the deadly battle-axe
and mace.
The cuisse and jamb (plate armour for the thigh and shin) are not seen
in England before the close of the century. They were first strapped on
over the chausses, and only covered the front of the leg. Chain-mail
continued in use in the East up to a recent date.
A spirited drawing of a mediæval water ewer of bronze is given in the
_Archæologia Æliana_, old series, vol. iv., p. 76, Plate XXII. This
ewer, which was found about four miles west of Hexham, represents a
knight of the thirteenth century on horseback, wearing chain-mail, and
over it a sleeveless chequered surcoat. The figure wears a flat-topped
cylindrical helm.
The epoch of chain-mail armour, pure and simple, may be said to close
during the reign of Edward I., although in more remote and less
advanced countries, such as Ireland and Scandinavia, it was to be met
with very much later. There was a revival in the use of scale armour in
the fourteenth century, and there are many instances. It was usually
applied in pieces such as chaussons, chausses, gauntlets, or sollerets.
It is often met with on German monuments. An English example occurs
on the brass of Thomas Cheyne, Esquire (1368), at Drayton Beauchamp,
Bucks. The mailed horseman continued the main force in every army in
the field up to the reign of Edward III.
A good idea of the equipment prevailing towards the close of the
century is shown in the will of Odo de Rossilion, dated 1298: he
bequeaths “my visored helmet, my bascinet, my pourpoint of cendal silk,
my godbert (hauberk), my gorget, my gaudichet (mail shirt), my steel
greaves, my thigh-coverings and chausses, my great coutel, and my
little sword.”
The surcoat was a device for protecting the armour against wet, and
to mitigate the rays of the sun. It is rare towards the close of the
twelfth century, when you have an instance in King Sverrer, who wore a
rose-coloured surcote (“raudan hiup”). The garment becomes common in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the ground of the fabric
was usually green. There are both sleeveless and sleeved varieties,
but the latter did not come into vogue before the second half of the
thirteenth century. There is a north-country example referred to in
Surtees’s _History of Durham_ (vol. iii., p. 155); one on the effigy of
an unknown knight in Norton Church; and another in the Temple Church,
London. Among the seals of the kings of England this garment first
appears on that of John. Chaucer, writing in the reign of Edward III.,
says:--
“And over that a fin hauberk
Full strong it was of plate,
And over that his cote-armoure.”
The “cote-armoure of Sir Thopas” is the surcoat. There is an admirable
example of a thirteenth century surcoat on the figure on the ewer found
at Hexham, which has already been referred to. This surcoat is long
and sleeveless, with a slit in front. It is embellished by a diamond
pattern, interspersed with fleurs-de-lis and stars of six rays. The
garment has an ornamental border. A representative example may be seen
on the Daubernoun brass. It reaches below the knee, is slit half-way
up the front, and is fastened by a cord at the waist. The border is
fringed. The surcoat early in the fourteenth century was long, but
became gradually shortened and tightened. There are, however, earlier
examples of the shorter surcoat, as shown on the Whitworth effigy,
which does not reach the knee. The D’Argentine brass (1382) furnishes
a good example of the short fourteenth century surcoat, and another
may be seen on the effigy of the Black Prince (1376) in Canterbury
Cathedral. It is a sleeveless garment reaching a little below the
hips, and was variously fastened, being buttoned, laced, or buckled.
On an effigy engraved by Hollis in his Plate II., it is held together
by a brooch. The fabrics were rich and costly, and usually ornamented
with heraldic devices. The surcoat on the figure of the Black Prince
is charged with England and France quarterly, with a label of three
points. At this period but little of the trunk armour showed through
the “cyclas.” The helm on the figure of the Black Prince was gilt or
silvered, and had its scarlet mantling. The surcoat of the fifteenth
century presents heraldic devices on the front and arms, both before
and behind, indeed it was a “tabard of arms,” and so it continued in
the sixteenth century as a herald’s tabard. The garment, of course,
gave rise to the term “the coat of arms.” An effigy of Sir John Pechey,
figured by Stothard, shows a tabard of arms over the armour; and so
does the brass of Sir John Say (1473) at Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire.
The short surcoat had almost ceased with the second quarter of the
century, although there are still isolated examples, such as the
short-sleeved tabard on the Ogle effigy at Bothal, Northumberland,
which is early sixteenth century. During the first half of the
fourteenth century, English knights wore a garment under the surcoat,
called “upper pourpoint”; the true “pourpoint” was the surcoat itself.
A description of the “Ehrenpforte,” written in 1559, gives a
representation of the meeting between Henry VIII. and the Emperor
Maximilian, which occurred in 1519. The emperor wears a surcoat with
slashed sleeves and plaited skirt, obviously suggested by the civil
dress of the period, called “bases.” The knightly mantle is but rarely
seen on monuments. It was one of the insignia of the Garter, and was
usually blue in colour. There is an instance figured by Stothard, Plate
LVIII. There were two grades of knights instituted--the banneret and
the bachelor. The former had his square banner as well as pennon, and
square shield for armorial bearings; his retinue consisted of fifty
men-at-arms and their followers. The knight-banneret, so called from
having the right to bear a banner, was always a man of large estate,
with a great number of retainers. Knight-bannerets first appear during
the reign of Philip Augustus, and disappear by ordinance in the reign
of Charles VII. The _Gloss du Droit, Fr. de Laurica_ defines the
etymology of the term “bachelor” as here applied. It does not signify
“bas chevalier,” as has often been supposed, but refers to the minimum
extent of land that a candidate for the honour must be possessed of,
viz., four “bachelle” of land. The “bachelle” contained ten “max” or
“meix” (farms or domains); each of which contained a sufficiency of
land for the work of two oxen, during a whole year. It would thus
appear that the dignity of knighthood was only conferred on men
possessing a suitable estate, and that the two grades were based on
the extent of estate; which, of course, implied the number of vassals
available for military service. Although the pennon was the ensign of
a knight-bachelor, we have the authority of Du Fresne that an esquire
could also bear one, always providing that he could ride with a
sufficient number of vassals.
Orders of knighthood appear to have originated in France, and were
introduced into England probably by the Normans. The most ancient order
was the “Gennet,” instituted in 706. It was a military order, but
always partook, more or less, of a religious character. The aspirant
was usually trained to arms as a page, then he became an esquire,
in attendance on a knight. It was unusual to confer the dignity of
knighthood before the age of twenty-one had been reached. Knighthood
was conferred by the “Accolade,” which appears to have been originally
an embrace, but later consisted in the administering of a blow on the
neck by the flat of a sword. There was an intermediate grade between
a knight and an esquire in the pursuivant-at-arms, but the dignity of
knighthood was very often conferred on a simple esquire.
Mamillières were circular plates over the paps, with rings affixed.
Chains passed through the rings, one being usually attached to the
sword and scabbard. These pieces were introduced in the reign of Edward
I., and prevailed during the fourteenth century, more especially in
the first half. Instances are comparatively rare. There is a beautiful
example on an effigy of Otto von Piengenau (1371) in the church at
Ebersberg. The chains are attached over the right breast, one fastened
to the sword and the other to the dagger. Another on the tomb of Alb.
v. Hohenlohe, died 1318. An instance of a mamillière over the left
pap, with a thin chain attached to the helmet, occurs on an effigy of
Berengar v. Berlichingen, 1377. On an effigy of Conrad von Seinsheim
(1369), on his tomb at Schweinfurt, chains connect dagger, sword,
and helm. The wood carving in Bamberg Cathedral (1370) affords two
remarkable cases, where they directly appear on the almost heart-shaped
“plastron-de-fer.”[8] An English example may be seen on the figure of
a knight in St. Peter’s Church, Sandwich. This interesting effigy is
also remarkable for skirts of scale-work. The scales are ridged, and
are probably of iron. They form the skirt of a garment which is worn
between the hauberk of chain-mail and the surcoat. The effigy would
appear to date from very early in the fourteenth century. Scale-work
frequently occurs on monuments of this century, seldom covering
the whole body, but more generally defending the hands and feet.
Mamillières are present on an effigy in Tewkesbury Abbey Church, the
date of which is doubtless about the middle of the century. A beautiful
instance may be seen on an effigy at Alvechurch, Worcestershire (1346),
showing clearly the one chain connected with the scabbard and another
with the hilt. There is a brass in Minster Church, Isle of Sheppey,
which represents an armed figure with only one “mamillière”; it is on
the left pap, with the chain going up over the left shoulder--early
fourteenth century. The derivation of the word is interesting, being
from _mamilla_, the breast. Its origin was a leather band worn by the
Roman ladies to support the breasts.
In effigies the knight’s head is usually pillowed on a helm, while a
dog or lion crouches at his feet; this latter feature is supposed to be
emblematic of fidelity.
There are frequent representations on monuments and in MSS. of a kind
of armour that appeared towards the end of the thirteenth century,
“banded mail” as it is called; but there has not been any general
determination arrived at as to what it really was, and there are no
actual specimens for reference. It presents somewhat the appearance of
the “rustred” mail of the middle of the twelfth century--that is, of
rings set on to the hauberk edgeways. On monuments and drawings these
rings frequently appear to be set in continuous rows, whereon the rings
turn in a right or left direction alternately; each line of rings being
“banded,” or framed with what looks like a rim. Examples of this mail
may be seen in Stothard’s series.[9]
We reach the highest point of mediæval culture during the fourteenth
century, and broadly the “renaissance” towards its close. Like all
periods of transition, it presents many points of interest, especially
in armament. It was not before the middle of the century was reached
that arms and armour approached to anything like uniformity. In the
first moiety the greatest possible irregularity prevailed. Scale armour
was still largely used throughout the century, and splint armour also,
though to a less extent. An example of the latter may be seen on the
effigy in Ash Church.