ARMOUR OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
In arriving at the fourteenth century, we have reached the very heart of
our subject. For this century was the period of the great national wars
with France and Scotland; it was the time when the mercenaries raised in
the Italian wars first learnt, and then taught the world, the trade of
soldier and trained their captains in the art of war; it was the period
when the romantic exploits and picturesque trappings of chivalry were in
their greatest vogue; the period when Gothic art was at its highest point
of excellence. It was a period, too, of which we have ample knowledge from
public records and serious histories, from romance writers in poetry and
prose, from Chaucer and Froissart, from MS. illuminations and monumental
effigies. Our difficulty amid such a profusion of material is to select
that which will be most serviceable to our special purpose.
Let us begin with some detailed account of the different kinds and
fashions of armour and equipment. In the preceding period, it has been
seen, the most approved knightly armour was of mail. The characteristic
feature of the armour of the fourteenth century is the intermixture of
mail and plate. We see it first in small supplementary defences of plate
introduced to protect the elbow and knee-joints. Probably it was found
that the rather heavy and unpliable sleeve and hose of mail pressed
inconveniently upon these joints; therefore the armourer adopted the
expedient which proved to be the "thin end of the wedge" which gradually
brought plate armour into fashion. He cut the mail hose in two; the lower
part, which was then like a modern stocking, protected the leg, and the
upper part protected the thigh, each being independently fastened below
and above the knee, leaving the knee unprotected. Then he hollowed a piece
of plate iron so as to form a cap for the knee, called technically a
_genouillière_, within which the joint could work freely without chafing
or pressure; perhaps it was padded or stuffed so as to deaden the effect
of a blow; and it was fashioned so as effectually to cover all the part
left undefended by the mail. The sleeve of the hauberk was cut in the same
way, and the elbow was defended by a cap of plate-iron called a
_coudière_. Early examples of these two pieces of plate armour will be
seen in the later illustrations of our last chapter, for they were
introduced a little before the end of the thirteenth century. The two
pieces of plate were introduced simultaneously, and they appear together
in the woodcut of David and his men in our last chapter; but we often find
the genouillière used while the arm is still defended only by the sleeve
of the hauberk, as in the first woodcut in the present chapter, and again
in the cut on p. 348. It is easy to see that the pressure of the chausses
of mail upon the knee in riding would be constant and considerable, and a
much more serious inconvenience than the pressure upon the elbow in the
usual attitude of the arm.
[Illustration: _Men-at-Arms, Fourteenth Century._]
Next, round plates of metal, called _placates_ or _roundels_, were applied
to shield the armpits from a thrust; and sometimes they were used also at
the elbow to protect the inner side of the joint where, for the
convenience of motion, it was destitute of armour. An example of a roundel
at the shoulder will be seen in one of the men-at-arms in the woodcut on
p. 339. Another curious fashion which very generally prevailed at this
time--that is, at the close of the thirteenth and beginning of the
fourteenth century--was the _ailette_. It was a thin, oblong plate of
metal, which was attached behind the shoulder. It would to some extent
deaden the force of a blow directed at the neck, but it would afford so
inartificial and ineffective a defence, that it is difficult to believe it
was intended for anything more than an ornament. It is worn by the
foremost knight in the cut on p. 335.
Perhaps the next great improvement was to protect the foot by a shoe made
of plates of iron overlapping, like the shell of a lobster, the sole being
still of leather. Then plates of iron, made to fit the limb, were applied
to the shin and the upper part of the forearm, and sometimes a small plate
is applied to the upper part of the arm in the place most exposed to a
blow. Then the shin and forearm defences were enlarged so as to enclose
the limb completely, opening at the side with a hinge, and closing with
straps or rivets. Then the thigh and the upper arm were similarly enclosed
in plate.
It is a little difficult to trace exactly the changes which took place in
the body defences, because all through this period it was the fashion to
wear a surcoat of some kind, which usually conceals all that was worn
beneath it. It is however probable that at an early period of the
introduction of plate a breastplate was introduced, which was worn over
the hauberk, and perhaps fastened to it. Then, it would seem, a back plate
was added also, worn over the hauberk. Next, the breast and back plate
were made to enclose the whole of the upper part of the body, while only a
skirt of mail remained; _i.e._ a garment of the same shape as the hauberk
was worn, unprotected with mail, where the breast and back plate would
come upon it, but still having its skirt covered with rings. In an
illumination in the MS., is a picture of a knight putting off his jupon,
in which the "pair of plates," as Chaucer calls them in a quotation
hereafter given, is seen, tinted blue (steel colour), with a skirt of
mail. At this time the helmet had a fringe of mail, called the _camail_,
attached to its lower margin, which fell over the body armour, and
defended the neck. It is clearly seen in the hindermost knight of the
group in the woodcut on p. 339, and in the effigy of John of Eltham, on p.
342.
It is not difficult to see the superiority of defence which plate afforded
over mail. The edge of sword or axe would bite upon the mail; if the rings
were unbroken, still the blow would be likely to bruise; and in romances
it is common enough to hear of huge cantles of mail being hewn out by
their blows, and the doughty champions being spent with loss of blood. But
many a blow would glance off quite harmless from the curved and polished,
and well-tempered surface of plate; so that it would probably require not
only a more dexterous blow to make the edge of the weapon bite at all on
the plate, but also a harder blow to cut into it so as to wound. In
"Prince Arthur" we read of Sir Tristram and Sir Governale--"they avoided
their horses, and put their shields before them, and they strake together
with bright swords like men that were of might, and either wounded other
wondrous sore, so that the blood ran upon the grass, and of their harness
they had hewed off many pieces." And again, in a combat between Sir
Tristram and Sir Elias, after a course in which "either smote other so
hard that both horses and knights went to the earth," "they both lightly
rose up and dressed their shields on their shoulders, with naked swords in
their hands, and they dashed together like as there had been a flaming
fire about them. Thus they traced and traversed, and hewed on helms and
hauberks, and cut away many pieces and cantles of their shields, and
either wounded other passingly sore, so that the hot blood fell fresh upon
the earth."
We have said that a surcoat of some kind was worn throughout this period,
but it differed in shape at different times, and had different names
applied to it. In the early part of the time of which we are now speaking,
_i.e._ when the innovation of plate armour was beginning, the loose and
flowing surcoat of the thirteenth century was still used, and is very
clearly seen in the nearest of the group of knights in woodcut on p. 339.
It was usually of linen or silk, sleeveless, reached halfway between the
knee and ankle, was left unstiffened to fall in loose folds, except that
it was girt by a silk cord round the waist, and its skirts flutter behind
as the wearer gallops on through the air. The change of taste was in the
direction of shortening the skirts of the surcoat, and making it scantier
about the body, and stiffening it so as to make it fit the person without
folds; at last it was tightly fitted to the breast and back plate, and
showed their outline; and it was not uncommonly covered with embroidery,
often of the armorial bearings of the wearer. The former garment is
properly called a surcoat, and the latter a jupon; the one is
characteristic of the greater part of the thirteenth century, the latter
of the greater part of the fourteenth. But the fashion did not change
suddenly from the one to the other; there was a transitional phase called
the _cyclas_, which may be briefly described. The cyclas opened up the
sides instead of in front, and it had this curious peculiarity, that the
front skirt was cut much shorter than the hind skirt--behind it reached to
the knees, but in front not very much below the hips. The fashion has this
advantage for antiquarians, that the shortness of the front skirt allows
us to see a whole series of military garments beneath, which are hidden by
the long surcoat and even by the shorter jupon, A suit of armour of this
period is represented in the Roman d'Alexandre (Bodleian Library), at
folio 143 v., and elsewhere in the MS. The remainder of the few examples
of the cyclas which remain, and which, so far as our observation extends,
are all in sepulchral monuments, range between the years 1325 and 1335,
the shortening of the cyclas enables us to see. We have chosen for our
illustration the sepulchral effigy in Westminster Abbey of John of Eltham,
the second son of King Edward II., who died in 1334. Here we see first and
lowest the hacqueton; then the hauberk of chain mail, slightly pointed in
front, which was one of the fashions of the time, as we see it also in the
monumental brasses of Sir John de Creke, at Westley-Waterless,
Cambridgeshire, and of Sir J. D'Aubernoun, the younger, at Stoke
D'Abernon, Surrey; over the hauberk we see the ornamented gambeson; and
over all the cyclas. It is a question whether knights generally wore this
whole series of defences, but the monumental effigies are usually so
accurate in their representations of actual costume, that we must conclude
that at least on occasions of state solemnity they were all worn. In the
illustration it will be seen that the cyclas is confined, not by a silk
cord, but by a narrow belt, while the sword-belt of the thirteenth century
is still worn in addition. The jupon is seen in the two knights tilting,
in the woodcut on p. 348. In the knight on the left will be seen how it
fits tightly, and takes the globular shape of the breastplate. It will be
noticed that on this knight the skirt of the jupon is scalloped, on the
other it is plain. The jupon was not girded with a silk cord or a narrow
belt; it was made to fit tight without any such fastening. The sword-belt
worn with it differs in two important respects from that worn previously.
It does not fall diagonally across the person, but horizontally over the
hips; and it is not merely a leather belt ornamented, but the leather
foundation is completely concealed by plates of metal in high relief,
chased, gilt, and filled with enamels, forming a gorgeous decoration. The
general form will be seen in the woodcut on p. 350, but its elaboration
and splendour are better understood on an examination of some of the
sculptured effigies, in which the forms of the metal plates are preserved
in facsimile, with traces of their gilding and colour still remaining.
[Illustration: _John of Eltham._]
It would be easy, from the series of sculptured effigies in relief and
monumental brasses, to give a complete chronological view of these various
changes which were continually progressing throughout the fourteenth
century. But this has already been done in the very accessible works by
Stothard, the Messrs. Waller, Mr. Boutell, and Mr. Haines, especially
devoted to monumental effigies and brasses. It will be more in accordance
with the plan we have laid down for ourselves, if we take from the less
known illuminations of MSS. some subjects which will perhaps be less clear
and fine in detail, but will have more life and character than the formal
monumental effigies.
We must, however, pause to mention some other kinds of armour which were
sometimes used in place of armour of steel. And first we may mention
leather. Leather was always more or less used as a cheap kind of defence,
from the Saxon leather tunic with the hair left on it, down to the buff
jerkin of the time of the Commonwealth, and even to the thick leather
gauntlets and jack boots of the present Life Guardsman. But at the time of
which we are speaking pieces of armour of the same shape as those we have
been describing were sometimes made, for the sake of lightness, of _cuir
bouilli_ instead of metal. Cuir bouilli was, as its name implies, leather
which was treated with hot water, in such a way as to make it assume a
required shape; and often it was also impressed, while soft, with
ornamental devices. It is easy to see that in this way armour might be
made possessing great comparative lightness, and yet a certain degree of
strength, and capable, by stamping, colouring, and gilding, of a high
degree of ornamentation. It was a kind of armour very suitable for
occasions of mere ceremonial, and it was adopted in actual combat for
parts of the body less exposed to injury; for instance, it seems to be
especially used for the defence of the lower half of the legs. We shall
find presently, in the description of Chaucer's Sire Thopas, the knight
adventurous, that "his jambeux were of cuirbouly." In external form and
appearance it would be so exactly like metal armour that it may be
represented in some of the ornamental effigies and MSS. drawings, where it
has the appearance of, and is usually assumed to be, metal armour. Another
form of armour, of which we often meet with examples in drawings and
effigies, is one in which the piece of armour appears to be studded, at
more or less distant regular intervals, with small round plates. There are
two suggestions as to the kind of armour intended. One is, that the armour
thus represented was a garment of cloth, silk, velvet, or other textile
material, lined with plates of metal, which are fastened to the garment
with metal rivets, and that the heads of these rivets, gilt and
ornamented, were allowed to be seen powdering the coloured face of the
garment by way of ornament. Another suggestion is that the garment was
merely one of the padded and quilted armours which we shall have next to
describe, in which, as an additional precaution, metal studs were
introduced, much as an oak door is studded with iron bolts. An example of
it will be seen in the armour of the forearms of King Meliadus in the
woodcut on p. 350. Chaucer seems to speak of this kind of defence, in his
description of Lycurgus at the great tournament in the "Knight's Tale,"
under the name of coat armour:--
"Instede of cote-armure on his harnais,
With nayles yelwe and bryght as any gold,
He had a bere's skin cole-blake for old."
Next we come to the rather large and important series of quilted defences.
We find the names of the _gambeson_, _hacqueton_, and _pourpoint_, and
sometimes the _jacke_. It is a little difficult to distinguish one from
the other in the descriptions; and in fact they appear to have greatly
resembled one another, and the names seem often to have been used
interchangeably. The gambeson was a sleeved tunic of stout coarse linen,
stuffed with flax and other common material, and sewn longitudinally. The
hacqueton was a similar garment, only made of buckram, and stuffed with
cotton; stiff from its material, but not so thick and clumsy as the
gambeson. The pourpoint was very like the hacqueton, only that it was made
of finer material, faced with silk, and stitched in ornamental patterns.
The gambeson and hacqueton were worn under the armour, partly to relieve
its pressure upon the body, partly to afford an additional defence.
Sometimes they were worn, especially by the common soldiers, without any
other armour. The pourpoint was worn over the hauberk, but sometimes it
was worn alone, the hauberk being omitted for the sake of lightness. The
jacke, or jacque, was a tunic of stuffed leather, and was usually worn by
the common soldiers without other armour, but sometimes as light armour by
knights.
In the first wood-cut on the next page, from the Romance of King
Meliadus, we have a figure which appears to be habited in one of these
quilted armours, perhaps the hacqueton. There is another figure in the
same group, in a similar dress, with this difference--in the first the
skirt seems to fall loose and light, in the second the skirt seems to be
stuffed and quilted like the body of the garment. At folio 214 of the same
Romance is a squire, attendant upon a knight-errant, who is habited in a
similar hacqueton to that we have represented; the squires throughout the
MS. are usually quite unarmed. In the monumental effigy of Sir Robert
Shurland, who was made a knight-banneret in 1300, we seem to have a
curious and probably unique effigy of a knight in the gameson. We give a
woodcut of it, reduced from Stothard's engraving. The smaller figure of
the man placed at the feet of the effigy is in the same costume, and
affords us an additional example. Stothard conjectures that the garment in
the effigy of John of Eltham (1334 A.D.), whose vandyked border appears
beneath his hauberk, is the buckram of the hacqueton left unstuffed, and
ornamentally scalloped round the border. In the MS. of King Meliadus, at
f. 21, and again on the other side of the leaf, is a knight, whose red
jupon, slit up at the sides, is thrown open by his attitude, so that we
see the skirt of mail beneath, which is silvered to represent metal; and
beneath that is a scalloped border of an under habit, which is left white,
and, if Stothard's conjecture be correct, is another example of the
hacqueton under the hauberk. But the best representation which we have met
with of the quilted armours is in the MS. of the Romance of the Rose
(Harleian, 4,425), at folio 133, where, in a battle scene, one knight is
conspicuous among the blue steel and red and green jupons of the other
knights by a white body armour quilted in small squares, with which he
wears a steel bascinet and ringed camail. He is engraved on p. 389.
[Illustration: _Squire in Hacqueton._]
[Illustration: _Sir Robert Shurland._]
And now to turn to a description of some of the MS. illuminations which
illustrate this chapter. That on p. 339 is a charming little subject from
a famous MS. (Royal 2 B. VII.) of the beginning of the Edwardian period,
which will illustrate half-a-dozen objects besides the mere suit of
knightly armour. First of all there is the suit of armour on the knight in
the foreground, the hooded hauberk and chausses of mail and genouillières,
the chapeau de fer, or war helm, and the surcoat, and the shield. But we
get also a variety of helmets, different kinds of weapons, falchion and
axe, as well as sword and spear, and the pennon attached to the spear;
and, in addition, the complete horse trappings, with the ornamental crest
which was used to set off the arching neck and tossing head. Moreover, we
learn that this variety of arms and armour was to be found in a single
troop of men-at-arms; and we see the irregular but picturesque effect
which such a group presented to the eyes of the monkish illuminator as it
pranced beneath the gateway into the outer court of the abbey, to seek the
hospitality which the hospitaller would hasten to offer on behalf of the
convent.
This mixture of armour and weapons is brought before us by Chaucer in his
description of Palamon's party in the great tournament in the "Knight's
Tale:"--
"And right so ferden they with Palamon,
With him ther wenten knights many one,
Som wol ben armed in an habergeon,
And in a brestplate and in a gipon;
And some wol have a pair of plates large;
And some wol have a Pruce shield or a targe;
And some wol ben armed on his legge's wele,
And have an axe, and some a mace of stele,
Ther was no newe guise that it was old,
Armed they weren, as I have you told,
Everich after his opinion."
The illustration here given and that on p. 350 are from a MS. which we
cannot quote for the first time without calling special attention to it.
It is a MS. of one of the numerous romances of the King Arthur cycle, the
Romance of the King Meliadus, who was one of the Companions of the Round
Table. The book is profusely illustrated with pictures which are
invaluable to the student of military costume and chivalric customs. They
are by different hands, and not all of the same date, the earlier series
being probably about 1350, the later perhaps as late as near the end of
the century. In both these dates the MS. gives page after page of
large-sized pictures drawn with great spirit, and illustrating every
variety of incident which could take place in single combat and in
tournament, with many scenes of civil and domestic life besides.
Especially there is page after page in which, along the lower portion of
the pages, across the whole width of the book, there are pictures of
tournaments. There is a gallery of spectators along the top, and in some
of these--especially in those at folio 151 v. and 152, which are sketched
in with pen and ink, and left uncoloured--there are more of character and
artistic drawing than the artists of the time are usually believed to have
possessed. Beneath this gallery is a confused mêlée of knights in the very
thickest throng and most energetic action of a tournament. The wood-cut on
p. 348 represents one out of many incidents of a single combat. It does
not do justice to the drawing, and looks tame for want of the colouring of
the original; but it will serve to show the armour and equipment of the
time. The victor knight is habited in a hauberk of banded mail, with
gauntlets of plate, and the legs are cased entirely in plate. The body
armour is covered by a jupon; the tilting helmet has a knight's chapeau
and drapery carrying the lion crest. The armour in the illumination is
silvered to represent metal. The knight's jupon is red, and the trappings
of his helmet red, with a golden lion; his shield bears gules, a lion
rampant argent; the conquered knight's jupon is blue, his shield argent,
two bandlets gules. We see here the way in which the shield was carried,
and the long slender spear couched, in the charge.
[Illustration: _Jousting._]
The next wood-cut hardly does credit to the charming original. It
represents the royal knight-errant himself sitting by a fountain, talking
with his squire. The suit of armour is beautiful, and the face of the
knight has much character, but very different from the modern conventional
type of a mediæval knight-errant. His armour deserves particular
examination. He wears a hauberk of banded mail; whether he wears a
breastplate, or pair of plates, we are unable to see for the jupon, but we
can see the hauberk which protects the throat above the jupon, and the
skirt of it where the attitude of the wearer throws the skirt of the jupon
open at the side. It will be seen that the sleeves of the hauberk are not
continued, as in most examples, over the hands, or even down to the wrist;
but the forearm is defended by studded armour, and the hands by gauntlets
which are probably of plate. The leg defences are admirably exhibited; the
hose of banded mail, the knee cap, and shin pieces of plate, and the
boots of overlapping plates. The helmet also, with its royal crown and
curious double crest, is worth notice. In the original drawing the whole
suit of armour is brilliantly executed. The armour is all silvered to
represent steel, the jupon is green, the military belt gold, the helmet
silvered, with its drapery blue powdered with gold fleurs-de-lis, and its
crown, and the fleur-de-lis which terminate its crest, gold. The whole
dress and armour of a knight of the latter half of the fourteenth century
are described for us by Chaucer in a few stanzas of his Rime of Sire
Thopas:--
"He didde[371] next his white lere
Of cloth of lake fine and clere
A breche and eke a sherte;
And next his shert an haketon,
And over that an habergeon,
For percing of his herte.
And over that a fine hauberk,
Was all ye wrought of Jewes werk,
Full strong it was of plate;
And over that his coat armoure,
As white as is the lily floure,
In which he could debate.[372]
His jambeux were of cuirbouly,[373]
His swerde's sheth of ivory,
His helm of latoun[374] bright,
His sadel was of rewel bone,
His bridle as the sonne shone,
Or as the mone-light[375]
His sheld was all of gold so red,
And therein was a bore's hed,
A charboncle beside;
And then he swore on ale and bred,
How that the geaunt shuld be ded,
Betide what so betide.
His spere was of fine cypres,
That bodeth warre and nothing pees,
The hed ful sharpe yground.
His stede was all of dapper gray.
It goth an amble in the way,
Ful softely in londe."
[Illustration: _A Knight-Errant._]
There is so much of character in his squire's face in the same picture,
and that character so different from our conventional idea of a squire,
that we are tempted to give a sketch of it on p. 352, as he leans over the
horse's back talking to his master. This MS. affords us a whole gallery of
squires attendant upon their knights. At folio 66 v. is one carrying his
master's spear and shield, who has a round cap with a long feather, like
that in the woodcut. In several other instances the squire rides
bareheaded, but has his hood hanging behind on his shoulders ready for a
cold day or a shower of rain. In another place the knight is attended by
two squires, one bearing his master's tilting helmet on his shoulder, the
other carrying his spear and shield. In all cases the squires are unarmed,
and mature men of rather heavy type, different from the gay and gallant
youths whom we are apt to picture to ourselves as the squires of the days
of chivalry attendant on noble knights adventurous. In other cases we see
the squires looking on very phlegmatically while their masters are in the
height of a single combat; perhaps a knight adventurous was not a hero to
his squire. But again we see the squire starting into activity to catch
his master's steed, from which he has been unhorsed by an antagonist of
greater strength or skill, or good fortune. We see him also in the lists
at a tournament, handing his master a new spear when he has splintered his
own on an opponent's shield; or helping him to his feet when he has been
overthrown, horse and man, under the hoofs of prancing horses.
[Illustration: _The Knight-Errant's Squire._]