illustrates a curious fashion in military attire that often has occupied
the attention of experts. The statue of Don Berenguer de Puigvert, in
the suppressed Monastery of Poblet, represents him clothed in a full
and richly embroidered surcoat, confined at the waist by a baldric,
beneath which he is wearing a complete suit of _banded armour_ of a very
elaborate pattern. On the forearm the mail seems to be composed of rings
placed end to end vertically instead of horizontally. The gauntlets and
leg-armour are composed of alternate horizontal bands, some showing a
zig-zag pattern; the others, perhaps rings set vertically. Banded mail
of various designs seems to have been fashionable all over Europe at the
close of the thirteenth century. Hewitt enumerates four examples in
English statuary. He expounds the various theories advanced to explain
the nature of this armour, and finally confesses that the riddle is
still unsolved. As Aragon seems in all improvements in armour to have
kept well ahead of the rest of the world, we need not be surprised to
find there an example of what was evidently a fashionable style in
Europe generally.
The headpiece universally worn at this time was the heaulme or helm.
About the middle of the century the aventail, or hinged opening for the
face, was introduced, and accordingly we find St. Ferdinand (represented
in the windows of Chartres Cathedral) wearing a casque with an aventail
cleft with three vertical slits. The camail was still generally worn
under the heaulme, which rested not only on the head but on the
shoulders of the wearer, and was secured by a chain. It was too heavy to
wear habitually, and was, therefore, carried at the saddle, or by the
esquire, to be put on at the approach of an enemy. Steel caps also were
often worn underneath; but much must obviously have depended on the
degree of strength and foolhardiness possessed by the individual.
“From the collection of mediæval ‘Proverbs,’” remarks the author we have
so often quoted, Mr. Hewitt, “we learn that Spain was the favourite mart
for the knightly charger. Denmark and Brittany had also a celebrity for
their breeds of horses of a different character. The fiat of popular
approval is given to the--
“‘Dextriers de Castille,
Palefrois Danois,
Roussins de Bretagne.’
“Such was the nature of the high-bred dextrarius that, when two knights
had dismounted, and were continuing the fight on foot, their horses,
left to themselves, instantly commenced a conflict of their own of the
most gallant and desperate character.” Bucephalus and Pegasus were
inferior steeds in comparison.
NOTE
The representation of armour on tombs and sepulchral effigies was
subject, during the Middle Ages, to regulations, which throw light on
the rank and the circumstances of the death of the deceased. In
Carderera’s _Iconografia_ we find the following ordinances ascribed to
the Emperor Charles V. They are probably merely a recapitulation of
enactments which had been in force several centuries:--
“If any person during his life shall have accomplished any notable feat
of arms, or gained honour in the lists, he shall be shown armed _de
pied-en-cap_, helmet on his head, visor raised, and hands joined. His
sword shall be at his side, and his spurs on. These shall be of gold if
he shall have been an armed knight; otherwise he shall have none.
“If he shall have gained no honours in the lists, he shall have the
visor lowered, and his helmet shall be placed beside him.
“If he shall not have distinguished himself in the tourney, but shall
have died on the field of battle, contributing to the victory, he shall
be represented armed _de pied-en-cap_, visor lowered, naked sword in his
hand, the point upwards, and his shield in his left hand. If he shall
have been of the vanquished, he shall be represented armed _de
pied-en-cap_, his sword in its sheath, visor raised, his hands joined,
and his spurs put on. If he shall have been made prisoner and died on
the field or in captivity, he shall be represented as in the preceding
article, but without spurs and with empty scabbard.
“All these personages may be represented in their surcoats, if they
shall have taken part in a pitched battle, at which the Prince in whose
pay they shall have been, shall have been present; otherwise, they shall
not be thus represented, unless they be of the rank of King, Prince,
Duke, Marquis, Count, or Baron.
“No man, howsoever noble, shall be represented in his surcoat unless he
be the Lord and Proprietor of the Church or Chapel, or the successor (?
descendant) of the Lord and Proprietor.
“If any person shall have followed the wars as a man-at-arms, he may be
represented armed, but without surcoat and helmet.
“No one shall be represented with a fringe to his surcoat, unless he be
of the rank of Baron.”
It should be said in conclusion, that these rules were not always
strictly observed, and cannot be relied upon in the absence of
corroborative testimony from other sources.
II
THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
The fourteenth century witnessed a notable transformation in military
equipment.[C] The introduction of firearms and the marked improvement in
weapons of offence led to the almost complete abandonment of the coats
of mail which had served the chivalry of Europe so long and so well, and
to the substitution of plate armour for at least the more vital points
of the harness. In Spain we have seen the transition began considerably
earlier than in Northern Europe, but the adoption of the new fashion in
its entirety did not proceed quite so rapidly as this early start might
lead one to expect.
Aragon, thanks to its intercourse with Italy--to which country, as has
been noted, swords were exported from Barcelona--led the van in
armourership. The companions-in-arms of Jaime el Conquistador are nearly
always represented wearing a considerable weight of plate armour.
Don Ramon Folch, Vizconde de Cardona, surnamed, on account of his
commanding personality and abilities, _el Prohom_, is shown on his tomb
at Poblet wearing jambs, or greaves of steel (it is difficult to say
which), and at the neck a high mentonnière, which must have been worn
with a heaulme, or visored salade. The close-fitting _chapelle-de-fer_
is adorned with cardon flowers, the arms of his house. So also is the
long and tastefully-embroidered surcoat with sleeves, which descends
below the knees. Beneath this was worn a hauberk of mail, with
articulated gloves. A broad decorated baldric supports a short sword.
This monument dates from 1322.
No greaves or any plate armour, on the other hand, appear on the
sepulchral monument, executed about twenty years later, over the remains
of Don Rodrigo de Lauria, son of the famous Admiral. The warrior is
clothed entirely in a suit of mail, with hood and camail, a graceful
coronet with fleurs-de-lys encircling the forehead. The surcoat or tunic
is, as in the other examples, charged with the armorial bearings of the
deceased, and has three openings--at the sides, and in the middle--with
a gilt fringe--“a fashion,” remarks Don Valentin Carderera, “which we
have observed in Spain only on the statues of Aragonese knights.” The
sword is much longer and narrower than usual, and reveals fine
workmanship. The spurs are of the goad shape.
The _Historia Troyana_, executed in Castile about 1350, represents
warriors clad in similar suits of mail, with pointed heaulmes with
visors, but no chin-pieces. Greaves and genouillères are worn with the
chausses. In one instance a surcoat is shown of scaled and studded
pattern. This may have been some rare sort of gambeson, or again may
have been made of the _cuir-bouilli_--boiled leather--common all over
Europe and the East then and for centuries after. Banded armour is also
shown.
The statue of Don Alonso Perez de Guzman, Captain-General of Jerez, who
distinguished himself at the taking of Algeciras in 1344, is interesting
technically as showing several new pieces of plate-armour. The jambs
(leg-plates) are closed, and coudières are worn on the elbows and
vambraces on the forearm. Defences of plate for the arm were coming into
use about this time. The earliest examples date from 1328, but they
occur very rarely prior to 1360. Yet this monument is believed to have
been executed some years before the knight’s death in 1351. It is
evident that the Castilians were not lagging behind in the arts and
appliances of warfare. Don Alonso wears pointed sollerets of six
plates, and the hauberk of mail beneath a surcoat. He clasps a long
cross-hilted sword.
A decided impetus was given to the movement towards plate armour by the
influx of English and French troops into Castile, incidental to the
restoration and final deposition of Pedro the Cruel. Almost for the
first time the Spaniards were brought face to face on the tented field
with a foreign Christian soldiery, and that under leaders no less
formidable than Edward the Black Prince and Bertrand Duguesclin. Against
such doughty foemen stouter defences were needed than against the
light-armed, leather-and-mail-clad chivalry of Islam. Though in Aragon
the cuirass, or _coracina_, had already been worn, its introduction into
Castile is generally ascribed to Bertrand Claquin and those who with him
entered the service of Don Enrique de Trastamara. This tradition seems
to be warranted by a sepulchral effigy of Don Pedro, described in
Carderera’s _Iconografia_ (see plate 6), though it should be said that
this was not executed till seventy-six years after that King’s death.
The components of the armour are: a hauberk of mail, reaching half-way
down the thigh; a coracina or cuirass; vambraces, rere-braces,[D]
coudes, and genouillères. The surcoat and mantle which hide so much of
the armour, are brocaded with gold flowers on a blue field.
The monument of one of Don Enrique’s partisans, Juan Alfonso, Lord of
Ajofrin (see plate 3), was erected a year or two after his death on the
field of Aljubarrota, in 1385. He wears a short hauberk with a sleeved
surcoat, which probably concealed a cuirass. The leg-armour--jambs,
genouillères, cuisses--is entirely of plate. The gauntlets are of
extraordinarily delicate workmanship. The cuff and hand are of plate,
richly chased; the fingers are articulated and composed of small annular
plates, which must have allowed perfect freedom to the joints; the tips
are shaped to imitate the nails; and the knuckles are furnished with
gads or spikes, which served as offensive as well as defensive armour.
Gauntlets of beautiful workmanship were not, of course, peculiar to
Spain, but were adopted there as early as in any other country. The Lord
of Ajofrin wears laminated sollerets, and carries a sword of unusual
length, with drooping quillons, and a shield or escutcheon on the
pommel.
Castile owed, not only the corselet, but an improved headpiece to the
White Company, which crossed the Pyrenees to support the claims of Don
Enrique in 1366. It should, however, be said that Don Pedro in his will,
dated 1362, bequeaths his _bascinet_ to his son, Don Juan.[E] “The
heaulme,” says M. Mathieu Prou, “having become too heavy, was from 1300
onwards little more than a headpiece for parade. In action the knights
preferred to combat with uncovered face, the head protected by a casque
called _bassinet_ or _bascinet_, which was without a nasal, round, at
first rather low, but towards 1330 assuming an ovoid form. From the
beginning of the fourteenth century it became the custom to fix to the
iron cap a visor moving on pivots, or attached to hinges, and opening
like a shutter. This visor was ordinarily pointed and elongated in
muzzle form, and provided with two horizontal slits for the vision
(occularia), and numerous holes for respiration. As this helmet did not
protect the throat, to the lower part was soon added the piece called
beavor, over which the visor fell when it was lowered.”
The celada or salade was also worn in Spain about this time. The
collection of Don José Estruch, at Barcelona, contains such a headpiece
of somewhat peculiar shape. The crest is very high and the brim very
broad. To it is fastened a beavor in three plates, to which again is
laced a covering of mail for the back of the neck. The bascinet is worn
by the Lord of Ajofrin’s contemporary, Don Bernardo de Anglesola, of
Aragon (see plate 8). It is encircled by a double band of ornaments and
precious stones, and is worn over the camail, which falls like an ample
tippet over the breast. The harness is composed of hauberk of mail,
rere-braces, vambraces, coudes, gauntlets, cuisses, genouillères, jambs,
and sollerets. The brocaded surcoat may be intended to conceal a
corselet.
Froissart throws some light on the military equipment and peculiarities
of the Castilians of his day. From more than one passage in the
_Chronicles_ it is evident that the sling, a weapon long discarded by
other Western nations, was still esteemed in Spain, where the javelin
also was a favourite weapon. We read, “‘By my faith,’ said the Duke of
Lancaster, ‘of all the arms the Castilians and your countrymen make and
use, I love the dart best, and love to see it used; they are very expert
at it; and I tell you, whoever they hit with it, he must be indeed
strongly armed, if he be not pierced through and through.’ ‘You say
truly,’ replied the squire, ‘for I saw more bodies transfixed at these
assaults than ever I saw before in all my life. We lost one whom we much
regretted, Senhor Joao Lourenço da Cunha, who was struck with a dart
that pierced through his plates and his coat of mail and a gambeson
stuffed with silk, and his whole body, so that he fell to the ground.’”
The address of the Castilians with the dart or javelin is again referred
to at the attack on Vilha Lobos in 1386; while, at the battle of Najara,
“the Spaniards and Castilians had slings, from which they hurled stones
and crushed heaulmes and bascinets; in which manner they wounded many.”
In another passage we are told that the troops were armed according “to
the usage of Castile, with darts and _archegayes_ (assegais) and
throwing stones from slings.”
There is a tendency among certain historians to exaggerate the influence
exercised by the Moors on the applied arts in Spain. So far as armour
was concerned, it is clear that the Christians of the Peninsula, where
they did not originate fashions, followed those of Italy, or in later
times of France. They certainly did not look to Granada for a lead. And
if the Spanish Moors had been such skilful armourers as some would have
us believe, it is hardly likely that their kinsmen and neighbours, the
Moors of Barbary, would have gone so poorly equipped as they seem to
have gone in Froissart’s time.
“For,” says Messire Froissart, “they are not so well nor so strongly
armed as the Christians; for they have not the art nor the method nor
the workmen to forge armour as the Christians do. Neither is the
material, that is, iron and steel, common with them. Their armour is
usually of leather, and at their necks they carry very light shields,
covered with cuir-bouilli of Cappadocia, which, if the leather has not
been overheated, no weapon can penetrate.”
On the other hand there can be no doubt that the conquest of Andalusia
had let the Castilian artificers into the secrets of many new methods,
such as damascening and enamelling, by which they were not slow to
profit. The traditions of the goldsmith’s craft, handed down from
Visigothic times, had never been lost; and certain it is that in the
fourteenth century, when the conquerors had had time to assimilate the
arts of the conquered to their own, armour and metal work of all kinds
began to assume a rich and elaborate character. The goldsmiths of
Barcelona, Toledo, Valladolid, and Seville enjoyed a European
reputation. They worked in close co-operation with the armour-smith. In
the example of a fourteenth-century harness we have just
considered--that of Don Bernardo Anglesola--not only bascinet,
gauntlets, coudes, and genouillères are chased, and in some cases set
with precious stones, but the hauberk has a rich fringe of gilt, and
each plate of the rere-braces has a decorative band at the lower border.
The baldric is adorned with studs and fleurs-de-lys. In the statue, at
Seville, of Don Alvaro de Guzman, Admiral of Castile, who died in 1394,
the same elaboration may be noticed in the roped edges of the
genouillères, the gauntlets, and the tasteful floral devices,
alternating with rows of studs, in the ornamentation of the baldric. The
pommel of the sword, as was customary, is emblazoned with the arms of
the owner. According to Froissart, the bascinet of the King of Castile
(1385) was encircled by a fillet of gold and precious stones--“qui bien
valoient vingt mille francs.”
Helmets at the close of the fourteenth century were not only richly,
but, as was often the case in preceding ages, fantastically decorated.
We have an excellent illustration in the Armoury (plate 9) in the crest
of King Martin of Aragon (1395-1412), formerly attributed to Jaime el
Conquistador, and carried for many years in the procession of the
“Standart,” at Palma (OII). It represents the head, neck, and wings of a
dragon--the _Drac pennat_, the device displayed in field and tilt-yard
by the Princes of the House of Aragon from Pedro IV. to Fernando II.
(1336-1479). As was generally the case, it is made of boiled parchment
and gilded plaster, and was set on the crest of the helmet, encircled by
the crown or coronal, amid dancing plumes. The cap on which the _Drac
pennat_ is mounted was added in the first years of the fifteenth
century, that it might be worn by the man who carried in the procession
the standard of Jaime I. At the renowned and honourable passage of arms
of Don Suero de Quiñones (1434), the crest of one of the knight’s
helmets was in the shape of a golden tree, with green leaves and golden
fruit; round the trunk was coiled a serpent, and in the middle was a
naked sword with the device--_Le vray amy_. (True friend).
To the last year of the fourteenth century belongs the effigy of a
knight of the Anayas family in the Cathedral of Salamanca, described by
Carderera. French influence is attested by the corselet and by the
brigantine or hauberk of metal discs which was in very general use and
esteem in France at that time. The legs and arms are, as now customary,
sheathed in plate, the coudes being of tasteful design and sharply
pointed. The transition from mail to plate is well illustrated by a
medallion which represents Alfonso V. of Aragon, when a youth (about
1416), in a coat of mail, and a bas-relief portraying him as a man of
mature years in a complete harness of plate, mail only appearing as
gussets at the armpits.
The reign of Juan II. of Castile (1406-1454) is extolled by Spanish
writers as the golden age of chivalry. Knighthood was in flower, in
fact, somewhat later in the Peninsula than in the rest of Europe, though
I can find no adequate reason for ascribing the introduction of
chivalry, as an institution, to the Black Prince and Duguesclin. Such
enactments as that of Jaime II. of Aragon (1291-1327), which ordained
that any cavalier escorting a lady should be secured from any kind of
molestation or hindrance, and given a free passage from one end of the
kingdom to the other, show that the spirit of chivalry was certainly
understood South of the Pyrenees many years before the battles of Najara
and Montiel. But it is likely enough that warfare with a Christian foe
may have put a finer edge on the Spaniards’ sense of honour--blunted,
perhaps, by their relations with the infidel, to whom it was deemed
unnecessary to extend all the courtesies of war. The lull, too, in that
long conflict caused men to find an outlet for their energies in tourney
and tilt-yard, where the atmosphere was more favourable to the generous
emotions than was the field of actual battle. Juan II. and his
all-powerful minister, Alvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile, delighted
in jousts and tournaments, and encouraged the sentiment and exercise of
chivalry by all the means in their power. The Constable himself often
appeared in the lists as a mantenedor (or challenger), or aventurero (or
respondent). The spirit of the age is exemplified by the famous passage
of arms, to which I have already made reference. In 1434, Don Suero de
Quiñones, a knight of good family, besought the King to grant him
release from a vow he had made to his lady, by allowing him to hold the
Bridge of Orbigo, near Leon, with nine friends, for thirty days against
all comers. His Majesty convoked the Cortes to deliberate upon this
grave proposal, with the result that a large sum of money was voted to
defray the expenses of the tournament, and invitations were sent to all
the Courts of Europe. Knights flocked from all parts of the Continent.
Nothing was omitted that could lend dignity and splendour to the scene.
There were in all sixty-eight competitors, and seven hundred and
twenty-eight courses were run. One Aragonese knight having been killed,
and several champions seriously wounded, among them Suero de Quiñones
himself, the latter was adjudged to have fulfilled his vow, and to have
honourably discharged his duty to his lady. This memorable contest was
considered to have reflected immortal lustre on Castilian arms, and King
Juan no doubt felt prouder of himself, his knights, and his kingdom than
if he had driven the Moors from Spain. The Honroso Paso de Don Suero de
Quiñones is set forth in minute detail in a special chronicle, and is
frequently and lovingly referred to in Spanish history.
Stimulated by such public displays of prowess and knightly address, and
despite severe sumptuary laws, armour and military gear became more
ornate and costly every year. In the chronicle of Don Alvaro de Luna, in
the account of the battle of Olmedo in 1445, we read:
“So long had the wars in Castile lasted, that the greatest study of
everyone was to have his armour well decorated and his horses well
chosen; so much so that it would scarcely have been possible in all the
Constable’s host to find one whose horse had no covering, or the neck of
whose horse was without steel mail. Thus all those noble young gentlemen
of the Constable’s house, and many others, were very richly adorned.
Some had different devices painted on the coverings of their horses, and
others jewels from their ladies on their helmet-crests. Others had gold
and silver bells, with stout chains hanging to their horses’ necks.
Others had badges studded with pearls or costly stones around the
crests. Others carried small shields, richly embellished, on which were
strange figures and inventions. Many different things were put on the
helmet-crests, for some had insignia of wild beasts, others plumes of
various colours, and others had plumes both on their helmet-crests and
on the face-covering of their horses. Some horsemen had feathers that
spread like wings against their shoulders; some affected simple armour;
others wore plated coats over the cuirass; others rich embroidered
tunics.”
The increased popularity of tilting and similar martial exercises
brought about a demand for heavy reinforcing pieces of armour, such as
could not be worn habitually except by men of the strongest physique, in
the field. Henceforward we find a distinction made between war harness
and tilting harness. As a specimen of the latter, belonging to the time
of which I am now speaking (middle fifteenth century), we have in the
Royal Armoury, a Spanish tilting breast-plate (E59), thus described in
the 1898 Catalogue: