Shields on monumental effigies almost, if not entirely, disappear
in the course of this century, and in battles and tournaments in
ancient MSS. of this date the knights are more usually represented
without shields. Such is the fact; the reason being that defensive
armour had been added to and improved, and increased in respect of
weight, as experiences of war showed the contingencies against which
it was desirable to be protected. The shield, therefore, became an
encumbrance to the mounted knight, while so perfect was his case of
steel, and so admirably fitted and designed, that the shield was no
longer required. We notice that this general discarding of shields by
mounted knights begins about the latter half of this fourteenth century
among the wealthy and powerful, who could procure expensive and perfect
suits of mail. It is in memory of such only that costly monumental
effigies were erected, and, as a consequence, the shields formerly
shown carved by the side of the knights now entirely disappear from
effigies. The reasons here put forward are quite borne out by other
evidences. Monumental brasses, which now lend their assistance to our
search, were far less costly memorials than such effigies. Some of
the earliest of these represent the dead knight as he appeared in his
life, with, his shield upon the arm; but in the course of the following
fifteenth century these, too, follow the fashion we find prevailing in
MS. illustrations, and the shields are only used for the purposes of
heraldry, and are relegated into the corners of the brass, or up among
its tabernacle work.
While on this subject of suits of mail, I may with advantage overstep
the limits of this century--as, indeed, I have already done--and
mention that such went on increasing so greatly in protective
perfectness, and, _pari passu_, in their oppressive weight, that
a knight falling off the horse upon which he had been placed lay
perfectly helpless; and history records many times that they were slain
by clowns and boys while lying helpless on the ground. When the style
of protective armour became so exaggerated, a man so hampered could do
little more than hold his spear and guide his horse. Until at last,
about the year 1602, King James I. summed up the past experience of
armour thus:--"It was an admirable invention, which preserved a man
from being injured,--and made him incapable of injuring any one else."
In some books it is stated that the introduction and gradually
increasing use of gunpowder in war led by degrees to the abandonment
of shields; but the above evidences completely refute such an idea.
Heavy mail armour, exaggerated into an absurdity--as pointed out by
King James--did so disappear when it became evident that such afforded
no protection whatever against a small bit of well-directed lead. But
shields had already been abandoned by the knights,--long before, at a
period when gunpowder was as yet a great and rare mystery.
Besides, we find round shields were still in continued use by the
foot-soldiery, when every battlefield was contested with fire and
sword--the smoke as well as the din of battle.
Moreover, examples have come down to us of such shields with fixed
pistols projecting through, and with a peep-hole for sighting. Thus
shields were made the handmaid of gunpowder; and, as a matter of
fact, they were in use by foot soldiers so late as the middle of the
seventeenth century.
[Illustration]
We noticed that the heater shields which obtained so largely during
this century, and grew less and less pointed as it progressed, at last
became much squarer. The seal of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, 1372,
might well be taken for the fifteenth century; the square heater, with
blunt-shaped base; the inscription in Gothic, and curiously placed at
the top and bottom; and the two supporting helmets, with mantlings and
huge panaches, out of which appear below the hinder half of the bodies
and legs of two animals, the rest of their carcasses being crammed
inside these helmets. This is taken from the engraving in _Herald and
Genealogist_, vol. ii, p. 56.
[Illustration]
But from about this date downwards we can perceive much more
discriminating taste exercised in designing seals. The seal of
Richard Earl of Arundel, 1330-76, from the engraving in _Herald and
Genealogist_, vol. ii, p. 54, is an example of such beautiful design
and execution.[3]
The small seal of Matilde Fraunceys, relict of Simon Fraunceys,
citizen of London, attached to a deed 33 Edward III. [1359], is a
characteristic example of ordinary small well-executed seals prevailing
in this century. The engraving is from the _Proceedings of Society of
Antiquaries_, 11th Dec., 1856.
[Illustration]
Some families seem to have taken a special pride in their seals. Those
of the Bardolfe family of Wyrmegeye, Norfolk, continue pre-eminent
for several generations. Occasionally one member of a family shows
a seal of extreme beauty, the work of some "Strongitharm" or "Wyon"
of those days, and in this way the centuries may frequently seem
to overlap each other. Such exceptional seals show an execution,
shape of shield frequently, and design somewhat later than their
art-date, in the sequence we are endeavouring to lay down. Other such
overlappings occur from the great age of the seal user. Elianor Ferre
uses on a deed, 1348, a dimidiated seal, which was surely made about
1290. She died, a very old lady, in 1349. This seal is engraved in
_Archæological Journal_, vol. xi, p. 375; and if you will refer to
_Herald and Genealogist_, vol. i, p. 485, you will see a seal of Clare
and Fitzgerald dimidiated on a shield of apparently identical date. The
inscription is "Sigill-Elianore-Ferre"; so she used her own seal made
in early life, perhaps dating from her marriage. The seal of Isabella
de Fortibus, Countess of Albemarle, used in 1292, is another dimidiated
heraldic seal, almost identical. See No. 53.
[Illustration]
Pointed heater shields with concave tops, suggesting their curved
shape, are not uncommon in this century, and inscriptions in Gothic
type became much more frequent.
The description of a shield which used to hang, before the Great Fire,
in old St. Paul's, London, will be an interesting illustration of how
shields were made in the fourteenth century. This was the shield of
John of Gaunt (or Ghent, as it was originally spelled), our Duke of
Lancaster, the third brother of Edward the Black Prince, and father
of Henry IV. He was born 1340, and died 1399, so we may assign 1370
as about the date of its manufacture. In shape it is an oblong square
with rounded corners and hollowed-out sides and base, while a very
deep bouche is cleft into the dexter chief. It much resembles the
"Gothic-rounded No. 12," but the base is flat and hollowed out. I am
quoting from Bolton's _Elements of Armories, 1610_, p. 69:--"It is
very convex toward the bearer, whether by warping through age, or as
made of purpose. It hath in dimensions more than three-quarters of a
yeard of length and above halfe a yeard in breadth: next to the body
is a canvas glew'd to a boord, upon that thin board are broad thin
axicles, slices or plates of horne nail'd fast, and againe over them
20 and sixe peeces of the like all meeting or centring about a round
plate of the same in the navell of the shield, and over all a leather
clozed fast to them with glew or other holding stuffe,--upon which
his armorie was painted, but now they with the leather itself have
very lately and very lewdly bin utterly spoil'd." This is engraved in
Bolton's _Elements_, in Willement's _Regal Heraldry_, in Randle Holme's
_Academy_, and in several other heraldic works. There is also engraved
in Bolton's _Elements_, p. 67, the shield of Edward the Black Prince
hanging over his tomb at Canterbury. This was of the egg shape No. 35;
and in a circle in the centre were, on a heater shield No. 5, the arms
of France and England quarterly with a label of three points; while
around this circle the rest of the shield was embossed or "tooled" with
an elaborate filagree pattern, and a narrow plain rim extended round
the outer edge.
The inscriptions in this century continue to be in Latin and in Roman
letters, but sometimes Gothic lettering is used.