THE TRANSITION PERIOD, 1500-1552
The salient features of the Transition Period are:--
1. The adoption of sabbatons in the place of sollerets.
2. The chain mail skirt.
3. The general use of a closed helmet.
[Illustration: FIGS. 345 and 346.--Helmets. (Tower of London.)]
_The Helmet._--This defence was invariably of the “closed” pattern,
and consisted of a crown with a ridge, generally roped, down the
centre; two cheek-pieces meeting together at the chin and fastening
there; the visor and bavière formed of one piece, pierced with oblong
apertures for the occularium, and having small holes for ventilation
and breathing purposes. The bavière was a relict of the mentonnière
of a previous period, and the close helmet may be regarded as a
direct evolution from the armet; indeed it is at times difficult to
differentiate between the two. The roundel at the back of the neck in
the armet gave way to a plate-guard. The neck portion of the close
helmet was furnished with a hollow rim, generally decorated with
roping, which fitted over a corresponding solid rim upon the upper
portion of the gorget and permitted the head to be rotated from side
to side. The visor and bavière in the early helmets were in one piece,
and very often of the bellows pattern, but later examples show them in
two distinct pieces, the upper portion, or visor proper, falling down
inside the bavière.
The helmet shown in Fig. 347, dating from 1500, opens down the sides
instead of down the chin and back like the armet, and the same pivot
which secures the visor also serves as a hinge for the crown and
chin-piece. In Fig. 347A we have illustrated a German fluted helmet,
partly engraved and gilded and of good form and workmanship. It opens
down the chin. The skill shown in the forging of the crown and the
fluting of the twisted comb is remarkable, and each rivet of the lining
strap of the cheek-pieces forms the centre of an engraved rose. It
is provided with a roped rim to fit over a solid rim on the gorget.
Fig. 348 is the front view of a helmet dating from 1520 which differs
chiefly from the last helmet in the form of the visor, while the
example shown in Fig. 348A is of Italian origin and of the same period.
It is small and of an extremely graceful form. Figs. 345, 346, are
contemporary helmets from the Tower of London.
[Illustration: FIG. 347.]
[Illustration: FIG. 347A.]
[Illustration: FIG. 348.]
[Illustration: FIG. 348A.]
[Illustration: FIG. 349.--Standard of mail, William Bardwell, 1508.
West Herling Church, Norfolk.]
_The Gorget_ of the period consisted of laminated plates riveted at
the sides of the neck and working freely upon each other, but covering
from below upwards. These gorgets were an essential feature of the
following, or Maximilian, period. It often spread over the chest and
extended down the back as well; it was furnished with sliding rivets
to allow of the maximum of freedom. At times this gorget was fixed
to and formed part of the close helmet. Towards the latter part of
the period the standard or collar of mail appears to have been worn
very frequently to protect the neck; in these cases one or more lames
forming a gorget were added to the lower part of the helmet to fit over
and reinforce the standard. An example is shown in Fig. 349.
[Illustration: FIG. 350.--Globose breastplate, 1510. (Tower of London.)]
_The Breastplate_ was globose, and as a rule furnished with one or more
articulated lames (or taces) at the lower part, which permitted freedom
of motion for the body at the waist. Fig. 350 represents a breastplate
in the Tower which has one lame. Goussets of plate are invariably
found at the junction of the arms with the body; these were also made
to slide freely upon their rivets. At the top a projecting collar
protected the part where the gorget was covered by the breastplate, and
this feature is exemplified in Figs. 350 and 351, the latter also being
an example from the Tower of London though a little later in date. The
apertures pierced in it were made for the attachment of various tilting
pieces. The ornamentation shown in Fig. 350 consists of mere sunken
indentations, and suggests flutings.
[Illustration: FIG. 351.--Breastplate. (Tower of London.)]
_The Pauldrons._--These became much modified from the huge examples
characteristic of the latter part of the Tabard Period, losing their
angular appearance and becoming more rounded and at the same time
mobile. This was effected by making the whole pauldron of lames of
steel, generally overlapping upwards; the upper lame was as a rule
moulded into a strong pike-guard, sometimes upon the left shoulder
only, but generally upon both. The lames were carried well round to the
back and front over the goussets, and were attached to the back- and
breast-plates. If the right gousset is exposed a roundel is generally
affixed to the pauldron. That the plate pauldrons of an earlier date
were not, however, entirely superseded is shown by the monumental
brass of W. Bardwell, 1508, in West Herling Church, Norfolk, where
a massive pauldron furnished with two pike-guards is shown upon the
left shoulder, and a dissimilar one of still larger proportions, and
provided with one guard, upon the other (Fig. 349).
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII*
Flemish Armour, 1624
_A. F. Calvert_]
_The Brassarts_, Vambraces, Coudières, and Gauntlets all partake more
or less of the laminated character, but the coudières are remarkably
small when compared with those of the later Tabard Period, and
furnished with large expanding guards for the inside bend of the arm.
_The Cuissarts_, Genouillières, and Grevières are of plate, with
rounded caps for the genouillières and a few lames for reinforcements.
_The Sabbatons._--These broad-toed sollerets were introduced during the
later part of the previous period, those of Piers Gerard (date 1492)
being illustrated on p. 232. They present many varieties of form, but
are not distinguished for extraordinary size, as they were during the
Maximilian period.
_The Skirt of Mail_ was a marked feature of the period, and one by
which it may generally be recognised. At times it almost reached to the
knees, but as a general rule it terminated a short distance below the
middle of the thigh. It was of fine mail, and in all probability only a
skirt fastening round or below the waist. Occasionally it is slit up a
short distance back and front, in order to give facilities for riding.
The mail skirt had been growing in favour for some time: Lord Audley,
1491, upon his brass in Sheen Church, Surrey, exhibits it, and Edward
Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, 1499, in Luffwick Church, Northants, has
a similar skirt, namely to mid-thigh. Perhaps the earliest example is
that of John, Lord L’Estrange, 1478, at Hillingdon, Middlesex, who has
a mail skirt to the knees, one tuille in front and one on either side;
sabbatons; a pike-guard upon the pauldron, and guards round the back of
the knees: but all are very plain, similar to the Stanley brass.
The tuilles lying upon this skirt were generally of large proportions
and suspended from the bottom tace; they did not reach, however, so
low as the hem of the skirt. Wm. Bardwell’s brass exhibits no tuilles
whatever over the skirt of mail, and Richard Gyll, 1511, sergeant of
the bakehouse under Henry VII., shows upon his brass in Shottisbrooke
Church, Hants, two almost ludicrously small tuilles, affixed to the
lowest of four narrow taces. John Colt, 1521, of Roy don Church, Essex,
has extremely small tuilles over his deep skirt of mail similar to the
Gyll brass; he is habited in a tabard.
From the foregoing it will readily be gleaned that very important
alterations occurred in armour of this period, differentiating it from
that of the preceding. The great pauldrons, exaggerated coudières,
and general angularity, and, one might almost say prickliness, of the
later Tabard Period was modified to a smoother and rounder style, while
it lost entirely that remarkable beauty of form which, however much
distorted by fanciful additions, characterised the Gothic armour as
a whole. The beautiful flutings and ornamental curves disappeared to
make way for a heavy, cumbersome style indicative of German stolidity,
and in direct antagonism to the mobile quickness and agility suggested
by the majority of suits dating from the latter half of the previous
century. These characteristics may be readily seen in the brass to Sir
Humphrey Stanley in Westminster Abbey, Fig. 352; and also that to a
knight, _c._ 1510, shown in Fig. 353.
[Illustration: FIG. 352.--Sir Humphrey Stanley, 1505. Westminster
Abbey.]
[Illustration: FIG. 353.--Knight, _c._ 1510.]
That this excessive plainness was not always carried out, however,
may be gleaned from a few effigies which display an almost lavish
ornamentation. The genouillière of Sir Roger le Strange, 1506,
Hunstanton, is given here (Fig. 354) as an example, where the spike
and fluted reinforcements are a special feature, and also the right
genouillière of Sir John Cheney, 1509, in Salisbury Cathedral, where
the cusped reinforcements are noteworthy (Fig. 355).
[Illustration: FIG. 354.--Genouillière and reinforcements, Sir Roger le
Strange, 1506, Hunstanton.]
[Illustration: FIG. 355.--Genouillière, Sir John Cheney, _c._ 1509.
Salisbury Cathedral.]
Towards the end of the period, however, we find that although the
salient points of this Transition Period in armour were retained,
the taste for ornamentation led many knights to discard the extreme
plainness of the mode, and to adapt a style of decoration which in many
cases approached the graceful. Effigies of the years 1515 to 1520 show
flutings upon the breastplate, taces, and tuilles; rosettes or other
ornaments upon the splays of the genouillières and coudières, with
fluted pauldrons of artistic shape spreading over the backplate and
breastplate.
A suit of armour is preserved in the Rotunda Museum at Woolwich which
is of unique interest, inasmuch as it is attributed to, and certainly
is of the date of the redoubtable Chevalier Bayard. It was brought
from the Château of St Germain, and is an object of profound regard
to Gallic visitors. The armour is engraved, russeted, and partly gilt
(Plate VIII., p. 64), and dates from _c._ 1520 or earlier. In places
it is fluted, but a marked peculiarity of the suit is the polygonal
section of the cuissarts and jambarts, which may be discerned by a
close inspection of the figure. The breastplate is globose and the left
epaulière is furnished with a pike-guard, while the sabbatons are of
the bear’s-paw pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 356.--The Wallace heaume, _c._ 1515.]
[Illustration: FIG. 357.--Globular tilting heaume. (Tower of London.)]
For tilting purposes the great heaume was still in use, and several
examples preserved in our museums date from this period. Not the least
interesting is the well-known Wallace heaume, of English construction,
and dating from _c._ 1515 (Fig. 356). This rare example is formed of
two plates only, the top and back part being one piece, and the front
part or bavière being the other. The two plates are securely riveted
together at the sides and a piece is flanged over upon the crown, where
four rivets hold it in place. The height of the heaume is 14 inches.
It is much pitted, and in places broken. Of the heaumes preserved in
the Tower a great probability exists that they were made for pageant
purposes or simply for funeral achievements. One of early fifteenth
century date weighs 15 lbs.; another of the usual shape, but furnished
with a comb, is said to have belonged to John of Gaunt. Probably the
most interesting in that collection is a globular tilting heaume
fitted with a bavière which is affixed by screws, and also gripped by
the visor pivots; it extends downwards to the breastplate, to which
it was fixed by an almayne screw (Fig. 357). In it a square opening
occurs opposite the right cheek, protected by a small door, opening and
closing upon a spring. The visor is strongly reinforced, and works upon
a central comb on the crown: the occularium is formed by the lower
part of the visor and the upper edge of the bavière, and is remarkably
narrow. It weighs 13 lbs. In the Rotunda at Woolwich is preserved the
well-known Brocas heaume (Plate XXXIX., p. 364), dating from the time
of Henry VII. and formerly in the Brocas Collection. It weighs 22½ lbs.
In Haseley Church, Oxon; Petworth Church, Sussex; Ashford Church, Kent;
and in Westminster Abbey, are other heaumes of considerable interest,
and a few are in private collections. A heaume which dated from _c._
1510 was at one time in Rayne Church, Essex, and belonged to Sir Giles
Capel, the head portion of which was almost globose, while a second
example, in which, however, the visor is slightly ridged, or of the
bellows variety, is in Wimborne Minster. These heaumes invariably weigh
more than 20 lbs.; but the Westminster example is an exception, as it
only scales 17 lbs.