THE HALF-ARMOUR PERIOD AFTER 1600
[Illustration: FIG. 424.]
Although to the average student the armour prevailing after the
sixteenth century possesses absolutely no interest whatever, yet as a
certain amount continued to be worn, and it possessed characteristics
entirely its own, it is necessary to be acquainted with these features
in order to possess a comprehensive knowledge of the entire subject.
Of cap-à-pie suits it may be broadly stated that none exist; of
three-quarter and half-suits there are many to be found, but extremely
few of these are of workmanship which can in any way compare in wealth
of decoration with that of the latter half of the sixteenth century,
or vie in elegance of form with the Maximilian or Gothic armour. The
period exhibits a brutal strength and crudity in armour which forcibly
suggests boiler-plate work. The defences are simply made to cover the
vital parts of the body with the maximum amount of efficiency, without
any consideration whatever for gracefulness of outline or beauty of
surface. The helmet continued to be of the same pattern as that of the
end of the Maximilian Period; variations, however, may be found; that,
for example, delineated in Fig. 424, and dating from _c._ 1605, is
more of the nature of a close-helmet than a burgonet, being entirely
self-contained.
[Illustration: FIG. 425.--Three-quarter suit, 1630. (Wallace
Collection.)]
A typical three-quarter suit of English manufacture is that shown in
Fig. 425, dating from about 1630 and forming a part of the Wallace
Collection. It is shown in the Museum as a cap-à-pie suit, but the
sabbatons and jambarts do not belong to it and date from _c._ 1580.
The close helmet is fitted with an umbril to which is riveted the
face-guard, pierced with sight and breathing apertures; a gorget
plate is affixed bearing the number 10 upon it. Under this plate is
the gorget proper, consisting of three plates. The breastplate has a
slight tapul and is marked 42. Upon the right-hand side an indentation
has been caused by a musket ball. There is a backplate, and also a
garde-de-rein of three plates. The espalier pauldrons have brassarts
attached fitted with turners. The tassets of thirteen plates have the
genouillières depending from them.
_Cavalry._--During the early years of the reign of James I. the
cavalryman had his name altered from lancer or demi-lancer to
cavalier, probably owing to Spanish intercourse. The general tendency
to discard armour as being cumbrous and ineffective led to many
noblemen and officers of regiments contenting themselves with a
cuirass worn over a buff coat, and subsequently, in Charles I.’s
reign, whole regiments were thus accoutred, and received the name of
cuirassiers in consequence. The dragoons also, who were introduced
into the army during the latter years of the preceding century, only
wore as a defence a buff coat made long and full and a burgonet.
Apart from these, however, we find that the regiments using the lance
were equipped with a close helmet, gorget, back- and breast-plate,
pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, tassets, and garde-de-rein, while
a good buff coat with long skirts was worn beneath the armour. The
weapons comprised a sword which was stiff, cutting, and sharp-pointed;
a lance of the usual pattern or pike-shaped, 18 feet long and provided
with a leather thong to fasten round the right arm, and one or two
pistols, with the necessary flask, cartouch box, and appurtenances.
The cuirassier was armed with two pistols carried at the saddle, and a
sword similar to the lancers.
The arquebusier wore a good buff coat, a back- and breast-plate, and
armour generally resembling the lancer; he carried an arquebus 30
inches in length, two pistols, and the usual necessaries.
[Illustration: FIG. 426.--Casquetel (British Museum.)]
The carbineer had similar defences, but carried a carbine or petronel
(Plate XLI.*, p. 368), instead of the arquebus, and a sword in place of
the pistols.
The dragoons carried a pike and also a musket.
In 1645 the arquebusiers wore triple-barred helmets, cuirasses with
garde-de-rein, pauldrons, and vambraces; at the same time the dragoons
changed their muskets for the shorter piece termed the dragon, and four
years afterwards again changed it for the caliver. The triple-barred
helmet of the arquebusiers and dragoons is shown in Plate XXVI., from
Edinburgh Castle, and Plate XXV., from the same source, illustrates a
three-quarter suit of an officer of arquebusiers or lancers of the time
of Charles I. A second suit, No. 32, is furnished with palettes over
the goussets and an open-faced helmet called a casquetel (Plate XXV.).
[Illustration: PLATE XXV
Three-quarter Suits, _temp._ Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle)]
_The Pikeman_ of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped
helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, not curved, but
pointed back and front. It was provided with a holder at the back,
in which four or five large feathers were inserted. A back- and
breast-plate reached to the waist, to which were affixed two broad
tassets meeting in front of six plates each (Plate XXIV.), which spread
over the well-padded breeches, reaching to the knee and covering the
front part of the limbs only. No gorget or defences for the arms
are shown. His arms are a pike and a sword. Grose in his “Military
Antiquities” illustrates thirty-two different positions in the exercise
of the pike. The pikeman of the Cromwellian period had a similar
accoutrement, but his morion may better be termed an iron hat, inasmuch
as the crown is low with a small comb, the brim wide and drooping and
coming well over the eyes and the back of the neck, and it is without
plumes (Fig. 427). Two cheek-guards are added. A back- and breast-plate
with pendent tassets consisting of many plates formed with a leather
coat and the helmet the sole protection. In Charles I.’s reign a
rondache was served out to pikemen, but after a few years was discarded.
[Illustration: FIG. 427.--Pikeman’s pot, 1620. (British Museum.)]
_The Musketeer_ wore a morion in James I.’s reign similar to the
pikeman but with no feathers, and this with a back- and breast-plate
completed his metal defences. In 1625, the morion was discarded in
favour of a jaunty felt hat with feathers, but subsequently the
morion was again worn with the addition of cheek-pieces. No tassets
are shown upon a musketeer’s uniform. Grose illustrates forty-five
separate orders for the discharge of one bullet from the musket. In
1637 an elaborate drill-book was issued by a Colonel Munro, in which
he states that musketeers should be formed in companies with a front
of thirty-two men, but six ranks deep; the first firing at once and
casting about and reloading; the second rank passing to the front
between the files to give fire next; then the third rank, and so on
until the whole ranks have discharged. Directions for handling the
matchlock published in 1620 contain quaint directions to the musketeer:
“He must first learn to hold the piece, to accommodate the match
between the two foremost fingers and his thumb, and to plant the great
end on his breast with a gallant soldier-like grace, and if ignorant
let him acquaint himself first with the firing of touchpowder in his
pan, to bow and bear up his body, and to attain to the level and
practice of an assured and serviceable shot, ready to charge and, with
a comely touch, discharge, making sure at the same instant of his mark
with a quick and vigilant eye.”
In the reign of James I. a long rapier blade was added to the equipment
of the musketeer for protection after he had discharged his piece.
It was variously called the “swine’s feather,” “hog’s bristle,” and
“Swedish feather,” the latter probably indicating the country of its
origin. The swine’s feather and also the musket rest were abandoned
during the Civil War.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVI
Triple-barred Helmet, _temp._ 1689. (Edinburgh Castle)
Cabasset Helmet, Footman, _temp._ James VI. (Edinburgh Castle)]
_Archers._--The persistence of archers in the ranks of the English
forces long after the introduction of firearms and cannon is a
noteworthy feature. During the sixteenth century they formed a
numerous force, and were the subjects of especial care by the military
commanders in the time of Queen Elizabeth. In Harl. MS. 7457, being
an inventory of the Tower arms in 1561, there are accounts of many
hundred brigandines, jacks, salades (salletts), and skull-caps for
furnishing the defences of archers, while regulations are extant of the
same period which provide that: “Captains and officers should be
skilful of that noble weapon, and to see that their soldiers according
to their draught and strength have good bows, well nocked, well
stringed, every string whip in their nock and in the middle rubbed with
wax; a bracer and shooting glove and some spare strings; every man a
sheaf of arrows in a leather case which contains twenty-four arrows,
whereof eight should be lighter than the rest to gall the enemy with a
hailshot of light arrows before they shall come within the danger of
their harquebus shot. Let every man have a brigandine or a little coat
of plate, a skull or huskyn, a maule of lead of five foot in length,
and a pike, the same hanging by his girdle with a hook and a dagger;
being thus furnished teach them to march, shoot, and retire, for these
men can neither be spared in battle nor in skirmish. No other weapon
can compare with the same noble weapon.” Even as late as the time of
Charles I. special commissions were issued under the Great Seal for
enforcing the use and practice of the long-bow, and the Earl of Essex
at the commencement of the Civil War issued a precept in 1643 directing
the raising of a company of archers for special service.
In the time of Charles II., James II., and William and Mary officers
still wore breastplates, but armour for the ordinary soldier was as
a rule altogether discarded. As late as the commencement of the last
century the officers of some regiments wore a small steel gorget, but
all that remains to us at the present day to remind us of the days of
chivalry and the steel-clad forces of bygone times, is the Life Guard
with his back- and breast-plate and steel helmet.