Costume -- Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- History -- Pictorial works
The foot soldiers of the period were armed with a breast and back
plate, and with tassets reaching to the knees. The swords of the time
commonly had guarded or basket hilts. The _pike_ was introduced into
this country in the reign of Henry VIII., and became the common weapon
for infantry up to the time of William III.
In the reign of Elizabeth, the armour seldom came lower than just below
the hip, and complete suits were used only for the tournament.
The brass of Humphrey Brewster illustrates well the armour of the
Elizabethan Period described above. (Fig. 10.)
[Illustration: PLATE 44.
(Fig. 1): Brass of “Richard Gyll, squyer, late sergeant of the
bakehous wyth Kyng Henry the VII. and also wyth Kyng Henry the
VIII.,” in Shottesbrooke Church, Hampshire, A.D. 1511. This
shows the type of armour in use at the end of the reign of
Henry VII. There are high ridges on the shoulder-pieces, very
simple elbow-pieces, four narrow _taces_ around the waist,
with two small _tuilles_ over a tunic of mail. The broad toes
of the _sabbatons_ are also shown. (Fig. 2): Morion of the
reign of Elizabeth, A.D. 1560. (Fig. 3): Another morion of
the same reign from the Tower of London. (Fig. 4): Armet with
crest of Sir George Brooke, K.G., 8th Lord Cobham, from his
tomb in Cobham Church, Kent, 1480-1500. (Fig. 5): Halberd of
the time of Henry VIII., the cutting edge being shaped like a
half-moon. The staves of these weapons were often covered with
velvet studded with brass-headed nails. (Fig. 6): Partisan
(a variety of the pike) of the same period, with the side
blades sharp on both edges. (Fig. 7): Lamboys from the armour
presented by the Emperor Maximilian to Henry VIII., now in
the Tower of London. (Fig. 8): Breast and back plates of
the “peascod” form, from about 1580 A.D. (Fig. 9): English
armet, about 1500 A.D. (Fig. 10): Brass of Humphrey Brewster,
in Wrentham Church, Suffolk, 1593 A.D. This is typical
of Elizabethan armour. The laminated shoulder pieces are
particularly noticeable, nearly meeting over the cuirass; the
long _tassets_ of overlapping, hinged steel plates reaching to
and rounded off at the knees, the basket form of sword hilt
and the long-waisted peascod form of the breast plate are very
characteristic. The tassets were generally lined with leather,
and the scalloped edges, forming an ornamental border, are
plainly shown.]
PERPENDICULAR ARCHITECTURE.
The Transition from Decorated to Perpendicular architecture is not so
apparent at first sight as between the other styles; but it may be
traced quite clearly. The change was seen in the choir and transepts of
Gloucester Cathedral before the middle of the fourteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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