Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth CenturyHewitt, John
History
Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth Century
Hewitt, John
Armor; Weapons
The Sling of this time may be seen, though rudely drawn, in the group
from Add. MS. 14,789, copied in our woodcut No. 37. Compare also cuts
12 and 50. The Javelin is found at the close of the eleventh century;
in the hands of the English in the Bayeux tapestry, and in the French
manuscript, Harl. 603, fol. 60. In the twelfth century it seems to have
fallen into discredit among these nations, though probably employed
to a much later period by the Spaniards[219], with whom it was always
a favourite weapon, and by those races who had retained the rough
fashions and the heroic traditions of their Old-Northern ancestry.
The Long-bow was of the most simple construction: it appears
frequently in the Bayeux tapestry, (Plates XIII., XV. and XVI.;) in
the cotemporary manuscript, Harleian 603, and in many monuments of the
twelfth century. The arrows are usually barbed. A curious variety of
the arrow is seen in the Spanish codex, Addit. MSS. 11,695, written in
1109. This missile, which is frequently represented in the volume, has
three pairs of barbs, fixed at a little distance from each other along
the shaft; a cruel contrivance, which does not seem to have reached
other nations of Europe, and, we may hope, was not long in vogue within
the Pyrennees. Already in the twelfth century the English began to
evince that skill in archery which afterwards gave them such celebrity.
At the siege of Messina by Cœur-de-Lion, as we learn from Richard of
Devizes, the Sicilians were forced to leave their walls unmanned,
"because no one could look out of doors, but he would have an arrow
in his eye before he could shut it." The king himself did not disdain
occasionally to use the bow. When before the castle of Nottingham,
which had been seized by "Earl John," the monarch, says Roger of
Hoveden, "took up his quarters near the castle, so that the archers
therein pierced the king's men at his very feet. The king, incensed at
this, put on his armour, and commanded his troops to make an assault
upon the castle; on which a sharp conflict took place, and many fell on
both sides. The king himself slew one knight with an arrow, and having
at last prevailed, drove back his enemies into the castle, took some
outworks which had been thrown up without the gates, and destroyed the
outer gates by fire[220]."
The practice of archery was encouraged and protected by statute.
Among the enactments of Henry I. of England, it was provided, that if
any one in practising with arrows or with darts should by accident
slay another, it was not to be visited against him as a crime[221].
The Quivers, as represented in the Bayeux tapestry, are without
covers; but on folio 25 of Harl. MS. 603, is a drawing of a quiver
having a cap attached by cords, so that when the quiver is in use,
the cap remains suspended by the strings. The dress of the archers
has been already noticed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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