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
Beneath the head-defence of chain-mail was worn a coif of softer
material, to mitigate the roughness of the iron-cloth; and perhaps
also to assist in protecting the head by being made of quilted-work.
See our woodcut, No. 56, from a miniature given by Willemin
(Monumens Inédits, j. Pl. CII.) Compare also Painted Chamber, Pl.
XXXV., and Willemin, j. Pl. CXLIII.
Besides the Hauberk already described, which however forms in a great
majority of instances the body-armour of the knights of this time,
we have several varieties of defensive equipment. The Haubergeon is
still mentioned, and seems to imply, not alone the smaller hauberk of
chain-mail, but sometimes a garment of inferior defence and different
material. There is also a chain-mail hauberk made with sleeves which
reach but little below the elbows. A good example occurs on folio
9 of Roy. MS. 12, F. xiii.; a Bestiarium. See also the figures of
Virtues in Plates XXXVIII. and XXXIX. of the Painted Chamber.
The Gambeson or Pourpoint, or _Gambesiata Lorica_, as it is called
in a will of the year 1286, frequently appears as forming of
itself the coat of fence. It is thus noticed in the Statute of
Winchester, already quoted; where, while the first class of tenants
are prescribed a "hauber, chapel de feer," &c., the third class are
to have "parpoint, chapel de feer, espe e cutel." Compare also the
Statute of Arms of 1252. In the eighth of Edward I. we read that
"Rogerus de Wanstede tenet dimid. serjantiam ibidem per servitium
inveniendi unum Valectum per octo dies, sumptibus propriis, cum
praepuncto, capella ferrea et lancea, custodire castrum de Portsmut
tempore guerrae[332]." In the "Ordonnances sur le Commerce et les
Métiers," the duties of the pourpointers of Paris at the close
of this century are very exactly defined. "Se l'on fait cotes
gamboisiees, que elles soient couchees deuement sur neufves
estoffes, et pointees, enfermees, faites a deux fois, bien et
nettement emplies, de bonnes estoffes, soient de coton ou dautres
estoffes[333]." Again: "Item que nul doresenavant ne puist faire cote
gamboisiee ou il n'ait trois livres de coton tout net, si elles ne
sont faites en fremes, et au dessous soient faites entremains, et que
il y ait un ply de vieil linge emprez l'endroit de demie aulne et
demy quartier devant et autant derriere." From these enactments we
see that the counterpointers of the thirteenth century were but too
apt to construct their armours of unstable materials, and to stuff
them with a niggard hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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