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
Captain Favé is inclined to think that the latter warriors copied
their engines from those of the Arabs during the Crusades (p. 49).
On the second plate of the treatise are given examples of two of
the Arabian mangonels. One is formed of a sling and weighted lever,
like the instruments represented in Roy. MS. 16, G. vi., engraved in
Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations," and on the ivory casket figured in
the fourth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Association.
The other differs only in having, in lieu of a weight, a number of
cords hanging from the end of the lever; from which it would appear
that the lever was in this case moved by men acting together by means
of the cords. Captain Favé remarks that the expressions, La flèche
de la Chine, La fleur de la Chine, in shewing us that the Chinese
practised the fabrication of incendiary agents and contributed these
names to the Arabs at so early a period, may permit us to suppose
that this mode of warfare received its chief development from them,
and even that to them may be ascribed its invention (p. 44).
The various STANDARDS and FLAGS found in the last period are continued
throughout the present. But the advancement of the science of heraldry
gave to the devices of this age a permanence which has in many cases
subsisted to the present day. The Dragon Standard was still in use in
England. At the battle of Lewes, in 1264, between the king and his
barons, "the king, being informed of the approach of his enemies,
soon set himself in motion with his army, and went forward to meet
them with unfurled banners, preceded by the royal ensign, which was
called the Dragon[391]." In the same battle, on the barons' side, we
find the ancient Carrocium. When the revolted nobles, with De Montford
at their head, "had reached a place scarcely two miles distant from
the town of Lewes, Simon with his friends _ascended an eminence_ and
placed his Car thereon, in the midst of the baggage and sumpter horses.
There he displayed his Standard, fastening it securely to the car, and
surrounded it with a great number of his soldiers[392]." The Milanese
still held their Carrocio in the utmost veneration. When the Emperor
Frederic, in 1236, crossed the Alps to attack them, "the citizens
sallied forth from the city in great strength, to the number of about
fifty thousand armed men, and proceeded with their Standard, which they
call Carruca, or Carrochium, to meet the emperor, sending word that
they were ready to fight him[393]." In 1237 the Milanese again placed
their defiant Carrocium in front of the imperial host. They went forth
with an army of about sixty thousand men, and fixed their Carrocium
where their ranks seemed to be strongest. At sight of this, the emperor
summoned his counsellors, and, animating them by warlike words, said:
"Behold how these insolent Milanese, our enemies, dare to appear
against us, and presume to provoke me, their lord, to battle; enemies
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