Armour in England, from the Earliest Times to the Reign of James the FirstGardner, John Starkie
History
Armour in England, from the Earliest Times to the Reign of James the First
Gardner, John Starkie
Armor -- England
The limbs began to be definitely protected over the mail in the second
half of the thirteenth century. Effigies and manuscript illustrations
of that date commonly represent globose knee-caps, sometimes ridged
down the front, and usually gilt. In the fourteenth century they are
always present and frequently treated very decoratively, with shields,
roundels, scalloped edges, etc. The technical name for these appendages
is "Genouillière," or "knee-cap." Subsidiary plates often appear below
the knee, and sometimes above it, and are continued under the mail.
The greave was a rigid gaiter fitting at first only over the front of
the leg below the knee, but afterwards enveloping it; and it was either
of metal or cuir-bouilli. When seen on English fourteenth-century
monuments it usually seems to be of steel fitting closely over the
mail, and laced or buckled at the back, but at times it is so richly
decorated as to suggest cuir-bouilli. Greaves are usually omitted on
early monuments, and are only commonly seen when they had become an
integral part of the suit of armour. As yet they were not habitually
worn except in battle, and knights were not at this time represented
in their effigies accoutred for war, but in ordinary military costume.
Thus the effigy of Aymer de Valence shows no plate armour, except
the genouillière; but the two mounted figures of the canopy present
the visored bassinet, the high gorget, the arm and elbow plates, the
tubular greaves and steel sollerets for the feet. The tubular leg
defence is not seen in earlier representations, and its introduction
may coincide with the first recorded appearance in the field of large
bodies of Welsh armed with long knives. It was usually hinged and
buckled, and becomes more general as the century advances. This appears
in the inventory of Piers Gaveston, 1313, who possessed three pairs of
such greaves. Monstrelet relates that the bailiff of Evreux, sallying
out without his greaves, had his leg badly broken by the kick of a
horse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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