Mr. Waller, in the article on the Hauberk referred to above, gives it as
his opinion that this 'Banded Mail', as it is called, was but a variety of
the ordinary interlinked mail; but if we examine the illuminations of the
period we shall find that it is shown side by side with the representation
of what all authorities admit to be chain-mail. No. 12 on Plate I shows
the arm and leg defences to be formed of this banded mail, while the head
is protected with the ordinary chain-mail. We have then to try and
discover how these horizontal bands dividing each row of links in the mail
can be shown in a practical form. Meyrick vaguely suggests a row of rings
sewn edgeways on the body garment and threaded with a leather thong
(Plate I, 10), with the under fabric caught up between the rows of rings
and formed into a piping through which a cord was threaded. This theory
has been quoted by Viollet-le-Duc in his _Dictionnaire du Mobilier
Français_, by Dr. Wendelin Boeheim in his _Waffenkunde_, and by more
recent writers; but none of these authorities seems to have taken the
trouble to test its practicability. The human body being rounded, the
tendency of these edge-sewn rings would be to 'gape' and thus give an
opening for the weapon. In addition to this, the number of rings so used
would make the weight of the defence, hanging as it did from the shoulders
alone, almost insupportable. A third and perhaps the most conclusive of
all the arguments against Meyrick's theory is that we frequently find the
inside of a banded mail coif shown with the same markings as the outside,
which aspect would be impossible if the rings were arranged as he
suggests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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