The mailed horse appears as early as the Roman period, and is shown on the
Column of Trajan, but in Europe he does not seem to have been commonly in
use much before the thirteenth century. As the man was sometimes defended
entirely by garments of quilted fabrics, so the horse also wore
pourpointed housings. We can only surmise, from the folds and lines shown
on seals or drawings, which variety is intended; but the stiff lines of
the housing on the seal of Roger de Quinci, Earl of Winchester (1219-64),
and its raised lozenges, seem to suggest a thicker substance than does the
more flowing drapery on Fig. 11. Matthew Paris, in describing the Battle
of Nuova Croce in 1237, writes that 'A credible Italian asserted that
Milan with its dependencies raised an army of six thousand men-at-arms
with iron-clad horses'. An ordinance of Philip the Fair, in 1303, provides
that every holder of an estate of 500 livres rental should furnish a man
at-arms well mounted on a horse 'couvert de couvertures de fer ou de
couverture pourpointe'. The caparisoned horse first appears on royal seals
in the reign of Edward I. In the Roll of Purchases of Windsor Park
Tournament (1278), the horses are provided with parchment crests, and the
Clavones or rivets used for fixing these crests are mentioned in the
Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I in 1300: 'cum clavis argenti pro eodem
capello.' The earliest note we have of a rigid defence for the horse is in
the Windsor Roll, which contains the following item:--'D Milon le Cuireur
xxxviij copita cor de similitud' capit equoz.' This headpiece was of
leather, either used in its natural state or as cuirbouilli, and seems to
be the material suggested in the ivory chessman (Fig. 39) illustrated in
Hewitt (vol. ii, p. 314). In the Will of the Earl of Surrey (1347) is
mentioned a breastpiece of leather for a horse. In the fifteenth century
we find the horse protected with plate like his rider, and usually the
lines of the Barding or horse armour follow those of the man. Fig. 40
shows the armed horse with the various portions of his defence named.
[Illustration: FIG. 40. Horse armour. A, Chamfron; B, Crinet; C, Peytral;
D, Flanchards; E, Arçon; F, Cantel; G, Crupper; H, Tail-guard; J, Metal
rein-guard; K, Glancing-knob.]
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