A suit of armour is preserved in the Rotunda Museum at Woolwich which
is of unique interest, inasmuch as it is attributed to, and certainly
is of the date of the redoubtable Chevalier Bayard. It was brought
from the Château of St Germain, and is an object of profound regard
to Gallic visitors. The armour is engraved, russeted, and partly gilt
(Plate VIII., p. 64), and dates from _c._ 1520 or earlier. In places
it is fluted, but a marked peculiarity of the suit is the polygonal
section of the cuissarts and jambarts, which may be discerned by a
close inspection of the figure. The breastplate is globose and the left
epaulière is furnished with a pike-guard, while the sabbatons are of
the bear’s-paw pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 356.--The Wallace heaume, _c._ 1515.]
[Illustration: FIG. 357.--Globular tilting heaume. (Tower of London.)]
For tilting purposes the great heaume was still in use, and several
examples preserved in our museums date from this period. Not the least
interesting is the well-known Wallace heaume, of English construction,
and dating from _c._ 1515 (Fig. 356). This rare example is formed of
two plates only, the top and back part being one piece, and the front
part or bavière being the other. The two plates are securely riveted
together at the sides and a piece is flanged over upon the crown, where
four rivets hold it in place. The height of the heaume is 14 inches.
It is much pitted, and in places broken. Of the heaumes preserved in
the Tower a great probability exists that they were made for pageant
purposes or simply for funeral achievements. One of early fifteenth
century date weighs 15 lbs.; another of the usual shape, but furnished
with a comb, is said to have belonged to John of Gaunt. Probably the
most interesting in that collection is a globular tilting heaume
fitted with a bavière which is affixed by screws, and also gripped by
the visor pivots; it extends downwards to the breastplate, to which
it was fixed by an almayne screw (Fig. 357). In it a square opening
occurs opposite the right cheek, protected by a small door, opening and
closing upon a spring. The visor is strongly reinforced, and works upon
a central comb on the crown: the occularium is formed by the lower
part of the visor and the upper edge of the bavière, and is remarkably
narrow. It weighs 13 lbs. In the Rotunda at Woolwich is preserved the
well-known Brocas heaume (Plate XXXIX., p. 364), dating from the time
of Henry VII. and formerly in the Brocas Collection. It weighs 22½ lbs.
In Haseley Church, Oxon; Petworth Church, Sussex; Ashford Church, Kent;
and in Westminster Abbey, are other heaumes of considerable interest,
and a few are in private collections. A heaume which dated from _c._
1510 was at one time in Rayne Church, Essex, and belonged to Sir Giles
Capel, the head portion of which was almost globose, while a second
example, in which, however, the visor is slightly ridged, or of the
bellows variety, is in Wimborne Minster.
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