_The Arquebusier_ in the early part of the sixteenth century carried little body armour; he is usually represented in the slashed and ribbed dress of Henry VIII.’s time, with a bonnet bearing a feather upon his head. He was provided with a matchlock arquebus and a rest, with a sword at the left side, while hanging from a cord which crossed the body from the left shoulder were the circular powder-flasks and bullet-bag. The arquebusiers opened the battle, being in the van with the artillery. [Illustration: FIG. 416.--Sabbatons, Hatfield House.] About the year 1550 we find the arquebusiers clad in the armour termed almayne rivets, a name which was first applied to the system of sliding rivets invented in Germany, whereby lames and plates were given a considerable amount of play by the longitudinal slots in which the head of the rivet worked, but subsequently was applied loosely to suits of armour in which these rivets were used. Henry VIII., for example, sent to Milan for 5000 suits of “almayne rivets,” and in 1561, when an inventory was made of armour in the Tower of London, 3752 “almayne rivets” are catalogued, besides 350 “almayne corselets” (Harl. MS. 7457). The armour thus designated embraced a back- and breast-plate with espalier pauldrons to the elbows; three taces with pendent tassets of eight plates to the knees, fastened to the thighs by straps. A rigid gorget of plate and the headpiece completed the defence. This armour for the arquebusiers lasted during the century with but little variation; towards the end the tassets were much widened to accommodate them to the breeches then worn, and the breastplate was made so high in the neck that occasionally a gorget was dispensed with. Among the firearms used by the arquebusiers the _carabine_, _petronel_, and _caliver_ may be mentioned; the petronel was so called because its straight and square butt-end was held against the chest when fired, and the caliver was a light piece necessitating no rest and largely in use during the succeeding century. An improvement was made in the loading of the arquebus, by having a single charge in a leather case, and aggregations of these cases were termed bandoliers; this system was in use until the invention of the cartridge-box. An example of the armour worn by arquebusiers and footmen toward the close of Elizabeth’s reign is given in Plate XXIV., taken from Edinburgh Castle, where the high breastplate is seen, covered, however, in this case, with a gorget. The pauldrons are large, and below them occur complete protection for the arms, the turners being very prominent. A similar suit is in the same museum which is furnished with the long breastplate strengthened with a placcate at the bottom; it exhibits a little more ornamentation and is better finished (Plate XXIV.).