_The Pikeman_ of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped
helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, not curved, but
pointed back and front. It was provided with a holder at the back,
in which four or five large feathers were inserted. A back- and
breast-plate reached to the waist, to which were affixed two broad
tassets meeting in front of six plates each (Plate XXIV.), which spread
over the well-padded breeches, reaching to the knee and covering the
front part of the limbs only. No gorget or defences for the arms
are shown. His arms are a pike and a sword. Grose in his “Military
Antiquities” illustrates thirty-two different positions in the exercise
of the pike. The pikeman of the Cromwellian period had a similar
accoutrement, but his morion may better be termed an iron hat, inasmuch
as the crown is low with a small comb, the brim wide and drooping and
coming well over the eyes and the back of the neck, and it is without
plumes (Fig. 427). Two cheek-guards are added. A back- and breast-plate
with pendent tassets consisting of many plates formed with a leather
coat and the helmet the sole protection. In Charles I.’s reign a
rondache was served out to pikemen, but after a few years was discarded.
[Illustration: FIG. 427.--Pikeman’s pot, 1620. (British Museum.)]
_The Musketeer_ wore a morion in James I.’s reign similar to the
pikeman but with no feathers, and this with a back- and breast-plate
completed his metal defences. In 1625, the morion was discarded in
favour of a jaunty felt hat with feathers, but subsequently the
morion was again worn with the addition of cheek-pieces. No tassets
are shown upon a musketeer’s uniform. Grose illustrates forty-five
separate orders for the discharge of one bullet from the musket. In
1637 an elaborate drill-book was issued by a Colonel Munro, in which
he states that musketeers should be formed in companies with a front
of thirty-two men, but six ranks deep; the first firing at once and
casting about and reloading; the second rank passing to the front
between the files to give fire next; then the third rank, and so on
until the whole ranks have discharged. Directions for handling the
matchlock published in 1620 contain quaint directions to the musketeer:
“He must first learn to hold the piece, to accommodate the match
between the two foremost fingers and his thumb, and to plant the great
end on his breast with a gallant soldier-like grace, and if ignorant
let him acquaint himself first with the firing of touchpowder in his
pan, to bow and bear up his body, and to attain to the level and
practice of an assured and serviceable shot, ready to charge and, with
a comely touch, discharge, making sure at the same instant of his mark
with a quick and vigilant eye.”
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