III. ARMOUR OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 338 IV. THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY 353 V. KNIGHTS-ERRANT 369 VI. MILITARY ENGINES 380 VII. ARMOUR OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 394 VIII. THE KNIGHT'S EDUCATION 406 IX. ON TOURNAMENTS 423 X. MEDIÆVAL BOWMEN 439 XI. FIFTEENTH CENTURY AND LATER ARMOUR 452 THE MERCHANTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. I. BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COMMERCE 461 II. THE NAVY 475 III. THE SOCIAL POSITION OF THE MEDIÆVAL MERCHANTS 487 IV. MEDIÆVAL TRADE 503 V. COSTUME 518 VI. MEDIÆVAL TOWNS 529 THE MONKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. We do not aim in these chapters at writing general history, or systematic treatises. Our business is to give a series of sketches of mediæval life and mediæval characters, looked at especially from the artist's point of view. And first we have to do with the monks of the Middle Ages. One branch of this subject has already been treated in Mrs. Jameson's "Legends of the Monastic Orders." This accomplished lady has very pleasingly narrated the traditionary histories of the founders and saints of the orders, which have furnished subjects for the greatest works of mediæval art; and she has placed monachism before her readers in its noblest and most poetical aspect. Our humbler task is to give a view of the familiar daily life of ordinary monks in their monasteries, and of the way in which they enter into the general life without the cloister;--such a sketch as an art-student might wish to have who is about to study that picturesque mediæval period of English history for subjects for his pencil. The religious orders occupied so important a position in mediæval society, that they cannot be overlooked by the historical student; and the flowing black robe and severe intellectual features of the Benedictine monk, or the coarse frock and sandalled feet of the mendicant friar, are too characteristic and too effective, in contrast with the gleaming armour and richly-coloured and embroidered robes of the sumptuous civil costumes of the period, to be neglected by the artist. Such an art-student would desire first to have a general sketch of the whole history of monachism, as a necessary preliminary to the fuller study of any particular portion of it. He would wish for a sketch of the internal economy of the cloister;