Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third EditionCutts, Edward Lewes
History
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third Edition
Cutts, Edward Lewes
Civilization, Medieval; Middle Ages -- Social life and customs
The Harleian MS. 4,751, a MS. of the beginning of the thirteenth century,
shows at folio 8 a group of soldiers attacking a fortification; it
contains hints enough to make one earnestly desire that the subject had
been more fully and artistically worked out. The fortification is
represented by a timber projection carried on brackets from the face of
the wall. Its garrison is represented by a single knight, whose
demi-figure only is seen; he is represented in a short-sleeved hauberk,
with a surcoat over it having a cross on the breast. He wears a
flat-topped cylindrical helmet, and is armed with a crossbow. The
assailants would seem to be a rabble of half-armed men; one is bareheaded,
and armed only with a sling; others have round hats, whether of felt or
iron does not appear; one is armed in a hooded hauberk and carries an axe,
and a cylindrical helmet also appears amidst the crowd.
In the Harleian MS. 5,102, of the beginning of the thirteenth century, at
folio 32, there is a representation of the martyrdom of St. Thomas of
Canterbury, which gives us the effigies of the three murderers in knightly
costume. They all wear long-sleeved hauberks, which have the peculiarity
of being slightly slit up the sides, and the tunic flows from beneath
them. Fitzurse (known by the bear on his shield) has leg defences fastened
behind, like those in our next woodcut, p. 334, and a circular iron
helmet. One of the others wears a flat-topped helmet, and the third has
the hood of mail fastened on the cheek, like that in the same woodcut. The
drawing is inartistic, and the picture of little value for our present
purposes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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