Spanish Arms and Armour: Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of MadridCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
Spanish Arms and Armour: Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of Madrid
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Arms and armor -- Spain; Real Armería de Madrid
Shields had not changed much since the preceding century to judge from
the specimen numbered D60. Like the twelfth century shield next to it,
it is of wood covered with parchment, and has grips of skin. On the
obverse may be traced the design of a hood, which has led Don Leocadio
Salazar to conclude that the shield was the property of the Conde de
Bureba, four hoods being on his coat of arms. The epitaph on that
illustrious personage’s tomb declares that “he filled Spain with the
fame of his name, as Themistocles did Athens.”
Our last instance of a Spanish suit of armour of the thirteenth century
illustrates a curious fashion in military attire that often has occupied
the attention of experts. The statue of Don Berenguer de Puigvert, in
the suppressed Monastery of Poblet, represents him clothed in a full
and richly embroidered surcoat, confined at the waist by a baldric,
beneath which he is wearing a complete suit of _banded armour_ of a very
elaborate pattern. On the forearm the mail seems to be composed of rings
placed end to end vertically instead of horizontally. The gauntlets and
leg-armour are composed of alternate horizontal bands, some showing a
zig-zag pattern; the others, perhaps rings set vertically. Banded mail
of various designs seems to have been fashionable all over Europe at the
close of the thirteenth century. Hewitt enumerates four examples in
English statuary. He expounds the various theories advanced to explain
the nature of this armour, and finally confesses that the riddle is
still unsolved. As Aragon seems in all improvements in armour to have
kept well ahead of the rest of the world, we need not be surprised to
find there an example of what was evidently a fashionable style in
Europe generally.
The headpiece universally worn at this time was the heaulme or helm.
About the middle of the century the aventail, or hinged opening for the
face, was introduced, and accordingly we find St. Ferdinand (represented
in the windows of Chartres Cathedral) wearing a casque with an aventail
cleft with three vertical slits. The camail was still generally worn
under the heaulme, which rested not only on the head but on the
shoulders of the wearer, and was secured by a chain. It was too heavy to
wear habitually, and was, therefore, carried at the saddle, or by the
esquire, to be put on at the approach of an enemy. Steel caps also were
often worn underneath; but much must obviously have depended on the
degree of strength and foolhardiness possessed by the individual.
“From the collection of mediæval ‘Proverbs,’” remarks the author we have
so often quoted, Mr. Hewitt, “we learn that Spain was the favourite mart
for the knightly charger. Denmark and Brittany had also a celebrity for
their breeds of horses of a different character. The fiat of popular
approval is given to the--
“‘Dextriers de Castille,
Palefrois Danois,
Roussins de Bretagne.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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