Spanish Arms and Armour: Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of Madrid — John Shaqi
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
The monument of one of Don Enrique’s partisans, Juan Alfonso, Lord of
Ajofrin (see plate 3), was erected a year or two after his death on the
field of Aljubarrota, in 1385. He wears a short hauberk with a sleeved
surcoat, which probably concealed a cuirass. The leg-armour--jambs,
genouillères, cuisses--is entirely of plate. The gauntlets are of
extraordinarily delicate workmanship. The cuff and hand are of plate,
richly chased; the fingers are articulated and composed of small annular
plates, which must have allowed perfect freedom to the joints; the tips
are shaped to imitate the nails; and the knuckles are furnished with
gads or spikes, which served as offensive as well as defensive armour.
Gauntlets of beautiful workmanship were not, of course, peculiar to
Spain, but were adopted there as early as in any other country. The Lord
of Ajofrin wears laminated sollerets, and carries a sword of unusual
length, with drooping quillons, and a shield or escutcheon on the
pommel.
Castile owed, not only the corselet, but an improved headpiece to the
White Company, which crossed the Pyrenees to support the claims of Don
Enrique in 1366. It should, however, be said that Don Pedro in his will,
dated 1362, bequeaths his _bascinet_ to his son, Don Juan.[E] “The
heaulme,” says M. Mathieu Prou, “having become too heavy, was from 1300
onwards little more than a headpiece for parade. In action the knights
preferred to combat with uncovered face, the head protected by a casque
called _bassinet_ or _bascinet_, which was without a nasal, round, at
first rather low, but towards 1330 assuming an ovoid form. From the
beginning of the fourteenth century it became the custom to fix to the
iron cap a visor moving on pivots, or attached to hinges, and opening
like a shutter. This visor was ordinarily pointed and elongated in
muzzle form, and provided with two horizontal slits for the vision
(occularia), and numerous holes for respiration. As this helmet did not
protect the throat, to the lower part was soon added the piece called
beavor, over which the visor fell when it was lowered.”
The celada or salade was also worn in Spain about this time. The
collection of Don José Estruch, at Barcelona, contains such a headpiece
of somewhat peculiar shape. The crest is very high and the brim very
broad. To it is fastened a beavor in three plates, to which again is
laced a covering of mail for the back of the neck. The bascinet is worn
by the Lord of Ajofrin’s contemporary, Don Bernardo de Anglesola, of
Aragon (see plate 8). It is encircled by a double band of ornaments and
precious stones, and is worn over the camail, which falls like an ample
tippet over the breast. The harness is composed of hauberk of mail,
rere-braces, vambraces, coudes, gauntlets, cuisses, genouillères, jambs,
and sollerets. The brocaded surcoat may be intended to conceal a
corselet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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