Captain Bingham in his Low Countrie exercise appointeth him [the harquebusier] a cuirass pistoll proofe which condemneth the late practice of our trained Harquebusiers to be erroneous which have wholly left off their arms and think themselves safe enough in a calf’s skin coat. 1756. _Rêveries_, Marshal Maurice of Saxe, p. 56. Je ne sais pourquoi on a quitte les Armures, car rien n’est si beau ni si avantageux. L’on dira peut-etre que c’est l’usage de la poudre qui les a abolis; mais point du tout car du tems de Henri IV. et depuis jusq’en l’annee 1667 on en a porter, et il y avoit deja bien longtems que la poudre etoit en usage: mais vous verrez que c’est la chere commodite qui les a fait quitter. Marshal Saxe further suggests that the large proportion of wounds are received from sword, lance, or spent bullet, and that all these might be guarded against by wearing armour or a buff coat of his own invention which when reinforced with steel plates weighed 30 lb. THE WEIGHT OF ARMOUR We have but few records in contemporary documents of the actual weight of the different parts of the suit of armour, but we can obtain these from examples of the sixteenth century onwards from specimens in the different museums and collections. That armour had become burdensome in the extreme owing to the necessity of subjecting it to pistol and musket proof we know from various writers on the subject. La Noue in his _Discours Politiques et Militaires_, translated by “E. A.” 1587, writes on page 185: “For where they had some reason in respect of the violence of harquebuzes and dagges [muskets and pistols] to make their armor thicker and of better proofe than before, they have now so farre exceeded, that most of th[=e] have laden themselves with stithies [anvils] in view of clothing their bodies with armour ... neither was their armour so heavie but that they might wel bear it 24 hours, where those that are now worne are so waightie that the peiz [weight] of them will benumme a Gentleman’s shoulders of 35 yeres of age.” [Illustration: _PLATE XXXI_ PORTRAIT MEDAL OF COLOMAN, COLMAN, 1470-1532 DESIGNS FOR ARMOUR BY ALBERT DURER, 1517] On page 196 of Sir John Smith’s _Instructions, Observations, and Orders Militarie_, the author strongly objects to the discarding of the arm and leg defences which was advised by other authorities. He insists that these limbs are as important as the “breste, belly, and backe,” and should be adequately protected. His opinions are also held by Marshal Maurice of Saxe in his _Rêveries_, quoted above. Edward Ludlow, at the battle of Edgehill, 1642,[127] was dismounted in getting through a hedge, and says: “I could not without great difficulty recover on horse-back again being loaded with cuirassiers arms as the rest of the guard were also.”