Taught by the disastrous defeat of Agincourt,--where ten thousand men, of whom eight thousand were of the nobility, had fallen, owing to the precision and the celerity of the fire of the English archers,--Charles VII. instituted in France the _franc archer_ (Fig. 58), who wore the _salade_ and the jacket or _brigandine_, and carried the dagger, the sword, the bow, the quiver or crossbow _garnie_. These archers were exempt from all taxes or imposts; their equipments were declared not distrainable for debts, and during war they received pay at the rate of four livres a month. The _salade_, a part of armour which has remained particularly celebrated, and the name of which has been applied subsequently to helmets of divers forms, is pre-eminently the helmet of the epoch of Charles VII. At first it was a head-dress for war, composed of a simple cap (_timbre_), that covered the top of the head, with a pendent piece of metal of greater or less length at the back, which sometimes was made for protecting the neck, and [Illustration: Fig. 58.--Franc Archers (Fifteenth Century), from the Painted Hangings of the Town of Rheims.] sometimes to guard a portion of the shoulders. Towards the end of the fifteenth century there was added to the salade a small vizor, that was gradually lengthened downwards to near the upper lip, and in which a narrow opening was then made for the sight. In the reign of Louis XII. the salade received a chin-piece, the lower part of which was a _gorget_, that surrounded and protected the neck. The top of the cuirass had a cord, to which was attached the salade; and this helmet, so different to the primitive salade, continued to bear the same name (Fig. 59). [Illustration: Fig. 59.--Knights in complete Armour, with the _Salade_. (End of Fifteenth Century.) A Single Combat, taken from “The Triumph of Maximilian,” by Burgmayer, after a drawing by Albert Dürer.] The _brigandine_, recalling the early armour abandoned for the coat of mail, was composed of small plates of steel or iron arranged on a strong piece of leather, and stitched or fixed with wire, in the form of the scales of a fish. A decree of Peter II., Duke of Brittany, issued in 1450, ordered the nobles to equip themselves as archers, or in brigandine, if they knew how to use arrows; but otherwise, to be provided with _guisarmes_, with good salades, and leg-armour; each noble was to be attended by one _coustillier_, and to have two good horses. The _guisarme_ was a sort of two-edged and pointed javelin. The _coustillier_ was a foot-soldier, or a horseman, whose duty it was to act as a servant to the nobleman, and to carry the _coustille_, a long, slender sword, triangular or square, apparently resembling the foil in our fencing-rooms. [Illustration: Fig. 60.--Armour ornamented with Lions, supposed to be that of Louis XII. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.)]