The Defensive Armour and the Weapons and Engines of War of Mediæval Times, and of the "Renaissance."Clephan, R. Coltman (Robert Coltman)
History
The Defensive Armour and the Weapons and Engines of War of Mediæval Times, and of the "Renaissance."
Clephan, R. Coltman (Robert Coltman)
Armor; Weapons
An effigy in Hereford Cathedral Church of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of
Hereford and Constable of England (died 1321), engraved by Hollis,
wears the camail, a tippet of mail laced to the bassinet, which falls
like a curtain over the shoulders, hauberk of mail to the knees,
rerebrace, vambrace and gauntlets of plate, the fingers covered with
laminated plates, genouillières, jambs with hinges and very slightly
pointed sollerets, all of steel, with rondelles to protect the inside
of the elbow. Here we have a good example of the transition to full
plate armour, as attaching plates are replaced by rounded ones, fitting
round the limbs, but still strapped on. An inventory of the earl’s
effects (1322) appears in the _Archæological Journal_, vol. ii., p.
349. The bassinet is mentioned as being covered with leather. Other
good examples of the lacing of the camail occur on the D’Argentine
brass, and on an effigy of a knight of the De Sulney family in Newton
Solney Church, Derbyshire. A figure standing in the nave of Hereford
Cathedral, that of Sir Richard Pembridge, K.G., who died a year before
the Black Prince, wears mixed armour--camail and bassinet with the
great helm.
Both the goad and rowel spurs were in use throughout the fourteenth
century. The figure of the Black Prince (1376) in Canterbury Cathedral
is clad almost entirely in plate, and shows the prince wearing a
conical bassinet with camail attached. Breastplate, épaulières,
rerebrace, vambrace, coudières, leg armour, and gauntlets, all of
plate--his great crested helm has a mantling, or lambrequin, and cap
of maintenance, and is surmounted by a gilded leopard; besides the
ocularium, it has a number of perforations on the right side in front,
in the form of a crown, for giving air. There are gads (knobs) on
the knuckles for the _mêlée_, which take the form of small leopards,
with the usual spikes on alternate first joints of the fingers. The
surcoat is quilted to a thickness of three-quarters of an inch; and
this precious relic is the only actual garment of the kind that has
come down to us. The material is buckram faced with velvet--lions and
fleurs-de-lis embroidered in gold thread. This surcoat is short, and
laced at the back. The brass of Sir John D’Argentine, Horseheath,
Cambridgeshire (1382), shows a bassinet with camail. The brassards
are complete, with articulated shoulder-plates, and gauntlets with
finger articulations. The chaussons are of studded mail, and jambs,
genouillières, and sollerets of steel, while a short surcoat covers
the trunk, and the spurs are of the rowel type. Shields disappear from
brasses and effigies in this century, the last example on a brass
occurs in 1360.[10]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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