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
No. 2 is an extra protection for the left breast and shoulder. This
is the Grandguard.
No. 3 is the Volant-piece, a protection for breast, neck, and
face.[24]
No. 4 is the Cabasset for the suit.
]
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Reinforcing Pieces.
No. 5, the Chanfrein for the horse’s head.
No. 6, the Extra Shoulder-guard.
No. 7, the Manifer or Tournament Gauntlet for the bridle hand.
No. 8, the Elbow-guard, or Pass-guard.[25]
]
As to the reinforcing pieces for screwing on to ordinary armour,
drawings are given of a series of these plates, belonging to a splendid
suit at Munich that was worn by the Prince-Bishop of Salzburg (Wolf
Dietrich von Raitenau), illustrated in Fig. 35. The pieces are numbered
on the drawings for reference, one and upwards in Figs. 10 and 11.
A projection called the queue, screwed on to the back plate, supports
the butt-end of the lance. The suit and all the pieces are richly
inlaid with gold, with the Bishop’s arms engraved on the breastplate.
There is a suit very similar in form and details of the pieces in the
Töjhus, Copenhagen, but the ornamentation of that suit is much bolder,
having the thistle for its theme throughout. It is of French make. As
in the Alnwick suit (Fig. 33), the cuisses are in two parts, the upper
being detachable, and the tassets bear evidence of missing detachable
portions. An interesting feature of this suit is that the lance-rest is
so adapted as to be capable of being either raised or lowered. Boeheim
states that he has not seen any examples of these reinforcing pieces
of an earlier date than about 1510. These pieces, with interchangeable
plates, were very numerous in some cases where expense was no object.
A suite made for the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, by Jörg Seusenhofer,
consisting of a field-harness and a suit for foot-fighting, had
appertaining to the two suits as many as thirty-four interchangeable
and reinforcing pieces. They were made in 1547, and are now at Vienna.
PART VIII.
DETAILS OF DEFENSIVE PLATE ARMOUR.
THE GREAT HELM.
The real great crested helm, so often seen pillowing the head in
effigies, dates from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, but it
was rarely used except in tournaments after the fourteenth. This helm
has been described in a previous section. It was replaced for fighting
purposes by the visored bassinet, the movable aventail being added
about the reign of Edward II. There is a perfect specimen of this helm
at Berlin; it was found near Bubad, in Pomerania. An illustration has
been given in Fig. 2.
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