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
This subject is too vast for more than a mere outline in these pages.
The kite-shaped, round, and triangular shield appears in the twelfth
century. The two first-named are long, and either bowed or flat. They
were held over the breast by a strap going round the nape of the
neck, called a “guige.” Shields of the thirteenth century were either
small and “heater” shaped, or larger and rounded. Pavises were very
large shields to be placed before the bowmen as a defence, and were
provided with an inner prop to hold them upright on the ground. As to
ordinary shields, most of the thirteenth century forms extended into
the fourteenth, when the bouche, or hole cut in the right corner as
a spear-rest, was introduced. They were pear-shaped, triangular,
heart-shaped, circular, oval, curved, and sometimes nearly square.
The round buckler was carried in the hand, while the larger shield
was borne on the arm. The material was generally of wood or leather,
or both combined--the latter often embossed. They were more or less
fortified or bossed, and sometimes partly or wholly of iron. For tyros,
basket-work was used. Shields generally bore a heraldic device, or
other cognizance, and were frequently curved, bossed, and spiked. The
usual shield of a knight of the fifteenth century had the bouche, was
convex, and about two and a half feet long by about a third of that
broad, and pointed at the bottom. In the sixteenth century ordinary
shields were seldom used, but an immense amount of fine artistic work
was lavished on the pageant shields of that period, an example of which
is given in Fig. 15. The tournament shield is described under the
heading devoted to these games.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Pageant Shield, formerly in the collection of
Prince Carl of Prussia.]
CALTROP, OR CROW’S FOOT.
This, the Roman murex or tribulus, was a sharp point of iron standing
upright, fashioned like a crow’s foot. They were strewn broadcast on
the ground, for the purpose of maiming horses in a charge of cavalry,
or placed on a moat filled up with fascines, or on a breach to resist
an attempt at escalade. Knightly spurs have been known to have been
used for this purpose. The name is an abbreviation for cheval-trap.
There are some specimens in the Rotunda, Woolwich, varying in height
from 1.25 to 2.5 inches.[30]
SPURS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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