Wales -- Description and travel; Wales -- Social life and customs
not nice as to their diet, and ever prepared when necessity requires to
abstain both from corn and wine. By such men were the first hostile
attacks made upon Wales as well as Ireland, and by such men alone can
their final conquest be accomplished. For the Flemings, Normans,
Coterells, and Bragmans, are good and well-disciplined soldiers in their
own country; but the Gallic soldiery is known to differ much from the
Welsh and Irish. In their country the battle is on level, here on rough
ground; there in an open field, here in forests; there they consider
their armour as an honour, here as a burden; there soldiers are taken
prisoners, here they are beheaded; there they are ransomed, here they are
put to death. Where, therefore, the armies engage in a flat country, a
heavy and complex armour, made of cloth and iron, both protects and
decorates the soldier; but when the engagement is in narrow defiles, in
woods or marshes, where the infantry have the advantage over the cavalry,
a light armour is preferable. For light arms afford sufficient
protection against unarmed men, by whom victory is either lost or won at
the first onset; where it is necessary that an active and retreating
enemy should be overcome by a certain proportional quantity of moderate
armour; whereas with a more complex sort, and with high and curved
saddles, it is difficult to dismount, more so to mount, and with the
greatest difficulty can such troops march, if required, with the
infantry. In order, therefore, that
“Singula quæque locum teneant sortita decenter,”
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