Charles Henry Ashdown

“ The remains of its cyclopean walls and towers now lie in mighty masses over its slopes, and tell eloquently of a day when destruction only seemed to occupy the minds of men, and all that was great and beautiful from the foregoing ages was marked out for desolation and ruin. Perhaps no castle in England has suffered so much as that of Corfe. ”

“ It had early been perceived in England that the native infantry was as effective in battle as the flower of foreign chivalry, and instead of being jealous of this fact, as were the foreign nobles as a rule of their own foot soldiers, the knights of our own country sought by every possible means to add to the deadly prowess of the soldier, and to defend him by every artifice that wit could devise. ”

“ Hence we may imagine a concentration against a presumably weak point, a sudden rush, the plunge into the dry ditch and a rapid scramble up the scarp towards the palisades under a shower of arrows, stones, and other missiles; the mad escalade of the defences surmounting the earthwork and the fierce resistance of the defenders, followed by a successful entry or a disastrous repulse and retreat. ”

“ A waved fringe of mail appears below the five taces; the genouillières have prominent projections over the knee-caps and are very ornamental, while the sollerets have a decorative gousset of chain mail. Altogether the armour is eccentric, and probably both the wearer and his wife were of the same character, inasmuch as the lady is shown in a reticulated head-dress without the veil and the high-waisted gown then only prevailing on the Continent. The knight’s suit is beautifully enriched with a design which imparts a very characteristic aspect to the entire figure. ”

“ Captains and officers should be skilful of that noble weapon, and to see that their soldiers according to their draught and strength have good bows, well nocked, well stringed, every string whip in their nock and in the middle rubbed with wax; a bracer and shooting glove and some spare strings; every man a sheaf of arrows in a leather case which contains twenty-four arrows, whereof eight should be lighter than the rest to gall the enemy with a hailshot of light arrows before they shall come within the danger of their harquebus shot. ”

“ Not far from Llandeilo, a village near Carmarthen, stand the remains of a Concentric Castle around which local tradition has woven a web of romance, asserting that all history is lost in remote antiquity and leading the imagination to run riot in conjuring up the identity of its former inmates. Upon the south side the walls stand upon a precipice with a sheer drop of probably 500 feet, while a climb of over 200 feet is necessary to reach the northern face. ”

“ It is to every kind of historical student that this book is addressed, especially to those who endeavour to make the dry bones of history live—the author, the artist, and the actor. It is, also, for all who take an intelligent interest in history, and who would wish to see the shifting panorama of men move before their eyes in the right colours and clothes. ”

“ The study of Arms and Armour is one of absorbing interest to a large and ever increasing number of the community, inasmuch as it appeals in a marked degree to the student of history, the antiquarian, and to those who work in the realms of art. ”

“ Such projectiles would almost demolish a house, and were nearly as formidable as modern shells; their great weight would batter every portion of a medieval castle except the very thickest of walls. The platforms of earth thrown up by besiegers to sustain their great engines remain in many places intact to-day; thus round Berkhampstead Castle are eight, upon which the trebuchets of the Dauphin were erected in 1216, when he battered the castle into submission in about a fortnight. ”

“ It may come somewhat in the nature of a shock to the self-complacency of the average Englishman to learn that in the great stores of armour in the public and private collections of Great Britain and Ireland only an infinitesimal portion is of English origin, and also that England was never celebrated in any age for the output of reliable suits. The excellent quality of English steel is, at the present time, accepted throughout the world, while the care and finish bestowed upon articles fabricated from it is proverbial, and in marked contrast to that of many other nations. ”

“ Conway Castle, one of the most impressive and majestic of medieval fortresses in Britain, is situated in a romantic and picturesque spot at the mouth of the river Conway. It presents a perfect ideal of a fortress and a fortified town, the massive accompanying walls of the latter forming an integral portion of the defence as a whole. The town walls are over a mile in length and are in a singularly good state of preservation ”

“ The average Englishman is probably more unacquainted with arms and armour than any other technical subject. Beyond a general idea that the Crusaders fought in mail, and the Wars of the Roses were waged by warriors clad in plate, his knowledge does not extend, and he consequently witnesses many startling incongruities upon the stage of a theatre, or the arena of a pageant, with the most profound indifference. ”

“ One feature of its construction was a hinged platform which fell outwards upon the battlements and over which the assailants endeavoured to enter the fortress. The besieged hindered the approach of this terror by digging pitfalls for the wheels, shooting incendiary missiles, making sallies for its destruction by fire, or concentrating such a body of men upon the walls that none could live under the hail of missiles poured into it. ”

“ It is curious to observe that a number of soldiers are habited precisely as the civilians, with no other defences than the helmet and the shield, from which we conclude that the Anglo-Saxon of an early period simply dropped his implements of husbandry at the call to arms and took up the shield, helmet, and the spear. ”

“ Within these lordly halls the noble owners held high revel, while troops of servitors, henchmen, and servants of every degree swarmed in the passages and halls in marked contradistinction to the old time grim men-at-arms, bearded archers, and steel-clad retainers of the feudal fortress.
There was naturally a period of transition during which the characteristics of the Castle predominated over the domestic influences, and those which sprang into existence during the reigns of Henry IV. and V. very ably show this feature. ”

“ The very fact that there was no uniformity in his accoutrement rendered him a formidable foe to the knight, who naturally directed his lance to that portion of an enemy’s person possessing the least defensive equipment; but it required more than human divination in the excitement of a contest to discern the weak points in the equipment of men all armed in a different manner. The broad rule respecting the armour of the infantry in mediæval times was that the knightly defence of one period became the soldiers salvation in the succeeding period. ”

“ That a series of defences independent and complete in themselves
should be presented in turn to an assault, the capture of one by no means entailing that of another.
The castle-builders of the second half of the thirteenth century rigidly adhered to the principles embodied in the first clause given above; they did not produce a structure of the Motte and Bailey, or the Keep and Base-court types, with little regard to the situation and configuration of the ground, but made their plans with the utmost care, embracing every advantage which the site presented. ”

“ The pommel, grip, and scabbard were at times elaborately enriched with a profusion of ornament. A new weapon was introduced at this period, the misericorde or dagger of mercy, used for despatching a fallen foe whose wounds were beyond all surgical aid, in the combat à outrance, or in the field; or as a last resource for defence when other weapons had failed. It was a straight dagger with no guard as a rule, and having both the hilt and scabbard curiously ornamented; the blade had but one edge, the section being triangular. ”

“ Through the almost universal habit of perusing medieval romances the general public has formed a mental picture of the hero and his followers riding round a castle and summoning it to surrender, or challenging the garrison to emerge from their retreat and essay mortal combat in the open. As the engineer and captain of the sappers and miners, the director of the artillery, the designer of movable towers, and the general head of the various artifices [Pg 189] calculated to bring the besieged to their senses, the hero is less well known. ”

“ In support of this conjecture it may be noticed that crests at first were ridged and serrated, somewhat after the style which distinguished the pike-guards of the fifteenth century in their embryonic stage, as if purposely designed to arrest the edge of a weapon. The many examples which occur in an undecorated form preclude the thought that they were invented in order to bear heraldic cognisances, although they were quickly seized upon to fulfil the duty hitherto borne by the shield and surcoat, namely, to afford means of identifying the wearer. ”

“ Hence the earthwork and the parapet of rock, singly or combined, may be regarded as the first of all castellation, with an origin so remote as to be practically coeval with man's first appearance upon earth. These simple means of defence are found in every country occupied by primitive races; in America they are numerous and undoubtedly point to a high antiquity, and the same holds good in many parts of Asia and Europe. ”

“ These are elementary details which even a cursory knowledge of military equipment could avoid, but in the illustrations of historical scenes in books and magazines equal ignorance prevails, and a knight in pure mail and a surcoat, making love to a maiden in a reticulated head-dress seated under a two-centred Tudor archway, is only an example of the incongruities which almost every day insult the intelligence and offend the eyesight of the educated reader. ”

“ Pembroke Castle, with the town walls supporting it, is perhaps the most important pile to be found in this district; it embodies additions of varying dates in its massive walls and towers. The great gatehouse and circular Norman Keep are undoubtedly its chief attractions at the present day when, although shattered by powder after Cromwell's capture by means of starvation, and much subsequent spoliation, it presents one of the most imposing aspects to be found in the kingdom. ”

“ The passion which prevailed for parade armour during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, led, as we have seen, to a high degree of ornamentation being bestowed upon many suits, but perhaps the greatest amount of intricate workmanship was lavished upon the rondaches, or shields, which were made to accompany the armour. In the Wallace Collection there is one of the most beautiful examples in existence, a rondache magnificently embossed and damascened, made for Diane de Poitiers and bearing her monogram and insignia. ”

“ There is an opening in the centre of the ramparts which is probably of later date, conjecturally Roman. An ancient plan shows a spring in the open space, but it does not appear at the present time. A rough wall was constructed round the edges of the precipices to confine sheep, but the original fortress was doubtless defended by a thick and massive rampart, there being no lack of material for such a protection, while the usual timber and stone breastwork would crown it. ”