Armour-bearer

“ The weapons carried by the infantry, during the several reigns succeeding the Conquest, were bows and arrows, half-pikes, lances, halberds, various kinds of battle-axes, swords, and daggers. Armour was worn on the head and body, and in course of time the practice became general for military men to be so completely cased in steel, that it was almost impossible to slay them. ”

“ The shining plates of the Guards are parade pieces only, but a curious revival of an old defence was carried by English cavalry in the field at the end of the 19th century, when small gussets of chain mail were attached to the shoulders of certain cavalrymen as a defence against sword cuts. Through all the age of modern warfare inventors have pressed the claims of various bullet-proof breastplates, but where they have been effective against rifle fire their weight has made them too heavy an addition to the soldier’s burden. (See, however, Armour Plates, ad fin.) ”

“ 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. ”

“ Before proceeding to examine the suit of Full Plate, with all its interesting details and differences as exemplified in the various armouries of England and Europe, it will be well to make clear the main principles which governed the manufacture of such armour. We should remember that the whole history of our subject is one long struggle of defensive equipment against offensive weapons. ”

“ The knights and men-at-arms walked forward with uncertain steps, the armour being slung over their shoulders, and each of them acting as a foot-soldier, for none dared mount his horse. Many would willingly have sold their helmets, their breastplates, or their shields, had they found any one to buy, and some, wearied out, cast down their arms, to walk more lightly. ”

“ Numerous improvements were eventually introduced in the construction of fire-arms, and, it having been found impossible to make armour proof against the muskets then in use (which carried a very heavy ball) without its being too weighty for the soldier, armour was gradually laid aside by the infantry in the seventeenth century: bows and arrows also fell into disuse, and the infantry were reduced to two classes, viz.: musketeers, armed with matchlock muskets, [xiii] swords, and daggers; and pikemen, armed with pikes from fourteen to eighteen feet long, and swords. ”

“ Some have all their defensive armour composed of many small plates of iron, a hand-breadth long and an inch broad, perforated with eight small holes, by which they are tied with small leather thongs to strong thongs of leather underneath, so that the plates overlap each other in regular series, and are firmly knit together. The armour both of men and horses is often made in this fashion, and is kept finely burnished. Some carry lances having hooks, to pull their enemies from horseback. ”

“ From the Hatfield MSS. [Pg 98] we learn that a penny a day was allowed to each soldier in 1590, over and above his pay, for the wearing and carriage of his armour, because it had become the custom for the troops to give their accoutrements to the baggage-carriers when on the march: ‘a matter both unseemly for soldiers and also very hurtful unto the armour by bruising and breaking thereof, whereby it becometh unserviceable.’ In Cruso’s Militarie Instructions for the Cavallrie (1632) , we find that the arquebusiers had wholly left off their armour in favour of buff coats. ”

“ The rich or officers have sharp-pointed swords, somewhat curved and sharp on one edge. They wear helmets, coats of mail, and cuisses, and their horses even are armed. Some have their own armour and that of their horses made of leather, ingeniously doubled and even tripled. The upper parts of their helmets are of iron or steel, but the hood which protects their neck and throat is of leather. ”

“ Our armour differeth not from that of other nations; and therefore consisteth of corslets, almain rivets, shirts of mail, jacks quilted and covered with leather, fustian, or canvas over thick plates of iron that are sewed in the same. Of which, there is no town or village that hath not her convenient furniture. The said armour and munition like [Pg 250] wise is kept in one several place of every town, appointed by the consent of the whole parish; where it is always ready to be had and worn within an hour's warning. ”

“ The feet were bare, but sandalled, and the sandals fastened with ornamented thongs. Against the sun sometimes a sort of hat was worn, or the mantle was put over the head, and women had thick veils wrapping them.
In time of war the armour was a helmet with a horse-hair crest, a breast-plate on a leathern cuirass, which had strips of leather hanging from the lower edge as far down as the knee; sometimes greaves to guard the leathern buskin; a round shield of leather, faced with metal, and often beautifully ornamented; and also spears, swords, daggers, and sometimes bows and arrows. ”

“ The fully-equipped knight, whether in the cumbrous garments of mail or in the more adaptable suit of plate, was so entirely dependent on his horse, both in active warfare and in the tilt-yard, that some notice of the defences of the Destrier or war-horse is necessary in this short examination of the history of defensive armour. ”

“ For the rest the horsemen bear the Norman shield, kite-shaped, with tapering foot, and long enough to carry a dead warrior from the field. On the inner side are straps for the hand to grip and a long strap allowed the knight to hang the shield from his neck. Let us note that although wyvern-like monsters, crosses, roundels and other devices appear on these shields, none of them has any indication of true armory, whose origins must be placed in the next century.
The 12th century, although an age of riding and warring, affects but little the fashion of armour. ”

“ But my armour had done me good service; for the two fellows were disconcerted when they found that their daggers had touched metal, and I had time to jump on one side and point my second pistol at them. ”

“ The introduction and diffusion of firearms has almost superseded the use of defensive armour; but chain suits, and hide surcoats studded thickly with silver, are still—as instances before given show—possessed and employed: and before going into battle the warriors are often padded like cricketers, corconillas or saddle-cloths, and ponchos being employed to form a covering, the folds of which will turn a sword cut or lance thrust.
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1. Saddle. 2. Bridle. 3. Girth. 4. Spurs. 5. Boot. 6. Adze. 7. Scraper. 8. Musical instrument. 9. Ostrich bola. 10. Guanaco bola. 11. Bola perdida. 12. Pipe. ”

“ The fact is, that full armour could not be constantly worn during a long campaign as then conducted without injury to health, and its use became more and more restricted to the knightly order and men-at-arms, who were not generally exposed to the same hardships as the common soldier. ”

“ Let every man have a brigandine or a little coat of plate, a skull or huskyn, a maule of lead of five foot in length, and a pike, the same hanging by his girdle with a hook and a dagger; being thus furnished teach them to march, shoot, and retire, for these men can neither be spared in battle nor in skirmish. No other weapon can compare with the same noble weapon. ”

“ The armament consists of a mentonnière of several laminated plates to be raised or lowered, cuirass with rondelles, taces of five or more overlapping plates, going right across the lower body, but no tuilles, cuisse with genouillières and hinged jambs; laminated rerebraces, and large pointed coudières. The fingers of the gauntlets are articulated, with a sharp gadling over each knuckle, and sollerets “à la poulaine.” This monument doubtless represents armour of the first half of the century. ”

“ The author of the Speculum Regale, an Icelandic chronicle of this period, instructs his son in his military duties: when combating on foot, he is to wear his heavy armour, namely, a byrnie, or thick panzar [Pg 110] [173] (thungann pannzara) , a strong shield (skiold) or buckler (buklara) , and a heavy sword. For naval actions the best weapons are long spears, and for defence, panzars made of soft and well-dyed linen cloth, together with good helmets (hialmar) , pendant steel caps (hangandi stálhufur) , and broad shields [174] . ”

“ 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. ”

“ THE PURITAN HOST The early part of the seventeenth century saw a considerable alteration in the armament of the soldiery, and, notwithstanding the increasing use of gunpowder, body armour long continued to be worn. ”

“ Instead of the shield, however, an additional piece of armour called the grande-garde was sometimes screwed to the breastplate to protect the left side and shoulder, while the great spear had also a piece of armour fixed in front of the grasp, which not only protected the hand, but was large enough to make a kind of shield for the left arm and breast. The tilting helmet disappeared altogether about this period, and the head-piece was adorned with streaming plumes. The armour generally, by its being fluted and laminated and puffed, imitated the costume of the time. ”

“ The gallant knights are distinguished by their belts and gilded spurs.
“The knights are dust
And their good swords are rust,
Their souls are with the saints, we trust.”
81 In the specification for arms and armour for the tournament of Windsor Park (1278) we see of what each suit consisted, viz., “one coat of fence, one surcoat, one pair of ailettes, two crests (one for the horse) , one shield (heraldically ensigned) , one helm of leather (gilded or silvered) , and one sword made of whalebone.” The cost of each armament varied in price from about ten to thirty shillings. ”

“ But as time went on, and the strength of both men and horses further increased, and the weapons of war became more deadly still, the armour again underwent a change, so that about the beginning of the fourteenth century we find the “perfect armour,” as it had come to be called, being in its turn discarded in favour of the hideous plate armour that less than a hundred years afterwards was adopted by practically every “civilised” nation in Europe. ”

“ Hence it was that six of these regiments, the 90th, 91st, 72nd, 74th, 75th, and 94th, were ordered to abandon the kilt, and adopt the ordinary line uniform.
There had been many changes in the form of the sword. At first a broad two-edged blade, a heavy, hacking weapon231 with a cross hilt, it was designed to wound men in armour. Not that, apparently, they ran much danger, for in many a battle few were killed. The wounds received in action appear to have been chiefly contusions.48 The mace or axe was in armoured days probably more effective than the sword. ”

“ An interesting series of drawings of late fifteenth century artillery exists in the ordnance books of the Emperor Maximilian I., where you have examples of the bombard, serpentin, snakes, falconets, mortar, and orgue. The lighter guns are mounted on rude carriages, with heavy wooden wheels encircled with iron-hooping. ”

“ In this manner at triumphs and tourneys there ought to be at the two ends of the lists a small scaffold, the height of a stirrup, on which two or three persons can stand, that is to say, the knight, an armourer to arm him, and one other to help him. The knight being armed and the horse brought close to the stand, he easily mounts him.’
Reference has been made to the fact that modern writers call the sliding rivet the ‘Almain’ rivet. Whenever mentioned in Inventories and such-like documents, the Almain rivet stands for a suit of light armour. ”

“ The survival of the fittest held good of defensive armour until that very fitness was found to be a source rather of weakness than of strength, owing to changed conditions of warfare; and then the mighty defences of steel, impervious to sword, lance, and arrow, passed away, to remain only as adjuncts of Parade and Pageant, or as examples in museums of a lost art in warfare and military history. ”

“ Extended campaigns and long marches necessitated lighter equipment, and we find in contemporary records instances, not only of the men-at-arms discarding their armour owing to its inconvenience, but also of commanders ordering them to lighten their equipment for greater rapidity of movement. ”

“ The armour-smith’s best efforts were directed not only to give increased protection to the limbs and make the armour light, flexible, and impenetrable;115 but the flutings and escalloped edges were designed to produce beauty of form and outline, as well as with a view to deflecting the weapon of attack from vital points; and the armour was equally mobile for fighting on foot or on horseback. We owe its initiation doubtless to Italy, in which country, together with Germany, it reached its highest pitch of excellence ”

“ We find, therefore, the Northern warrior seldom unaccompanied by this useful defence. Leader and retainer, horseman and foot-soldier,—all are equipped with the target. Its form was usually round, though in the pictures, being seen in profile, it often has the appearance of an oval. ”