Armourer

“ A printing press was set up. At an armourer’s bench a man was repairing old muskets, sharpening bayonets, and cleaning rusty swords. Tailors, sitting cross-legged on the deck, were cutting out and stitching uniforms. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These pages are not a mere reprint of those lectures, nor do they aspire to the dignity of a History of Armour. They are simply intended as a handbook for use in studying history and a short guide to the somewhat intricate technicalities of the Craft of the Armourer.
No work, even of the smallest dimensions, can be produced at the present day without laying its author under a deep sense of indebtedness to Baron de Cosson for his numerous notes on helms and helmets, and to Viscount Dillon for his minute and invaluable researches in every branch of this subject. ”

“ What in hell do we want of zouaves in French uniforms, cavalry, armed with Austrian lances, ridiculous rocket-batteries, Polish riders, Hungarian hussars, grenadiers, mounted rifles, militia and volunteers in every garb, carrying every arm ever created by foreign armourers and military tailors! ”

“ The different parts of the armet are the Ventail, A, and Vue, B, which together make the Visor; the Skull, C; and the Beavor, D (Plate V, 6) .
Having now arrived at some understanding of the construction [Pg 61] of the suit of armour we will pass on to the wearing of the suit. A man could not wear his ordinary clothes under his armour; the friction of the metal was too great. In spite of the excellence of workmanship of the armourer any thin substance was bound to be torn, so a strong fabric was chosen which is called in contemporary records Fustian. ”

“ On the 9th, we remained at anchor the whole day, employed in setting up the rigging, scraping the decks, manning and arranging the gun-boats, and exercising great guns. Artificers employed as yesterday. Armourers at the forge all day, fitting carronade locks to the long guns. After dark, we received a subaltern officer and ten men of the 39th regiment, and a Serjeant and ten men of the royal marine artillery, to complete the complement. ”

“ The headpiece, which in the golden age of the armourer was forged in as few pieces as possible, is in the late seventeenth century made of many pieces, as the art of skilful forging declines. The ingenious articulations of the soleret are changed, and the foot is cased in plates which, overlapping only in one direction, preclude the easy movement of the wearer. The fine lines of leg and arm defences, which in the fifteenth and sixteenth century follow the shape of the limbs, give place to straight tubular plates which can only be likened to the modern stove-pipe. ”

“ Let there be an armament composed of infantry, cavalry, and marines, and let a number of triremes cover the sea, and phalanxes of foot and horse cover most of the plains, and the ridges of the mountains, and let the metal of their armor reflect the sunshine, and the glitter of the helmets and shields be reflected by the beams which are emitted from them; let the clashing of spears and the neighing of horses be borne up to the very heavens, and let neither sea nor land appear, but only brass and iron in every direction. ”

“ Oft have I seen the stern kings meet in war, seen shield and helmet bruised, and the fields redden with blood, and the cuirass broken by the spear-point, and the corselets all around giving at the thrust of the steel, and the wild beasts battening on the unburied soldier. Here, as it chanced, one that attempted a mighty thing, a strong-handed warrior, fighting against the press of the foe, smote through the mail that covered my head, pierced my helmet, and plunged his blade into my crest. ”

“ The mail-clad knight and the heavily armed man-at-arms had played their part through many centuries, and were now to disappear; steel-clad squadrons in all the majestic might of the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, with levelled lance and mantling streaming in the wind, had lived their day and were now to be no more, Armour had served its purpose so long as sword and lance, javelin and bolt, were the usual weapons of war ”

“ Through the Fr. armes, from the Lat. arma, and so in English usually in the plural “arms,” comes the use of the word for weapons of offence and defence, and in many expressions such as “men-at-arms,” “assault-at-arms,” and the like, and for the various branches, artillery, cavalry, infantry, of which an army is composed, the “arms of the service.” “Arms” or “armorial bearings” are the heraldic devices displayed by knights in battle on the defensive armour or embroidered on the surcoat worn over the armour and hence called “coats of arms.” ”

“ The heads are protected by conical helmets with nasal pieces, fitting over hoods of mail. In Fig. 1 the warrior is armed with a sword, an axe, and a spear. The shield is of the kite shape. The hauberk is covered with ringed mail, and the sleeves reach to the wrist. In Fig. 2 the sleeves reach to the elbow only, and are covered with rings, but the body is covered with what is known as “trellised” armour, formed of strips of leather fastened on a body of quilted cloth and crossing each other diagonally, with knobs of steel fastened in the angular spaces as an additional protection. ”

“ A tall, stout serving-man, clad in a half suit of ribbed armour, wearing that kind of close helmet which was then called a coursing-hat, and carrying over his shoulder a mighty two-handed wall-sword, nearly as long as himself, followed close at his heels, running as if for his life. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While I looked, giants in brazen armour clambered swiftly up the hillside, swinging clubs which had spiked balls of brass held by a chain at the end.
They glittered in the sun as they ran up and past me.
Motion, light, shadow, colour were perfect as things seen passing before the physical eyes. ”

“ He was equipped in a wonderful solidity of armour, with a hard, carven helmet on his head, a splendid red-bossed shield swinging on his shoulder, a wide-grooved, straight sword clashing along his thigh. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Next came the men-at-arms, sheathed in their glittering hauberks and bright hose-of-mail, with conical steel helmets on their heads, long lances in their hands, and huge two-handed swords transversely girt across their persons. ”

“ 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. ”

“ PANOPLY, a complete suit of armour. The word represents the Gr. πᾶνὅπλία. (πᾶν, all, and ὅπλα, arms) , the full armour of a hoplite or heavy-armed soldier, i.e. the shield, breastplate, helmet and greaves, together with the sword and lance. ”

“ My curiosity was excited, and I wished to hear all I could about modern arms, from the poniard to the pike, from the cutlass to the carbine, from the hand-grenade to the Congreve rocket, from the six-pounder to the big brass cannon at Bejapoor in Hindoostan, and from the horse-pistol in the houlster of a dragoon to the monster mortar used at the siege of Antwerp. ”

“ Every man within the barriers being on guard every fourth night; thus the whole citizens had to perform military service in rotation, armed as infantry soldiers of the period, with helmet, corslet and steel gloves, arquebuse and dagger, or with sword, pole-axe, and partizan. ”

“ He weareth an helmet of brass upon his head, and he is armed with a coat of mail, and he hath greaves of brass upon his legs, and the staff of his spear is like the weaver's beam; and one bearing a shield goeth before him. Our soldiers are truly afraid. They flee as he approacheth. ”

“ Armour, proof against arrow, lance, and sword, and men and horses of colossal appearance, in whom the greatest amount of weight and physical power, consistent with a moderate share of activity, could be combined, were however held in the highest estimation; but eventually the great advantage of having a portion of Cavalry in which lightness, activity, and celerity of movement, might form the principal characteristics, was discovered. ”

“ An infantry charge reminds you of a moving wall that cannot be resisted; a charge of cavalry stirs the blood; but I have never known excitement to equal that of a battery of artillery going into action on a full run under fire. Over the top of the hill came these two guns, a cloud of dust almost hiding them, the horses straining every muscle, the men hanging to the horses or any part of the gun on which they could hold, those of the men that were mounted riding at full speed. When the top of the hill was reached there seemed to be no stop. ”

“ Every soldier who wears a scarlet coat, the livery of his Sovereign, every regiment that carries its colours, every saddle-cloth with a Royal emblem thereupon, is evidence that the use of armory in battle still exists in a small degree to the present day ”

“ The Fighting Troops consist mainly, as they have for centuries, of what are known as “The Three Arms of the Service”—Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry. Besides these, however, the introduction of warlike inventions and the increased complexity of modern war have brought into being a fourth Arm—Engineers—as well as varieties of fighting troops for special purposes, which are virtually new Arms, such as Mountain Artillery, Machine Guns, Cyclists, and Mounted Infantry. ”

“ I should like to enlist your forty-two sharpshooters as the nucleus of a company of mounted riflemen, to be armed as cavalry, except that the rifle shall take the place of the carbine, the men to serve mounted or dismounted, as occasion may require; not a very radical idea, for cavalry are not infrequently called upon to serve on foot, as we have an instance this very day. ”

“ They are full of the clatter and bluster of German militarists—the mailed fist, the shining armour. Poor old mailed fist—its knuckles are getting a little bruised. Poor shining armour—the shine is being knocked out of it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The question of employing armour as a protection against attack from above, or against dropping fire, is one which requires consideration on an entirely different basis from that of attack from below. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Therefore you see an infantry soldier has one weapon and one only—the rifle. You fellows will be out at the Front pretty soon. Now, if a man gets up the line, no matter how strong he is, how well drilled, if he can't use his rifle he might just as well not be there for all the good he is to his country. ”

“ Brought up from infancy to the knowledge and use of arms of some kind,—at first the bow and arrow, and later on the rifle,—he is perfectly at home with his weapons, and knowing from past experience how important they are for his preservation, takes much better care of them than does the white soldier out of garrison. ”