Sword belt

“ In the Regular Establishment the shoulder belt and plate for officers had been discarded in favor of the waist belt for carrying the sword, but Militia officers—bound by no regulations—continued to wear the shoulder belt. Enlisted personnel wore at least one shoulder belt, and in many cases used two belts, which crossed, one belt carrying the cartridge box and the other the bayonet and scabbard. ”

“ The reader will notice the round plates at the elbows and knees, which are the first visible introduction of plate armour—breastplates, worn under the hauberk, had been occasionally used from Saxon times. He will observe, too, the leather gauntlets which David wears, and the curious defences for the shoulders called ailettes: also that the shield is hung round the neck by its strap (guige) , and the sword-belt round the hips, while the surcoat is girded round the waist by a silken cord. The group is also valuable for giving us at a glance three different fashions of helmet. ”

“ BELT (a word common to Teutonic languages, the Old Ger. form being balz, from which the Lat. balteus probably derived) , a flat strap of leather or other material used as a girdle (q.v.) , especially the cinctura gladii or sword-belt, the chief “ornament of investiture” of an earl or knight; in machinery, a flexible strap passing round from one drum, pulley or wheel to another, for the purpose of power-transmission (q.v.) ”

“ In the historic age the swords are usually short, the blade about{475} twenty inches long, reed-shaped, and two-edged, adapted for thrusting and piercing; the handle, which is generally suited for parrying strokes, is rather small (compare the sword in Fig. 169, where the sheath and shoulder-belt are well represented) . The sheath was often of some costly material, and artistically decorated, ordinary kinds were made of leather; the shoulder-belt was usually a leather strap, with metal plates ”

“ First, there was a belt to go round each animal, and then a sword to be stuck into each belt, and then a cutlass on the other side to balance it. Then a pair of pistols, a policeman's truncheon, several sets of handcuffs, some bandages and sticking-plaster, and a flask and a sandwich-case. ”

“ Over the Tunic (or Doublet) by the Personal Staff of the Sovereign and Royal Family, and by officers of all arms except by Field Marshalls, General Officers, Colonels on the staff, Equerries to the Royal Family, Officers of Cavalry of the Line, Mounted Officers of Royal Artillery, and Rifle Regiments.
Over the blue frock coat and under patrol jackets and frocks.
The Web belt is worn by Officers of all branches of the Service who wear the sword belt under the tunic, patrol jacket or frock. Slings are made with studs and holes, so that they can be removed from the belt if required. ”

“ On the sinister side: a Man in complete Armour; his Sword-belt, Azure, fringed with Gold; his Helmet encircled with a Wreath of Laurel, and crested with one white & two blue Plumes: supporting with his dexter Hand the Escutcheon, and holding, in the exterior, a Lance with the point sanguinated; and upon it a Banner displayed, Vert,—in the Fess-point an Harp, or, stringed with Silver, between a Star in Chief, two Fleurs-de-lis in Fess, and a pair of Swords in Saltier, in Base, all Argent. ”

“ In the Armeria Reale (Turin) [920] there is a fine Roman chopper-blade with a peculiar handle, and a ram’s head for hilt. The handle was usually without guard-plate, and at most it had only a simple cross-bar or a small oval. [921]
The original vagina (sheath) was of leather or wood, ending in a fibula or half-moon-shaped ferule of metal. Some scabbards on the monuments, where the Sword, like the helmet and the pilum, is conventionally treated, show the scabbard with three opposing rings on either side; and, as the belt had only one or two, it is not easy to explain the use of the other five. ”

“ Above the waist the links of armor were a bit heavier extending over the shoulders and back into long sleeves clear to the wrist, and up past the neck to a kind of head covering like a cowl, over which he wore a pointed helmet of rough metal. Outside the armor he wore a very short leather vest caught with a belt from which hung a short sword, and across the shoulders just below the neck another belt with a buckle at the left where the halberd could be secured and balanced. ”

“ The waistbelt is rarely in sight, but the broad belt across the hips, on which the dagger comes to hang as a balance to the sword, grows richer and heavier, the best work of the goldsmith or silversmith being spent upon it. Arms and legs and feet become cased in plate of steel or studded leather, and before the mid-century the shoulder-plates, like the steel shoes, are of overlapping pieces and the elbow also moves easily under the same defence. ”

“ But though it is difficult to determine the fashion of any part of armour in any particular century, and life may afford nobler occupations than considering the precise year and month when the Normans gave up the clumsy expedient of inserting the sword through a hole in the hauberk, and adopted the more graceful and convenient form of a belt [116] , [Pg 99] yet viewing the subject of armour in some of its broad features, matter of no slight interest may be found. ”

“ Gibbon gives them also a 'weighty' sword, suspended from a 'broad' belt: but Gibbon's epithets are always gratis, and the belted sword, whatever its measure, was probably for the leaders only; the belt, itself of gold, the distinction of the Roman Counts, and doubtless adopted from them by the allied Frank leaders, afterwards taking the Pauline mythic meaning of the girdle of Truth— and so finally; the chief mark of Belted Knighthood.
35. The Shield, for all, was round, wielded like a Highlander's target:—armour, presumably, nothing but hard-tanned leather, or patiently close knitted hemp ”

“ This effigy also shews very clearly the [Pg 152] Belt with its buckle, by which the sword was fastened round the waist. Compare also the second plate of the Bayeux tapestry, where the form of this short belt is very distinctly exhibited. We have already noticed that the sword was sometimes worn with its handle projecting through a cleft in the hauberk, the scabbard being fixed beneath the hauberk. See cut 34, and Bayeux tapestry, Plate vi. As in our own day, swords attributed to ancient heroes had an especial value, and became the most cherished gifts of kings and nobles. ”

“ The sword-belt is frequently a heavy gold chain, such as our ancient knights wore over their armor. The colors, as in many respects the form, of the Hungarian uniform, depend entirely on the taste of the individual, and vary from the simple blue dress of the hussar, with white cotton lace, to87 the rich stuffs, covered with pearls and diamonds, of the Prince Esterházy. ”

“ Around these boots was laced more red tape, until it would have been a difficult matter to have formed any idea as to what they might have been intended for originally. He had a broad leather belt, and outside of it was a red sash, with ends that nearly touched the floor. As weapons he wore a sword in a scabbard, a carving-knife, a portion of a pistol, and a table-fork. ”

“ General and staff officers were to wear black sword belts with "yellow plates"; artillery officers were to wear white waist belts with a yellow oval plate 1-1/2 inches wide and with an eagle in the center; infantry officers were to wear a similar plate that was white instead of yellow. Cockade eagles for chapeau de bras were to be gold and measure 1-1/2 inches between wing tips. Since enlisted men were no longer authorized to wear swords, they had no waist belts.
CAP AND PLATE, THIRD ARTILLERY, 1821 USNM 66603-M. Figure 31. ”

“ The blade, for example, became enormously lengthened, broadened, and flattened, and the spike occasionally became lance-shaped, or falcon-beaked, like a military pick, while the head of the shaft developed into a spike or a short, double-edged sword-blade. In the fifteenth century it became the favourite weapon for encounters on foot, when the pole was furnished with one or two guards for the hands, and was strengthened with iron splints ”

“ Dr. Evans [1000] considers the weapon ‘a kind of halberd or battle-axe;’ others, a commander’s staff or bâton of honour; but the article is too widely used to be so explained. A fine specimen of the Schwertstab with handle and blade of bronze, was found at Årup in Scania, and an analogous form is shown in a Chinese blade.
History, even written by their enemies, shows that the Ancient Germans were an eminently military and martial people. The bridal present consisted of a caparisoned horse, a shield, a spear, and a Sword. ”

“ This revival of the proto-historic celt and headman’s instrument is a plain, heavy wedge of steel, fixed on a light, tough wooden helve or heft, thus concentrating all the force in the head that strikes the blow. Here there is no uncertainty about the use; and, were it not necessary in swordsmanship to ‘recover guard’ and to save self as well as disable the assailant, it would be the best, as it is one of the oldest, weapons derived from the club. But the cutting Sword, which in the short curved form is its congener, has a long blade that allows a choice of cut—a good choice and a bad choice. ”

“ 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.) ”

“ The cut of a surcoat, the hilt of a sword, the lines of a breastplate, will tell us, with some degree of accuracy, when a man lived and to what nation he belonged; and, at the same time, in the later years, we shall find that the suit of plate not only proclaims the individuality of the wearer, but also bears the signature and individuality of the maker; a combination of interests which few works of handicraft can offer us.
From the eleventh to the end of the fourteenth century we have but a few scattered examples of actual defensive armour and arms ”

“ The robust iron-worker advanced upon his adversary, describing with his weapon a figure-of-eight so lusty, so rapid, and to which the vigor of his wrist lent such force that, encountering the sword at the moment when the ex-colonel was about to lunge, the iron bar broke down the latter's guard, and descended heavily upon his skull. ”

“ Action grew faster and faster, and swords lighter and more manageable, until by the seventeenth century the customary weapon was the court sword, with a short, single-handed hilt, a small flat guard often magnificently decorated in chiselled steel, and a relatively short, light blade having a needle-like point, and often without any sharp cutting edge at all (Fig. 30) .
Fig. 31. A rondel dagger with a silver handle.
Fig. 32. An outfit for a hunter: dagger, knife, awl, and larding needle, all fitting into one scabbard. ”

“ In passing Tierce, as in a Lunge, the Wrist must draw the Shoulder and Body forward, bringing, as in a Pass in Quarte, the Left-foot about two Feet and an Half before the Right, then advancing the Right foremost and out of the Reach of the Enemy's; you must seize the Guard of his Sword, and again advancing the Left-foot near the Right, you draw back the Right and present the Point. ”

“ The handle of a sword provides a grip for the hand that wields it, or sometimes for two hands; it may add protection, and in most patterns does so to a greater or less extent. Still it is altogether subordinate to the blade. For want of a metal-headed lance or axe, which indeed were of later invention, a sharpened pole or a thin-edged paddle will serve the turn. But a sword-handle without a blade is naught; and no true sword-blade can be made save of metal capable of taking an edge or point. ”

“ 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. ”

“ NCE upon a time there was a steel sword, whose blade was forged and tempered in a most excellent manner. The handle was of precious wood, with beautiful inlaid work of mother-of-pearl and gold. From his very birth the Sword was in the service of a gallant knight; and a sturdy, faithful sword he was. He fought for the sake of truth and of every fair lady, and against all oppressors of the weak. All who, even by word or glance, injured a lady dreaded the steel weapon: there was no man, no arms in the world, whom the steel [126] warrior feared. ”

“ Loose armour was troublesome and distressing, making the soldier feel soft, and awkward, and unready, giving him a sense of going to pieces. The belt bound the loose pieces together, creating a healthy sense of firmness, compactness, and making the soldier feel that he had everything well in hand, and enabling him to meet the enemy's attack with united strength and confidence. ”