Part 11

1591-5. _Instructions, Observations and Orders Militarie, p. 185_, Sir John Smith.

... halbadiers ... armed with burganets and with short skirted Ierkins of buffe with a double buffe on their breasts and the sleeves of their doublets with stripes of maile or serecloth aforesaide.

Here we find a return to the primitive defence of the eleventh century, due to the increased weight of armour which was necessary against the improved firearms which were by this time a serious factor in war. The serecloth recommended was probably a stout waxed or oiled canvas. In recommending sleeves of mail, which are shown on Plate XVIII, Sir John Smith considers that they are more convenient for the handling of the halberdier’s weapon than the more rigid brassards worn by the cavalry. These strips of chain are shown on one of the figures painted by Memling for the “Chasse of S. Ursula” at Bruges, 1486, which is given on Fig. 24 of this work. They have been re-introduced as shoulder-straps for heavy cavalry at the present day.

FOOTNOTES:

[113] The Pembridge effigy in Hereford Cathedral has thigh-pieces which apparently represent leather laced on the inside.

[114] _Memoirs_, Vol. I, ch. 33.

[115] _Arms and Armour at Oxford_, C. ffoulkes.

[116] _Arms and Armour at Oxford_, C. ffoulkes.

[117] Johnes’ trans., I, 739.

[118] Kündig, Geneva, 1910.

[119] Cannon, _Historical Records of the Life Guards_, p. 74.

THE WEARING OF ARMOUR

Though perhaps the wearing and putting on of armour was not directly part of the craft of the armourer, it was certainly a part of his duties to be present during the process and be ready to carry out any small alterations which might be needed on the spot.

As has been noticed in a preceding chapter, as late as 1625 we find this insisted upon by de Pluvinel (see page 115). Shakespeare describes the armourers as busy “accomplishing the knights” before Agincourt (page 33), and the fact that the travelling knight took his armourer with him shows that he was indispensable during the operation of dressing for war or joust.

Armour of the best kind was made to measure, and for ordinary purposes a mould or “dobble” was kept on which to make the ordinary harness for the man-at-arms (page 28). The following extracts show the methods employed for sending measurements, which were often obtained by submitting the clothes of the patron to the armourer:--

1406. In the will of Sir Ralph Bulmer, “armatura mea corpori talliata.”[120]

1470. _Archives de Bruxelles._[121]

Baltazar du Cornet, armourer at Bruges, delivers for the Duke of Burgundy “2 cuiraches complettes faites a la mesure de Monseigneur.”

Lazarus de St. Augustin delivers “un harnais complet fait naguere a la mesure de Monseigneur et pour son corps.”

1512. A jacket and hose of Prince Charles (afterwards Charles V) are sent to Conrad Seusenhofer.[122]

1520. _Brit. Mus., Calig. D, VIII_, 181.

16 March. Francis I asks for an “arming doublet” of Henry VIII that he may have made a new kind of cuirass which he will send him as a present.

1564. _S.P.D. Elizabeth, Jan. 30._

Warrant to the Master of the Armoury. To cause to be made one armour complete fit for the body of our well beloved servant Christopher Hatton, one of our Gentlemen Pensioners, he paying according to the just value thereof.

1667. _Verney Memoirs, IV_, 301. Rich. Hals to Edmond Verney.

The armour fits well enough only the man did cut away to much just under the arme pit both of back and breast, but for the head piece it is something heavy, yet I think it well enough if it did not come downe so low upon my forhead as to cover all my eyes and offend my nose when I put my head backwards to look upwards.

In the preceding chapter some notice was taken of the part which the linen armourer played in the equipment of the armed man, and it was to him that the clothing which was worn under the armour was entrusted. Under the heading of the “Cleaning of Armour” mention has been made of Chaucer’s knight whose “gipoun” was “besmoturyd with his haubergeon,” but this garment was an outer garment or surcoat. In the age of plate armour a complete dress was worn for legs, arms, body, and head to prevent the chafing of the armour, which in spite of its own lining of silk, velvet, cloth, leather, or other fabric would cause grave inconvenience, if not danger to the wearer. Besides this reason there was also a question of warmth, which was of importance, for in long marches and expeditions there was no warmth in a suit of plate, in fact there was an added cold which had to be counteracted by warm garments worn underneath.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries we have not much in the way of documentary evidence which will help us as to the clothes worn under the armour. The Bayeux Tapestry shows us the wounded and dead being stripped of their hauberks, under which nothing was apparently worn (Fig. 51). It should be remembered, however, that these hauberks were probably of quilted fabric, which therefore did not gall the body of the wearer. The drawing from a fourteenth-century manuscript on Fig. 52 gives some hint at the arming-doublet, which will be noted farther on in this chapter, and shows also the laces or points that held up the hose. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, however, we find on the incised brasses, which are such valuable records of the military equipment of the period, very distinct garments represented. On the brass to Sir John de Creke at Westley Waterless, Cambs, 1325, we see the “cyclas” or outer surcoat, the “upper pourpoint,” of fabric, studded with metal, “the hauberk,” and under all the “haketon” or “gambeson” (Fig. 53). According to William de Guilleville, in the _Pèlerinage de l’Ame_, written in the fourteenth century, the “pourpoint” was so called because of its quiltings:--

De pontures de gambison Pourquoi pourpoint l’appelle-t-on.

The gambeson continued in use up to the seventeenth century under the name of “arming-doublet,” with but little change except in shape and form, as the style of armour required. Of the undergarments of the early fifteenth century we have little or nothing to guide us, and we are often at a loss to know even what armour was worn under the tight-fitting, small-waisted jupon or surcoat which distinguishes the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century. We have, however, a valuable record under this head in the monument at Ash, which shows “splinted armour” of lames worn instead of a cuirass.

The illustration on Plate IV is from a wood-carving in the church of S. William, Strasburg. It represents the travelling armourer riveting what appear to be bands of iron on arms and legs. Whether these are some contrivance used in arming in the fifteenth century, or whether they are some instrument of torture used upon the saint, Duke William of Acquitaine, it is impossible to discover, as no other instances of the kind can be found.

For full details of the equipment of the latter half of the fifteenth century we cannot do better than refer to the Hastings MS. of the fifteenth century, which has been discussed by the late Albert Way,[123] and more fully by Viscount Dillon.[124] Under the heading of “The Abilment for the Justes of Pees” we find much that is of value in this respect. On page 122_b_ of the manuscript we find the following minute directions for dressing a man for the joust, which should be compared with those given in Appendix C, page 173.

How a man schall be armyd at his ese when he schal fighte on foote:

He schal have noo schirte up on him but a dowbelet of ffustean lyned with satene cutte full of hoolis. the dowbelet must be strongeli boude there the pointis muste be sette aboute the greet [bend] of the arm. and the b ste [_sic_] before and behynde and the gussetis of mayle muste be sowid un to the dowbelet in the bought of the arme. and undir the arme the armynge poyntis muste ba made of fyne twyne suche as men make stryngys for crossebowes and they muste be trussid small and poyntid as poyntis. Also they muste be wexid with cordeweneris coode. and than they will neyther recche nor breke Also a payr hosyn of stamyn sengill and a payre of shorte bulwerkis of thynne blanket to put aboute his kneys for chawfynge of his lighernes Also a payre of shone of thikke Cordwene and they muste be frette with smal whipcorde thre knottis up on a corde and thre cordis muste be faste swoid on to the hele of the shoo and fyne cordis in the mydill of the soole of the same shoo and that ther be betwene the frettis of the hele and the frettis of the mydill of the shoo the space of three fvngris.

To arme a man

ffirste ye muste sette on Sabatones and tye them up on the shoo with smale poyntes that wol breke And then griffus [greaves] & then quisses & [=he] the breeche of mayle And [=the] tonletis And the brest And [=he] vambras And [=he] rerebras And then glovys And then hange his daggere upon his right side And then his shorte swered upon the lyfte side in a rounde rynge all nakid to pull it oute lightlie. And then putte his cote upon his back And then his basinet pynid up on two greet staplis before the breste with a dowbill bokill behynde up on the bak for to make the bassinet sitte juste. And then his long swerde in his hande. And then his pensil in his hande peyntid of seynt George or of oure lady to blesse him with as he goeth towards the felde and in the felde.

From the above extract it will be seen that the undergarments consisted of a thick doublet lined with silk, but with no shirt underneath; the reason for this being one that we at the present day can well appreciate, for when the body is hot from exertion and exercise a shirt is apt to “ruck up,” and it would be impossible to readjust it when fully armed. In the _Paston Letters_ we have the following request from Edward IV:--

Item I praye you to send me a newe vestmente off whyght damaske ffor a Dekyn, whyche is among myn other geer, I will make an armyng Doublet off it.

The gussets and, in the sixteenth century, the sleeves of mail protected the bend of the arm and armpit, and sometimes the bend of the knee, which were not adequately covered with plate. The two portraits of unknown noblemen by Moroni (National Gallery) show these details of the equipment very clearly (Plate XVIII). The arming-points or “tresses” were used in civilian as well as in military attire and joined the hose to the doublet, laced sleeves, and held coats together, much as laces are used in ladies’ dresses at the present day (Figs. 54-57). They are also shown tying up the hose on Fig. 52 and the brayette on Plate VIII.

Lord Dillon explains the hose of “stamyn sengill” as being a worsted cloth made in Norfolk. The “bulwerkis” were pads of blanketing fastened over the hose at the knees to prevent the chafing of the knee-cop, and the shoes were of Cordova leather fastened with laces. A complete underdress of this kind, with quilted doublet and hose with gussets of mail at the knees, is to be found in the Museum at Munich. The arming of a man began at the feet, and as far as was possible each piece put on overlapped that beneath it, to ensure that glancing surface upon the utility of which such stress has been laid in the first chapter of this book.

The arming of a man, therefore, was carried out in the following order and his equipment put on in the following order: Sollerets or sabatons, jambs, knee-cops, cuisses, skirt of mail, gorget, breast and back plates, brassards with elbow-cops, pauldrons, gauntlets, sword-belt, and helmet (Fig. 58).

The “tonlet” would appear to be a bell-shaped skirt of plate or deep taces such as is shown on Plate XXI, and is another example of the use of the “glancing surface,” especially in combats with axe and sword at barriers, for in these jousts the legs were often unarmed and were not attacked. The rerebrace, elbow-cop, and vambrace are usually joined by rivets in which there is a certain amount of play. Where this was not the case, each piece was separately strapped to the arm, as may be seen in the brasses of Sir John de Creke, 1325 (Fig. 53), and of Sir Hugh Hastings, 1347. When the three pieces, called collectively the Brassard, were joined together, they were kept in place on the arm by arming-points fastened to the “haustement” or doublet just below the shoulder. The operation of tying on the brassard is shown on the portrait now labelled the “Duc de Nevers” at Hampton Court (Fig. 55). In the list of the equipment taken by the Earl of Northumberland to France in 1513[125] we find mention of arming-pateletts of white satin quilted, for wearing under the armour, trussing-bolsters to wear round the waist to keep the weight of the cuirass from the shoulders, arming-hose, arming-doublets, arming-shoes, garters to wear under the armour, and coffers in which to keep the armour.

There is no mention of the pauldron in the Hastings MS., but when this was worn it was strapped to the neck-opening of the cuirass or hung from spring-pins which project from the shoulder-plate of the cuirass.

The staples mentioned in the Hastings MS. are often very elaborate contrivances, especially in jousting-armour, and the foremost fastening was called the “charnel.” Fig. 59 shows the methods of attaching jousting-helms to the cuirass. No. 1 shows the adjustable plate which fixes the front of the helm of the suit of Philip II (Madrid, A, 16). A similar contrivance was used with the “Brocas” helm (Fig. 12). No. 2 is the front of a helm (Mus. d’Art, Paris, G, 163) in which the lower plate is bolted to the breast and can be released from the helm by withdrawing the hinge-pin. No. 3 shows the back of the same helm. Fig. 60 is a larger sketch of the fixing-hook of this helm. A is the back-plate of the helm, E the pillar hinged at D and hooked into a lug on the back of the cuirass. B is a solid block of steel of circular section pierced with holes and connected to a screw in E. B can be turned by inserting a pin in the holes and the screw tightened or loosened. Minute details as to the fastenings of the helm will be found in Appendix D, page 178.

It can therefore be easily imagined that the work of arming a man was a serious business, and it was necessary that the armourer or an expert assistant should be present in case some portion of the suit or its fastenings gave way.

Details of the different parts that went to make up the complete suit, with the thickness of each plate, the laces or points, and various fastenings and methods of attachment, will be found in the fifteenth-century Treatise on Military Costume of which a portion is given in Appendix D.

The Marquis de Belleval published an interesting monograph on this manuscript in 1866, which is now scarce and difficult to obtain.

In the illustration on Plate XVII the squires are shown arming their masters from horseback, which appears to involve some gymnastic exercises.

That such agility of the armed man was by no means an artistic licence we may gather from the fact that Froissart[126] mentions Sir John Assueton leaping fully armed behind his page on to his war-horse. Again, Shakespeare makes Henry V (Act V, Sc. 2) say, “If I could win a lady at leapfrog or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back,” and Oliver de la Marche states that Galliot de Balthasin in 1446 leaped fully armed out of the saddle as though he had on a pourpoint only. That this was no mere figure of speech we may judge from a little book entitled _The Vaulting Master_, written by W. Stokes, an Oxford riding-master, in 1641.

In the preface he writes: “In war the nimble avoydance of a man’s horse if wounded or killed under him, and in like manner the ready ascent into his enemies saddle if it be his hap to unhorse him, and much more which the experienced souldier shall find.”

There is an engraving on Plate I of the work showing a cuirassier in half-armour about to vault into the saddle without stirrups. Stokes occasionally breaks out into verse as follows:--

Here’s that will make a stubborne armour weare Gentle as Persian silks and light as air,

which refers to the ease of mounting which his prescribed exercises ensured.

On the subject of the wearing of armour we have much valuable information from the works of the great military reformer of the sixteenth century, Sir John Smith, who, as has been stated previously, suffered imprisonment for his opinions. In his _Instructions and Observations and Orders Militarie_, 1591-5, he writes:--

Page 183. “No man can be conveniently armed unlesse he be first fitly apparelled.” He states that at Tilbury he saw “but very few of that army that had any convenience of apparel and chieflie of doublets to arme upon, whereof it came to passe that the most of them did weare their armors verie uncomelie and uneasilie.... But because the collars of their armours doe beare the chief waight of all the rest of the armour, I would wish that the souldiers ... should have under Collars of Fustian convenientlie bombasted to defende the heveth weight, and poise of their armours from the paining or hurting of their shouldiers.”

On page 193 he writes: “Also I would have them to have pouldrons of a good compasse and size, and vambraces both joined together, and not asunder, because that the poise of the pouldrons and vambraces, hanging upon the pinnes and springes of their collars, they doe not weigh so much, nor are not so wearisome as when they are separated; and that they weare their vambraces tied with points to their doublets under their pouldrons.” Here the author, who was pre-eminently a practical soldier, saw the discomfort and inconvenience caused by the drag of the arming-point on the sleeve and wisely considered that the whole arm-defence should hang from a pin or strap from the gorget or cuirass, so that the weight might be on the shoulders and not on the arms.

The armour for the joust in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was far too heavy to allow of such vagaries. Pluvinel in his _Maneige Royale_, 1625, gives an imaginary conversation between himself and the King which bears upon the subject:--

The King.

It seems to me that such a man would have difficulty in getting on his horse and being on to help himself.

Pluvinel.

It would be very difficult, but with this armament the case has been provided for. In this way, at triumphs and tourneys where lances are broken, there must be at the two ends of the lists a small scaffold the height of the stirrup, on which two or three persons can stand; that is to say, the rider, an armourer to arm him, and one other to help him, as it is necessary in these dangerous encounters that an armourer should always be at hand and that all should be ready. Then the rider being armed, and the horse brought near to the stand, he easily mounts him ... for this reason the horses must be steady.

A little pen-drawing of the sixteenth century in a manuscript dealing with jousts (Heralds’ Coll., M, 6, 56) shows the armourer on one of these scaffolds at the end of the lists (Fig. 61).

In the chapter on the Proving of Armour the question of disuse on account of weight was considered. From the sixteenth century and even earlier we have records of the discarding of armour because it hampered the wearer or for some equally cogent reason. The following extracts bear upon the subject:--

1383. _Chroniques de Dugesclin_, line 5973 (edit. 1839).

Leurs cuissieres osterent tres tous communement Par coi aler peussent trop plus legierement.