Part 9

The barrel was here used in the same way. The mail was placed inside with sand and vinegar and rolled and shaken. The same method is still practised in some districts for cleaning barrels for cider or ale. Chains are placed in the barrel with sand to obtain the same result. On Plate XV a barrel is shown on the extreme left of the picture with a mail shirt hanging over the edge.

1364. _Inventory of the donjon of Vostieza._[95]

i barellum ad forbiendum malliam.

1369. _Prologue, Canterbury Tales_, Chaucer.

Of fustyan he wered a gipoun Alle sysmoterud with his haburgeoun.

This extract shows clearly the need for the barrel and sand. The mail had evidently rusted with rain and perspiration, and left stains and marks on the quilted undergarment. We find the term “rokked” used in the poem of _Syr Gawayn_, which means cleaned by rolling.

1372. Froissart _uses the expression_

a rouler leurs cottes de fer.

1417. _Inventory of Winchester College._

i barelle pro loricis purgandis.

1423. _Roll of Executors of Henry Bowet, Archbishop of York, Oct. 20._

j barrelle cum suis pertinentiis ad purgandos loricas et alia arma de mayle.

1467. _Howard Household Book._ (_Dom. Expenses in England_, 416).

9d. to an armerer at Pawles Cheyne for an harneys barelle.

1513. _Earl of Northumberland’s Equipage_ (see also page 30).

a paommyshe.

Eight yards of white blaunkett for trussing of my Lord’s harnes in.

The pumice was for cleaning off the rust, and the blanket was used for packing the armour when in store or on a journey.

1515. _King’s Book of Payments, Record Office, under various payments to armourers._

Oct. 11. Payment to Adrian Brand for hire of his mill house for cleaning the king’s harness, 26s. 8d. the month.

1517. April. Wm. Gurre, armourer, making clean of certain harness, bockeling & ledering of 400 Almain rivets for the Armoury at Eltham £24 7 8.

The “bockeling & ledering” of course refers to the fitting of new leather straps and buckles. The Almain rivet was the half-suit of the foot-soldier and has been explained on page 52.

1520. April. William Gurre for scouring 1000 pr. of Almain rivets at 12d. a pair.

1530. Hans Clerc armorer for furbishing and keeping clean the king’s armour in the armoury in the Tilt yard at Greenwich which John Diconson late had at 6d. a day.

Thos. Wollwarde for keeping & making the king’s harnes att Windsor & York Place 30s. 5d.

1567. _S.P.D. Eliz., Addenda xiii_, 101.

Payments are made in this entry to paint black various corselets which had become “fowle and rustie” and had “taken salt water in the sea” at a charge of 5d. each.

Froissart describes the champion Dimeth, at the coronation of Henry IV, as being “tout couvert de mailles de vermeil, chevalier et cheval.”[96] This painting of armour was frequently indulged in both for the above practical reason and also for personal adornment. Tinning was also used for protecting armour from wet (_vide_ page 33 _sub ann._ 1622). Armour in the Dresden Armoury and elsewhere is painted black. Hall in his Chronicles in the account of the funeral of Henry V states that men-at-arms in black armour rode in the procession. The armour in the seventeenth century was often blacked or russeted. Suits of this kind are to be seen in the Gun Wharf Museum at Portsmouth and elsewhere. Haselrigg’s “lobsters” were so called, according to Clarendon,[97] because of their “bright shells.” It is quite possible that their armour was blacked. In the Lansdowne MS. 73, William Poore suggested a remedy for “preserving armour from pewtrifying, kankering or rusting,” but there are no details given of the method he employed; it was probably some kind of lacquer or varnish. Among the Archives of the Compte du tresor de Savoie (63 f. 157) is mentioned a payment to Jehan de Saisseau “por vernicier une cotte d’aciel,” and in one of the Tower inventories (Harl. MS. 1419) of the year 1547 “a buckler of steel painted” occurs.[98]

1567. _S.P.D. Eliz., Add. xiii_, 104.

Sundry payments for cleaning and repairing armour at the Tower, Hampton Court, and Greenwich at 10d. the day.

1580. _S.P.D. Eliz., cxli_, 42.

A document written on the death of Sir George Howard ordering the cleaning and putting in order of the arms and armour at the Tower.

1628. _S.P.D. Car. I, xciii_, 61.

Capt. John Heydon to Wm. Boswell, Clerk to the Council, for the new russeting of a corslet, 5sh.

1603. _Inventory of the Armoury at Hengrave._

Item one barrel to make clean the shirt of maile & gorgets.

1671. _Patent_ applied for by Wolfen Miller (John Caspar Wolfen, and John Miller), for twenty-one years, “for a certain oyle to keep armour and armes from rust and kanker” for £10 per annum.

1647 (_circ._). _Laws and Ordinances of Warr, Bod. Lib., Goodwin Pamphlets, cxvii_, 14.[99]

Of a Souldiers duty touching his Arms.

II. Slovenly Armour.--None shall presume to appeare with their Armes unfixt or indecently kept upon pain of Arbitrary correction.

With regard to the keeping of armour in store two instances have been mentioned above under the dates 1296 and 1513. In addition to these we find that in 1470 in the _Chronique de Troyes_, the French soldiers were forbidden to carry their arms and armour in “paniers,” which, from the statement, was evidently a practice.

In the Wardrobe Account of Edward I, 1281, published by the Society of Antiquaries, we find payments to Robinet, the King’s tailor, for coffers, sacks, boxes, and cases to contain the different parts of the armour.

In the Wardrobe Expenses of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (Camden Soc.), 1393, are found the following entries:--

fol. 32. pro j cofre ... ad imponendum scuta domini. xvij scot. fol. 33. pro j house[100] pro scuto domini ix scot. xij d. fol. 40. pro i breastplate domini purgando ibidem iij li. vij s.

The “buckler of steel painted” mentioned above is scheduled as being in “a case of leather.” In an engraving of Charles I by W. Hole, in the British Museum, a box is shown for holding the breast and back plates.[101]

FOOTNOTES:

[93] Charles ffoulkes, “Italian Armour at Chalcis,” _Archæologia_, LXII.

[94] Protect.

[95] _Arch. Journ._, LX, 106.

[96] Vol. IV, c. 114. This detail is not given either in Johnes’ or Lord Berners’ translation.

[97] _Rebellion_, VII, 104.

[98] _Archæologia_, LI.

[99] _Cromwell’s Army_, Firth, 413.

[100] Cover.

[101] _Arch. Journ_., LX.

THE USE OF FABRICS AND LINEN

An important variety of defensive armour, which has not hitherto received the notice which it deserves, is the padded and quilted armour of linen, which was always popular with the foot-soldier on account of its cheapness, and was in the thirteenth century held in high esteem by the wealthier knight. In the case of crushing blows it would of course protect the body from breaking of the skin, but would not be of such use as the more rigid defence of plate. It was, however, very effectual against cutting blows, and had the advantage of being more easily put on and off, and, although hot, was less oppressive than metal in long marches. In miniatures of the fourteenth century we frequently find parts of the armour coloured in such a way as to suggest that it is either not metal or else metal covered with fabric. Where there was no metal and where the wearer depended entirely on the fabric for protection it was heavily quilted and padded, or else several thicknesses of the material were used (Fig. 40). Where metal was used the defence was the ordinary plate armour covered with fabric, or the metal was inserted in small plates as is the case in the brigandine.

It is not the intention of the present section to deal with the various details of defensive armour except only as far as those details bear directly on the employment of fabrics, therefore the construction of the brigandine, which is well known to all students of the subject of armour and weapons, will be found under the heading of the Craft of the Armourer on page 49. The same may be said of the horn and metal jacks which were a humbler form of the brigandine. The most concise descriptions of such armour will be found in the Catalogue of Helmets and Mail by de Cosson and Burgess (_Arch. Journ._, XXXVII). Guiart in his Chronicles, written in the early part of the fourteenth century, speaks of “cotes faitices de coton a pointz entailliez.” These were probably common doublets, quilted or laced like the jack.

Few of these defences of fabric have survived, owing to the ravages of moth and damp.

In the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, are a pair of culottes or drawers lined with thin busks of steel, and also two sets of rose-pink silk doublets, breast, back, and fald padded with cotton, both presumably of the late sixteenth century; they are noticed in _Arms and Armour at Oxford_, by the present writer, but no definite history is known of either of the specimens. Doublets and “coats of fence” of this nature occur frequently in inventories and other documents, but the following extracts give certain definite details which bear directly on the subject.

1150-1200 (?). _Speculum Regale, Kongs-Skugg-Sio_, edit. 1768, pp. 405-6 (actual date unknown).

For the rider the following accoutrements are necessary: coverings for the legs, made of well-blacked soft linen sewed, which should extend to the kneeband of his chaucons or breeches; over these steel shin-pieces so high as to be fastened with a double band. The horseman to put on linen drawers, such as I have pointed out.

(Of the horse) let his head, bridle, and neck, quite to the saddle, be rolled up in linen armour, that no one may fraudulently seize the bridle or the horse.

There is a doubt as to the actual date of this manuscript. In the edition from which the above translation is taken it is described as of Icelandic origin about the year 1150, but it may be possibly as late as the beginning of the thirteenth century. The details of the dress worn under the armour may be compared on the one hand with the leggings shown on the Bayeux tapestry and on the other hand with those mentioned in the Hastings MS. of the fifteenth century (_Archæologia_, LVII), which gives the details of undergarments worn by the armed man at this date (page 107). The horse-armour is the “couverture” or trapper so frequently mentioned in inventories, which was often decorated with fine embroidery. Even altar-hangings were used for this purpose, as was the case in the sack of Rome in 1527. Padded horse-armour was used in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries for tournaments, minute regulations for which are found in the _Traité d’un Tournoi_ by King René of Anjou, which will be referred to farther on in this chapter.

1286. _Comptus Ballivorum Franciæ._[102]

Expense pro cendatis, bourra ad gambesones, tapetis.

This item is evidently for stuffing gambesons with cendal[103] and tow. Cendal is somewhat of a mystery as to its exact nature. Like all fabrics of past ages, we can but guess at its nature. It has been discussed under its name in Gay’s _Glossaire Archæologic._

1296. _Ordonnances des Métiers de Paris_, p. 371.

Que nus (armuriers) ne puisse fère cote ne gamboison de tèle dont l’envers et l’endroit ne soit de tèle noeve, et dedenz de coton et de plois de toiles, et einsi que est qu’il soient dedenz d’escroes.

It. Si l’en fait cote ne gamboison dont l’endroit soit de cendal et l’envers soit de tèle, si veulent il que ele soit noeve et se il i a ploit dedenz de tèle ne de cendal, que le plus cort ploit soit de demie aune et de demi quartier de lonc au meins devant, et autant derrières, et les autres plois lons ensuians. Et si il i a borre de soie qui le lit de la bourre soit de demi aune et demy quaritier au meins devant et autant derrières et se il i a coton, que le coton vienge tout contreval jusques au piez.

The first of these regulations concerns the materials used, and is very similar to that of the Armourers’ Company of London made in 1322, which is given in full in Appendix A. So much of the work of the padding and lining was hidden from sight that these regulations were most necessary to prevent the use of old rags and bad materials. The second entry seems to refer to the manner in which canvas and cendal were to be used and in what proportions. It should be noticed that at this period the surcoat, in England at any rate, was being gradually shortened. The regulation above quoted, however, suggests in the last sentence that in France it was still worn long.

1311. _From the same source as the above._

Que nules d’ores en avant ne puisse faire cote gamboisée où il n’ait 3 livres de coton tout neit, se elles ne sont faites en sicines et au dessous soient faites entre mains que il y ait un pli de viel linge emprès l’endroit de demi aune et demi quartier devant et autant derrière.

Here the quantity of cotton is given and it is ordered to be new. It seems to have been allowed to put old linen, but this may possibly only mean seasoned linen, between the folds.

1322. _Chamber of Accounts, Paris._

Item Adae armentario 40 sol 4 d. pro factoris gambesonorum.

The name “Ada” of the armentarius rather suggests that it might be a female who provided these gambesons.

1383. _Chronique de Bertrand du Guesclin_ (_T. II, p. 95_, 235.)

Ainsois l’ala d’une lance tranchant L’escu li a rompu et le bon jaserant Mais l’auqueton fu fort qui fu de bougeran

* * * * *

Et prendre auquetons de soie ou de bougerans.

From the context of the first extract this haketon of buckram would appear to be a very serviceable defence, for the lance which had penetrated the shield and the jaserant, or coat of plate, had not penetrated the undergarment of buckram. Like all other fabrics mentioned in medieval writings, we cannot definitely say of what material this buckram was composed, but from the second extract it seems to have been used equally with silk for the haketon.

1450. _Ordinance of Louis XI of France, Chambres des Compts, Paris._[104]

... l’abillement de jacques leur soit bien proufitable et avantageux pour faire la guerre, veu qui sont gens de pié, et que en ayant les brigandines il leur faut porter beaucoup de choses que en homme seul et à pied ne peut faire. Et premièrement leur faut des dits jacques trente toilles, ou de vingt-cinq, à un cuir de cerf a tout le moins: et si sont de trente-un cuirs de cerf ils sont des bons. Les toiles usées et déliées moyennement sont les meilleures; et doivent estre les jacques a quartre quartiers, et faut que manches soient fortes comme le corps, réservé le cuir. Et doit estre l’assiette pregne pres du collet, non pas sur l’os de l’épaule, qui soit large dessoulz l’assielle et plantureux dessoulz les bras, assez faulce et large sur les costez bas, le collet fort comme le demourant des jacques; et que le collet ne soit bas trop hault derrière pour l’amour de salade. Il faut que ledit jacque soit lasse devant et qu’il ait dessoulz une porte pièce de la force dudit jacque. Ainsi sera seur ledit jacques et aise moienant qu’il ait un pourpoint sans manches ne collet, de deux toiles seulement, qui naura que quatre doys de large seur lespaulle; auquel pourpoint il attachera ses chausses. Ainsi flottera dedens son jacques et sera à son aise. Car il ne vit oncques tuer de coups-de-main, ne de flêches dedens lesdits jacques ses hommes.

These very minute regulations show that the “jack” was considered a most serviceable defence in the fifteenth century. At the same time it must have been a hot and uncomfortable garment, for twenty-nine or thirty thicknesses of linen with a deerskin on the top, or worse still thirty-one thicknesses of deerskin, would make a thick, unventilated defence which would be almost as insupportable as plate armour. The last item may be a clerical error, and indeed from the context it would appear to be thirty thicknesses of linen with one of deerskin, for the leather would be far more costly to work up than the linen. The extract has been given in full because it is so rare to come across practical details of construction of this nature.

1470. _Harl. MS. 4780. Inventory of Edward IV._

Item a doublet of crimson velvet lined with Hollande cloth and interlined with busk.

This may be only an ordinary doublet, or it may be some kind of “coat of fence” or “privy coat” lined with plates of steel, horn, or whale-bone. These “busks” of steel are found as late as the seventeenth century, for Gustavus Adolphus had a coat lined with them (Lifrustkammer, Stockholm) and Bradshaw’s hat (Ashmolean Mus., Oxford) is strengthened with steel strips. (Fig. 50.)

1450 (_circ._). _Traité d’un Tournoi_, King René.

... que ledit harnoys soit si large et si ample que on puisse vestir et mettre dessoulz ung porpoint ou courset; et fault que le porpoint soit faultre de trys dois d’espez sur les espaules, et au long des bras jusques au col.

* * * * *

En Brabant, Flandre et Haynault et en ce pays-la vers les Almaignes, ont acoustome d’eulx armer de la personne autrement au tournoy: car ils prennent ung demy porpoint de deux toilles ... de quatre dois d’espez et remplis de couton.

It would seem from the above that in France the garment worn under the tourney-armour was folded till it was three fingers thick on the shoulders. In the Low Countries, however, the pourpoint was of a different fashion, for there they made the garment of two thicknesses and stuffed this with cotton-waste to the thickness of four fingers. The difference of thickness can be accounted for by the fact that folded linen would not compress so much as cotton-waste. It should be noted in the extract from the Ordinances of Louis XI that old material is advised as being more pliable and softer. At the same time we may be sure that it was carefully chosen. It is interesting to note that in 1322 the material is ordered to be new, but in 1450 old linen is recommended.

Besides the making of undergarments or complete defences of linen overgarments, pourpoints, the Linen Armourers, as we find them called in the City of London Records, made linings for helmets. This was a most important detail in the equipment of a man, for the helm or helmet was worse than useless if it did not fit securely and if the head was not adequately padded to take off the shock of the blow. In the Sloane MS. 6400, we find among the retinue of Henry V at Agincourt, “Nicholas Brampton, a stuffer of bacynets,” and in the Oxford City Records under the date 1369 are the entries “Bacynet 13/4, stuffing for ditto 3/4.” In the Hastings MS. (_Archæologia_, LVII), among the items given as the “Abilment for the Justus of the Pees,” the first on the list is “a helme well stuffyd.” This stuffing consisted of a thickly padded cap or lining tied to the head-piece with strings, which are clearly shown in the well-known engraving of Albert Dürer, of a man and a woman supporting a shield on which is a skull (Fig. 42, 2). There are some of these caps in the Waffensammlung, Vienna, which have been noticed in Vol. II of the _Zeitschrift für Historische Waffenkunde_.

The original lining of Sir Henry Lee’s helmet (Plate XIII) is still _in situ_; this, however, is riveted to the helmet and follows the shape of the head. In this respect it is different from the helmet-cap, which was padded. A padded cap was worn independently of the lining of the helmet. These are shown on Figs. 43, 44. Similar caps are shown on the following works of Dürer: S. George on foot, S. George (Stephan Baumgartner) and Felix Hungersbourg.

1586. _Chronicles_, Raphael Holinshed (edit. 1807, II, xvi, 333).

Our armour differeth not from that of other nations, and therefore consisteth of corselets, almaine riuets, shirts of maile, iackes quilted and couered ouer with leather, fustian, or canuas, ouer thicke plates of iron that are sowed in the same, & of which there is no towne or village that hath not hir conuenient furniture.

These defences are of the same nature as the jack shown on Figs. 24, 25. The brigandine was more elaborate and costly, for it was composed of small plates riveted to the foundation and covering of fabric and was therefore the work of a skilled artificer. The jack, on the other hand, was more easily put together and could be done by the wearer himself or by his wife. An interesting example of one of these village armouries mentioned above is to be found at Mendlesham Church, Suffolk, in the strong-room of which are portions of suits and half-suits dating from the late fifteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. The church also preserves the records of the upkeep of the equipment, one of the last entries being in 1613, a payment of 1s. 4d. to an armourer for “varnishinge the town head-piece and the corslitt and for setting on leathers and rivettes.”

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

Archers should weare either Ilet holed doublets that will resist the thrust of a sword or a dagger and covered with some trim and gallant kinde of coloured cloth to the liking of the Captain ... or else Iackes of maile quilted upon fustian.

From the nature of their composition these “eyelet doublets” are rarely to be met with. They were made of twine or thread knitted all over in eyelets or button-holes. The appearance is much the same as modern “tatting” and macramé work. The best-known examples are in the Musée Porte de Hal, Brussels (II, 81), in the Cluny Museum, and in the Musée d’Artillerie, G, 210 (Fig. 45).

1662. _Decades of Epistles of War_, Gervase Markham.

The shot should have on his head a good and sufficient Spanish morian well lined in the head with a quilted cap of strong linen and bound with lined ear plates.

1643. _Souldier’s Accidence_, Gervase Markham.

... the shot should have good comb caps well lined with quilted caps.

It will be obvious that the maker of linings and undergarments for the soldier had to be in constant touch with the armourer, for he had to make allowances for the style and cut of the armour.

In the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I quoted on page 79 there are entries of payments to Robinet, the King’s tailor, for armour, banners, crests, helmets, and robes for the King, his son, and John of Lancaster. At the end of this chapter we shall notice this combining of the crafts of the armourer and tailor when dealing with the linen armourers.