from its weight and its thickness; and, at a glance it must be seen that a military costume such as this was singularly ill qualified to be worn with either comfort or advantage under the burning sun of Syria, or even in France. And again, when he had been dismounted by any chance, it is equally evident that a knight in this armour must have entered upon the duties of a foot soldier under singular dis

advantages.

But the armour of the middle ages had by no means arrived at its greatest weight, or its most oppressive massiveness, in the days of Philip le Bel. About the middle of the 13th century, the injuries to which mail armour was liable whenever it was exposed in any unusual manner, naturally led to the introduction of additional defences for such parts of a knight's person, as from experience he had learned to be most in need of them. Small plates of iron, of various shapes, were fixed, generally by straps and buckles, over the mail, in order to give an increased security to the joints at the elbows and knees. These secondary defences were severally entitled coudières and genouillières, elbow-guards, that is, and kneeguards. Another step in the same direction added shoulderguards, or épaulières. Then, as the 13th century passed into the 14th, there succeeded hollow plates of metal which might guard the outer or the most exposed surfaces of the limbs themselves-plates to be buckled over the mail, and adjusted to the outer surface of the upper arm, and to the front of the lower arm, which bore the appropriate name of gardes-bras, or arm-guards. Similar pieces of armour were fastened in the same way also over the mail cuisses or chausses, to protect the thigh and leg; these are trumelières, or grevières. A further advance completed the additional defence of the limbs, by carrying the plates round the limbs. This was effected simply by having double plates, which would fit the limbs, fixed together with hinges, and which might be secured by straps

and buckles. The hinges are almost always found to have been adjusted to the outside of the limbs.52

The thick quilted under-tunic-the gambeson, or haqueton, the mail hauberk, the additional defensive plates, and, over all, the helm and the surcoat, with the belts, and the shields, and the weapons, must have combined to form an equipment of such excessive weight that, when once he had fallen to the ground, the knight would find the act of rising to be attended with no little difficulty; and we may well believe that these carefully armed warriors not unfrequently lay prostrate and helpless, at the mercy of the meanest soldier who carried a knife, or liable to be trampled to death by any charge or retreat that might pass over them.

In this state of the military system it would soon become a necessity that a revolution in armour should be carried into effect; and there could be no uncertainty concerning the course that it would take. Recent changes would clearly presage the fresh change that was imminent. But before we enter upon any inquiries concerning the actual results that were effected by the revolution in armour to which we now refer, in order that we may be able to form a completely correct conception of the arms and armour of the 12th and 13th centuries, some details connected with our subject in those centuries must here be brought forward and described.

The knights of those centuries-that grand epoch in mediæval art—were so far from considering that their armour was sufficient for their protection, that they still retained the supplementary defence of the shield. It is indeed true, that their shields, which were flat or straight at the top, pointed at the base, and with the sides formed in graceful curves, were considerably smaller than those of earlier times, and that their dimensions continued to diminish as the 12th century came to its close. At first, these shields were generally "bowed" on their front face, that is, they generally presented

a convex external contour; but the smallest shields, which were almost "heater-shaped," were either quite flat or nearly so. Suspended from a guige, or shield-belt, which passed over the right shoulder, these shields, when the knights were dismounted, either were adjusted in such a manner as to cover the left hip, and with it the hilt and the upper part of the sword; or, at other times, they seem to have been fastened to the waist-belt by a clasp or very short strap. When in the saddle, the knight would carry his shield—his ecu, as he called it at that period-over his shoulder, or, perhaps, slung from his saddle-bow; but, in the charge, and generally, as itwould appear, when in action, the shield was carried in front of the knight's person, as a breast-plate, hanging down from the guige which was passed round his neck: thus, while the right arm was free to wield the lance, the mace, or the sword, the left was equally at liberty to direct the course of the charge.5

That the sword was worn on the left side, has been already stated. When on foot the knight held it almost in a vertical position, and he caused it to hang over his left thigh obliquely when he was on horseback.

The noble personage who is represented in the accompanying engraving (Fig. 23) is some member, but it is not certain what member, of the old royal family of France, whose effigy is still preserved in the most interesting Abbey Church of St. Denis, near Paris. This figure, which in the engraving seems to have suffered a transposition of sides (probably the drawing on the wood for the engraver was not reversed, and

therefore the engraving itself is reversed) is thoroughly French in all its details; and, consequently, it must be regarded as an example of the military equipment that was in use in France at the commencement of the 13th century amongst personages of high rank; but even in this local acceptation, the figure is in some degree fanciful, and particularly in the introduction of an embattled or mural crown instead of a regular head-piece.51

The cylindrical helm which was worn from the times of Philip Augustus to those of Saint Louis, under Philip IV, became more conicala change which cannot be considered to have improved the appearance of the head-piece, while it failed to diminish its excessive weight. In the Fig.24.-FRENCH HELM: about monuments of this age, the helm, or "heaume," often appears in the form represented in Fig. 24. At the same time, the socks of mail, which covered the feet, show a tendency to become lengthened into a point.

A. D. 1300.

Of the weapons in use at this same period, and which were directed against the armour of mail with its covering plates, the first and most important was the lance. It varied in its length; but now it was made only to be wielded when grasped in the hand, and not to be thrown under any circumstances as a javelin. The shaft was strong and generally of uniform thickness, and the head long, rather broad, and without any barbs. At first all the knights, without any distinction, were considered to enjoy the same right and title to display from their lances, immediately below the lancehead, a pennon, or gonfanon-a small flag, which fluttered in the wind. After a while, however, this privilege was reserved for rich and powerful knights, who came to the war attended with a retinue of vassals and dependants. Every knight of this rank assumed the distinctive title of "Knight Banneret," a title derived from that variety of medieval flag which was distinguished as a "banner." In England all knights dis

played the pointed or swallow-tailed "pennon," charged with their badge; and, instead of pennons, the nobles and men of greater wealth and importance, who bore the title of " Bannerets," from their lances displayed square (or rectangular elongated) "banners," upon which their armorial insignia were blazoned in full.55

Until the 14th century the sword varied but little from the form in which it is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. The hilt, with the guard, produces a cruciform figure; the blade is long, straight, tapering slightly towards the point, double-edged, and having its two edges separated by a central ridge.

56

In

Of the remaining weapon, the mace, hammer, or martelde-fer, it is unnecessary for us to give any description, since the representation of a mace in the engraving, Fig. 27, No. 3, is able to speak all that can be desired on its own behalf. England the same mace was used, and also a regular hammer, of which a remarkable example exists in the effigy in mail armour preserved at Great Malvern.

At present we have been treating only of the arming and the equipment of soldiers, at the lowest of knightly rank, all of whom, as a matter of course, were horsemen. The footsoldier of the same period, whose presence is scarcely to be discerned in the imagery of the middle ages-at that period of the middle ages, at any rate, now under considerationcannot be described with certain accuracy. It may be assumed, however, that he wore for defence a strongly quilted garment, with a simple yet strong head-piece; and that of his weapons the sling was the most common, and the most dangerous the French or the Turkish bow, the former of moderate size, and the latter smaller, but both of them made of goats' horns which had been brought from the East after the first Crusade. These foot-soldiers also used the cross-bow, which was not the powerful weapon that it afterwards became.