running through staples, fixed on the edge of the bascinet, and passing through a plate edging to the capmail. Sir Thos. Cawne's girdle,

which is seen at No. 2, encircles the hips (the sword and dagger being broken off, have been here restored from other specimens), and his jupon is emblazoned with his arms. His gloves (see also No. 3) are richly ornamented (the separation of gloves of steel into fingers having first been adopted during the reign of Edward I.); his legs are cased in cuisses and greaves, with sollerets of overlapping plates for the feet.

The effigy of Edward the Black Prince, in Canterbury Cathe

dral, is another fine

example of military

3

Fig. 113.

costume: above it, are suspended his tabard, shield, gloves (the gads or gadlings, as the spikes upon the knuckles were termed, being shaped like leopards-the leopards do not appear on the effigy), scabbard, and tilting helmet, all of which are engraved in Stothard's "Effigies;" and are believed to have been those worn by the Prince.

Fig. 114.

The strength of the English army at this period consisted of its archers and cross-bow men, who were much depended on. The victories of Crecy and Poictiers covered them with glory, and made them indispensable. There is a curious passage in the old romance of the

14th century, devoted to the adventures of Richard Cœur de Lion, which describes the host led by Sir Fulke d'Oyley to the siege of a town in the Holy Wars, and their arrangement: "Sir Fouk gan hys folk ordayne As they scholde hem demeyne; Formeste he sette hys arweblasteres And aftyr that hys good archeres, And aftyr hys staff-slyngeres

And othir with scheeldes and with speres:

He devysed the ferthe part,

With swerd and ax, knyff and dart;

The men off armes com al the last."

Chaucer, in his "Rime of Sire Thopas," has given us a vivid picture of the knightly costume in all its minutiæ:

"He dede next his white leere'
Of cloth of lake whyt and cleere,
A brech and eek a schert,

And next his schert an aketoun,
And over that an haberjoun,
For persyng of his hert; 2
And over that a fyn hauberk
Was al i-wrought of jewes werk,3
Ful strong it was of plate;
And over that his coat-armour,
As whyt as is a lily flour,
In which he wolde debate."

Fig. 115.

We have frequently had occasion to note the mutual illustration afforded by the art and literature of the middle ages; the pages of the author are constantly eliminated by reference to the sculpture or painting executed by the artists who flourished in his own time. Thus the whole of the articles of dress above mentioned may be distinguished on an Effigy of the Chaucerian era in Ash Church, Kent. A portion of this figure, from the waist to the knee, is here engraved. The hauberk of plate, in this case, one of splints, has over 2 That is, to protect his heart. 4 Or tabard.

1 He put on next his white skin. 3 Probably damasked.

it the fringed tabard, drawn tightly by a silken cord at each side. Chaucer continues his description of the knight's equipment by telling us

"His scheld was al of gold so red,
And therinne was a bores head,
A charbocle by his syde.

His jambeux were of quirboily,"
His swerdes schethe of yvory,
His helm of latoun 3 bright,

His spere was of fine cipres,

The heed full scharp i-grounde."

His dress, in time of peace, being a girdled tunic, shoes "of Cordewane," or Cordovan, long famous for its leather.

Supposed by Tyrwhitt to be the cyclas, a robe of state, sometimes made of cloth of gold.

The following cut may be received as a curious contemporary illustration of that portion of Chaucer's "Rime" which describes

the equipment of the knight for war. The original drawing is to be found in a beautiful MS. of Boccace's "Livre des Nobles Femmes," preserved in the National Library,

Paris. The knight

Fig. 116.

is stripped to "brech and shirt," which are fastened together by ties round the thigh, a mode of securing those articles of dress also depicted in other MSS. of this date;

1 A carbuncle, a common heraldic bearing. Fr. escarboucle. 2 Armour for the legs, of hardened leather.

* A metal, composed of a mixture of bronze and tin.

♦ Bruges.

and he is throwing on his quilted hacketon; his hauberk of mail lies upon the ground before him, upon which is placed his helmet, with its long-beaked visor, to which a capacious camail is attached; his jambeaux and steel gloves lie on each side of them.

www

Fig. 117.

In the "Romance of Meliadus" (Brit. Mus.-Add. MS. 12228) is a representation of an esquire bringing to a knight his haketon, which we here copy. It is coloured black and covered with green spots or roundels like those mentioned p. 121; and has a pendent covering for the hips cut into the form of leaves and coloured green. This MS. is most rich in drawings of every incident of the military life of the 14th century; and abounds with spirited representations of tournaments, &c., many of which have been given with great fidelity in Cutts' "Scenes of the Middle Ages." It is an Italian work. With a notice of one very striking peculiarity displayed in the armour of the reign of Richard II., we take leave of this long and important period of English history. The visored bascinet, in next page, is a novelty of a kind that gives a grotesque air to the soldiery of this eventful reign. It may be seen worn by them in the illuminations to the metrical history of the deposition of Richard II. before referred to, and in a battle-scene from Cotton MSS., Claudius, B. 6, engraved in Strutt's "Horda Angel-Cynan," vol. iii. pl. 28, as well as in our last cut of the knight arming himself. Very few of these singular bascinets are known to exist: there is one in the Tower; one was at Goodrichcourt, the seat of Sir S. R. Meyrick; a third in the collection of Lord Londesborough; and some three or four have been recorded in Continental collections. No. 1 is engraved from the specimen in the Meyrick collection. No. 2 shows the same bascinet with the visor raised. The peaked bascinet of Sir R. Abberbury, circa 1397, which is now in the Tower, is composed of four pieces and weighs 13 lbs. with a height of 18 inches. The figure beneath No. 3 is a jousting-helmet used in tilts and tourneys,

20

which was worn, as already described, over the bascinet, and rested upon the shoulders. This helmet, once in the possession of Sir S. R. Meyrick, formerly belonged to Sir R. Pembridge, who died 1375, and was originally suspended over his monument in Hereford Cathedral. It was surmounted by a plume of feathers, or the crest of the wearer, and sometimes a cointoise, or silken silken scarf, streamed from its suma narrow opening was cut for sight, and holes pierced for breath

mit;

E

Fig. 118.

ing. Those in that of Edward the Black Prince take the shape of a coronet. Engravings of helms will be found in vols. xxi., xxii., xxxvi., xl., of the " Archæological Journal." The catalogue of the Exhibition of Helmets, in 1880, by Baron de Cosson and the late Mr. Burges, also contains much valuable information. It is to be found in vol. xxxvii. of the Journal.

Reference is very often made to swords, bills, and other weapons as being brown; this does not imply a rusty condition. In the romance of "King Alisaunder," we have, "He claf him with his sword brown," and "mony sword of brown steil," and in "Ipomydon," "with brondes, both bryght and brown.”

A series of papers on the arms, armour, and military usages of the 14th century, by Mr. Hewitt, will be found in the "Gent's Mag." for 1858-9, by those who cannot consult his excellent history in three volumes.

According to Ayala, the English serving under Peter the Cruel, wore red crosses on white vests. In Richard II.'s time every soldier had to wear a large sign of the arms of St. George before and another behind.