THE HALF-ARMOUR PERIOD AFTER 1600
Fig. 424.
Although to the average student the armour prevailing after the sixteenth century possesses absolutely no interest whatever, yet as a certain amount continued to be worn, and it possessed characteristics entirely its own, it is necessary to be acquainted with these features in order to possess a comprehensive knowledge of the entire subject. Of cap-à-pie suits it may be broadly stated that none exist; of three-quarter and half-suits there are many to be found, but extremely few of these are of workmanship which can in any way compare in wealth of decoration with that of the latter half of the sixteenth century, or vie in elegance of form with the Maximilian or Gothic armour. The period exhibits a brutal strength and crudity in armour which forcibly suggests boiler-plate work. The defences are simply made to cover the vital parts of the body with the maximum amount of efficiency, without any consideration whatever for gracefulness of outline or beauty of surface. The helmet continued to be of the same pattern as that of the end of the Maximilian Period; variations, however, may be found; that, for example, delineated in [Fig. 424], and dating from c. 1605, is more of the nature of a close-helmet than a burgonet, being entirely self-contained.
Fig. 425.—Three-quarter suit, 1630. (Wallace Collection.)
A typical three-quarter suit of English manufacture is that shown in [Fig. 425], dating from about 1630 and forming a part of the Wallace Collection. It is shown in the Museum as a cap-à-pie suit, but the sabbatons and jambarts do not belong to it and date from c. 1580. The close helmet is fitted with an umbril to which is riveted the face-guard, pierced with sight and breathing apertures; a gorget plate is affixed bearing the number 10 upon it. Under this plate is the gorget proper, consisting of three plates. The breastplate has a slight tapul and is marked 42. Upon the right-hand side an indentation has been caused by a musket ball. There is a backplate, and also a garde-de-rein of three plates. The espalier pauldrons have brassarts attached fitted with turners. The tassets of thirteen plates have the genouillières depending from them.
Cavalry.—During the early years of the reign of James I. the cavalryman had his name altered from lancer or demi-lancer to cavalier, probably owing to Spanish intercourse. The general tendency to discard armour as being cumbrous and ineffective led to many noblemen and officers of regiments contenting themselves with a cuirass worn over a buff coat, and subsequently, in Charles I.’s reign, whole regiments were thus accoutred, and received the name of cuirassiers in consequence. The dragoons also, who were introduced into the army during the latter years of the preceding century, only wore as a defence a buff coat made long and full and a burgonet. Apart from these, however, we find that the regiments using the lance were equipped with a close helmet, gorget, back- and breast-plate, pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, tassets, and garde-de-rein, while a good buff coat with long skirts was worn beneath the armour. The weapons comprised a sword which was stiff, cutting, and sharp-pointed; a lance of the usual pattern or pike-shaped, 18 feet long and provided with a leather thong to fasten round the right arm, and one or two pistols, with the necessary flask, cartouch box, and appurtenances.
The cuirassier was armed with two pistols carried at the saddle, and a sword similar to the lancers.
The arquebusier wore a good buff coat, a back- and breast-plate, and armour generally resembling the lancer; he carried an arquebus 30 inches in length, two pistols, and the usual necessaries.
Fig. 426.—Casquetel (British Museum.)
The carbineer had similar defences, but carried a carbine or petronel (Plate XLI.*, p. 368), instead of the arquebus, and a sword in place of the pistols.
The dragoons carried a pike and also a musket.
In 1645 the arquebusiers wore triple-barred helmets, cuirasses with garde-de-rein, pauldrons, and vambraces; at the same time the dragoons changed their muskets for the shorter piece termed the dragon, and four years afterwards again changed it for the caliver. The triple-barred helmet of the arquebusiers and dragoons is shown in [Plate XXVI.], from Edinburgh Castle, and [Plate XXV.], from the same source, illustrates a three-quarter suit of an officer of arquebusiers or lancers of the time of Charles I. A second suit, No. 32, is furnished with palettes over the goussets and an open-faced helmet called a casquetel ([Plate XXV.]).
PLATE XXV
Three-quarter Suits, temp. Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle)
The Pikeman of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, not curved, but pointed back and front. It was provided with a holder at the back, in which four or five large feathers were inserted. A back- and breast-plate reached to the waist, to which were affixed two broad tassets meeting in front of six plates each ([Plate XXIV.]), which spread over the well-padded breeches, reaching to the knee and covering the front part of the limbs only. No gorget or defences for the arms are shown. His arms are a pike and a sword. Grose in his “Military Antiquities” illustrates thirty-two different positions in the exercise of the pike. The pikeman of the Cromwellian period had a similar accoutrement, but his morion may better be termed an iron hat, inasmuch as the crown is low with a small comb, the brim wide and drooping and coming well over the eyes and the back of the neck, and it is without plumes ([Fig. 427]). Two cheek-guards are added. A back- and breast-plate with pendent tassets consisting of many plates formed with a leather coat and the helmet the sole protection. In Charles I.’s reign a rondache was served out to pikemen, but after a few years was discarded.
Fig. 427.—Pikeman’s pot, 1620. (British Museum.)
The Musketeer wore a morion in James I.’s reign similar to the pikeman but with no feathers, and this with a back- and breast-plate completed his metal defences. In 1625, the morion was discarded in favour of a jaunty felt hat with feathers, but subsequently the morion was again worn with the addition of cheek-pieces. No tassets are shown upon a musketeer’s uniform. Grose illustrates forty-five separate orders for the discharge of one bullet from the musket. In 1637 an elaborate drill-book was issued by a Colonel Munro, in which he states that musketeers should be formed in companies with a front of thirty-two men, but six ranks deep; the first firing at once and casting about and reloading; the second rank passing to the front between the files to give fire next; then the third rank, and so on until the whole ranks have discharged. Directions for handling the matchlock published in 1620 contain quaint directions to the musketeer: “He must first learn to hold the piece, to accommodate the match between the two foremost fingers and his thumb, and to plant the great end on his breast with a gallant soldier-like grace, and if ignorant let him acquaint himself first with the firing of touchpowder in his pan, to bow and bear up his body, and to attain to the level and practice of an assured and serviceable shot, ready to charge and, with a comely touch, discharge, making sure at the same instant of his mark with a quick and vigilant eye.”
In the reign of James I. a long rapier blade was added to the equipment of the musketeer for protection after he had discharged his piece. It was variously called the “swine’s feather,” “hog’s bristle,” and “Swedish feather,” the latter probably indicating the country of its origin. The swine’s feather and also the musket rest were abandoned during the Civil War.
PLATE XXVI
Triple-barred Helmet, temp. 1689. (Edinburgh Castle)
Cabasset Helmet, Footman, temp. James VI. (Edinburgh Castle)
Archers.—The persistence of archers in the ranks of the English forces long after the introduction of firearms and cannon is a noteworthy feature. During the sixteenth century they formed a numerous force, and were the subjects of especial care by the military commanders in the time of Queen Elizabeth. In Harl. MS. 7457, being an inventory of the Tower arms in 1561, there are accounts of many hundred brigandines, jacks, salades (salletts), and skull-caps for furnishing the defences of archers, while regulations are extant of the same period which provide that: “Captains and officers should be skilful of that noble weapon, and to see that their soldiers according to their draught and strength have good bows, well nocked, well stringed, every string whip in their nock and in the middle rubbed with wax; a bracer and shooting glove and some spare strings; every man a sheaf of arrows in a leather case which contains twenty-four arrows, whereof eight should be lighter than the rest to gall the enemy with a hailshot of light arrows before they shall come within the danger of their harquebus shot. Let every man have a brigandine or a little coat of plate, a skull or huskyn, a maule of lead of five foot in length, and a pike, the same hanging by his girdle with a hook and a dagger; being thus furnished teach them to march, shoot, and retire, for these men can neither be spared in battle nor in skirmish. No other weapon can compare with the same noble weapon.” Even as late as the time of Charles I. special commissions were issued under the Great Seal for enforcing the use and practice of the long-bow, and the Earl of Essex at the commencement of the Civil War issued a precept in 1643 directing the raising of a company of archers for special service.
In the time of Charles II., James II., and William and Mary officers still wore breastplates, but armour for the ordinary soldier was as a rule altogether discarded. As late as the commencement of the last century the officers of some regiments wore a small steel gorget, but all that remains to us at the present day to remind us of the days of chivalry and the steel-clad forces of bygone times, is the Life Guard with his back- and breast-plate and steel helmet.