THE TRANSITION PERIOD, 1500-1552
The salient features of the Transition Period are:—
1. The adoption of sabbatons in the place of sollerets.
2. The chain mail skirt.
3. The general use of a closed helmet.
Figs. 345 and 346.—Helmets. (Tower of London.)
The Helmet.—This defence was invariably of the “closed” pattern, and consisted of a crown with a ridge, generally roped, down the centre; two cheek-pieces meeting together at the chin and fastening there; the visor and bavière formed of one piece, pierced with oblong apertures for the occularium, and having small holes for ventilation and breathing purposes. The bavière was a relict of the mentonnière of a previous period, and the close helmet may be regarded as a direct evolution from the armet; indeed it is at times difficult to differentiate between the two. The roundel at the back of the neck in the armet gave way to a plate-guard. The neck portion of the close helmet was furnished with a hollow rim, generally decorated with roping, which fitted over a corresponding solid rim upon the upper portion of the gorget and permitted the head to be rotated from side to side. The visor and bavière in the early helmets were in one piece, and very often of the bellows pattern, but later examples show them in two distinct pieces, the upper portion, or visor proper, falling down inside the bavière.
The helmet shown in [Fig. 347], dating from 1500, opens down the sides instead of down the chin and back like the armet, and the same pivot which secures the visor also serves as a hinge for the crown and chin-piece. In [Fig. 347]A we have illustrated a German fluted helmet, partly engraved and gilded and of good form and workmanship. It opens down the chin. The skill shown in the forging of the crown and the fluting of the twisted comb is remarkable, and each rivet of the lining strap of the cheek-pieces forms the centre of an engraved rose. It is provided with a roped rim to fit over a solid rim on the gorget. [Fig. 348] is the front view of a helmet dating from 1520 which differs chiefly from the last helmet in the form of the visor, while the example shown in [Fig. 348]A is of Italian origin and of the same period. It is small and of an extremely graceful form. Figs. [345], [346], are contemporary helmets from the Tower of London.
Fig. 347.
Fig. 347A.
Fig. 348.
Fig. 348A.
Fig. 349.—Standard of mail, William Bardwell, 1508. West Herling Church, Norfolk.
The Gorget of the period consisted of laminated plates riveted at the sides of the neck and working freely upon each other, but covering from below upwards. These gorgets were an essential feature of the following, or Maximilian, period. It often spread over the chest and extended down the back as well; it was furnished with sliding rivets to allow of the maximum of freedom. At times this gorget was fixed to and formed part of the close helmet. Towards the latter part of the period the standard or collar of mail appears to have been worn very frequently to protect the neck; in these cases one or more lames forming a gorget were added to the lower part of the helmet to fit over and reinforce the standard. An example is shown in [Fig. 349].
Fig. 350.—Globose breastplate, 1510. (Tower of London.)
The Breastplate was globose, and as a rule furnished with one or more articulated lames (or taces) at the lower part, which permitted freedom of motion for the body at the waist. [Fig. 350] represents a breastplate in the Tower which has one lame. Goussets of plate are invariably found at the junction of the arms with the body; these were also made to slide freely upon their rivets. At the top a projecting collar protected the part where the gorget was covered by the breastplate, and this feature is exemplified in Figs. [350] and [351], the latter also being an example from the Tower of London though a little later in date. The apertures pierced in it were made for the attachment of various tilting pieces. The ornamentation shown in [Fig. 350] consists of mere sunken indentations, and suggests flutings.
Fig. 351.—Breastplate. (Tower of London.)
The Pauldrons.—These became much modified from the huge examples characteristic of the latter part of the Tabard Period, losing their angular appearance and becoming more rounded and at the same time mobile. This was effected by making the whole pauldron of lames of steel, generally overlapping upwards; the upper lame was as a rule moulded into a strong pike-guard, sometimes upon the left shoulder only, but generally upon both. The lames were carried well round to the back and front over the goussets, and were attached to the back- and breast-plates. If the right gousset is exposed a roundel is generally affixed to the pauldron. That the plate pauldrons of an earlier date were not, however, entirely superseded is shown by the monumental brass of W. Bardwell, 1508, in West Herling Church, Norfolk, where a massive pauldron furnished with two pike-guards is shown upon the left shoulder, and a dissimilar one of still larger proportions, and provided with one guard, upon the other ([Fig. 349]).
PLATE XXIII*
Flemish Armour, 1624
A. F. Calvert
The Brassarts, Vambraces, Coudières, and Gauntlets all partake more or less of the laminated character, but the coudières are remarkably small when compared with those of the later Tabard Period, and furnished with large expanding guards for the inside bend of the arm.
The Cuissarts, Genouillières, and Grevières are of plate, with rounded caps for the genouillières and a few lames for reinforcements.
The Sabbatons.—These broad-toed sollerets were introduced during the later part of the previous period, those of Piers Gerard (date 1492) being illustrated on p. [232]. They present many varieties of form, but are not distinguished for extraordinary size, as they were during the Maximilian period.
The Skirt of Mail was a marked feature of the period, and one by which it may generally be recognised. At times it almost reached to the knees, but as a general rule it terminated a short distance below the middle of the thigh. It was of fine mail, and in all probability only a skirt fastening round or below the waist. Occasionally it is slit up a short distance back and front, in order to give facilities for riding. The mail skirt had been growing in favour for some time: Lord Audley, 1491, upon his brass in Sheen Church, Surrey, exhibits it, and Edward Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, 1499, in Luffwick Church, Northants, has a similar skirt, namely to mid-thigh. Perhaps the earliest example is that of John, Lord L’Estrange, 1478, at Hillingdon, Middlesex, who has a mail skirt to the knees, one tuille in front and one on either side; sabbatons; a pike-guard upon the pauldron, and guards round the back of the knees: but all are very plain, similar to the Stanley brass.
The tuilles lying upon this skirt were generally of large proportions and suspended from the bottom tace; they did not reach, however, so low as the hem of the skirt. Wm. Bardwell’s brass exhibits no tuilles whatever over the skirt of mail, and Richard Gyll, 1511, sergeant of the bakehouse under Henry VII., shows upon his brass in Shottisbrooke Church, Hants, two almost ludicrously small tuilles, affixed to the lowest of four narrow taces. John Colt, 1521, of Roy don Church, Essex, has extremely small tuilles over his deep skirt of mail similar to the Gyll brass; he is habited in a tabard.
From the foregoing it will readily be gleaned that very important alterations occurred in armour of this period, differentiating it from that of the preceding. The great pauldrons, exaggerated coudières, and general angularity, and, one might almost say prickliness, of the later Tabard Period was modified to a smoother and rounder style, while it lost entirely that remarkable beauty of form which, however much distorted by fanciful additions, characterised the Gothic armour as a whole. The beautiful flutings and ornamental curves disappeared to make way for a heavy, cumbersome style indicative of German stolidity, and in direct antagonism to the mobile quickness and agility suggested by the majority of suits dating from the latter half of the previous century. These characteristics may be readily seen in the brass to Sir Humphrey Stanley in Westminster Abbey, [Fig. 352]; and also that to a knight, c. 1510, shown in [Fig. 353].
Fig. 352.—Sir Humphrey Stanley, 1505. Westminster Abbey.
Fig. 353.—Knight, c. 1510.
That this excessive plainness was not always carried out, however, may be gleaned from a few effigies which display an almost lavish ornamentation. The genouillière of Sir Roger le Strange, 1506, Hunstanton, is given here ([Fig. 354]) as an example, where the spike and fluted reinforcements are a special feature, and also the right genouillière of Sir John Cheney, 1509, in Salisbury Cathedral, where the cusped reinforcements are noteworthy ([Fig. 355]).
Fig. 354.—Genouillière and reinforcements, Sir Roger le Strange, 1506, Hunstanton.
Fig. 355.—Genouillière, Sir John Cheney, c. 1509. Salisbury Cathedral.
Towards the end of the period, however, we find that although the salient points of this Transition Period in armour were retained, the taste for ornamentation led many knights to discard the extreme plainness of the mode, and to adapt a style of decoration which in many cases approached the graceful. Effigies of the years 1515 to 1520 show flutings upon the breastplate, taces, and tuilles; rosettes or other ornaments upon the splays of the genouillières and coudières, with fluted pauldrons of artistic shape spreading over the backplate and breastplate.
A suit of armour is preserved in the Rotunda Museum at Woolwich which is of unique interest, inasmuch as it is attributed to, and certainly is of the date of the redoubtable Chevalier Bayard. It was brought from the Château of St Germain, and is an object of profound regard to Gallic visitors. The armour is engraved, russeted, and partly gilt ([Plate VIII.], p. [64]), and dates from c. 1520 or earlier. In places it is fluted, but a marked peculiarity of the suit is the polygonal section of the cuissarts and jambarts, which may be discerned by a close inspection of the figure. The breastplate is globose and the left epaulière is furnished with a pike-guard, while the sabbatons are of the bear’s-paw pattern.
Fig. 356.—The Wallace heaume, c. 1515.
Fig. 357.—Globular tilting heaume. (Tower of London.)
For tilting purposes the great heaume was still in use, and several examples preserved in our museums date from this period. Not the least interesting is the well-known Wallace heaume, of English construction, and dating from c. 1515 ([Fig. 356]). This rare example is formed of two plates only, the top and back part being one piece, and the front part or bavière being the other. The two plates are securely riveted together at the sides and a piece is flanged over upon the crown, where four rivets hold it in place. The height of the heaume is 14 inches. It is much pitted, and in places broken. Of the heaumes preserved in the Tower a great probability exists that they were made for pageant purposes or simply for funeral achievements. One of early fifteenth century date weighs 15 lbs.; another of the usual shape, but furnished with a comb, is said to have belonged to John of Gaunt. Probably the most interesting in that collection is a globular tilting heaume fitted with a bavière which is affixed by screws, and also gripped by the visor pivots; it extends downwards to the breastplate, to which it was fixed by an almayne screw ([Fig. 357]). In it a square opening occurs opposite the right cheek, protected by a small door, opening and closing upon a spring. The visor is strongly reinforced, and works upon a central comb on the crown: the occularium is formed by the lower part of the visor and the upper edge of the bavière, and is remarkably narrow. It weighs 13 lbs. In the Rotunda at Woolwich is preserved the well-known Brocas heaume ([Plate XXXIX.], p. [364]), dating from the time of Henry VII. and formerly in the Brocas Collection. It weighs 22½ lbs. In Haseley Church, Oxon; Petworth Church, Sussex; Ashford Church, Kent; and in Westminster Abbey, are other heaumes of considerable interest, and a few are in private collections. A heaume which dated from c. 1510 was at one time in Rayne Church, Essex, and belonged to Sir Giles Capel, the head portion of which was almost globose, while a second example, in which, however, the visor is slightly ridged, or of the bellows variety, is in Wimborne Minster. These heaumes invariably weigh more than 20 lbs.; but the Westminster example is an exception, as it only scales 17 lbs.