ÉPAULIÈRES AND PAULDRONS.
It is not easy to follow the development of épaulières in the earlier stages, as the shoulders on monumental effigies are usually draped by the surcoat, but the principle of laminated or overlapping plates, so early applied to sollerets, was not long in being extended to the upper arm and shoulder, where special mobility for striking and parrying was so needful—indeed, we have instances of articulated épaulières late in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. These pieces at their highest development were admirably adapted for giving great freedom to the arm. Plates over the shoulders, as distinctive from ailettes, first appeared in England late in the thirteenth or very early in the fourteenth century, but they were merely rondelles or discs. Articulations, as already mentioned, came a little later, and rondelles protect the shoulder-pit and inner arm. A brass of a knight of the Cuttes family in Arkesdon Church, Essex (1440), is a good example of what may be termed the development of épaulières into pauldrons. Pikeguards, generally applied to “Maximilian” armour, are to be found occasionally much earlier—see example in Southerly Church (1479).[28] The Beauchamp latten figure at Warwick (1454) shows these pieces. Viscount Dillon mentions an example as early as 1424. Suits are often seen with only one of these projections, but it will always be noticed on examination that there are screw holes in the other pauldrons for its fellow. They are guards against pike thrusts, and are occasionally found double on each shoulder. These shoulder-guards are usually known by English writers as pass-guards, but Viscount Dillon considers this to be a mistake, as he thinks the real pass-guard to have been an extra tilting-piece. The absence of these pieces is far from always implying that they have been omitted, for in many cases a close examination will reveal holes on the shoulders, showing that they have been originally present. Pauldrons were usually attached to the cuirass by straps and buckles, and consist of plates in successive lames over the shoulders and upper arm. Sometimes the attachment is by a pin, as in [Fig. 22]. In armour of the second half of the fifteenth century the upper plate scarcely reached beyond the shoulder, while in “Maximilian” and later armour they came well over the chest, assuming a resting wing-like form before and behind. They were sometimes very large and uneven in size, that for the right arm being the smaller, for using the lance. There are many instances late in the sixteenth century where gorget and pauldrons are joined together in one piece, and then elbow-gauntlets are used. This is the case in armour called “allecret.” In the second half of the sixteenth century pauldrons were often smaller and wingless—indeed, more like the older épaulières, and then rondelles reappear for the protection of the weak place, “defaut de la cuirasse.”