Fig. 217.—Bascinet. Sir William Burgate, 1409.
The Camail.—The term camail is said to be a derivative of “cap-mail,” though one authority deduces it from “curtain-mail.” As we have seen in the preceding chapters, this protection for the neck had been used for centuries, but at no time did it attain the dimensions and efficiency which distinguished it during the period under discussion. It is probable that a gorget of plate of some description was worn underneath it, to which we shall refer when speaking of the epaulières. The well-known representation from Nero, D. 7, in the British Museum, representing the Black Prince receiving a grant of Aquitaine from his father, shows the prince with his helmet and its depending camail doffed, but no gorget, however, is disclosed. At first the lower portion of the camail fell almost perpendicularly to the shoulders, and covered but a small portion of them, as may be seen in the brasses of Sir John de Argentine, 1360, Horsheath Church, Cambridge ([Fig. 218]); Sir John de Paletoot, 1361, Watton Church, Herts ([Fig. 224]); and Sir John de Cobham, 1375, Cobham, Kent; but as the period progressed, the mail expanded so as to cover not only the shoulders, but the upper part of the arm. At first banded mail was universally employed, and examples may be found of its use even as late as 1405, on the brass of Sir Thomas Massyngberde, but by the year 1380, chain mail of varying patterns had become popular. The links were arranged either in horizontal lines or vertically, and examples may be found where they vary in size from that of a coarse dog chain down to extremely fine links. For examples, see brasses of Sir John Wingfield, 1400, Letheringham Church, Suffolk ([Fig. 219]); Sir John Hanley; Sir John Bettesthorne, Mere Church, Wiltshire; Sir George Felbrigge ([Fig. 220]); the painting of the Black Prince in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, &c.
Fig. 218.—Sir John de Argentine, 1360. Horsheath Church, Cambridge.
Fig. 219.—Sir John Wingfield, c. 1400. Letheringham Church, Suffolk.
