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