Fig. 190.—Crested helm, Sir Hugh Hastings, 1347.
The shoulders were generally left unprotected, except by the mail of the hauberk, but occasionally roundels are used similar to those of the Cyclas era. Demi-brassarts covered the upper arms, shown in many illustrations of the period as overlapping lames of plate, occasionally complete and protecting the front as well as the back of the limb. Coudières, if worn, were invariably of cuir-bouilli, and of a pattern which is almost stereotyped, and shown in [Fig. 191], the genouillières being of similar design.
In Add. MS. 12,228 at the British Museum many combats of the period are depicted, and almost without exception coudières and genouillières of this pattern are shown.
Fig. 191.—Bascinet and coudières, Meliadus MS. (Add. 12,228.)
Fig. 192.
Vambraces were generally dispensed with, the hauberk sleeve being deemed sufficient together with the large cuff of the gauntlet. Where used the vambrace or demi-vambrace may be of plate, as in the Cyclas Period, or of cuir-bouilli as on the brass of Sir John de Northwode on p. [145]. They were also of pourpoint as on the arm here illustrated ([Fig. 192]). As this curious variety of defensive equipment is now mentioned for the first time, it may be stated that not only in this period but in the succeeding, it was most extensively used. Pourpoint in its simplest form is merely a padded garment; studded pourpoint, or studded mail, as it was occasionally called, consisted of metal discs or roundels, generally of steel, secured by rivets to the padded garment, or to leather or cuir-bouilli. These roundels were made very similar to the modern stud, but with a short neck; where large roundels are seen, as in the vambrace shown, the smaller head is buried in the pourpoint, or boiled leather, and the larger back, as we should term it, is visible. This is generally reversed in the case of other defences which we shall have to consider, where only the small heads appear upon the surface for ornament, and the real defensive disc is buried in the pourpoint. It is probable from the illustration that the pourpointerie shown were stiff, moulded pieces of cuir-bouilli slipped on over the underlying hauberk sleeve.