British and Foreign Arms & Armour

by Charles Henry Ashdown

In connection with the armour of the Studded and Splinted Periods the representation of the sovereigns of England upon the coinage is of considerable interest, inasmuch as it illustrates in a remarkable degree the extraordinary conservatism of the moneyers and die-sinkers of the mediæval period. The first representation of regal defensive equipment occurs in the reign of King Edward III., and in the Studded and Splinted Period. The gold noble of the second coinage of this monarch represents him standing in a ship bearing a shield upon his left arm and a sword in his right. The shield is large and heater-shaped, and the sword has a short grip, a globular pommel, and short quillons drooping towards the blade, which is long, and narrows gradually towards the point. Camail of very capacious extent covers the body nearly to the waist and extends down the arms to the elbow; from below this the sleeve of a mail hauberk appears, covering a small portion of the forearm and pendent about a foot. The forearm is apparently unprotected, but a gauntlet covers the right hand, which alone is visible. Upon the jupon appearing below the camail are four studs, indicating pourpoint defence. In 1346, the half-noble exhibits a much more contracted camail, a tightly fitting jupon with short sleeves, and the sleeve of a chain mail hauberk apparently reaching to the hand. The noble of 1351 shows camail, a short-sleeved jupon revealing a hauberk reaching to the elbow, from beneath which issues a loose sleeve to the wrist, of soft folding material, probably part of the gambeson. The jupon is loose and plain to the waist, below which appears studded work. The half-noble is the same, except that the chain mail hauberk reaches to the wrist. In 1360, the noble presents the same characteristics with regard to the camail and jupon, but a loose sleeve, fringed at the wrist, is apparently attached to the jupon. The half-noble of the same date has a rough indication of a coudière, with mail brassarts or hauberk sleeve, and a gauntlet.

Fig. 200.—Man-at-arms, c. 1350.

Fig. 201.—Knight, c. 1350.

Richard II. nobles have the camail with a tippet of material reaching nearly to the waist, below which appear the studs; the arm is encased in the short sleeve of the jupon, and a long sleeve of material beneath it; but on the half-noble a hauberk sleeve of mail is depicted to the elbow. Henry IV. is represented in his first coinage habited almost the same as his predecessor, but in 1412 a gold noble was issued showing the arm in a brassart, coudière, and vambrace, but with the same unaccountable studs below the waist. The gold coins of Henry V. continued to be of the same pattern as those of Henry IV. In Henry VI.’s first coinage the arm is encased in laminated brassarts, coudière, and a scoop-shaped piece of chain mail emerging from the coudière and reaching nearly to the wrist, where a gauntlet or glove with a flexible cuff is shown. Otherwise the coin is the same as in Henry IV.’s time. The rose-noble of Edward IV. exhibits the same characteristics, as does also the angelet. With this reign the type of the king standing in a ship ceases, but is revived again in the time of Henry VIII., whose first coinage comprehended a regal on which the peculiar scoop-shaped piece of mail upon the arm is shown, an indefinite kind of cape serves for the upper part of the person, and the inevitable studs appear below the belt. On the George noble, issued between 1526 and 1533, we get, for the first time in more than a hundred years, an approximation to contemporary armour in the figure of the Saint, who is clothed in Maximilian plate from head to heel, with large pike-guards appropriate to the time. On subsequent coins of Edward VI., James I., and Charles I. the armour is correct. Summarising the above respecting the persevering studs we find them represented on coins a century and a half after they ceased to be worn; camail is shown sixty years after it was disused; plate does not appear until a hundred years after it came in vogue, and the drooping sleeve of mail, though used on the Continent, was not seen in England after the Cyclas Period. Speaking generally, Richard II. and the monarchs immediately succeeding had the pleasure of seeing themselves represented upon the coinage in the same equipment as the ordinary soldier of the time, with the sole exception of the crown. Upon the silver coinage the head only of the monarch is represented until we come to the reign of Edward VI., when the Maximilian type is shown, and subsequent coins exhibit contemporary armour.