Sir John Smith, in his Animadversions (1591), writes: ‘No man should wear any cut doublets, as well in respect that the wearing of armour doth quickly fret them out, and also by reason that the corners and edges of the lames and joints of the armour do take such hold upon such cuttes as they do hinder the quick and sudden arming of men.’
An interesting description of the arming of a man, entitled, ‘Howe a manne schall be armed at hys ese when he schall fighte on foote,’ is preserved in the Life of Sir John Astley (a manuscript in the possession of Lord Hastings).[19] The knight is first dressed in a doublet of fustian, lined with satin, which is cut with holes for ventilation. This satin was to keep the roughness of the fustian from the wearer’s body; for he wore no shirt under it. The doublet was provided with gussets of mail, or Vuyders, attached under the armpit and at the bend of the elbow by Arming Points or laces. These mail gussets were to protect the parts not covered by the plate armour. The ‘Portrait of an Italian Nobleman’ by Moroni, in the National Gallery, shows the figure dressed in this arming doublet. A pair of thick worsted hose were worn, and shoes of stout leather. It must be noticed here that the soleret, or sabaton as it is sometimes called, covered only the top of the foot, and had understraps which kept it to the sole of the shoe. First the sabatons were put on, then the jambs, genouillière and cuisses, then the skirt or breech of mail round the waist. This is sometimes known as the Brayette. Then the breast- and backplates were buckled on with the accompanying taces, tassets, and Garde-rein or plates to protect the loins. After this the arm defences, and, if worn over the breastpiece, the gorget; and, finally, the helmet completed the equipment. The sword was buckled on the left side and the dagger on the right.
The armour for jousts and tourneys was much heavier than the Hosting or War harness. From the fact, which has been previously noticed, that the combatants passed each other on the left, this side of the armour was reinforced to such a degree that in time it presented a totally different appearance from the right side (see [Plate VII]). The weight of jousting armour was so great that it was impossible for the wearer to mount without assistance. De Pluvinel, in his Maneige Royal (1629), gives an imaginary conversation between himself and the King (Louis XIV) as follows:—
The King. ‘It seems to me that such a man would have difficulty in getting on his horse, and being on to help himself.’
De Pluvinel. ‘It would be very difficult, but with this arming the matter has been provided for. In this manner at triumphs and tourneys there ought to be at the two ends of the lists a small scaffold, the height of a stirrup, on which two or three persons can stand, that is to say, the knight, an armourer to arm him, and one other to help him. The knight being armed and the horse brought close to the stand, he easily mounts him.’
Reference has been made to the fact that modern writers call the sliding rivet the ‘Almain’ rivet. Whenever mentioned in Inventories and such-like documents, the Almain rivet stands for a suit of light armour. Garrard, in his Art of Warre (1591), distinctly says, ‘The fore part of a corselet and a head peece and tasses is the almayne rivet.’ Among the purchases made on the Continent by Henry VIII in 1512 may be noted 2,000 Almain rivets, each consisting of a salet, a gorget, a breastplate, a backplate, and a pair of splints (short taces). In the Inventory of the goods of Dame Agnes Huntingdon, executed at Tyburn for murdering her husband in 1523, we find ‘sex score pare of harness of Alman rivets’. The ‘pare’, of course, refers to the breast- and backplates. The word Alman, Almaine, or Almain, shows that the invention of this light armour and the sliding rivets which were used in its construction came from Germany.
That the wearing of armour caused grave inconvenience to some, while to others it seems to have been no hindrance at all, we may gather from the following historical incidents. In 1526 King Louis of Hungary, fleeing from the Battle of Mohacz, was drowned while crossing the Danube because of the weight of his armour. On the other hand we find that Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, when forced to fly at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, escaped easily by swimming the river to safety in full armour. We should remember that the weight of plate armour was less felt than that of mail, because the former was distributed over the whole body and limbs, while the latter hung from the shoulders and waist alone. King Henry V, in courting Queen Katharine, says:—‘If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back,’ which seems to imply that this feat was at any rate a possibility. Oliver de la Marche describes Galliot de Balthasin in 1446 as leaping clear out of his saddle ‘Armé de toute’. We may safely consign Sir Walter Scott’s description of the feasting knights to the realms of poetic licence, for he writes:—
They carved at the meal with gloves of steel
And drank the red wine through their helmets barred.
Now if there were two portions of the knight’s equipment which would be put off at the first opportunity, and which could be assumed the most rapidly, they were the helmet and gauntlets. To drink through a visored helmet is a practical impossibility. The word Beavor, which is generally derived from the Italian bevere, to drink, has been considered by Baron de Cosson, with far more probability, to be derived from the Old French bavière (originally = a child’s bib, from bave, saliva).
The cleaning of armour is frequently alluded to in Inventories. In the Dover Castle Inventory of 1344 is mentioned ‘i barrelle pro armaturis rollandis’. Chain-mail was rolled in barrels with sand and vinegar to clean it, just as, inversely, barrels are cleaned in the country at the present day by rolling chains in them. The mending and cleaning of armour was of the first importance, and the travelling knight took with him an armourer who was provided with such things as ‘oil for dressing my lord’s harness, a thousand armyng nayles (rivets) a payre of pynsores, pomyshe (pumice stone), fylles, a hammer and all other stuffe and tools belonginge to an armorer’.[20]