Double mail is sometimes to be met with on carved monuments, and this would be constructed in the same manner as the single mail; but two links would be used together in every case where one is used in the single mail.
Having briefly described the varieties of fabric and material which were in use at the time of the Conquest for defensive armour, we may pass to the forms in which those materials were made up. The first garment put on by the man-at-arms was the Tunic, which was a short linen shirt reaching usually to just above the knee; it is often shown in miniatures of the period beneath the edge of the coat of mail.
At one period the tunic appears to have been worn inconveniently long, if we are to judge from the seals of Richard I, in which it is shown reaching to the feet. This long under-garment was quite given up by the beginning of the thirteenth century, and those representations of Joan of Arc which show a long under-tunic falling from beneath the breastplate are based upon no reliable authority.
Next to the tunic was worn the Gambeson, called also the Wambais and Aketon, a quilted garment, either used as the sole defence by the foot-soldier, or, by the knight, worn under the hauberk to prevent the chain-mail from bruising the body under the impact of a blow. The gambeson is shown on [Fig. 9], appearing beneath the edge of the hauberk just above the knee.
The Hauberk, which was worn over the gambeson, was the chief body defence. It is true that we read of a ‘plastron de fer’, which seems to have been a solid metal plate worn over the breast and sometimes at the back; but it was invariably put on either under the hauberk itself or over the hauberk, but always beneath the Jupon or surcoat, which at this period was the outermost garment worn. In either case it was not exposed to view, so it is impossible to tell with any degree of accuracy what was its shape or how it was fixed to the wearer. Hewitt[5] gives two illustrations of carved wooden figures in Bamberg Cathedral, which show a plastron de fer worn over the jupon, which seems to be studded with metal. The figures were executed about the year 1370. The form of the hauberk, as shown on the Bayeux Tapestry, was of the shirt order ([Plate I], 4, 6). It was usually slit to the waist, front and back, for convenience on horseback, and the skirts reached to the knee, thus protecting the upper leg. It is perhaps needless to point out that the extreme weight of mail with its thick padded undergarment made the use of a horse a necessity, for the weight was all borne upon the shoulders, and was not, as is the case with suits of plate, distributed over the limbs and body of the wearer. The sleeves of the hauberk were sometimes short; sometimes they were long and ended in fingerless mittens of mail. The three varieties of sleeve are shown on [Plate I], while the mittens turned back to leave the hand bare appear on the Setvans brass ([Plate III], 2).
Wace, the chronicler, seems to suggest different forms of defensive habiliments, for we find mention of a short form of the hauberk, called the Haubergeon. In his Roman de Rou he writes of Duke William at the Battle of Senlac:—
Sun boen haubert fist demander,[6]
while of Bishop Odo he says:—
Un haubergeon aveit vestu
De sor une chemise blanche.
The fact that he mentions the tunic (‘chemise blanche’) seems to imply that it was seen beneath the hem of the haubergeon, which would not be the case with the long-skirted hauberk. Occasionally in illuminated manuscripts the hauberk is shown slit at the sides; but for what purpose it is difficult to imagine, for it would impede the wearer when walking and would make riding an impossibility.