Besides the curved heater of the last century, which appears in the great seal of Edward II., 1307, and in several monumental effigies, others of Norman heater form No. 2 appear with the upper corners cut off and sometimes rounded. Refer to an effigy in Norton Church, Durham, engraved in Surtees History, vol. iii, p. 155 (see No. 52), while in illuminated MSS. shields occur with the bouche deeply cut and the base of the shield curved outwards. This curved outward turning will be discussed while speaking of similar shields found in the next century. Two which occur in Bamberg Cathedral are engraved Archæological Journal, vol. ii, p. 217, and in Hewitt's Armour, vol. ii, pp. 138-9, and are specially curious (see No. 55); and several are shown from Harl. MS. 14379, and engraved in Cutts, p. 434.
59 [see Plate iv].
Shields on monumental effigies almost, if not entirely, disappear in the course of this century, and in battles and tournaments in ancient MSS. of this date the knights are more usually represented without shields. Such is the fact; the reason being that defensive armour had been added to and improved, and increased in respect of weight, as experiences of war showed the contingencies against which it was desirable to be protected. The shield, therefore, became an encumbrance to the mounted knight, while so perfect was his case of steel, and so admirably fitted and designed, that the shield was no longer required. We notice that this general discarding of shields by mounted knights begins about the latter half of this fourteenth century among the wealthy and powerful, who could procure expensive and perfect suits of mail. It is in memory of such only that costly monumental effigies were erected, and, as a consequence, the shields formerly shown carved by the side of the knights now entirely disappear from effigies. The reasons here put forward are quite borne out by other evidences. Monumental brasses, which now lend their assistance to our search, were far less costly memorials than such effigies. Some of the earliest of these represent the dead knight as he appeared in his life, with, his shield upon the arm; but in the course of the following fifteenth century these, too, follow the fashion we find prevailing in MS. illustrations, and the shields are only used for the purposes of heraldry, and are relegated into the corners of the brass, or up among its tabernacle work.
While on this subject of suits of mail, I may with advantage overstep the limits of this century—as, indeed, I have already done—and mention that such went on increasing so greatly in protective perfectness, and, pari passu, in their oppressive weight, that a knight falling off the horse upon which he had been placed lay perfectly helpless; and history records many times that they were slain by clowns and boys while lying helpless on the ground. When the style of protective armour became so exaggerated, a man so hampered could do little more than hold his spear and guide his horse. Until at last, about the year 1602, King James I. summed up the past experience of armour thus:—"It was an admirable invention, which preserved a man from being injured,—and made him incapable of injuring any one else."
In some books it is stated that the introduction and gradually increasing use of gunpowder in war led by degrees to the abandonment of shields; but the above evidences completely refute such an idea. Heavy mail armour, exaggerated into an absurdity—as pointed out by King James—did so disappear when it became evident that such afforded no protection whatever against a small bit of well-directed lead. But shields had already been abandoned by the knights,—long before, at a period when gunpowder was as yet a great and rare mystery.
Besides, we find round shields were still in continued use by the foot-soldiery, when every battlefield was contested with fire and sword—the smoke as well as the din of battle.
Moreover, examples have come down to us of such shields with fixed pistols projecting through, and with a peep-hole for sighting. Thus shields were made the handmaid of gunpowder; and, as a matter of fact, they were in use by foot soldiers so late as the middle of the seventeenth century.