As is well-known, at Crecy, and in many other battles, the English archers shot down or wounded the horses of the French knights so considerably that, in their pain and terror, the maddened horses upset the ranks of the cavalry and quite destroyed its efficiency.
At first, archers were not protected by body armour, but in later times they wore jazerine jackets, consisting of overlapping pieces of steel, fastened by one edge to a garment of canvas, and then covered over with velvet or cloth.
A similar defensive garment of the 15th and 16th centuries was the brigandine, a specimen of which may be seen in the Tower of London. Archers often wore salades, or shell helmets, which covered the head and eyes, and sometimes had movable visors.
PLATE 25.
(Fig. 1): An English archer of the 15th century, wearing a salade with movable visor to protect the head. It will be noticed that he has stuck 67-68 some arrows into his girdle, so that they may be “handy” for shooting. See Fig. 8 also, and compare with Fig. 7. (From Royal MS., 14 E. iv.) (Fig. 2): An English salade. This was worn by archers, and it also formed the usual head-piece for soldiers about the time of Henry VI. (Wars of the Roses.) (Fig. 3): A Brigandine, from a specimen in Warwick Castle. (Figs. 4 and 5): Quarrels, quarells, or bolts, for shooting from the cross-bow or arbalest. Fig. 4 is feathered; Fig. 5 is from the Tower of London. (Fig. 5a): A bird-bolt, used for shooting birds from a “sporting” cross-bow. (Fig. 6): An English arrow of the ordinary form during the Middle Ages, showing the sharp projection of the barb, which rendered the extraction a difficult and painful matter. (Fig. 7): An English archer using the long-bow, and cross-bowman winding up his cross-bow. It will be noticed that the former is left-handed, as the arrow was usually drawn back with the right hand and shot from the right shoulder. He has arranged his arrows for shooting by sticking them, point downwards, into the ground at his side. Both he and the cross-bowman are wearing jazerine jackets, but the former has a camail and a chain mail jacket beneath it. The cross-bowman has, hanging from his girdle, a leathern bag, to contain the quarrels for his cross-bow. (Fig. 8): A sea-fight, showing four archers using the long-bow, one cross-bowman, and one soldier using the military flail. One of the archers has placed his arrows in his belt, as in Fig. 1. (From the Cambridge MS. of the “Greater Chronicles,” by Matthew Paris, who died 1259 A.D.)
[EARLY CANNON.]
The discovery of gunpowder, which, by degrees, totally changed military tactics and the constitution of armies, was the event that most powerfully influenced warfare in the Middle Ages. Very little is known about its actual invention. It is supposed that Greek fire, which was used with such terrifying and destructive effect in warfare, particularly in sieges, consisted of the three ingredients of gunpowder, with resin and naphtha in addition.