103 Ane hundreth thousand men and ma. See Appendix C.
105 Armyt on hors. That is, the men alone wore armour, being thus distinguished from the knights “with helit hors,” or horses armoured also in bardings of leather or mail. Skeat rejects the reading of E in favour of “playn male,” taking “playn” to represent the French plein = “complete mail,” on the ground of Innes’s remark that the distinction between mail or ring-armour and plate, “if known, was not so specific in Barbour’s age.” But plates had been coming into use since the last quarter of the thirteenth century, and by 1300 the practice of attaching such additional defences was rapidly developing. See note on 131. In 1316 we read of “200 men armed in plate,” who were sent to Ireland from England (Bain, iii., p. 99, No. 519).
114 Of cartis. “The multitude of waggons (multitudo quadrigarum), if it had been extended in a line one behind the other, would have taken up a space of twenty leagues” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 202). The meaning of “league” is uncertain; apparently it was just a mile.
117 veschall. In Vita Edw. Sec. (pp. 206-7) the author speaks of “costly garments and gold (or gilt) plate” (vasa aurea). Baker of Swinbroke, in his Chronicon Angliæ (p. 55), also mentions the “plate of gold and silver,” and affirms that, in addition to an abundant supply of victuals, the English brought with them things which were wont to be seen only in times of peace on the luxurious tables of princes. Among the ornaments of the high altar of Aberdeen Cathedral in 1549 was “an old hood made of cloth of gold ... from the spoil of the Battle of Bannockburn” (Reg. Episc. Aberd., ii., p. 189).
119 schot. Arrows, and bolts for cross-bows. Cf. Bk. XIII. 311, and below, note on 544.
130 ryche weid. The rich flowing housings or drapery of the steeds, covering the armour, if any, as the “surcoat” of the knight did his.
131-*132. Armour was in a state of rapid transition, and so at this time is very complicated. An English brass of 1325 shows a knight wearing (1) a gambeson, or close-fitting quilted tunic, to ease the pressure of the armour; (2) a hauberk of banded or chain mail, with half-plates on the upper arm; (3) an habergeon (“hawbyrschown”), or lighter hauberk, apparently of small plates; (4) a haketon, another padded coat like the gambeson; (5) and a short surcoat. He has leggings of mail covering also the feet, and half-plates in addition from the knees to the toes: a hood of mail continued upward from the hauberk and a bascinet, or pointed, nut-shaped helmet, with no visor. Over this he would wear in battle such a heavy, closed, flat-topped helm as we see on the seal of Robert I. He carries a small triangular shield on his left arm, and his sword, a little more than half the body in length, hangs in front from a waist-belt. Such was probably the equipment of the leading knights at Bannockburn.
136 Till Berwick. The army was to assemble at Werk on the Tweed by Monday, June 10, 1314 (Foedera, iii., p. 481). But the start was made from Berwick on June 17 or 18 (Vita Edw., 201).