"Le chaple commence aus espees,
Dont là a de maintes manieres.
Sus hyaumes e sus cervelieres
Prennent plommees à descendre,
E hachetes, pour tout porfendre."
And when, in the same year 1264, the Earl of Leicester assembled his army on Barham Downs, in addition to the ordinary military levy, every township was required to send eight, six, or four footmen well armed with spears, bows and arrows, swords, cross-bows, and hatchets. (New Rymer, 444.)
From the collection of thirteenth-century Proverbs, which has already supplied us with several curious particulars of this early time, we learn that the "Haches de Dannemark" held the first place among the axes of the period: but whether this distinction is accorded for the form or the manufacture of the weapon, is not clear. Matthew Paris speaks of it under 1256: "Cum jaculis——Danisque securibus et gesis[371]——hostiliter insequuntur."
The "Danish Axe" is mentioned in several military tenures of this century; but a more remote antiquity is usually assigned to the origin of the grant itself. The weapon (more or less original) was always exhibited with great pride in the family mansion. Dugdale tells us that Plumpton in Warwickshire "was possest in Henry 3. time by one Walter de Plompton, who held these lands by a certain weapon called a Danish Axe: which, being the very Charter whereby the said land was given unto one of his Ancestors, hung up for a long time in the Hall of the capitall messuage belonging thereto, in testimony of the said tenure; untill that the said House was seized upon by Sir John Bracebrigge, Knight, Lord of Kingsburie in Edward 3. time, and pulled to the ground: After which it remained a great while in the Hall of the mansion belonging to William de Plompton, in Hardreshull (about two miles distant), being commonly reputed and called the Charter of Plomton[372]."
And in the 12th Edw. I.: "Robertus Hurding tenet unam acram terrae et unum furnum in villa Castri de Lanceveton (Launceston, co. Cornwall) nomine serjantiae essendi in Castro de Lanceveton cum uno Capello ferreo et una Hachet Denesh per xl. dies tempore guerrae ad custum suum proprium, et post xl. dies, si Dominus Castri velit ipsum tenere in eodem Castro, erit ad custus ipsius domini[373]."
The Mace is both named and pictured in evidences of this century. Matthew Paris, describing the disasters of a tournament near Hertford in 1241, adds: "Many other knights and men-at-arms were also wounded and seriously injured with maces (clavis) at this same tournament, because the jealousy of many of those concerned had converted the sport into a battle[374]." This and similar mishaps led to the mace, with other weapons, being interdicted at these pastimes; for in a "Statutum Armorum ad Torniamenta" of this century, it is ordered by the king "qe nul Chivaler ne Esquier qe sert al Turney ne porte espeie a point, ne cotel a point, ne bastoun, ne mace, fors espee large pur turneer[375]." Pictured examples of the mace occur in Roy. MS. 20, D. i., ff. 12 and 69; and on Plate xxxiii. of the Painted Chamber. The striking part is formed in the manner of a cogged wheel: the top sometimes terminates in a knob; sometimes it is prolonged into a pike.
The Bâton named in the above Statute was probably no more than a stout cudgel. The form of the tournament bâton of a later time is given in full detail in the "Tournois du roi René."
The long-handled weapons of the infantry named in this century are the Guisarme, the Godendac, the Croc, the Faus, the Faussar, and the Pilete.
The Guisarme, or Pole-axe, has already been described, (ante, p. [50]). It is named by Matthew Paris: "Gestabant autem gladios, bipennes, gaesa, sicas et anelacios." It occurs also in the Statute of Winchester: "E que ad meyns des chateus de xl. soudes, seyt juree as faus, gysarmes, coteaux e autres menus armes." The Pole-axe with a single vertical blade is seen in a miniature of the thirteenth century, inserted into the Gospels of Mac Durnan in the Lambeth Library (figured in Westwood's Palæographia); and it appears again in the Lives of the Offas, Cott. MS., Nero, D. i.