No 14.
Armour of padded-work, a defence of a very high antiquity, and of a very wide adoption, was also probably in vogue; and also coats covered with scale-work; but these are difficult to be identified in the monuments of the time. The hauberks of the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Hastings are remarked to have been both short and small:—
"Corz haubers orent è petis,
E helmes de sor lor vestis."—Wace.
No 15.
In Anglo-Saxon illuminations, a very large majority of the fighting men appear to have no defensive armour at all but the helmet and shield; as in this example from a MS. of Prudentius, of the eleventh century, in the Tenison Library. The leg-bands seen on these figures, and on many others of the same period, were in common use among the soldiery. It is a fashion of which we find an early example in the calceus patricius of the Romans, and a remnant in the chequered hose of the Scottish Highlanders. Those of the Anglo-Saxons were generally wound round the leg, and then turned down and fastened below the knee. Sometimes they were tied in front; as may be seen in the Ethelwold Benedictional; and compare Stothard's Bayeux Tapestry, Plate iv. Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote in the beginning of the twelfth century, gives us incidentally the full arming of a warrior of the eleventh[107]. When Sigeward, duke of Northumberland, found death approaching him, not on the field of battle, but in the peaceful chamber, he exclaimed: "Quantus pudor me tot in bellis mori non potuisse, ut vaccarum morti cum dedecore reservarer. Induite me saltem lorica mea impenetrabili, præcingite gladio, sublimate galea: scutum in læva, securim auratam mihi ponite in dextra, ut militum fortissimus modo militis moriar. Dixerat: et ut dixerat, armatus honorifice exhalavit."
