The great seal of King Stephen here given affords an instance of this method. Compare also woodcut No. [41]. This, if not another conventional mode of representing interlinked chain-mail, may be intended for quilted armour. A third kind of engraving presents a number of raised half-circles covering the surface of the hauberk. See woodcut No. [26]. This, though often described as scale-armour, seems to be no more than the ordinary chain-mail, the difficulty of representing which threw the middle-age artists upon a variety of expedients to obtain a satisfactory result. In the fourth method, lines of half-circles placed contiguously cover the whole exterior of the garment; and that this is another mode of indicating chain-mail is clearly proved by the similar work found on monuments of all kinds, even to the sixteenth century. See woodcut No. [1], fig. 1.

From this glimpse at the seals and tapestries, (and the illuminated manuscripts of the period contribute similar testimony,) we may gather that the artists of this day had no uniform method of depicting the knightly harness; so that, instead of endeavouring to find a different kind of armour for every varying pattern of the limners, we should rather regard the varied patterns of the limners as so many rude attempts to represent a few armours. In the following sketch we have collected some of the methods in use at various times to indicate the ordinary interlinked chain-mail.

No. 31.

Figure 1 is the most usual, and is found from the twelfth century to the sixteenth. See woodcut No. [1], the seal of King Richard I. Late examples occur in the brass of Sir William Molineux, 1548[193]; in the sculptured effigy of Sir Giles Daubeny in Westminster Abbey; and in the statue of Sir Humfrey Bradburne, on his monument in Ashborne Church, Derbyshire, 1581. Fig. 2 is seen on our woodcuts [32], [37], and [53], from manuscript miniatures: it occurs in sculpture among the effigies of the Temple Church, London. Fig. 3 is of frequent appearance. See woodcut No. [59]. The most ancient monumental brass extant, that of Sir John D'Aubernoun, (woodcut [55],) also exhibits this mode of indicating the armour. Fig. 4 occurs in the brass of Sir Richard de Buslingthorpe, c. 1280, figured by Waller, Part x. Fig. 5 is from one of the effigies in the Temple Church: the lines are undulating channels in the stone. Fig. 6 is from the sculptured effigy of Rudolf von Thierstein, at Basle: engraved in Hefner's Costumes, part ii., Plate xli. Fig. 7 occurs on the monumental statue of Sir Walter Arden, in Aston Church, Warwickshire[194]. Fig. 8 is found in early woodcuts: as in the Morte d'Arthur, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1498. Fig. 9: an early example of this marking occurs in Willemin's Monuments Inédits, vol. i., Plate 30; a late one (sixteenth century) in the incised slab of a Bagot, in the church of Blithfield, Staffordshire. Fig. 10: a variety of the foregoing. See Hefner's Trachten, part i., Plate lxv., and part ii., Plate xxxiv. Fig. 11: from an ivory chess-piece of the thirteenth century: woodcut No. [69]. The lines are incised, the rounds are punctured. Fig. 12 is a very frequent pattern. It appears in the Bayeux tapestry, in manuscript miniatures, and in ivory carvings. See the chess-piece engraved in Archæologia, xxiv. 238, from the Isle of Lewis; and compare the figures of that very curious Asiatic roll in the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society. Fig. 13: this trellis-work is common in seals of the twelfth century. See our woodcuts No. [30] and [41]. The lozenges are slightly sunk, the fillets in relief. Fig. 14: found in the Bayeux tapestry; in the Bible de St. Martial of the Imperial Library of Paris, twelfth century; and in Add. MS., 15,277, of the fifteenth century, where the mailing is expressed throughout in this manner. The Asiatic roll named above has it also. Fig. 15: from the statuette of "Sir de la Tremouille," 1514, in the collection at Goodrich Court. The figure is of steel, and the squares appear to have been formed by a punch. Fig. 16: from the sculptured effigy of a Berkeley in Bristol Cathedral. The markings are channels in the stone. Fig. 17: from Roy. MS., 14, E. iv. The mailing in this volume is expressed by close, fine lines: the manuscript is of the fifteenth century. Fig. 18: the honeycomb-work found on early seals. The great seal of King Stephen (woodcut [42]) affords a good example. The rounds are depressed, the edges have a reticulated appearance. Figs. 19 and 20: from the illuminations of a Sanscrit MS. in the British Museum, (Add. MSS., 15,295-7.) These very curious volumes abound in armed figures, which are large, and carefully finished. Fig. 21: from Egerton MS., No. 809, twelfth century; and Add. MS. 15,268, of the thirteenth century. Fig. 22: from Harleian MS., 2803. This differs but little from fig. 20; but fig. 20 has more of the scale form, while this is rather of ring-work. Fig. 23 is a marking found in early etchings, and very well represents the texture of chain-mail.

As we have already seen, the Body-armours which may most safely be assigned to early Norman times are chain-mail, quilted-work, jazerant, scale, and a small proportion of plate used as an additional protection to the breast: the materials, iron, leather, and horn, with wool, tow, or cotton for quilting pourpointed defences. The ordinary series of body-garments worn by the knight are the Tunic, the Gambeson and the Hauberk. The Surcoat, though found in some rare instances at the close of the twelfth century, does not become a characteristic part of the knightly equipment till the thirteenth century.

The Tunic appearing from beneath the hauberk may be seen in the seals of Alexander I. of Scotland, and of Richard I. of England, (cuts [1] and [27],) and in the accompanying group from Harleian Roll, Y. 6, the "Life of Saint Guthlac," a work of the close of the twelfth century. Compare also woodcuts [34], [35], and [40]. We have already had written notice of this garment in the "blautann panzara" of the Speculum Regale. Wace gives it also to Bishop Odo, for the field of Hastings:—

"Un haubergeon aveit vestu
De sor une chemise-blanche."