No. 33.

The Hauberk was the chief knightly defence. It reached to the knees; the skirt sometimes opening in front, sometimes at the sides. The sleeves usually terminated at the elbow, but occasionally extended to the wrist. Sometimes the hauberk reached as high as the neck only, but more generally it was continued so as to form a coif, leaving only the face of the knight exposed to view. In many examples in the Bayeux tapestry, it is furnished with a kind of pectoral, the construction of which has not been ascertained: in other cases, the whole surface is of a uniform structure. In this rude but curious little figure from Harleian MS., 603[198], a work of the close of the eleventh century, probably executed in France, we have a good example of the hauberk of the period, with its short sleeves, and the skirts open in front for convenience of riding. This is exactly the hauberk of the Bayeux tapestry, though more clearly depicted here than in the needle-work of the tapestry. The rounds on the surface appear to be a conventional mode of representing chain-mail. The figure is that of Goliath, to whom therefore has been given the long beard and round target of the pagan Northmen. He wears, however, the conical nasal helmet of the knightly order.

In this example, from Cottonian MS., Nero, C. iv. fol. 13, written in France, about 1125, we have a curious instance of the hauberk with lateral openings at the skirt. It is remarkable also for the manner in which the sword is carried partially beneath the hauberk; a contrivance seen also in the Bayeux tapestry, (Plate vi.,) and of which analogous examples will be found throughout the middle-ages. In the figure before us, it will be observed that the defence is continued over the head as a coif or hood, and is surmounted by the usual conical nasal helmet, or "Casque Normand." The subject of which this forms part, is the Massacre of the Innocents. The stigma of a moustache is therefore added, in the same spirit as the beard was given to Goliath in the preceding example.

No. 34.

The continuous Coif to the hauberk is seen constantly in the Bayeux tapestry, (Stothard, Plates x. to xiii.). It occurs also on many of the seals of the twelfth century, (see our cuts, No. [27], [43] and [44];) and in vellum-paintings of this time, (see cuts [32], [34], [37] and [38]). The hood of mail made separately from the hauberk does not appear till the thirteenth century. The short sleeves of this garment are seen in our woodcuts [25], [32] and [38]. Examples of the long-sleeved hauberk occur in cuts [28], [37], [42] and [43].

The Haubergeon, as the name indicates, was a smaller hauberk; though it does not appear by the pictorial monuments of the middle ages in what it especially differed from the latter defence. While Duke William, preparing for the battle of Hastings,—

"Sun boen haubert fist demander;"

Bishop Odo—