"Un haubergeon aveit vestu."
The Duke was armed with lance and sword; the Prelate—
"Un baston teneit en son poing."
All which seems to shew that Odo was equipped as a light-armed fighter. And perhaps we may gather from the prominent notice accorded to his "white tunic," that it was the shortness of the haubergeon which caused that garment to be so particularly remarked. In documents of the thirteenth century, the haubergeon is distinguished from the hauberk and gambeson, taking its place between them. Thus the Statute of Arms of 1252 directs every man, according to the rate of his lands and chattels, to provide himself with the lorica, or with the habergetum, or with the perpunctum. And the Statute of Winchester, in 1285, makes the same distinction. From Guillaume Guiart we learn that this garment was of mail:—
"Armez de cotes a leurs tailles,
Et de bons hauberjons a mailles."—Sub an. 1304.
And the Teloneum S. Audomari has: "Lorica, iv. denar.; Lorica minor, quæ vulgo Halsbergol dicitur, ii. den."
Body-armour of Leather is found throughout the middle ages. According to Wace, some of the Norman soldiers in the Conqueror's train had defences of this material fastened to their breasts:—
"Alquanz unt bones coiriés,
K'il unt à lor ventre liés."—Line 12,809.
And Guillaume le Breton in the "Philippidos" has,—