Throughout these early times the scabbard was of wood lined with leather or with velvet, and strengthened and adorned with leather bands; but when the owner was of high estate, it often bore enamels in the cloisonné style; that is, with patches of the coloured, vitreous substance bordered and fastened in by metal wire. In Spain this style, undoubtedly of foreign origin, was superseded in the thirteenth century by champlevé enamelling, in which the enamel lies within a hollowed ground.
Spanish mediæval weapons down to the fourteenth century are specified in the fuero of Cáceres and other documents contemporary with their use. Next always in importance to the sword we find the hatchet, lance, crossbow, and mace. Montaner's Chronicle of the Kings of Aragon tells us that the sovereign, mace in hand, dealt one of his enemies “such a blow upon his iron hat that his brains came oozing out at his ears.” Covarrubias mentions a dart-shaped missile called the azcona—a word which some authorities derive from the Arabic, and others from the Basque gascona, an arm employed by the natives of Gascony. The former derivation seems the likelier. The fuero of Cáceres mentions the tarágulo, described by the Count of Clonard as a kind of dagger; and at the close of the thirteenth century appears in Spain the poniard, which was called among the Germans Panzerbrecher, or “breaker of cuirasses,” and among the French the misericorde.
The fuero of Cáceres tells us, furthermore, what was the regular equipment of the Spanish foot and mounted soldier of that period. “Each horseman shall go forth to battle with a shield, a lance, a sword, and spurs; and he that carries not all these shall pay each time five sheep wherewith to feed the soldiers…. Each mounted man or pawn that trotteth not or runneth not to quit his town or village as he hears the call,—the first shall have his horse's tail cut off; the other shall have his beard clipped.”
Defensive arms included various kinds of coverings for the head; the lóriga or covering for the body, the cálcias or covering for the legs, and the shield.
The lóriga (Latin lorica) was the ordinary hauberk or shirt of mail, such as was worn all over military Europe, made of rings or scales sewed strongly on a linen or leather under-tunic consisting of a single piece, and reaching to the knee. The Gran Conquista de Ultramar of Alfonso el Sabio also informs us that it was tied at certain openings known as ventanas (“windows”), and that the collar of the tunic was called the gorguera. The resistance of the Spanish lóriga to a pointed weapon does not seem to have been great, for the Chronicle of the Monk of Silos says that at the siege of Viseo the arrows of the Moorish bowmen went through the triple lórigas of their foe.
Towards the twelfth century the custom arose of wearing over the coat of mail a loose, sleeveless frock (the Waffenrock of Germany), woven of linen or some other light material, painted or embroidered with the owner's arms. As the Count of Clonard observes, it is clearly this kind of frock that is referred to in the following passage of the Leyes de Partida: “For some (of the knights) placed upon the armour carried by themselves and by their horses,[109] signs that were different one from another, in order to be known thereby; while others placed them on their heads, or on their helmets.”
THE BATTLE OF LA HIGUERUELA
(Wall painting. Hall of Battles, El Escorial)
The Normans used a form of hauberk with attached mail-stockings. In Spain we find in lieu of this leg-covering, the Roman cálcia (Latin caliga), extending from the foot to just below the thigh, and subsequently called the brafonera.[110] This was, in fact, a separate mail-stocking, made of closely interlacing steel rings, and worn above the leather boots or trebuqueras.