Monograms are not often seen on armour of English make, but they were common in Germany towards the end of the fifteenth century, when armour was occasionally inscribed with the year. The comparatively few instances of dated armour are intensely valuable, as we have then no inferences or doubtful ancestral legends, but the actual year of make. Examples of both fifteenth and sixteenth centuries occur at Nuremberg and Berlin. There is an idea generally prevailing that the stature of the men of the middle ages was shorter than nowadays. After the comparison of many suits, both at home and abroad, it is certain that this is not the case, but the average development of the calf of the leg is greater now. An ordinary-sized leg of to-day would not fit into the average cuisse and jamb of the sixteenth century, but it must be remembered that a very large proportion of the suits preserved, made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, were for Italy, South Germany, France, and Spain. The build and stature of these peoples were slighter than that of the Englishman. The wearers spent such a large proportion of their time on horseback, that the calves of their legs were naturally like those of the “horsey” man of to-day.
From early in the sixteenth century the changes were greatly matters of detail, the differences in suits being principally those of form. The shell or tile-formed tuilles, after having been in use for nearly a century, gave place to the more comprehensive tassets of overlapping plates. Épaulières developed into pauldrons, which gradually increased in size, covering both shoulders and upper-arm, and at length extended over each breast, and then diminished again in size. Pikeguards were introduced to protect the neck from pike thrusts, and there are instances of these plates as early as the middle of the century. Sometimes they are double on each shoulder—see the brass at Qui, Cambridgeshire. In cases where a pikeguard appears on one shoulder only, a close examination will generally reveal holes for the fixing of its fellow. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, or a few years later, the so-called “Maximilian” armour superseded that termed “Gothic,” when a large proportion of this armour (the “Maximilian”) was fluted everywhere except the jambs. It had pauldrons, with pikeguards, and great “bear-paw” or “cow-mouth” shaped sollerets. This style became à la mode, in imitation of the prevailing fashion in dress, which was then largely puffed and slashed. It must be understood, however, that fluted suits were in a majority of the armour made, but not to the exclusion of plain armour. The cuirass is shorter than in the later Gothic form; it is more globose, with the top cut straight, and the breastplate is usually in one piece. The headpiece is the armet and burgonet. Sliding rivets (Almayne) gave increased elasticity to armour of this period. As may be seen from some notes in Archæologia, vol. li., p. 168, written by Viscount Dillon, P.S.A., the term “Almayne rivets” was sometimes applied to complete harnesses; for an order sent to Florence by Henry VIII., in 1512, runs: “The 2000 complete harness, called Almayne ryvettes, were to be alway a salet, a gorget, a breastplate, a backplate, and a pair of splints (tassets) for every complete harness at 16s. the set.” There is a sixteenth century specimen of an armourer’s pincers, with claw and hammer head for riveting armour, in the Rotunda collection at Woolwich. It was soon found that arms of attack would not glance so well off fluted suits, and smooth armour was again generally reverted to. Blackened armour was not uncommon at this time; and a black, white, or coloured tunic of stuff was often worn over bright. The first instance of black armour that we have met with is mentioned by Froissart, under the year 1359.[18] While in “Gothic” armour the taste of the period found expression in beauty of outline, already in the fifteenth century it had become fashionable to have armour engraved and otherwise ornamented. Perhaps the only brass that is to be seen in Spain represents a beautiful specimen of inlaid armour; the figure is of Don Parafan, Duke of Alcola, who died in 1571. The pikeguard has ceased, sollerets are the shape of the foot, and he wears a morion. The morion and cabasset were late sixteenth and seventeenth century helmets, while armets and burgonets were greatly worn early in the sixteenth. Late in the fifteenth and during the sixteenth centuries there was a description of armour called “penny-plate.” It consisted of round pieces of steel riveted on to leather. There is a specimen of this kind of armour at the Rotunda, Woolwich.
By the end of the fifteenth century heavy tilting-suits had attained their greatest strength, and as the sixteenth century advanced so did ornamentation. Under the Emperor Maximilian skirts or petticoats of plate began to be worn—another illustration of the influence exercised on armour by the prevailing fashion in dress, in fact the form was reproduced in the surcoat before 1470; and indeed the application of taces during the fourteenth and early in the fifteenth centuries, before the introduction of tuilles, was also something in the same fashion. These skirts were called bases or lamboys. There is an example in the Tower of London, and another on the Hertford tomb (1568). Another example is in the author’s collection, of which a detailed description and drawing is given later in these pages ([Fig. 25]). These lamboys were specially designed for fighting on foot, but there is often an arrangement by which a portion is detachable in order to enable the wearer to sit on horseback. There is a style of armour the Germans call “Pfeifenharnisch,” which has embossed pipings in high relief like puffs. Such a harness was made by Hans Seusenhofer for Prince Charles, later the Emperor Charles V. Visors of this period were often wrought in the form of a grotesque face. There is more than one example at Vienna, and indeed they were far from uncommon; the author possesses a couple. Bards had become highly decorated, and with the housings were sometimes designed in close imitation of the dress fabrics of the period. Such a suit of bards on a charger, on which is mounted a rider in a piped suit of the “Maximilian” type, may be seen in the Kungl. Lifrustkammar, in Stockholm. An illustration is given in [Fig. 3].
Fig. 3.—Mounted Suit with Bards, in the Kungl. Lifrustkammar Collection, Stockholm.
Towards the end of this century (the sixteenth) defensive armour had reached its highest point of development. Tassets gradually became lowered to cover the knees in a series of lobster-shell plates, as on a brass of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, that of Sir William Harper, in St. Paul’s Church, Bedford. Examples of these elongated cuisses occur, however, much earlier. Jambs and sollerets were at length laid aside in favour of jackboots, and plate armour fell gradually into disuse, mainly owing to the new tactics rendered necessary by the general use of firearms, and the growing desirability of lightly-armed squadrons and companies; indeed, before the accession of Elizabeth the use of armour in campaigning had ceased to be a sine qua non, and, all regulations notwithstanding, a constantly increasing proportion of campaigners, especially among the infantry, insisted on discarding it. It became at length more used for purposes of display rather than for actual service, and hence armour became more and more decorative. There is a scarcity of plate armour of the fourteenth century, and but little remains of the fifteenth. This is not surprising, as the quantity made in those days was strictly limited; but what does seem strange is the scarcity of armour of the sixteenth century, and especially of the first half, over which time such immense quantities were in use. One explanation of this may be found in Archæologia, vol. li., p. 222, when Viscount Dillon gives examples of great quantities of armour having been converted, during Elizabeth’s reign, into “targets” and “jacks” for the navy.
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Now that the armour period has been roughly covered, the evolution of each important piece will be followed to its decadence, when hand-to-hand fighting was rarer, and strategy in masses more developed, as the proud knight had at length become of minor importance as against organised infantry, which was now “the strength of the battle,” and when the use of various weapons of attack, especially the harquebus, became general. Tactics in warfare were at a very low ebb during the fourteenth century, and the military scandals of that time were many. Agincourt is an example of confusion among the French ranks that had many parallels at the time; but with the advent of the fifteenth century, much systematic improvement was effected. It was not before the reign of Elizabeth that any large body of troops could advance in close column without breaking its formation. Armies in the sixteenth century no longer consisted of mere feudal and communal levies, but were organised into companies and regiments, the battalion becoming the recognised unit for the infantry in the reign of James I. Systematic tactics were introduced, and the proper proportions of horse, foot, and artillery in the field determined. The effective use of gunpowder in battle, and its influence on armour and tactics, was very gradual, but during the sixteenth century it progressively compassed great changes in both. Boys in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were taught the use and practice of arms at an early age. An interesting group of boys’ harnesses, of various sizes and periods, may be seen at the Dresden Museum. Numerous dints on the armour, some of them heavy, show that very hard knocks had been exchanged.
The mode indicated of treating the subject will be clearer than any attempt made at elaborate contemporary classification as a whole. Representative suits, especially from local and foreign collections, will now be taken more or less in detail, thus showing the combinations of the various periods they represent, leaving separate chapters for tilting suits, extra tilting pieces, and the tournament generally, besides enriched armour and a slight sketch of prominent armour-smiths, and some of the most important collections of arms and armour.
A large proportion of the armour used in England continued to be imported from Italy and Germany. Henry VIII. bought and received in presents, harnesses, both for foot-fighting and horseback, from these countries; indeed, the trade in armour and arms formed a not inconsiderable item in the importations of the Hanseatic Bund already mentioned, and the bulk of the armour in private collections of fifteenth and sixteenth century make is of German or Italian origin. Not only was armour imported, but foreign smiths and artificers, principally of German nationality, known as Almayne armourers, were introduced. Milan armourers were working at Greenwich in 1514.[19] Exportation from England was not allowed without royal licence.