Fig. 13.—Sallads and an early Burgonet.
BURGONET.
This is a helmet of the sixteenth century of Burgundian origin, as its name implies, with a hollow rim at the bottom, which fitted over the projecting edge of the gorget. It was made in close imitation of the head, and in either three or four parts. This helmet was designed to meet a defect in the armet, for there was a weak place, where the casque came in contact with the body armour. This arrangement permitted the head to move freely to the right or left without leaving the neck unguarded. There is a handsome specimen of the first half of the sixteenth century at the Rotunda, Woolwich, weighing nearly eight pounds, with a fluted crown-piece, and round the neck a wreath of roses is engraved. There are holes in the crown for the wreath and mantling. There are some important beaked varieties at Dresden and Berlin. The more modern burgonet has neck-guard and oreillettes or ear-flaps of steel. An illustration of an early burgonet is given in [Fig. 13].
MORION, CABASSET, AND CASQUE.
The morion first appeared in England in the reign of Henry VI., and was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, who got the design from the Moors, as the word implies. It is an oval helmet, and has a high comb-like crest and almost semicircular brim, peaked at both ends. The cabasset is a helmet similar in character to the morion, and generally peaked. Both varieties were worn for foot fighting, and are often lighter than earlier helmets, and usually richly engraved. The Baron de Cosson[26] says that “the cabasset first appears in an ‘ordonnance’ of Francis I., who orders that men-at-arms wear the armet, light horse the sallad, and ‘les arquebusiers seulement le cabasset pour viser mieux et avoir la tête plus délivre.’ The cabasset did not impede the aim, and was therefore the proper headpiece of the musketeer.” Casques are open helmets like the others, and of classical design. There are illustrations of a cabasset in [Fig. 11], and of bassinets, morions, etc., in [Fig. 49].
GORGET AND MENTONNIÈRE, OR BAVIER (BEVOR).
The mentonnière was used specially with the sallad, and the chin-piece fulfils the same purpose with that helmet as the bavier does with the armet; it fastens on to the breastplate by a staple and cusped catch, or goes partly under that piece. The upper portion, to cover the mouth and chin, is of laminated plates, which move up and down at pleasure, but always from below. In conjunction with the sallad, it has this advantage over the visored bassinet of allowing a free supply of air, and only required to be closed just before an onset. This piece is generally omitted in effigies, for obvious reasons; but there is an example on a brass already referred to at Qui, Cambridgeshire, of a date near the middle of the fifteenth century. The actual piece is, of course, to be seen on almost any suit of the period. There is a specimen at the Royal Artillery Institute. The portion going over the chest is, of course, a sort of gorget; but the gorget proper is the piece for the neck, going all round towards the shoulders and back, closing with sliding rivets. This piece followed the mentonnière, and was certainly not common before the beginning of the sixteenth century; but there are much earlier examples, for instance, a gorget with a turned-down collar at the throat is attributed to Albrecht Achilles of Brandenburg, 1414–86. It is a piece closely connected with “Maximilian” armour, and prevailed up to the decadence and after. We find an early instance of the plate gorget on a brass of the D’Eresby family in Spilsby Church, Lincolnshire, representing armour of a date very late in the fourteenth century—this covers a gorget of chain-mail. A brass of Sir John Fitzwaryn in Wantage Church, Berkshire, shows the plate gorget pure and simple. The date of this monument is 1414. Towards the end of the sixteenth century it was far from uncommon to find the gorget joined on to the shoulder-pieces.
THE CUIRASS.
The cuirass consists of breastplate and backplate, which pieces are usually fastened together by straps and buckles, but screws are sometimes used, especially for tournament armour. It was probably introduced into England in the reign of Henry V., and the form is an excellent guide as to date. The word, or rather its prototype “quirettæ,” occurs in a “Roll of Purchases” (1278) preserved in the Tower of London. The armour for the breast was considered next in importance to that for the head, and inventories of the fifteenth century frequently refer to “pairs of plates, large, globose,” which sufficiently indicate the period. Breastplates were used by the Franks in the eighth century, and probably by the Norsemen about the same time; that of the fourteenth century was without the salient ridge in front called the tapul. The Rev. T. N. Roberts, vicar of Cornforth, county Durham, to whom the author is indebted for several hints, reminds him that it is difficult to say whether it is correct to speak of the fourteenth century breastplate as a cuirass or not. In effigies, brasses, and illuminations this part of the armour is always concealed by the jupon. When the jupon disappeared (temp. Henry V.) the breastplate is revealed always in two pieces; afterwards (temp. Edward IV.) in only one piece, as a true cuirass. On a monument in Ash Church, Kent (dating about 1335), where the lacing of the surcoat at the side permits the body defences to be seen, “rectangular plates like tiles riveted into a flexible garment” are discernible. The only remains of an actual cuirass of fourteenth century date were found at the castle of Tannenberg. The figure of St. George in the Cathedral square at Prague has a flexible garment covered with very small rectangular plates like tiles, and over this a breastplate—not a complete cuirass. All this leads one to suppose that fourteenth century breastplates were not cuirasses so much as additional plates of various shapes over the hauberk, the skirts of which appear below the jupon on effigies, etc., of the fourteenth century. Still, it must be remembered that an effigy of the preceding century in the Temple Church exhibits both front and back plates. The standard of mail is a feature of the close of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries. It was designed to protect the weak place between the gorget and top of the cuirass—it grew, in fact, out of the camail. Almost all effigies of the period exhibit these pieces. The tapul first appeared in the fifteenth century; this ridge after being discontinued reappears later, when it often swelled out to a hump, either over or below the navel. This, indeed, was a decided feature of the second half of the sixteenth century, when the cuirass had often one overlapping plate under the arm. Occasionally it was provided with transverse bars, forming a cross. The Gothic type is very beautiful, and is usually in two or three plates, the second rising to a point in the middle of the breast, and the third running nearly parallel with it and converging to a point below it. At the top of the breast is a socket for attachment to the mentonnière by a cusp-headed bolt. There are, however, exceptions to this, as shown in examples at the Dresden Museum, where the top of the breastplate projects in a piping. In one of these cases an open helmet had been worn, and the suit probably used by the leader of a company. A suit of which an illustration is given in [Fig. 18], shows how the mentonnière goes under the cuirass. The same would also be the case in [Fig. 19], but here the mentonnière is missing. The English form of the fifteenth century is usually in two plates, as in the Redmarshal and Downes effigies.[27] The first examples occur before the middle of the century.
The lance-rest is on the right breast, and on the left are screw holes for a tilting shoulder-guard when this piece is used, or for a grand-guard. The Maximilian form, which followed the Gothic, is sometimes in one piece with the taces—that is to say, riveted with them—and is more globular in character. In the sixteenth century the cuirass is lower and flatter, and cut straight at the top, and frequently had the tapul already mentioned. In the middle of the century it tends to lengthen somewhat, and is provided with a ridge along the top and round the arm-holes for turning a stroke, and has often, as already mentioned, a single lamination round the arm-holes. A feature of the breastplate about 1560 is the hump or projection over the navel; while usually a little later we have the “peascod” form, where the projection is found lower down. The “peascod” is obviously copied from the doublet of the period, but whence the idea of the middle hump sprang we cannot say. The cuirass made specially for tilting is fully described under the heading of “tilting suits.” In the seventeenth century the breastplate becomes very flat and very short.