It may profitably be mentioned again here that dates on monuments are those of demise. The armour, therefore, may be much earlier, sometimes a generation or so before the date of death; and it was common, nay, usual, for a knight to bequeath his suit or suits to his sons or other persons. For instance, Guy de Beauchamp, who died in 1316, bequeathed to his eldest son his best coat of mail, helmet, etc.; and to his son John, his second suit. It is obvious, however, that many effigies represent the fashion of armour prevailing at the date of demise, or even later. Mixed armour in France went well into the fifteenth century. Broadly speaking, mixed armour was used in England during the last quarter of the thirteenth to the end of the fourteenth century, but nearly full-plate armour began to be seen there in the reign of Richard II. It had, however, been in vogue in Germany and Italy for some decades before it was generally worn by the English, and it is probable that the earlier complete suits in England were imported from Germany or Italy, which countries set the fashion. Studded armour was not uncommon during the second half of the fourteenth century, and even earlier. The effigy of Gunther von Schwarzburg, King of the Romans (1349), shows the body armour to have been of mail, with reinforcing plates for the arms and legs, on which blank and studded lengths are interspersed. He wears the bassinet with camail. The following examples will show to some extent the progress of the evolution in Belgium. A figure in the library at Ghent, of Willem Wenemaer, wears genouillières and jambs of plate, otherwise clad in mail (1325). The sword is covered with a Latin inscription. A brass at Porte de Hal, Brussels, shows John and Gerard de Herre (1398) in mixed armour. On a brass in the Cathedral at Bruges, dated 1452, Martin de Visch has a full armament of plate, excepting the gorget, which is covered by a standard of mail.
This continuous strengthening of armour was clearly rendered necessary by the ever-increasing power and temper of weapons of attack, which was met by a corresponding effort at defence on the part of the armour-smith. We have the same sort of thing to-day in the constant competition between armour-plates and heavy guns. Then, again, weapons were invented to attack some vif de l’harnois, or vulnerable place, which was parried in its turn by an alteration or addition in the harness to resist it. The mortality in these days in battle was chiefly on the defeated side, and it took place mostly among the unhorsed combatants.
The crusades exercised a cosmopolitan influence over both arms and armour in Europe, not only in the introduction of new forms from the East, but also in a general assimilation of fashion among the nations of chivalry. The military administration of these two centuries of disastrous warfare, in and towards Palestine, was simply deplorable; and no reasonable provision was made against eventualities; hence plague, leprosy, and famine played havoc among the Christian hosts. The institution of quasi-religious orders of knighthood, however, did much to redeem these ill-starred expeditions from absolute chaos.
The formation of these religious military orders was an outcome of the proselytising zeal of the earlier “middle ages,” brought into play by the first crusade. The movement was, to some extent, a fusion of the Church with the military caste for warring against the infidel for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. A living faith, boundless devotion, and self-sacrifice characterised these orders in the early stages of their existence, and the principles of charity and humility were strictly enjoined and practised with all men except the infidel, against whom they waged a pitiless war, not only in the East but in Europe also. The Grand Master of the order of St. Lazarus was always chosen from among lepers. The vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience soon, however, became “more honoured in the breach than in the observance;” and as these orders became rich, luxurious, and powerful, they began to nourish ambitions and practices quite at variance with the principles under which they were instituted. As their machinations began to be directed against all authority, and even against thrones and religion itself, they were deprived of many of their privileges, and some were suppressed altogether.
The shoulder-pieces called “ailettes” first appeared in France. They were in use in England late in the thirteenth century, but, as they fell into disuse in the fourteenth, there are not likely to be any actual examples preserved, and they rarely occur on monuments. These pieces assume various shapes, but the usual one is a rectangular figure, longer than it is broad, standing over the shoulders horizontally, perpendicularly, or diagonally, rising either in front or from behind; there are, however, instances of their being round, pentagonal, and lozenge formed. The use of these curious appendages is not very apparent, but the most natural explanation is that they were applied as a defence against strokes glancing off the helmet. They were usually ensigned with a device or crest; and, when worn in front, were often large enough to protect the armpits, instead of palettes or rondelles. They are mentioned in the roll of purchases for the Windsor tournament in 1278. There is an interesting letter in the Proceedings of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, vol. iv., p. 268, concerning these somewhat puzzling pieces of armour. It is addressed to Dr. Hodgkin, by Captain Orde Browne. The writer refers to the ailettes which he noticed on the effigy of Peter le Marechal, in the cathedral church of St. Nicholas, Newcastle. This highly interesting figure lies immediately behind the monument to Dr. Bruce. Captain Orde Browne mentions examples of ailettes in the churches of Ash, Clehongre in Herefordshire, and Tew in Oxfordshire, and quotes two authorities who state that these three are the only churches in which effigies with these appendages have been found; the names, however, have not been preserved in the letter. At all events, the authorities in question had overlooked the Newcastle example, on the shield of which there seems to be a bend. We refer to this effigy as attributed to Peter le Marechal. Brand believed it to be the effigy of the founder of St. Margaret’s chantry, Peter de Manley, a baron who bore, according to Guillim, “or,” a bend sable. He was associated with the Bishop of Durham, and others, for guarding the East Marches, and died in 1383. His arms therefore correspond with those on the shield of the effigy. The late Mr. Longstaffe, however, ascribes the figure to Peter le Marechal, who died in 1322.
As to the question between Peter de Manley and Peter le Marechal there can be no doubt whatever, as the presence of ailettes, and the general character of the armour, undoubtedly date the figure about the end of the thirteenth century or very early in the fourteenth, and there is an interval of sixty-one years between the deaths of the two knights. Peter le Marechal was sword-bearer to Edward I., and is buried in St. Nicholas’s Church. It appears from the king’s wardrobe account that a sword was placed on the body by the king’s command. According to M. Viollet le Duc, this innovation, the employment of ailettes, dates from the end of the thirteenth century, but M. Victor Gay cites an example of the employment of ailettes in 1274. There is, however, one of a still earlier date, occurring in a MS. dated 1262, in which is a figure of Georges de Niverlee. This manuscript does not say where this figure is or was. There is an ailette on the right shoulder only, and we may possibly infer that this piece was first used singly. A very interesting example of this kind occurs on an illumination on the psalter executed for Sir Geoffrey Loutterell, who died in 1345; and the single ailette bears his arms, “azure,” a bend between six martlets “argent.” We see from the roll of purchases made for the tournament of Windsor Park (1278) that the ailettes specified for were to be of leather and carda.[11] Ailettes were worn by Sir Roger de Trumpington in the Windsor tournament, but these were of leather; and are figured on his monumental brass rising from behind the shoulders. An incised monumental slab in the church of St. Denis, Gotheim, Belgium, shows a figure of Nenkinus de Gotheim (1296) with these appendages. These are remarkable for their diagonal pose. If any device existed it has been worn off. There is an example of another Gotheim (1307) charged with a rose, and a couple in the Porte de Hal Museum, at Brussels, dated 1318 and 1331 respectively. A very elaborate pair of ailettes appears in the inventory of Piers Gaveston (1313): “les alettes garniz et frettez de perles.” There is a German example on the statue of Rudolph von Hierstein at Bâle (died 1318).
PART IV.
HELMS UP TO THE END OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD.
Helms with horns were worn by the Vikings, and in all probability the headpiece with these appendages dredged up with a shield in the Thames, and now deposited in the British Museum, is of early Scandinavian origin. Horned helms were probably originally emblematic of the goddess Hathor or Isis, and came to Northern Europe through the Greeks. A helm with horns, about B.C. 3750, found at Susa, has been already referred to in Part I. We have an example of an Etruscan helm with horns, and Meyrick says that such were worn by the Phrygians, though rarely. Diodorus Siculus refers to this form as used by the Belgic Gauls. There are instances of helms with horns as late as the fourteenth and even fifteenth centuries. One occurs on the tomb of Diether von Hael, at Borfe, in the Tyrol, near Moran. This helm has ears as well as horns. The warrior died 1368. Other examples, one on the effigy of Burkhard von Steenberg (died 1379), in the Museum at Hildesheim, and another on that of Gottfried von Furstenberg (died 1341), in the Church of Hasbach; and there is a grotesque helmet in the Tower of London, presented to Henry VIII. by the Emperor Maximilian, with ram’s horns; and such appendages were sometimes used on chanfreins of the sixteenth century—there are examples at Madrid and Berlin. The early Anglo-Saxons wore four-cornered helms with a fluted comb-like crest.
The great variety in mediæval and renaissance headgear is somewhat bewildering, but it may all be brought down to a few types with certain salient characteristics, which, however, greatly interweave. The knights of chivalry, or their armour-smiths, seem to have given as great a rein to their fancy and imagination as the constructors of feminine headgear of all time; still the change and application of weapons of attack played the most important part in the constant modifications of warlike headpieces, as of other defensive armour.