Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe
by John Hewitt · English · Gutenberg #46342 · 632,620 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe
Author: John Hewitt
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANCIENT ARMOUR AND WEAPONS IN EUROPE ***
[Illustration: GREAT SEALS OF KING RICHARD THE FIRST.]
ANCIENT ARMOUR
AND
WEAPONS IN EUROPE:
FROM THE
IRON PERIOD OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS TO THE END
OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY:
WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM COTEMPORARY MONUMENTS.
BY JOHN HEWITT,
MEMBER OF THE ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN.
OXFORD AND LONDON:
JOHN HENRY AND JAMES PARKER.
MDCCCLV.
PRINTED BY MESSRS. PARKER, CORN-MARKET, OXFORD.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGRAVINGS.
1. (_Frontispiece._) Great Seals of King Richard Cœur-de-Lion. The
first of these (with the rounded helmet) has been drawn from
impressions appended to Harleian Charters, 43, C. 27; 43, C.
29; and 43, C. 30; and Carlton Ride Seals, i. 19. In this, as
in other cases, more seals have been examined, but it seems
unnecessary to supply references to any but the best examples.
The king wears the hauberk of chain-mail with continuous coif,
over a tunic of unusual length. The chausses are also of
chain-mail, and there is an appearance of a chausson at the
knee, but the prominence of the seal at this part has caused
so much obliteration, that the existence of this garment may
be doubted. The helmet is rounded at the top, and appears to
be strengthened by bands passing round the brow and over the
crown. The shield is bowed, and the portion in sight ensigned
with a Lion: it is armed with a spike in front, and suspended
over the shoulders by the usual _guige_. Other points of this
figure will be noticed at a later page.
Second Great Seal of Richard I. Drawn from impressions in the
British Museum: Harl. Charter, 43, C. 31, and Select Seals,
XVI. 1; and Carlton Ride Seals, H. 17. The armour, though
differently expressed from that of the first seal, is probably
intended to represent the same fabric; namely, interlinked
chain-mail. The tunic is still of a length which seems
curiously ill-adapted to the adroit movements of a nimble
warrior. The shield of the monarch is one of the most striking
monuments of the Herald's art: the vague ornament of Richard's
earlier shield has given place to the Three Lions Passant
Gardant so familiar to us all in the royal arms of the present
day. The king wears the plain goad spur, and is armed with the
great double-edged sword, characteristic of the period. The
helmet is described at page 141. The saddle is an excellent
example of the War-saddle of this date.
VIGNETTE.--Knightly monument combined with an Altar-drain, in
the Church of Long Wittenham, Berkshire: of the close of the
thirteenth century. The whole is of small proportions, the
statue of the knight not exceeding two feet and a quarter. xxv
2. SPEAR-HEADS OF IRON.--Fig. 1. From the Faussett collection:
found in the parish of Ash, near Sandwich: length, 18 inches.
Figs. 2 and 3. In Mr. Rolfe's collection at Sandwich, found in
the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Ozingell, near Ramsgate. Fig. 4.
In the Faussett collection, found at Ash, near Sandwich. Figs.
5, 6 and 7. From Ozingell: No. 6 has the bronze ferule which
bound the spear-head to the shaft. Fig. 8. From Mr. Wylie's
collection: found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fairford,
Gloucestershire. Figs. 9 to 12. From the Faussett collection:
fig. 11 was found on Kingston Down, Kent; the others at
Ash-by-Sandwich: fig. 10 is two feet long. 22
3. SPEAR-HEADS OF IRON.--Fig. 13. In the British Museum: found in
an Anglo-Saxon grave at Battle Edge, Oxfordshire. Fig. 14.
Found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fairford. Figs. 15 and 16.
Found near Bredon Hill, Worcestershire, and preserved in the
Museum of the Worcestershire Society of Natural History. Fig.
17. Barbed spear, or _Angon_, found in a grave on Sibertswold
Down, Kent: eleven inches long. In the Faussett collection.
Fig. 18. Four-sided spear-head, found by Mr. Wylie, in the
"Fairford Graves:" length, 16-1/2 inches. Figs. 19, 20, 21.
Found in Ireland: from Mr. Wakeman's paper in the third volume
of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. Fig. 22. A Livonian example, from
Dr. Bähr's collection. The original is in the British Museum.
Fig. 23. A barbed spear, found in a tumulus in Norway: from Mr.
Wylie's paper in the thirty-fifth vol. of the _Archæologia_. 23
4. SWORDS.--Fig. 1. Found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fairford.
It measures upwards of 2 ft. 11 inches, and is one of the
finest examples extant. Fig. 2. In the Hon. Mr. Neville's
collection: found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Wilbraham,
Cambridgeshire. Length of _blade_, 2 ft. 7 in. It retains the
bronze mountings of the sheath, which have been gilt. Fig.
3. Same collection and find: a specimen remarkable for the
cross-piece at the hilt. Fig. 4. Ancient-Irish Sword of the
same period: length, 30 inches. From Mr. Wakeman's paper in
vol. iii. of _Collectanea Antiqua_. Fig. 5. Danish sword with
engraved runes: in the Copenhagen Museum. Fig. 6. Danish: from
the _Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed_. Remarkable for the form
of its cross-piece. 32
5. SWORDS.--Fig. 7. Norwegian Sword. The pommel and cross-piece
are of iron. Figs. 8 to 11. From Livonian graves: the originals
are in the British Museum. Fig. 10 is single-edged: its pommel
and the chape of the scabbard are of bronze. Fig. 11 has its
pommel and guard ornamented with silver. 33
6. Bronze Sheath containing the remains of an iron Sword: found
near Flasby, in the West Riding of Yorkshire: exhibited in the
temporary Museum at York, formed by the Archæological Institute
in 1846. 44
7. AXE-HEADS OR IRON.--Figs. 1 and 2. From the Anglo-Saxon
cemetery at Ozingell: now in Mr. Rolfe's Museum. Figs. 3 and
4. Ancient-Irish examples: from Mr. Wakeman's paper in the
_Collectanea Antiqua_. Figs. 5 and 6. German specimens: from
the cemetery at Selzen, in Rhenish Hesse; described by the
brothers Lindenschmit. Figs. 7 to 10. From Livonian graves
explored by Dr. Bähr: all four are in the British Museum. 46
8. Anglo-Saxon figures contending with the war-knife and barbed
spear: from a Latin and Anglo-Saxon Psalter, formerly belonging
to the Duc de Berri, in the Imperial Library at Paris. 51
9. WAR-KNIVES.--Fig. 1. From the Ozingell cemetery: pommel and
cross-piece of iron: length, 16 inches. Fig. 2. From the
Faussett collection: found at Ash, near Sandwich. Figs. 3
and 4. Ancient-Irish: from Mr. Wakeman's paper. Fig. 3. is
16 inches long: the other, of which the blade is broken, is
remarkable for retaining its handle, which is of carved wood.
Fig. 5 is from the Selzen cemetery, and curious from the ring
at the end of the tang. Length, 2 feet. 52
10. ARROW-HEADS.--Figs. 1 and 2. From the Faussett collection:
the first, 3 inches in length, was found in the parish of
Ash-by-Sandwich, the second on Kingston Down: both have tangs.
Figs. 3 and 4. Arrow-heads with sockets: found on Chatham
Lines. From Douglas's "Nenia." Figs. 5 and 6. From the German
graves at Selzen. Figs. 7 and 8. From Livonian tombs: they are
now in the British Museum. 56
11. Sprinkle or Hand-flail of bronze: from the Museum of Mitau in
Courland. Given in Dr. Bähr's work, _Die Gräber der Liven_. 58
12. Anglo-Saxon Slinger: from an Anglo-Saxon Psalter of the tenth
or eleventh century at Boulogne. The figure is that of David. 59
13. Group from Cottonian MS., Claudius, B. iv., folio 24: Ælfric's
Anglo-Saxon Paraphrase of the Pentateuch, &c. Date about 1000.
The crowned figure in the centre appears to be armed in a coat
of chain-mail. 60
14. Figure of an Anglo-Saxon warrior, from Cotton MS., Cleopatra,
C. viii.; a copy of the _Psychomachia_ of Prudentius. Date,
early in the eleventh century. The body-armour appears to be
of hide, with the fur turned outwards. The characteristic
leg-bands of the Anglo-Saxons are carefully expressed. 64
15. Anglo-Saxon spearmen, from the fine manuscript of Prudentius
in the Tenison Library. Date, the beginning of the eleventh
century. The drawings are in pen-and-ink only, but very
carefully executed: the later subjects by a fresh hand, but all
Anglo-Saxon work. 65
16. Another group from Cotton MS., Claudius, B. iv. This volume
contains a great number of drawings, many of which illustrate
the subject on which we are engaged. 66
17. Figure of Goliath, from a Latin Psalter of the tenth century
in the British Museum: Additional MS., No. 18,043. The hauberk
is coloured blue in the original, apparently indicating
chain-mail. The curious combed helmet is of the same hue,
clearly implying a defence of iron. 67
18. Supposed frame-helmet of the Anglo-Saxon period. It is of
bronze, and was found upon the skull of an entombed warrior
discovered at Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham, in 1844. 69
19. BOSSES OF SHIELDS: of iron.--Fig. 1. Anglo-Saxon: from the
Faussett collection: found on Chartham Downs, near Canterbury.
Figs. 2 and 3. From the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fairford. The
last measures nearly five inches across. The rest on this
plate are to the same scale. Figs. 4 and 6. In Mr. Rolfe's
collection: from the Ozingell cemetery. Fig. 5. Anglo-Saxon:
found at Streetway Hill, Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire: now in the
British Museum. 73
20. BOSSES OF SHIELDS.--Fig. 7. From the Anglo-Saxon cemetery
at Ozingell. Fig. 8. From the Faussett collection: found at
Chartham Downs. Fig. 9. Found at Rodmead Down, Wilts. From Sir
Richard Hoare's "Ancient Wilts." Fig. 10. From the Wilbraham
cemetery. This specimen is especially valuable from its
retaining the handle still fixed by its rivets to the edge of
the boss. Fig. 11. Scottish example: found in a grave in the
county of Moray. From Dr. Wilson's "Archæology of Scotland."
Fig. 12. German: from the cemetery at Selzen. Fig. 13. A Danish
example: from the Copenhagen Museum. All these are of iron. 75
21. From the same MS. as No. 14 (Cleop. C. viii.). The figure is
one of a group, all similarly equipped, and carrying their
shields at their back. 77
22. Snaffle-bit, of iron, from an Anglo-Saxon barrow in Bourne
Park, near Canterbury. In the collection of the Earl of
Londesborough. 80
23. Spur with lozenge goad: from the bronze monument of Rudolph
von Schwaben, A.D. 1080, in the Cathedral of Merseburg. From
Hefner's _Trachten_. 81
24. Figure from folio 30 of Harleian MS. 603, a Latin Psalter
of the close of the eleventh century. See p. 29 for its
description. This subject, an illustration of Mr. Akerman's
paper in vol. xxxiv. of the _Archæologia_, "On some of the
Weapons of the Celtic and Teutonic Races," has been kindly lent
by the author of that essay. 90
25. Great Seal of King William the Conqueror: from the fine
impression appended to a charter preserved at the Hôtel
Soubise in Paris. The charter is a grant to the Abbey of St.
Denis of land at Teynton, in England. The king wears the
hauberk of chain-mail over a tunic. The hemispherical helmet
is surmounted by a small knob, and has laces to fasten it
under the chin. The legs do not appear to have any armour:
the spur has disappeared. A lance with streamer and a large
kite-shield complete the warrior's equipment. The legend is
✠ HOC NORMANNORUM WILLELMUM NOSCE PATRONUM SI(GNO). 92
26. Great Seal of King William II., 1087-1100. From an impression
preserved at Durham. The hauberk appears to be of chain-mail,
though expressed in a somewhat different manner from the
preceding seal of William the Conqueror, and from others which
will follow. The conical helmet seems to have had a nasal. The
spur is of the goad form. If the leg has had armour, the marks
of it have been obliterated by the softening of the wax. The
king is armed with lance, sword, and kite-shield. 102
27. Seal of Alexander I., king of Scotland: 1107-1124. The
figure is armed in hauberk with continuous coif, apparently
of chain-mail; worn over a tunic or gambeson, seen at the
wrist and skirt. Conical nasal helmet, lance with streamer,
kite-shield, and goad-spur, are the other items of the
equipment. The leg does not shew any armour, though the
softening of the wax may have obliterated markings which
originally indicated a defensive provision at this part. The
ornaments of the poitrail are usual at this period. 107
28. Great Seal of King Henry I., circa 1100. From Cotton Charter,
ii. 2 (in British Museum). The instrument is a confirmation
of the gift of Newton by "Radulfus filius Godrici," and is
witnessed by Queen Matilda and others. See Tanner's _Notitia_,
p. 339, Norwich. The material of the hauberk is represented by
that honeycomb-work so often observed in seals of this period,
and which appears to be one of the many modes in use to imitate
the web of interlinked chain-mail. The leg does not shew any
markings as of armour, but these may have disappeared from
the softening of the wax, and the prominence of the seal at
this part. The helmet is a plain conical cap of steel, without
nasal: the spur a simple goad. The lance-flag terminating in
three points, is ensigned with a Cross. The shield is of the
kite-form, shewing the rivets by which the wood and leather
portions of it were held together. The peytrel of the horse has
the usual pendent ornaments of the time. 119
29. The various modes of expressing the armour in the Bayeux
Tapestry. 121
30. Great Seal of King Stephen. Drawn from an impression among the
Select Seals in the British Museum, and from that appended
to Harleian Charter, 43, C. 13. The helmet seems to have had
a nasal, but the seals at this part are so imperfect that it
cannot be clearly traced. Behind is seen a portion of the lace
which fastened the coif or the casque. The body-armour is
noticed at page 122. Compare woodcut, No. 42. 122
31. Various modes of representing chain-mail on medieval
monuments. 124
32. From Harleian Roll, Y. 6. The Life of Saint Guthlac. Date,
about the close of the twelfth century. The figures wear the
tunic, hauberk of chain-mail, and square-topped helmets, of
which one only has the nasal. The triangular shields are
suspended round the neck by the _guige_: their ornaments are
mere fanciful patterns, not heraldic. No armour appears to
be provided for the lower part of the figures. This Roll is
further curious from having, at the back of it, drawings of
about a century later date. 127
33. From Harleian MS. 603: a Latin Psalter of the close of the
eleventh century. The figure is a pen-drawing, and represents
Goliath. Compare the crowned figure in woodcut 13, from Cotton
MS., Claudius, B. iv., and the warriors in the Bayeux Tapestry.
The hauberk appears to be of chain-mail. This manuscript has
many drawings of military costume and of weapons. 129
34. From Cotton MS., Nero, C. iv. French art. Date, about 1125.
The figure is one of a group representing the Massacre of the
Innocents: a subject, with those of the Conflict of David and
Goliath, the Soldiers at the Holy Sepulchre, and the Martyrdom
of Thomas à Becket, very fertile in illustrations of ancient
military equipment. 130
35. From fragment of a vellum-painting, of the close of the
eleventh century, figured in Hefner's _Trachten_. The
body-armour appears to be of scale-work, and is silvered in the
original. The chausses of the figures in the rear are coloured
red. 132
36. Another figure from Harl. MS. 603. (See description of woodcut,
No. 33.) The costume is described at page 133. This is the only
instance in the book, which contains some hundreds of figures,
where the dress of scale-work appears. 133
37. David and Goliath: from an initial letter of a Latin Bible
written in Germany, for the use of the Premonstratensian
Monastery of S. Maria de Parco, near Louvain. Additional MS.
14,789, fol. 10. This MS. has a particular value from its being
dated; it was written in 1148. See the rubric on fol. 197 of
vol. i., and the Colophon. The costumes are described at page
134. 135
38. Figure of Goliath: from a Latin Bible written about 1170.
"Hic liber pertinet ad Ecclesiam Beatæ Mariæ Virginis in
Suburbio Wormatiensis." Harl. MS. 2,803. Goliath is armed in
the nasal helmet and hauberk of chain-mail. The chausses are
of an unusual pattern, and do not appear to be of a defensive
character. 136
39. Sculpture of St. George, from the tympanum of a door in the
church of Ruardean, Gloucestershire. Date, the first half
of the twelfth century. The body-armour of the knight is
not now indicated, but may have been formerly expressed by
painting. The helmet is of the well-known Phrygian form. A
mantle streaming in many folds behind the champion shews the
impetuosity of his attack. A brooch secures the mantle in
front. The heel is furnished with a goad spur. 137
40. Group representing Abraham receiving bread and wine from
Melchisedech: an enamel of the close of the twelfth century,
preserved in the Louvre collection. The patriarch wears the
hauberk of chain-mail over a tunic; the coif of the hauberk
being surmounted by a conical nasal helmet. Over the armour is
worn a cloak, fastening at the right shoulder. We borrow this
illustration from Mr. Way's excellent paper on the Enamels of
the Middle-ages, in the second volume of the "Archæological
Journal" 138
41. Seal of Conan, duke of Britanny and earl of Richmond: 1165-71.
From Harleian Charter, 48, G. 40. See Nicholas' "Synopsis of
the Peerage," vol. ii. p. 534, for the history of this duke.
He wears the hauberk with continuous coif surmounted by the
conical steel casque. The triangular shield is of large
proportions. The saddle-cloth is of an unusual fashion. 140
42. Great Seal of King Stephen. The armour consists of hauberk
with continuous coif, surmounted by a helmet of Phrygian form.
Behind the head are seen the ties which fastened the coif or
the casque. The bowed kite-shield is curious from the spiked
projection in front. Compare woodcut, No. 30. 144
43. Great Seal of King Henry II. The body-armour, consisting of
hauberk and chausses, appears to be of chain-mail. The helmet
has a nasal, and the kite-shield, seen in the inside, shews
very distinctly the manner of fixing the straps forming the
_enarme_ and the _guige_. 151
44. Another Great Seal of King Henry II. Drawn from impressions
attached to Cotton Charter, ii. 5; and Harl. Charters, 43, C.
20; 43, C. 22; and 43, C. 25. This seal is chiefly remarkable
from the capacious and highly enriched saddle-cloth. The
body-armour of the king appears to be of the usual chain-mail.
The conical nasal helmet has been already seen in previous
monuments. 170
45. The Keep of Porchester Castle, Hampshire. Built about 1150. It
exhibits the type of a Norman stronghold: windows small below,
but larger in the higher stories; walls of great thickness
near the base, and of reduced proportions above. An excellent
essay on Military Architecture in the first volume of the
"Archæological Journal" will afford a good insight into the
arrangements of a castle of the Norman period. See also the
_Architecture Militaire du Moyen-Age_, by M. Viollet-le-Duc.
The Winchester Volume of the Archæological Institute will
supply a particular description of Porchester Castle. 189
46. Knightly effigy from Haseley Church, Oxfordshire. The sculpture
appears to be of the middle of the thirteenth century, and
affords an excellent _type_ of the military costume of
this age. The knight wears the hauberk of chain-mail over a
gambeson (seen at the skirt), with chausses of chain-mail. The
sleeveless surcoat is girt at the waist by a narrow belt, from
which the sword-carriage is suspended. To equip the warrior
for battle, would still be wanting the helm of plate to fix
over his mail-coif. His shield--a very unusual arrangement--is
placed under his head, in lieu of the second pillow generally
found in knightly monuments. 192
47. Mounted Archer, from Roy. MS. 20, D. i. fol. 127: _Histoire
Universelle_, and other tracts. French art. The drawings are
all coloured, and in great number. It is one of the finest
manuscripts in the world for the illustration of ancient armour
and military usages of all kinds. See note on page 196. 195
48. Group of bowmen from folio 307 of the same MS. The fighters in
both examples wear the hauberk of banded-mail with surcoat, and
the "sugar-loaf" helm. The mounted figure is distinguished by
having chausses also of banded-mail. The helm at his feet shews
the laces by which it was fastened. 199
49. Cross-bowman and Archer from Add. MS. 15,268, fol. 101:
_Histoire de l'ancien monde_. Date, about the close of the
thirteenth century. The armour of the arbalester is probably
meant for chain-mail: that of the archer is very vague, but
seems to express some kind of pourpointing. The artist has
carefully distinguished the barbed head of the arrow and the
pile of the crossbow-bolt. 201
50. Group of soldiers from Harl. MS. 4,751, fol. 8: a Latin
Bestiarium of the commencement of the thirteenth century. The
variety of weapons in this little subject is very remarkable:
they will be noticed under their separate heads. The "castle"
on the elephant's back is, in the original, full of fighters,
all wearing the flat-topped helm, and having their shields
fixed in a row in front of the car, as we see them hanging over
the edge of a vessel in sea-pictures. The "pick-pointed hammer"
in the hand of the swordsman is rather an engineering tool
than a weapon, and in other manuscripts is given to those who
are employed in breaching a wall. 205
51. Group of soldiers armed with the staff-sling, axe, spear, and
bow with lime-phial: from Strutt's _Horda_, vol. i. Plate XXXI.
His authority is the MS. of the "History" of Matthew Paris
in Benet College Library, Cambridge: C. 5, xvi. It has been
suggested, but with no great probability, that the manuscript
in question is the work of Matthew Paris himself. 206
52. Great Seal of King John: drawn from impressions attached to
Harl. Charter, 84, C. 7, and Cotton Charter, viii. 25; and
Carlton Ride Seal, H. 18. The helmet in this figure is of
unusual form; and here, for the first time, the military
surcoat appears in a royal seal of England. The mailing
has been obliterated at the skirt of the hauberk, from the
prominence of the seal at that part. The ornamental "peytrel"
of the horse is well defined in this monument, and the fashion
of the saddle is very distinctly seen. 228
53. The three knights, from a picture of the Martyrdom of Thomas
à Becket, in Harl. MS. 5, 102, fol. 32. The volume is a Latin
Psalter, written in the beginning of the thirteenth century,
and containing many illuminations. Fitzurse is conspicuous
from the figure of the Bear on his shield. The heads of the
knights present a curious variety of arming: one wearing the
flat-topped helmet, another the rounded casque, and the third
having no further defence than his coif of mail. The tunic is
seen passing beyond the edge of the hauberk. The legs of the
foremost figures are coloured red. 230
54. Sculptured effigy of William Longespée, earl of Salisbury,
from his monument in Salisbury Cathedral. His death and burial
(in 1226) are recorded in the curious cotemporary manuscript
of William de Wanda, the dean; which is still preserved in
the Bishop's Records at Sarum. See Dodsworth's History of the
Cathedral, pp. 121 and 201. The statue more fully illustrates
various points of the knightly equipment at this early period
than any other that could be named. These details will be
separately noticed in their particular places. The figure still
retains much of its ancient painting. The chain-mail is of a
brown hue, a singularity not hitherto satisfactorily explained.
The spurs have yet sparkles of gold. The Lions on the shield
are in relief; gold on a blue field. This device has been
repeated, by painting, on the surcoat. The statue, which is of
free-stone, has every appearance of having been sculptured at
the time of the death of Earl William; and, as it is so clearly
identified by the carved device of the shield, becomes one of
the most valuable examples for archæological reference. 232
55. Monumental Brass of "Sire Johan D'Aubernoun, Chivaler," in the
church of Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey. This is the most ancient
sepulchral brass yet observed, whether in England or on the
continent: its date, about 1277. Till lately it was partly
hidden beneath the altar-rails, but is now fully disclosed. On
the shield, the tincture of the field (blue) is represented
by enamel; the copper lining being plainly discernible in the
narrow edge that borders the colour. The heraldic bearing is
repeated on the lance-flag and on the escutcheon above the
effigy. The armour of the knight will be described as the
various parts of it come to be examined in detail. 237
56. From Willemin's _Monumens Inédits_, vol. i., Plate CII. The
original is a drawing in the Album of Wilars de Honnecort, an
artist of the thirteenth century. The chain-mail chausses of
the knight are drawn together behind the leg and under the
foot by lacing. The coif of the hauberk thrown back on the
shoulders, discloses the under-coif, worn by the men-at-arms to
protect the head from the rough contact of the iron garment.
The figure is further curious from the "cotte à mancherons
déchiquetés." 238
57. Chess-knight of ivory, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum: seen
in two views. The knight wears the hauberk of chain-mail,
and the cylindrical helm of its earliest form. The gamboised
chausson is seen overlying the mail chausses. The triangular
bowed shield is very exactly represented, and the draping of
the surcoat has more freedom than is usually found at this
early period. The date appears to be the beginning of the
thirteenth century. 243
58. From a marble bas-relief in a cloister of the Annunziata
Convent at Florence, 1289. After a drawing in the Kerrich
Collection, Add. MSS., No. 6,728. The knight, Gulielmus Balnis,
among several singularities of equipment, presents us with a
very unusual pattern of leg-armour: the whole suit will be duly
examined at a future page. The composition conveys no very
exalted idea of Italian art in 1289; and, in the drapery, the
sculptor might well take a lesson from the humble chess-piece
carver of the days of Magna Charta, whose handiwork was the
subject of our last notice. 244
59. Knightly effigy, of free-stone, in the church of Ash, near
Sandwich. Date, the close of the thirteenth century. The
chain-mail has been expressed in stucco, and painted of
a red-brown colour. Traces of gilding are found on the
genouillères and other parts of the monument. The knight
wears the quilted gambeson; hauberk, hood, and chausses of
chain-mail; genouillères of plate or cuir-bouilli, and long
surcoat. Ailettes are at the shoulders: of the shield, little
is left but the strap that sustained it: the cord looped to the
waist-belt held a dagger, now wanting: the spurs, of a single
goad, have been gilt. 247
60. A mounted knight clothed in banded-mail, and having armoried
ailettes. The shield is carried by allowing the enarmes to
slip over the wrist. A fortified bridge, with flanking towers,
"bretèche," gates, and portcullis, is in face. The miniature
appears on fol 58^{vo}. of Add. MS. 10,293: a collection of
Romances, _dated_ 1316. 250
61. Mounted knight armed in banded-mail and visored bassinet, and
having ailettes of a lozenge form: from Roy. MS. 14 E. iii.
fol. 94^{vo}.; a volume of Romances, written and illuminated
in the first half of the fourteenth century. A fine book for
armour subjects: the drawings clear, richly coloured and gilt,
and the details well made out. This volume passed into the
possession of King Richard III., whose autograph appears on the
second folio. 250
62. Knightly figure of the close of the thirteenth century: from
Roy. MS. 2, A. xxii. fol. 219. The drawing shews very clearly
the manner in which the mail-coif was drawn over the chin, and
tied above the ear on the left side of the head. An opening
at the palm permitted the knight to disengage his hand from
the hauberk at pleasure. The armour of the legs consists of
a chausson of chain-mail, and chausses lacing behind, which
appear to be formed of studs rivetted on cloth or leather. The
helm is of a more enriched character than is usually found at
this period. Other minute points of this equipment will be
noticed in the order of their examination. 254
63. Group of Soldiers, from a Latin Service-book of the end of
the thirteenth century: Add. MS. 17,687: German art: the
drawings richly coloured and gilt, large and well detailed. The
armour fabrics in the subject before us are of three kinds:
banded-mail, plain quilting, and pourpointerie with studs.
The diversity of arrangement of these defences in so small a
group of soldiers strikingly shews how little was thought of a
uniformity of costume. As in other cases, particular points of
equipment will be noticed in the body of the work. 257
64. Effigy in free-stone of a knight of the De Sulney family, from
the church of Newton Solney, Derbyshire. The manor was held
by this house under the Earls of Chester (see "Archæological
Journal," vol. vii. page 368), and the church contains several
early and interesting monumental statues of the successive
lords. The figure before us appears to be of the close of the
thirteenth century: it is armed in hauberk and chausses of
banded-mail: the sleeveless surcoat is slit up in front for
convenience of riding: the shield has been triangular, and is
slightly bowed: the pommel of the sword is cinquefoiled, its
cross-piece curved towards the blade: the spurs are of a single
goad. In lieu of the usual lion or dragon at the feet, the
statue is terminated by clusters of foliage of Early English
character; from which we may learn that the particular purpose
of the carving beneath the feet of these old sculptures was,
not symbolic or heraldic decoration, but the provision of a
strong block of stonework, to prevent the slender and prominent
feet from being broken away by the first act of carelessness. 261
65. A portion of banded-mail from the above-named monument, of the
natural size. The lower figure gives the profile view. 263
66. Group from the "Romance of King Meliadus," Add. MS. 12,228,
fol. 79. This is a manuscript of the fourteenth century (circa
1360); used here to illustrate the subject of banded-mail. 264
67. Coif of banded-mail, from a MS. of the beginning of the
fourteenth century. The subject is given in full in No. 7
of Count Bastard's _Peintures des Manuscrits_, the original
monument being an illuminated Bible. Other figures from this
Bible shew the same mode of tightening the coif. 266
68. Soldiers armed in Banded-mail: from a volume illuminated at
Metz about 1280, and now preserved in-the public library
of that city. The figures here given have been engraved
in Hefner's _Trachten_, Part i. Plate LXXVII.; from which
admirable work we have transferred them to our pages. It will
be observed that no two of these warriors are equipped exactly
alike. 268
69. Chess-piece (a Warder) of walrus-tusk, of the early part of
the thirteenth century. It was presented to the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland by Lord Macdonald; and exhibited in
the Museum formed at York on the visit of the Archæological
Institute to that city in 1846. (See "Archæological Journal,"
vol. iii. p. 241.) The armour appears to be chain-mail, rudely
expressed by a series of lines and punctures. The shields are
remarkable from having a blunt termination below, instead of
the usual pointed form. 269
70. Monumental statue of an unknown knight in Norton Church,
Durham: from the figure by Blore and Le Keux in Surtees'
History of Durham, vol. iii. p. 155. Date, about 1300. The
hauberk has the hood (or coif?) thrown off the head and lying
on the shoulders: straps tighten it at the wrists. Over the
chausses appear the knee-pieces, which probably terminated
a chausson of gamboised work. The surcoat differs from the
earlier fashion of this garment, in having sleeves. The sword
is of an enriched character, the pommel being ornamented with
an escutcheon, which was no doubt once ensigned with the
bearings of the knight. Similar escutcheons appear on the
genouillères. The hair, short over the forehead, and gathered
into large curls over the ears, is characteristic of this
period. The arming of the figure is almost identical with
that of Brian Fitz Alan, at Bedale, Yorkshire (See Blore's
Monuments, and Hollis's Effigies, Part iv.). 275
71. SERIES OF HELMS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.--Fig. 1. From the
effigy of Hugo Fitz Eudo, in Kirkstead Chapel, Lincolnshire.
A drawing of the whole figure will be found in Powell's
Collections in the British Museum: Add. MS. 17,462, fol.
71. Fig. 2. From a carving in an arcade of the Presbytery,
Worcester Cathedral. Fig. 3. From a sculpture in the Cathedral
of Constance: the entire figure is given in Hefner's Costumes,
Part i. Plate IV. Fig. 4. From the Seal of Hugo de Vere,
fourth earl of Oxford: 1221-63. Fig. 5. From a knightly figure
on folio 27 of Harleian MS. 32,44: circa 1250. Fig. 6. From
the Great Seal of Alexander II., king of Scotland: 1214-49:
from an impression appended to Cotton Charter, xix. 2. Fig.
7. From Seal of Robert Fitz Walter, Lord of Wodeham and
Castellan of London: circa 1298. See page 334. Fig. 8. From a
glass-painting in Chartres Cathedral, representing Ferdinand,
king of Castille: circa 1250. Fig. 9. A helm of iron in the
Tower collection. Fig. 10. From a miniature on Cotton Roll, xv.
7. Fig. 11. From the Seal of Louis of Savoy: circa 1294. The
whole figure is given by Cibrario in the _Sigilli de' Principi
di Savoia_, Plate XXX. Fig. 12. An example of the so-called
Sugar-loaf helm: from Royal MS. 20. D. i. Compare that on the
brass of Sir Roger de Trumpington, which is somewhat more
ornate (woodcut, No. 73). 278
72. Combat of knights, from Roy. MS. 20, D. i.; a volume already
used for our illustrations numbered 47 and 48. Both figures
are armed from head to foot in banded-mail, and have the
characteristic helm of the period: of "sugar-loaf" form, and
brought so low as to rest on the shoulders. The warrior on the
left hand wears a crown over his helm, and has the further
decoration of a fan-crest of ungainly size. The shields are of
the old kite shape, but much reduced in their dimensions from
their Neustrian prototypes. The crowned combatant has a dagger
at his right side: an early instance of an arrangement which
afterwards became very common. The caparison of the horses
does not appear to be of a defensive construction; but an
under-housing of gamboiserie or chain-work may perhaps in such
cases be implied. 283
73. Monumental brass of Sir Roger de Trumpington, executed about
1290, and still occupying its old position in the parish church
"At Trompington, not fer fro Cantebrigge[1]."
The knight is armed in hauberk, chausses and hood of chain-mail;
with a chausson, of which the knee-pieces seem to be of iron
plate. Ailettes are at the shoulders, and for pillow the
warrior has his helm; from the lower edge of which a chain
passes to the belt of the surcoat, in order to prevent its
being lost in battle. The triangular, bowed shield is sustained
by the usual guige; and here, as well as on the ailettes and
the escutcheons of the sword-sheath, are seen the _Trumpets_
forming, in allusion to his name, the heraldic bearings of our
knight. 285
74. Incised slab to the memory of the knight, Johan le Botiler, in
the church of St. Bride's, Glamorganshire. Date, about 1300.
As in the preceding example, the heraldic figures (borne in
this instance on the shield and cervellière) are allusive to
the name of the bearer, Butler. The sword, with its trefoil
pommel and narrow, curved cross-piece, has quite the character
of the Anglo-Saxon weapon of the eleventh century. In the rowel
spur, however, we recognise the spirit of progress; and the
cervellière of plate, worn, as here, in conjunction with the
coif of chain-mail, is an early example of that arrangement in
a monumental effigy. 287
75. Figure of Goliath, from Add. MS. 11,639, fol. 520: a Hebrew
copy of the Pentateuch and Forms of Prayer, written in Germany
about the close of the thirteenth century. The giant has
hauberk and chausses of chain-mail, with knee-pieces of plate,
and the broad-rimmed chapel-de-fer. The shield retains the boss
and strengthening bands which we have seen in examples from the
Anglo-Saxon and Frankish graves. The round mark at the temple
is the stone hurled from the sling of David. 290
76. Part of a figure from the wall-pictures of the Painted Chamber
at Westminster: to shew the form of the pointed, nasal helmet.
Date, the second half of the thirteenth century. 291
77. Glass-painting in the window of the north transept of Oxford
Cathedral. The tracery formerly belonging to it no longer
appears, and it is now mixed up with glass of a later period.
It is scarcely necessary to say that the martyr's head is a
"restoration." The knights are armed in suits of banded-mail,
with knee-pieces of plate. The uplifted sword is of the
falchion kind. Fitz-Urse has on his shield three Bears' heads
on a diapered field, in lieu of the usual figure of a single
Bear. Compare woodcut, No. 53. The date of this glass appears
to be about the close of the thirteenth century. 296
78. Iron spur found in the churchyard of Chesterford,
Cambridgeshire, and now preserved in the Museum of the Hon. R.
C. Neville, at Audley End. The plain goad, straight neck, and
curved shanks are all characteristic of the knightly spur of
the thirteenth century. 298
79. Great Seal of King Henry III.; drawn from impressions attached
to Harleian Charter, 43, C. 38; Wolley Charter, 5, xxi.;
and Topham Charter, No. 8. The king wears the hauberk of
chain-mail, with a helm somewhat rounded at top, and having
a moveable ventail with clefts for sight and breathing. The
mailing has been obliterated from the chausses, if any ever
were there. The surcoat is still of great length. The bowed
shield exhibits the usual three Lions. But a novelty appears
in the spurs of this figure, which are rowelled. No earlier
instance of the rowel spur has been observed, and indeed it
seldom appears again during the whole century. Usually on
the alert to adopt any novelty of military equipment, the
knights appear to have rejected with particular obstinacy
the innovation of the wheeled spur, though to us it appears
so strongly recommended by the greater humanity of its
contrivance. Compare woodcut, No. 81: the second Great Seal of
Hen. III. 299
80. From Cotton MS., Nero, D. i.; the "Lives of the two Offas,"
by Matthew Paris. This group, which occurs on folio 7 of the
manuscript, represents the Mercian king, Offa I., combating
in behalf of the king of Northumberland, and defeating the
Scottish army. The drawings of this curious volume, all of
which have been copied by Strutt in his _Horda_, appear to be
of the close of the thirteenth century. The body-armour is
for the most part banded-mail. King Offa has the distinction
of greaves and knee-pieces: the mailing of a portion of
his coif differs from the rest of the suits, probably from
carelessness of the artist only. The horse of the king is also
discriminated from the other steeds by having a housing. The
head-defence, composed of a mask of steel placed over the coif
of banded-mail, is very remarkable. In the adjoining figure we
again see an example of the aperture left at the palm, for the
convenience of liberating the hand occasionally from its case
of mail. Compare woodcut, No. 62. 303
81. Second Great Seal of King Henry III. From impressions at
Carlton Hide (R. i. 34), and select seals in Brit. Museum
(xxxiv. 4). The armour consists of hauberk and chausses of
chain-mail, helm with moveable visor, shield and sword. The
surcoat, of diminished length, is without heraldic decoration.
As a work of art, this seal shews a great advance beyond the
previous royal seals: the horse is drawn with much truth and
spirit, while the figure of the king is just in its proportions
and natural in its position. Compare woodcut, No. 79. 307
82. Group from the Painted Chamber. _Vetusta Monumenta_, vol. vi.
Plate XXXVI. We have here many noticeable particulars: the
falchion, the archer with his long-bow and cloth-yard shaft,
armed with its barbed head, the ornamented helmet of the
mounted knight, the conical nasal helmet of the figure behind,
the triangular and the round shields, and the curiously-formed
brow-band of the horse. All these will be duly examined under
their respective heads. 313
83. Incised slab of red sandstone, the memorial of a knight of
the Brougham family, in the church of Brougham, Westmoreland.
The stone is nearly 7 feet long, by 3 ft. 5 in. wide, and is
traditionally known as "The Crusader's Tomb." The "Crusader"
himself was disinterred in 1846, in consequence of some repairs
within the chancel of the church, and found to have been buried
_cross-legged_. For a particular account of this curious
discovery, see the "Archæological Journal," vol. iv. p. 59. 317
84. Military Flail: from Strutt's _Horda_, vol. i. Plate XXXII.
From the same MS. as our No. 51. (Benet Coll. Lib., C. 5. xvi.)
Compare the flail on woodcut 11. 327
85. Great Seal of King Edward I. Drawn from impression at Carlton
Ride marked H. 20; and Harl. Charter, 43, C. 52. The king is
armed in hauberk and chausses of chain-mail, with helm having
moveable visor; and he wears the shorter surcoat without
armorial decoration. The shield presents no new feature.
The mountings of the sword are of an unusual pattern: the
fleur-de-lis ornament at the extremity is again seen at the
hinge of the visor. This is the first English royal seal in
which the housing of the steed is heraldically ensigned. 339
86. Horse in housing of chain-mail: from the Painted Chamber[2].
Representations of the mailed steed are extremely rare, though
the descriptions of them are frequent. The knight has here an
armoried surcoat, and wears the usual "barrel helm" of the
time. 342
87. Seal and counter-seal of Roger de Quinci, second earl of
Winchester, 1219-64. The arming of both figures is exactly
the same: hauberk and chausses of chain-mail, cylindrical
helm, triangular bowed shield, and two-edged sword. The wyvern
which seems to form a crest to the helm in the counter-seal,
is in fact only an ornament used to fill up the space left
after the word "SCOCIE" in the legend. The flower in the same
seal, and the similar wyvern in the obverse, are employed with
a like view of enriching the composition with ornament. De
Quinci was Lord High Steward of Scotland by right of his wife,
and on the reverse-seal before us, where he is described as
"Constabularius Scocie," we have the figure of the Scottish
Lion: the seeming combat between the two being an ingenious
fancy of the artist. Compare Winchester Volume of Archæological
Institute, p. 103, and Laing's Ancient Scottish
Seals, p. 113. 346
88. Wager of Battle between Walter Blowberme and Hamon le Stare,
from the original roll in the Tower. The document is noticed in
Madox's History of the Exchequer, with an engraving, p. 383. He
describes the incident as "a pretty remarkable Case of a Duell
that was fought in the reign of K. Henry III.... A Duell was
struck. And Hamon being vanquished in the Combat, was adjudged
to be hanged". 375
89. Caerphilly Castle, Glamorganshire. Built about 1275. We
have here the type of the "Edwardian Castle;" differing
from the Norman stronghold essentially in this: that, while
the Norman fortress was a massive building surrounded by a
court, the Edwardian arrangement was a court surrounded by
strong buildings. The buildings themselves differed in many
particulars, not only from their Norman predecessors, but
from each other; and it would require a volume to examine at
large the many curious devices for offence and defence that
are exhibited in the various examples left to our times. We
must again refer the student to the admirable work of M.
Viollet-le-Duc, _Architecture Militaire du Moyen-Âge_, and
to the able paper on the same subject in the first volume of
the "Archæological Journal." And, for a complete account of
the works at Caerphilly, see the _Archæologia Cambrensis_,
vol. i., N. S. The engraving before us is from a drawing by
Mr. G. T. Clark, in which some portion of the lost buildings
has been supplied from the indications afforded by a careful
survey of those remaining. Conspicuous in front is the Great
Hall, with its louvre. Below is a water-gate, leading from the
moat into the interior of the castle. Various outworks are
connected with the main structure by means of drawbridges, and
at the right-hand corner is a mill, turned by the stream which
supplies the moat. 377
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Chaucer, Reve's Tale.
[2] Plates XXXI. and XXXVII.
ANCIENT ARMOUR,
_&c._
PART I.
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE IRON PERIOD TO THE
ELEVENTH CENTURY.
By whatever race Europe may have been originally peopled, this
portion of the world seems to have been swept by successive tribes
of adventurers from Central Asia. The so-called "Allophylian race"
was displaced by the Celts; the Sclaves then drove the Celts to the
west, and the Tshuds into the cold regions of the north; and lastly,
the Teutonic conquerors, dispossessing at will the nations that
had preceded them, laid the foundation of that vast social empire
which at present, in Europe, in America, in Asia, and in the new
world of the South Seas, rules the destinies of half the globe. For
the purposes of art, the long period of time at which we have so
rapidly glanced has been divided into the Stone Period, the Bronze
Period, and the Iron Period; names derived from the materials which
were in _general_ use during the progress of the various races
towards civilization;--a division which, though, from its great
comprehensiveness, necessarily open to some objection, seems likely
to be of much use in simplifying a study hitherto embarrassing alike
to the general reader, and to those whose task it is to extend the
range of our knowledge.
With the nations of the Stone Period and the Bronze Period we do not
purpose to occupy ourselves; not that the relics of their times are
of an inferior interest, but that, in commencing with the days of the
iron-workers, which for general purposes we assume to be identical
with the retirement of the Romans beyond the Alps, and the domination
of the northern nations in the centre and west of Europe, we feel
that we have a task before us already much greater than we can hope
to fulfil, either to the satisfaction of our readers, or our own. If
we leave much undone, we shall endeavour, in that we do, to be exact.
Modern archæology differs from the old antiquarianism especially in
this,--that whatever it contributes to knowledge is required to be
scrupulously true. A monkish chronicler of the fourteenth century is
no longer held to be an authority for the affairs of the twelfth; an
illuminated Froissart of the fifteenth century is no more permitted
to supply us with portraits of the Black Prince, or the costume of
Duguesclin. Our pictures are no longer copies of copies; neither are
they mere _versions_ of old art. We must have line for line, point
for point. This is essential, for two reasons: we are freed from the
danger of any wrong interpretation of an historic fact, and we keep
in view the characteristic art of the period under examination. The
importance of this practice admitted, we shall be excused for stating
that almost all the illustrations of this work have been drawn by
the writer;--when from manuscripts, the collection and folio of the
volume have been carefully recorded, so that the truthfulness of the
copy may be readily tested;--after the drawings had been transferred
to the wood, they were carefully examined before the graver was
permitted to commence its work; and if, in spite of every precaution,
some unlucky error would at last creep in, the mistake was always
rectified with new engraving.
The chief evidences for the military equipment and usages of the
Teutonic conquerors of Europe, from the period of the dismemberment
of the Roman empire to the great triumphs achieved by the Normans in
the eleventh century, are the writers of those times, the miniatures
which decorate their works, and the graves of these ancient races;
which last have of late years yielded a wondrous harvest of valuable
memorials, illustrating as well the domestic practices of their
occupants, as their warlike array. If these three classes of
monuments are useful in supplying each other's deficiencies, still
more valuable do they become to the archæologist and the historian,
by the confirmation which they mutually afford to each other's
testimony. A few discrepancies indeed occasionally appear on points
of minute detail; and it is in the pages of the historians and
chroniclers that these are generally found: but when we consider the
difficulty of the transmission of knowledge in those days, and the
errors that may have crept in from the negligence of book-copyists
through so many successive generations, the wonder is, not that
something has been left obscure, but that so much has been faithfully
transmitted to our times.
The various sons of Odin, whether settled in Germany, in Gaul, in
Iberia, in Scandinavia, or in Britain, bore a strong resemblance to
each other, both in their military equipment, and in such tactics as
they possessed. If we find one branch of this vast family combating
the Romans with more than usual art, or conducting a campaign with
larger strategical views than their fellows, we must attribute it
rather to the superior skill of a particular leader, or to their
having borrowed some valuable hints from the practice of their
opponents, than to any essential difference between this or that
tribe of Teutons,--between the dwellers on the right bank of the
Rhine and the dwellers on the left bank,--between those whose
huts were on the flats of the Waal, and those who had built their
cabins in the valleys of the Loire. Such differences as have been
observed, we shall point out in our progress; but we are inclined to
believe that, as collections are augmented and comparisons extended,
resemblances will be found to increase, and differences to diminish.
Among the writers who afford us information on the early weapons and
mode of warfare of that branch of the Teutonic family which acquired
the name of Franks, there are three whose testimony is of especial
value to us; and we must again remark, that what was particularly
true of the Franks was generally true of the Anglo-Saxons, and
of all the cognate tribes which traversed Europe as conquerors.
These three writers are--Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Auvergne,
who, in the fifth century, wrote his Panegyric of the Emperor
Majorian; Procopius, the secretary of Belisarius, who lived in the
sixth century, and was an eye-witness of the facts he records; and
Agathias, a Greek historian, who flourished in the seventh century.
"The Franks," says Sidonius, describing the defeat of their king
Clodion by the Roman general Aetius, "are a tall race, and clad in
garments which fit them closely. A belt (_balteus_) encircles their
waist. They hurl their axes (_bipennes_) and cast their spears
(_hastas_) with great force, never missing their aim. They manage
their shields with much address, and rush on their enemy with such
velocity, that they seem to fly more rapidly than their javelins
(_hastas_). They accustom themselves to warfare from their earliest
years, and if overpowered by the multitude of their enemies, they
meet their end without fear. Even in death their features retain the
expression of their indomitable valour:--
'Invicti perstant, animoque supersunt
Jam propè post animam.'"
Procopius, describing the expedition of the Franks into Italy in the
sixth century, tells us:--"Among the hundred thousand men that the king
(Theodobert I.) led into Italy, there were but few horsemen, and these
he kept about his person. This cavalry alone carried spears (_hastas_).
The remainder were infantry, who had neither spear nor bow, (_non arcu,
non hastâ armati_,) all their arms being a sword, an axe, and a shield.
The blade of the axe was large, its handle of wood, and very short. At
a given signal they march forward; on approaching the adverse ranks
they hurl their axes against the shields of the enemy, which by this
means are broken; and then, springing on the foe, they complete his
destruction with the sword[3]."
Agathias, in the seventh century, writes:--"The arms of the Franks
are very rude; they wear neither coat-of-fence nor greaves, their
legs being protected by bands of linen or leather. They have little
cavalry, but their infantry are skilful and well disciplined. They
wear their swords on the left thigh, and are furnished with shields.
The bow and the sling are not in use among them, but they carry
double axes (πελέκεις ἀμφιστόμους,) and barbed spears (ἄγγωνας.)
These spears, which are of a moderate length, they use either for
thrusting or hurling. The staves of them are armed with iron, so that
very little of the wood remains uncovered[4]. The head has two barbs,
projecting downwards as far as the shaft. In battle, they cast this
spear at the enemy, which becomes so firmly fixed in the flesh by the
two barbs, that it cannot be withdrawn; neither can it be disengaged
if it pierce the shield, for the iron with which the staff is covered
prevents the adversary from ridding himself of it by means of his
sword. At this moment the Frank rushes forward, places his foot on
the shaft of the spear as it trails upon the ground, and having thus
deprived his foe of his defence, cleaves his skull with his axe, or
transfixes him with a second spear[5]."
We here see that the usual arms of the Franks at this time were the
axe, the sword, the spear, of two kinds, and the shield. Body-armour
is not worn by the soldiery at large; and the chief device of the
assailant is to deprive his adversary of the aid of his shield,
in order that no obstacle may stand between his brawny arm and
death. The provision of cavalry is small, and the few horsemen that
are found appear rather as a body-guard to the prince than as an
ingredient of the army. The evidences above quoted are borne out, not
alone by the contents of the Teutonic graves, but by other passages
of ancient writers. Gregory of Tours, in the sixth century, tells us
that Clovis, reviewing his troops soon after the battle of Soissons,
reprimanded a slovenly soldier, by telling him, "There is no one here
whose arms are so ill kept as yours: neither your spear (_hasta_),
nor your sword (_gladius_), nor your axe (_bipennis_), is fit for
service[6]." This author adds a new weapon to the Frankish soldier's
equipment, in which he is equally supported by the evidences from
the graves. They carried also, he tells us, a dagger, which was worn
suspended from the belt. Tacitus, as early as the second century,
describes with great exactness the spear-javelin named by Agathias.
The whole passage is so curiously illustrative of our subject,
that we venture to quote it:--"Rari gladiis, aut majoribus lanceis
utuntur, hastas, vel ipsorum vocabulo _frameas_, gerunt, angusto et
brevi ferro, sed ita acri et ad usum habili ut eodem telo, prout
ratio poscit, vel cominùs vel eminùs pugnent: et eques quidem scuto
frameaque contentus est: pedites et missilia spargunt, pluraque
singuli, atque in immensum vibrant, nudi aut sagulo leves, nulla
cultus jactatio: scuta tantum lectissimis coloribus distinguunt:
paucis loricæ, vix uni alterive cassis aut galea."--(_Germania._)
In the long and fierce contention between the North and the
South,--between the rugged Goth and the polished Roman,--it could
not but happen that an adroit captain of the ruder host would avail
himself of the greater skill of his adversaries; that every campaign
would teach some new formation, that every battle would disclose some
useful stratagem: weapons would be improved, enriched, and augmented
in their variety; the defensive armour of the leaders would extend to
their subordinates; while the leaders, to retain their distinction,
would be induced to render their panoply more splendid and more costly.
We find, therefore, in the poems and chronicles of this later time,
constant mention of rich arms and armour; and in the capitularies
of Charlemagne especially, we get a glimpse of the improvements in
northern warfare. "Let each count," commands the emperor, "be careful
that the troops he has to lead to battle are fully equipped; that
they have spear, shield, a bow with two strings, and twelve arrows,
helmet, and coat-of-fence[7]." We here see the soldiery adding to their
defensive appointments the casque and lorica, and to their offensive
arms the bow and arrows. The equipment of Charlemagne himself has been
handed down to us in the contemporary description of the Monk of Saint
Gall. The head of the monarch was armed with an iron helmet,--"his
iron breast and his shoulders of marble were defended by a cuirasse of
iron." His arms and legs were also covered with armour; of which the
cuissards appear to have been composed of the jazerant-work so much in
vogue at a later period: "coxarum exteriora: in eo ferreis ambiebantur
bracteolis[8]." The followers of the prince, adds his biographer, were
similarly defended, except that they dispensed with the cuissards,
which were inconvenient on horseback.
The proportion of cavalry continued to increase, as we clearly
see from this phrase in a capitulary of _Charles le Chauve_:--"Ut
pagenses franci qui caballos habent, aut habere possunt, cum suis
comitibus in hostem pergant." By the clause, "aut habere possunt," it
appears evident that some effort was expected to be made in order to
extend this force.
Under Clovis and his immediate successors, (sixth century,) the
Frankish army seems to have been pretty strictly limited to that
race. But later, the Burgundians, and then the Germans, and at length
the Gauls themselves, were admitted to the service. The troops
were levied in the various provinces, and bore their names; as the
Andegavi, the Biturici, the Cœnomanici, the Pictavi. Their leaders
were the king, the dukes, and the counts. The Church lands were bound
to furnish their contingent of armed men. The exempts were the very
young, the old, the sick[9], and the newly married for the term of
one year[10]. The provinces not only furnished the fighting men, but
their arms, clothing, and a supply of food. "We order," says another
of the capitularies of Charlemagne, "that, according to _ancient
custom_, each man provide himself in his province with food for three
months, and with arms and clothing for half a year[11]." It may be
inferred from this order, that the prince trusted, for the last three
months' sustenance of his troops, to the maxim always so much in
favour with conquerors, that war should be made to maintain war.
In England, the Teutonic adventurers, when by many a fierce battle
they had established a footing, and by the league of many a tribe
they had united themselves into a large and powerful community, seem
to have divided their society into two classes,--the Eorl, or noble,
and the Ceorl, or freeman. "Before the time of Canute," remarks
Mr. Kemble, "the ealdorman, or duke, was the leader of the _posse
comitatus_, or levy _en masse_, as well as of his own followers[12]."
The only superior dignities were the king and archbishop. The
subordinate commands were held by the royal officers, who led the
nobles and their retainers; the bishops' or abbots' officers, who
were at the head of the Church vassals; and the sheriffs, who
conducted the _posse comitatus_[13]. No distinct intimation of the
dress of the ealdorman has come down to us, but he probably wore a
_beáh_, or ring, upon his head, the _fetel_, or embroidered belt,
and the golden hilt which seems to have been peculiar to the noble
class. The staff and sword were probably borne by him as symbols of
his civil and criminal jurisdiction[14]. But the new constitution
introduced by Canute reduced the ealdorman to a subordinate position.
Over several counties was now placed one eorl, or earl, (in the
Northern sense, a jarl,) with power analogous to that of the Frankish
dukes. The king rules by his earls and húscarlas, and the ealdormen
vanish from the counties. Gradually this old title ceases altogether,
except in the cities, where it denotes an inferior judicature, much
as it does among ourselves at the present day[15].
The _húscarlas_ were a kind of household troops, variously estimated
at three thousand or six thousand men. They were formed on the model
of the earlier _comites_, but probably not organized as a regular
force till the time of Canute. To this prince, living as he was
among a conquered and turbulent people, the maintenance of such a
band, always well armed, and ready for the fray, was of the first
necessity. Their weapons were the axe, the halbard, and the sword;
this last being inlaid with gold. From the collocation of names among
the witnesses to a charter of the middle of the eleventh century, we
may infer that the _stealleras_, or marshals, were the commanding
officers of the húscarlas[16]. In imitation of the king, the great
nobles surrounded themselves with a body-guard of húscarlas, and they
continued to exist as a royal establishment after the Conquest.
Like his ancestors, the ancient Germans, of whom Tacitus tells us,
"nihil neque publicæ neque privatæ rei nisi armati agunt," the
Anglo-Saxon freeman always went armed; a circumstance, however, that
proves, not so much the extent of his freedom, as the smallness of
his civilization. The ancient Egyptians, on the contrary, always
went unarmed; and in the _Kristendom's Saga_ we read, that among
the Icelanders, about 1139, so great was the security, that "men no
longer carried weapons at a public meeting, and that scarcely more
than a single helmet could be seen at a judicial assemblage[17]."
The mode of raising ships among the Anglo-Saxons we learn from an
entry in the Saxon Chronicle under the year 1008:--"This year the
king commanded that ships should be speedily built throughout the
nation; to wit: from three hundred hides, and from ten hides, one
vessel; and from eight hides, a helmet and a coat-of-fence."
On especial occasions, the ships of war appear to have been
decorated in a very costly manner; as we may gather from the
present of Earl Godwin to Hardecanute, described by William of
Malmesbury:--"Hardecanute looking angrily upon Godwin, the earl was
obliged to clear himself by oath. But, in hopes of recovering entirely
the favour of the king, he added to his oath a present of the most rich
and beautiful kind. It was a ship with a beak of gold, having on board
eighty soldiers, who wore two bracelets on either arm, each weighing
sixteen ounces of gold. They had gilt helmets; in the right hand they
carried a spear of iron; on the left shoulder they bore a Danish axe;
in a word, they were equipped with such arms, as that, splendour vying
with terror, might conceal the steel beneath the gold[18]."
The military system of the Danes in their own country, and of their
Scandinavian brethren, may be gathered from what we have told of
the changes wrought in England by King Canute. By the laws of Gula,
said to have been originally established by King Hacon the Good, in
940, whoever possessed the sum of six marks, besides his clothes,
was required to furnish himself with a red shield of two boards in
thickness (_tuibyrding_), a spear, an axe or a sword. He who was
worth twelve marks was ordered to procure in addition a steel cap
(_stál-hufu_); whilst he who was worth eighteen marks was obliged
to have a double red shield, a helmet, a coat-of-fence or gambeson
(_bryniu_ or _panzar_), and all usual weapons (_folkvopn_).
Italy, always the theatre of the most sanguinary wars, torn and
wasted by the troops of pope and of emperor, and of its own citizens
contending against each other; invaded and overrun by barbarian
neighbours,--by the Hungarians on the north, and by the Saracens
on the south,--presented a _mélange_ of warlike usages and warlike
equipment in which the East and the West, the North and the South
became intermingled in such a manner as to give to the whole country
the appearance of a vast military masquerade; an _imbroglio_ which,
in our time, it would be a useless attempt to resolve into its
original elements. In the eleventh century, the consuls of the cities,
succeeding to the functions which had been enjoyed by the dukes and
counts, commanded the troops of their respective districts, and marched
at their head, whether the expedition was undertaken under the banner
of the emperor, or the result of a private dissension between two rival
cities. The forces employed in these services differed in nothing
from those of the west of Europe; the strength of the host consisted
of the heavy-armed knights with lance and target, while the communal
levy fought with such weapons as they could best wield or most easily
obtain. The Hungarians, who overran the country as far as the Tiber
on the north, and the Saracens, who harried the land to the south of
that river, acted in small bodies of light cavalry, compensating by
the rapidity of their movements for the inferior solidity of their
armament. Before the expeditions of these marauders, the Italian cities
had been open; but their depredations at length (that is, about the
close of the ninth century,) caused the citizens to construct walls,
to organize a communal militia for the defence of their homes, and to
place officers selected from their own body at the head of their little
armies.
From very early times, and almost throughout the middle ages, the
clergy are found occasionally taking part in warlike enterprises;--one
principal reason of which may have been, that, by personally heading
their contingent, they escaped from the exactions and caprices of the
vicedomini. Their presence in battle and siege is proved, not only by
the direct testimony of cotemporary writers, but by the prohibitions
that from time to time were issued against the practice. From Gregory
of Tours we learn, that at the siege of Comminges by the Burgundian
monarch, the bishop of Gap often appeared among the defenders of the
town, hurling stones from the walls on the assailants. Hugh, abbot of
St. Quentin, a son of Charlemagne, was slain before Toulouse, with
the abbot of Ferrière; and at the same time, two bishops were made
prisoners. The Saxon Chronicle, under the year 1056, says:--"Leofgar
was appointed bishop. He was the mass-priest of Harold the earl. He
wore his knapsack during his priesthood until he was a bishop. He
forsook his chrism and his rood, his ghostly weapons, and took to his
spear and his sword after his bishophood; and so went to the field
against Griffin, the Welsh king: and there was he slain, and _his
priests with him_." At the Council of Estines, in 743, it is forbidden
"to all who are in the service of the Church to bear arms and to fight,
and none are to accompany the army but those appointed to celebrate
mass, to hear confessions, and to carry the relics of the saints." The
Council of Soissons, in 744, records a similar prohibition against the
abbots:--"Abbates legitimi hostem non faciant, nisi tantum homines
eorum transmittant." The capitularies of Charlemagne contain similar
ordinances: the priests are forbidden to combat "even against the
pagans." The Anglo-Saxon clerics seem to have been no less belligerent
than their neighbours; and Mr. Kemble sums up this part of the question
in the following words:--"Though it is probable that the bishop's
_gerefa_ was bound to lead his contingent, under the command of the
ealdorman, yet we have ample evidence that the prelates themselves did
not hold their station to excuse them from taking part in the just and
lawful defence of their country and religion against strange and pagan
invaders. Too many fell in conflict to allow of our attributing their
presence on the field merely to their anxiety lest the belligerents
should be without the due consolations of religion; and in other cases,
upon the alarm of hostile incursions, we find the levies stated to have
been led against the enemy by the duke and bishop of the district[19]."
If there were Churchmen whom it was difficult to restrain from
fight and foray, there were, on the other hand, laics who sought to
escape the service by donning the cowl or chasuble. A capitulary of
Charlemagne was necessary to prevent certain "liberi homines" from
becoming either priests or monks, in order to avoid the military
duties attached to their station[20].
The matrons of the North appear occasionally to have taken part in
the defence of their country. William of Jumièges, describing the
resistance of the Normans to the attack of the English in 1000,
writes:--"Sed et fœminæ pugnatrices, robustissimos quosque hostium
vectibus hydriarum suarum excerebrantes." Wace, noticing the same
event, says:--
"Li vieilles i sont corues,
O pels, o maches, o machues,
Escorciécs è rebraciées[21]:
De bien férir apareillées."
And the English sailors, on their return after the defeat of their
soldiery, themselves describe them as--
"Granz vieilles deschevelées,
Ki sembloent fames desvées[22]."
As we have before seen, the tactics of the Northern nations were
borrowed in a great measure from the Romans. As early as the time
of Tacitus, the Germans disposed their troops in the form of the
_cuneus_, or wedge: "Acies per cuneos componitur."--(_Germania._) And
in the account given by Agathias of the battle of the Casilinus in
553, we are told that the wedge was still the arrangement adopted for
the central division of the Frankish army, while the remainder was
marshalled in two wings[23].
When a force of infantry had to contend against an army in which many
horse were employed, they sought by serried ranks and by a favourable
position to obtain the advantage over their enemy. This was the plan
of the English at Hastings. A trench was before them,--
"En la champaigne out un fossé"--_Wace, Roman de Rou._
Behind which, says the _Carmen de bello Hastingensi_,--
"Anglorum stat fixa solo densissima turba."--v. 451.
And Henry of Huntingdon: "quasi castellum, impenetrabile Normannis."
And again, Malmesbury: "All were on foot, armed with battle-axes;
and, covering themselves in front by the junction of their shields,
they formed an impenetrable body, which would have secured their
safety that day, had not the Normans by a feigned flight induced
them to open their ranks, which till that time, _according to their
custom_, were closely compacted[24]."
As early as the middle of the eleventh century, it was sought to
familiarize the Anglo-Saxons with the equestrian mode of warfare
of their neighbours, the Normans. In 1055 the alien captain of the
garrison of Hereford, Raulfe, directed the English to serve on
horseback; which, says the chronicler, was contrary to their usage:
"Anglos _contra morem_ in equis pugnare jussit[25]."
Omens in the earlier times, saintly relics in the later, were held
in the highest estimation for the assurance of victory. The ancient
Germans, as we learn from Cæsar, consulted their matrons as to
the lucky hour for them to engage battle, and would not advance
till the moon was propitious[26]. At the battle of the Casilinus,
already noticed, some of the German auxiliaries of the Franks were
unwilling to engage because their augurs had declared the moment
to be unfavourable[27]. Gregory of Tours notices the custom of the
Christian kings of France to seek a lucky omen from the services
of the Church; and recounts that Clovis, arriving in Touraine on
his expedition against Alaric, sent his retainers to the church in
which the body of Saint Martin was deposited, in order to notice the
words that should be uttered on their entry within the sacred walls.
The king's satisfaction was extreme when the courtiers reported
the passage of the eighteenth Psalm: "Tu mihi virtute ad bellum
accinctos meos adversarios subjicis[28]."
Harold's "lucky day" was Saturday; on which he therefore fixes, to
measure his strength with Duke William. Saturday was his birthday,
and his mother had frequently assured him that projects undertaken on
that day would bring him good fortune:--
"Guert, dist Heraut,----
Jor li assis à Samedi,
Por ço ke Samedi naski.
Ma mere dire me soleit
Ke à cel jor bien m'aveindreit."
_Rom. de Rou_, l. 13054.
Saintly relics were carried in procession to insure a successful
expedition, or worn about the person of the combatant, or enclosed in
a feretory and set up on the field of battle. Pope Gregory the Great
included among the presents which he sent to Childebert II., certain
relics which, worn round the neck in battle, would defend him from
all harm: "quæ collo suspensæ a malis omnibus vos tueantur[29]." When
Rollo, duke of Normandy, besieged Chartres, the bishop assembled the
clergy and people, and--
"Traist horz entre sis mainz, d'une châsse ù el fu,
La kemise à la Virge.
* * * * *
Reliques è corz sainz fist mult tost avant traire,
Filatieres è testes et altres Saintuaires[30]:
Ne lessia croix, ne châsse, ne galice[31] en aumaire.
* * * * *
Li Eveske meisme porta _por gonfanon_
Li plus chières reliques par la procession."
The effect of all this upon Rollo was most startling:--
"Quant Rou si grant gent vei, si s'en est esbahi
De la procession ki de Chartres issi:
Des relikes k'ils portent, è des cants k'il oï;
De la Sainte Kemise ke la Dame vesti,
Ki Mere è Virge fu----
N'i osa arester, verz sis nés[32] tost s'enfui;
E, come pluséors distrent, la véue perdi.
Mez tost la recovra et asez tost gari."--
_Rom. de Rou_, vol. i. p. 81.
William the Conqueror and his barons, wanting a wind to invade
England, addressed themselves to the monks of S. Valery; and--
"----unt tant li covent préié
Ke la châsse Saint Valeri
Mistrent as chams sor un tapi.
Al cors saint vinrent tuit orer
Cil ki debveient mer passer:
Tant i out tuit deniers offert,
Tot li cors saint en ont covert.
Emprez cel jor, asez briement,
Orent bon oré[33] è bon vent."--_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 146.
But the most curious accumulation of these "saintuaires" was on the
field of Hastings, where Duke William had a portable altar, enclosing
divers relics of saints and martyrs, other relics being suspended round
his neck; while before him was borne a sacred standard which had been
blessed by the Pope, and on his finger was placed a ring, (also sent by
"the apostle,") in which was set, according to some evidences, one of
the hairs of St. Peter; according to others, one of his teeth[34]:--
"L'Apostoile (li otréia,)
Un gonfanon li envéia;
Un gonfanon et un anel
Mult precios è riche è bel:
Si come il dit, de soz la pierre
Aveit un des cheveuls Saint Pierre."
Or, following another manuscript of the _Roman de Rou_,--
"----de soz la pierre
Aveit une des denz Saint Pierre."
In these days, when the shock of armies was not accompanied by the
thunder of cannon, when the silent flight of the arrow, the hum of
the sling-stone, or the whirr of the javelin, were all that preceded
the hand-to-hand conflict, no small account was made of the various
war-cries of opposing chieftains. And not only war-cries, but even
songs, were employed to encourage the assailants or intimidate the
foe; of which the Song of Roland, sung by Taillefer on the field of
Hastings, is an example in the memory of every reader. Snorro, in the
Heimskringla, has preserved a fragment of the improvised verses sung
by Harold Harfagar, as, mounted on his black charger, he passed along
the line of his troops previous to the battle of Stanford-Bridge[35].
The pagan Northmen invoked their divinities,--a practice that
was continued, according to the chronicle of Wace, to the middle
of the eleventh century; for, of Raoul Tesson at the battle of
Val-des-Dunes, he writes:--
"De la gent done esteit emmie[36]
Poinst li cheval, criant _Tur aïe_[37]
* * * * *
Cil de France crient _Montjoie_.
Willame crie _Dex aïe_:
C'est l'enseigne de Normendie.
E Renouf crie o grant pooir,
_Saint Sever, Sire Saint Sevoir_.
E Dam As Denz[38] va reclamant,
_Saint Amant, Sire Saint Amant_."
_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 32, seq.
In the fight between Lothaire, king of France, and Richard I., duke
of Normandy,--
"Franceiz crient _Monjoe_, è Normanz _Dex aïe_:
Flamenz crient _Asraz_ è Angevin _Valie_:
E li Quens Thibaut _Chartres et passe avant_ crie."--
_Ibid._, i. 238.
At the field of Hastings, the English--
"_Olicrosse_ sovent crioent,
E _Godemite_ reclamoent.
_Olicrosse_ est en engleiz
Ke Sainte Croix est en franceiz;
E _Godemite_ altretant
Com en frenceiz Dex tot poissant."--_Ibid._, ii. 213.
To complete our sketch of the Anglo-Saxon warrior, we may add that he
wore both beard and moustache, neither of which were in vogue among the
soldiers of Duke William. Wace has not omitted this point. The Normans--
"N'unt mie barbe ne guernons[39],
Co dist Heraut, com nos avons."--_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 174.[40]
Let us now examine a little more in detail the arms, offensive
and defensive, of the various Northern tribes, at whose military
institutions and practices we have taken so rapid a glance.
[Illustration: PLATE II.]
[Illustration: PLATE III.]
The SPEARS seem to have been of two kinds: the longer spear in use
among the cavalry, or to be employed against them; and the shorter
kind, which, as we have seen, might serve either as a javelin, or
for the thrust at close quarters. In the accompanying groups of
spear-heads, found in graves in different parts of Europe, we have
collected the principal varieties of form[41]: the leaf-shaped,
the lozenge, the spike, the ogee, the barbed, and the four-edged.
These forms are infinitely varied in the monuments of the time, by
giving to the weapons more or less of breadth or of slenderness.
The blades are always of iron, and those found in England have a
longitudinal opening in the socket. Their length is various, but
they usually range from ten to fifteen inches. In the cemetery at
Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire, the smallest found was two and
a half inches, the longest eighteen inches[42]. In the Ozingell
cemetery (in Kent), they occur of twenty-one inches in length[43].
The spear-heads of this period found in Ireland differ but little
from the examples discovered in England and on the Continent. Those
from the Ballinderry find, observes Mr. Wakeman, "are singularly like
specimens found at Ozingell." In Anglo-Saxon interments, the spears
occur in much greater numbers than any of the other weapons. The
cemetery at Little Wilbraham produced thirty-five spears, but only
four swords; and the axes, in all similar explorations, are of still
greater rarity. These usual types of the spear-head found in Great
Britain closely resemble those discovered in the graves of France,
Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland. Numerous examples of them will
be found figured in the Abbé Cochet's work[44], in Lindenschmit's
Selzen Cemetery[45], in Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum[46], and in
Troyon's _Tombeaux de Bel-Air_.
One of the first things that strikes the student in turning over
the illuminated manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxons, and comparing
their pictures with the relics procured from the graves, is the
great frequency in the paintings of the barbed spear or _angon_,
and its extreme rarity in real examples. We have already seen, in
the description of Agathias, that this weapon was employed with
fearful effect by the Franks in the seventh century; and the constant
occurrence of it in the vellum-paintings of a later date, leaves
us no room to doubt that it was a familiar form to our Teutonic
ancestors. Yet its occurrence in the graves is of the greatest
rarity. We have given, in our plate of spears, figure 17, a specimen
of the barbed javelin, forming part of the Faussett Collection,
found in 1772 in a grave on Sibbertswould Down, in Kent. Its length
is eleven inches. Figure 23 in the same plate is from Mr. Wylie's
paper in the Archæologia, (vol. XXXV.); the original, of iron, and
in length sixteen inches, was found in a Norwegian tumulus. Mr.
Wylie has also engraved another example, preserved in the _Musée de
l'Artillerie_ at Paris, said to have been procured from a Merovingian
grave. In the Abbé Cochet's work (Plate XVI.) is figured another
specimen, from a grave at Envermeu, the length of which is five
inches; the barbs spreading out widely on each side, exactly in
the manner of the royal "broad-arrow." Several examples are given
in Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum, p. 69; one of which differs from
the rest in having the barb on one side only, the other side being
leaf-shaped. The barbed spear or javelin has also been found at
Mainz, Darmstadt, and Wiesbaden[47]; but in all cases it occurs in
very small proportion to the other weapons discovered.
The four-edged spear-head is of still greater rarity. In the graves
opened by Mr. Wylie at Fairford, in Gloucestershire, one of these
curious weapons was obtained; which we have copied from the volume
describing this find[48], in our plate of spears, fig. 18. It is of
iron, sixteen and a half inches in length, and two inches across
at the broadest part. "It reminds one," remarks Mr. Wylie, "of the
spear of Thorolf in Eigil's Saga:" "Cujus ferrum duas ulnas longum,
in mucronem _quatuor acies habentem_, desinebat." These four-edged
weapons are of the highest antiquity;--compare those of the
Egyptians, figured and described in Sir Gardner Wilkinson's work[49].
Another variety, found at Douvrend, and figured at page 283 of _La
Normandie Souterraine_, has a leaf-shaped blade with recurved hooks
at the socket end. Mr. Wylie has given this example in his paper in
the Archæologia, (vol. xxxv. p. 48,) and considers it to be the weapon
named by Sidonius as forming part of the Frankish warrior's equipment:
"_lanceis uncatis_, securibusque missilibus dextræ refertæ." Four other
examples of this spear were found in the valley of the Eaulne[50].
Occasionally the spear-head was formed with its two sides on
different planes; with the object, as it would appear, of giving a
rotary motion to the weapon when used as a javelin. Two examples of
this construction are described and engraved in the account of the
excavations, by Mr. Akerman, at Harnham Hill, near Salisbury[51].
The spear-head was generally attached to its shaft by means of rivets
passing through the socket into the wood beneath. Sometimes, in
lieu of the socket, there was a spike at the base of it, which was
driven _into_ the wood, as in one of the Livonian examples, now in
the British Museum, and figured in Dr. Bähr's work, _Die Gräber der
Liven_. Sometimes, again, a ferule of bronze or iron was added to
the socketed spear-head at its junction with the staff, as in the
example in Mr. Rolfe's museum, at Sandwich, obtained from the Ozingell
graves, and figured on our Plate II., fig. 6. In this instance the
ferule was of bronze. One of iron occurred in the cemetery at Linton
Heath, Cambridgeshire, (figured in Archæol. Journal, vol. xi. p. 106).
In manuscript illuminations the spear-head of the Anglo-Saxons is
constantly represented with one or more cross-bars at the base of the
blade. A spear of iron having a cross-piece of analogous form was found
among Anglo-Saxon relics near Nottingham in recent excavations, and has
been added to the Tower Collection. It is engraved in the Archæological
Journal, vol. viii. p. 425. Similar examples are figured in the
Illustrated Catalogue of Mr. Roach Smith's Museum, p. 103.
The shaft itself appears to have been generally of ash. Portions of
the wood have been found at Wilbraham, at Ozingell, at Northfleet,
and other places. Some of that from Northfleet, having been examined
by Professor Lindley and by Mr. Girdwood, has been pronounced to
be undoubtedly ash[52]. The general use of this wood is strikingly
confirmed by several passages in "Beowulf," that curious Anglo-Saxon
poem which the concurring opinion of the best Northern scholars has
assigned to the close of the eighth century:--
"Their javelins piled together stood,
The seamen's arms, of ashen wood."--_Line_ 654.
And again, line 3535:--
"Thus I the Hring-danes
for many a year
governed under heaven
and secured them with war
from many tribes
throughout this earth
with spears and swords."
(_Æscum and ecgum._)
In this passage, _æscum_, ash, is put for the spear itself. Mr.
Roach Smith has collected several other instances of a similar kind.
"In Cædmon, the term _æsc-berend_, or spear-bearer, is applied to
a soldier." In the fragment of the poetical "History of Judith" we
have _æsc-plega_, the play of spears, as a poetic term for a battle.
So we have _æsc-bora_, a spear-bearer; and in the Codex Exoniensis,
_æsc-stede_, a field of battle. And again, in "Beowulf:"--
"_Eald Æsc-wiga._"
Some old spear-warrior[53].
In the eleventh century we find the ashen spear again mentioned.
Robert of Aix, describing the knights his companions in the First
Crusade, says: "Hastæ _fraxineæ_ in manibus eorum ferro acutissimo
præfixæ sunt, quasi grandes perticæ[54]." The Abbé Cochet, however,
describes the remains of a lance-shaft found at Envermeu as being of
oak; black with age, and of an extreme hardness[55].
The staves were sometimes of a rich and costly character. The heriot
of the Anglo-Saxon Wulfsige consisted of two horses, one helmet, one
byrnie, one sword, and a spear twined with gold[56].
The spear-staves deposited in the graves are necessarily of the
shorter kind: the length of the entire weapon being about six feet;
a fact easily ascertained by measuring the distance from the blade
to the iron shoe, where that is found. This iron shoe is generally
a hollow spike, into which the wood was fitted; as in that of the
"Fairford Graves," Plate XI.; the one from Northfleet, (figured in
the Journal of the Archæological Association, vol. iii.); and another
in the Faussett Collection, found at Ash-by-Sandwich. Sometimes it
was a button, to be driven into the shaft by means of a nail issuing
from its centre. An example of this variety is engraved in the _Nenia
Britannica_ of Douglas.
Those who used the shorter spear or javelin were provided with
several of these weapons, which they hurled successively at the
enemy. In Harleian MS., No. 603, folio 30[57], may be seen a
spearman holding three lozenge-headed javelins. Cædmon's Paraphrase
(Archæologia, vol. xxiv. Plate LV.) has a figure carrying three
barbed javelins (_angones_). In Harl. MS., 603, folio 56^b,
the Destroying Angel has three barbed spears, one of which is
represented in its flight, another poised in the right hand, ready
to follow, while the third is held in the left hand, to be employed
in its turn. This curious example has been figured by Mr. Akerman,
to illustrate his paper, "On some of the Weapons of the Celtic and
Teutonic Races," in vol. xxxiv. of the Archæologia.
Vegetius (lib. i. c. 2.) tells us that, in his day, the barbarians
were armed with two or three javelins, a weapon which had fallen into
disuse among the Romans. In the Bayeux tapestry there are figures
of the Anglo-Saxons furnished with three or four of these missiles.
Even in the graves of these people, the spears are sometimes found
in pairs. Sir Henry Dryden, in his explorations at Marston Hill, in
Northamptonshire, met with two warriors having two spears each. And
the Hon. Mr. Neville found at Little Wilbraham, in Cambridgeshire,
another example of a similar kind. The Wilbraham Cemetery disclosed
another curious usage. Where cremation had been employed, spear-heads
(and knives also) were in several cases discovered in the urns. Kings
as well as their followers were buried with their weapons beside
them. The spear-head found in the tomb of Childeric, which is of
lozenge form, is engraved in the _Milice Françoise_ of Father Daniel.
This tomb was discovered in 1655, and the weapons found in it are
preserved in the Imperial Library at Paris[58].
A singular usage appears to have prevailed when the spear and
the axe were deposited in the same grave. The spear in this case
was reversed,--the point at the feet of the warrior. Examples of
this practice have been observed in Normandy, at Mondorf, and at
Selzen[59]. At Wilbraham, spear-heads were found at the feet[60].
The pagan Northmen sought to enhance the value of their arms by
referring their fabrication to weapon-smiths of a preternatural
power. The Christianized Germans of the tenth century obtained a
similar result by the employment of iron from the reliquary. At the
coronation of the Emperor Otho the Great, in 961, Walpert, archbishop
of Milan, presided at the solemnities: the prince placed on the
altar of Saint Ambrose all the royal insignia; the lance, of which
the head had been forged out of one of the nails of the true cross,
the royal sword, the axe, the belt, and the royal mantle. After some
intervening ceremonies, he was again armed with the weapons which had
been laid upon the altar, and the archbishop placed on his head the
iron crown of Lombardy[61].
Not the least interesting among the many singular objects discovered
by the Abbé Cochet in his researches in Normandy, is the little
silver coin containing the portrait of "un guerrier frank debout." In
his right hand the warrior carries his lance, while the left appears
to hold the well-known round target of his time. This curious little
relic is engraved on page 359 of the _Normandie Souterraine_.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.]
[Illustration: PLATE V.]
The SWORDS of the ante-Norman period may be divided into three
classes: the earlier broadsword without cross-piece, straight,
double-edged, and acutely pointed; the later sword, similar in
fashion to the above, but having a guard, or cross-piece; and the
curved weapon with a concave edge, called in Anglo-Saxon the
_seax_; the _sica_ of classical times. The first has become familiar
to us from the numerous examples procured from the graves of France,
Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and England. This type agrees exactly
with the description left us by Sidonius Apollinaris; who, recording
a victory obtained by the Franks over the Goths, has this passage:
"Alii hebetatorum cæde gladiorum latera dentata pernumerant. Alii
_cæsim atque punctim_ foraminatos circulos loricarum metiuntur[62]."
We have engraved, figure 1 of our plate of swords, a fine specimen of
this kind of weapon, which was found among the "Fairford Graves." It
is nearly three feet in length (the usual size of these swords), and
when dug up, had fragments of the wood and leather which once formed
its scabbard, still adhering to the iron. Other examples discovered
in England are engraved in Mr. Neville's "Saxon Obsequies," Mr.
Akerman's "Pagan Saxondom," and in the account of the Ozingell
Cemetery[63]. German specimens appear in the "Selzen Cemetery," Swiss
in the _Tombeaux de Bel-Air_, Danish in the "Copenhagen Museum," p.
66, and Frankish in _La Normandie Souterraine_. The Irish swords are
shorter than others of this date,--not exceeding thirty inches,--as
we learn from the researches of Mr. Wakeman[64]. That this sword of
the earlier Iron Period resembled the anterior bronze sword in being
without cross-piece, seems clear from two facts. Firstly, no such
provision (except in one or two isolated cases) is found to accompany
the weapons disclosed by the graves; secondly, it has been remarked,
that in many instances, where the wood of the handle and that of the
sheath remain, they approach so closely together, that there is no
space left for any intervening appendage.
The sword with cross-piece appears to belong to the later Iron Period.
When real examples are found in this country, and in others early
Christianised, they are generally dredged from the beds of rivers,
or turned up among old foundations; though in states where paganism
held a longer sway, they are obtained from the graves. Two very early
English specimens are figured in the "Pagan Saxondom:" one found at
Gilton, in Kent, and now in Mr. Rolfe's Museum; the other found at
Coombe, in Kent, and preserved in the collection of Mr. Boreham. The
cross-piece in these examples has projected but little beyond the edges
of the blade. From specimens given in our plates, and from the numerous
representations of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, we see that the guard
eventually became a much more prominent feature of the Northern brand.
The third variety of the Anglo-Saxon sword, the _seax_, which Mr.
Kemble[65] defines to be "ensis quidam curvatus," is apparently that
old Thracian weapon, the _sica_, which among the Romans was in such
little repute, that _sicarius_ came to mean a bandit, or an assassin.
The Anglo-Saxon curved sword never appears in their book-paintings,
and has not been found in their graves. But in the Copenhagen Museum
is a weapon which seems exactly to answer this description of the
Northern _seax_. It is engraved in Mr. Worsaae's "Illustrations of
the Copenhagen Museum," p. 97, fig. 384.
The handle of the earlier sword appears often to have been a mere
haft, like that of our knives; sometimes it had a pommel. The later
sword-handle consisted of grip, pommel, and cross-piece. The grip
seems to have been commonly of wood, and it is not unusual to find
portions of this wood still adhering to the tang of those swords
which have been recovered from the graves. Part of such a hilt, found
at Northfleet, in Kent, was submitted to the examination of Professor
Lindley, and pronounced to be pine. Mr. Worsaae is of opinion that
the Danish swords had the handle covered with "wood, leather, bone,
or horn; which, however, is now consumed[66]." Mr. Wakeman tells us
that some of the Ancient-Irish iron swords "have been found with the
handle of bone remaining." Generally the cross-bar was straight; but
sometimes it curved towards the blade; as in Cott. MSS., Tiberius, C.
vi. fol. 9; Cleopatra, C. viii., in many places; in that fine sword
found in the river Witham, and preserved in the British Museum; in
the sword discovered in a tumulus in Lancashire (engraved in Archæol.
Journal, vol. vi. p. 75); and in the examples given in our plate of
swords, figs. 9, 10, 11, from Dr. Bähr's Livonian Collection. These
cross-pieces of metal were often, as well as the pommels, richly
decorated. The specimen from the Witham, named above, has both pommel
and guard, which are of iron, inlaid with gold and copper in a
pattern of lozenges. The most usual forms of the pommel were trefoil,
cinquefoil, hemispherical, round, and triangular. To some a little
ring was added, probably to attach a sword-knot; as in the example
already noticed from Gilton, and figured in the "Pagan Saxondom." Of
the other kinds named above, the first four occur constantly in the
miniatures of Anglo-Saxon books, and it is difficult to understand
on what grounds the swords with foliated pommels, when found in this
country, are so generally assigned to the Danes. The triangular
pommel is more rare. In our plate, fig. 7, we give an example in
an ancient Norwegian sword in the possession of Dr. Thurnum. It is
entirely of iron, measuring 3 feet, 1-1/2 inches. A sword of similar
form is engraved in Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," p. 97.
That the sword-hilts were occasionally of a costly character, we have
the concurring testimony of ancient charters, poets, chroniclers, and
of the graves. The poetical Edda records that Gunnar, a _regulus_
of Germany, replied to the messenger of Attila,--"Seven chests have
I filled with swords; each of them has a hilt of gold: my weapon
is exceedingly sharp; my bow is worthy of the bench it graces; my
byrnies are golden; my helmet and white shield came from the hall of
Kiars[67]." Kiars was a _regulus_ of Gaul. In "Beowulf" (line 1338),
the "Great Prince" delivers into the keeping of his servant "his
ornamented sword, the costliest of blades" (_irena cyst_). Again:
"The son of Healfdene gave to Beowulf a golden ensign, as the reward
of victory; a treasure with a twisted hilt, a helm and byrnie, a
mighty valued sword many beheld borne before the warrior." (Line
2033.) At line 3228, we have "the hilt variegated with treasure;" and
afterwards (line 3373,) we read of a "sword, the costliest of irons,
with twisted hilt, and variegated like a snake." In this passage,
both sword and simile are curiously illustrative of the ornamental
art of the Anglo-Saxons, of which so many examples have come down to
us. A document of the early part of the tenth century, given in Mr.
Thorpe's "Anglo-Saxon Laws[68]," distinguishing between the _eorl_
and the _ceorl_, declares, that if the latter "thrive so well, that
he have a helm and byrnie, and a sword ornamented with gold, if he
have not five hides of land, he is notwithstanding a ceorl." We have
already seen that Canute's huscarlas were armed "with axes, halbards,
and swords inlaid with gold." Eginhard tells us that the belt of
Charlemagne was "of gold or silver, and the hilt of his sword was
made of gold and precious stones." And of the splendid galley fitted
out by Earl Godwin, as a present to Hardiknut, we are told that the
warriors had "swords whose hilts were of gold."
Among the heriots enumerated by Mr. Kemble[69], that of Beorhtric,
about 962, includes a sword worth eighty mancuses of gold. And Duke
Ælfheah was possessor of another of the same value. In the will of
prince Æthelstan, dated 1015, is named "a silver-hilted sword which
Woolfricke made." Guillaume de Jumièges and Dudon de S. Quentin tell
us that Richard the First, duke of Normandy, rewarded the services of
two knights by presenting to each a sword whose hilt of gold weighed
four pounds, and a bracelet of gold of the same weight. In illuminated
manuscripts of this period, the mountings of swords are generally
coloured yellow, implying probably a surface of gold, whether from
thin plates of that metal, or from gilding. In the Fausset Collection
is the bronze pommel of a sword, which has been richly gilt. The
mountings of another in the British Museum are inlaid with gold. In
Mr. Rolfe's possession are examples both in gilded bronze and of
silver. In Denmark, hilts have been found "partly of silver, or inlaid
with silver, or with gold chains attached to them[70]." Other Danish
swords were surrounded with chains of gold, or covered with plates
of gold and silver; and swords with handles entirely of silver have
also been discovered[71]. Coloured beads appear sometimes to have
formed part of the decorations of the Anglo-Saxon sword. Mr. Neville
remarks, in his description of the relics found at Wilbraham, that "an
immense blue-and-white perforated Bead accompanied three out of the
four swords, probably as an appendage to the hilt or some part of the
scabbard." On Plate XXI. of his "Saxon Obsequies" he has figured two of
these beads: one is an inch and three-quarters in diameter, the other
an inch and a quarter. Occasionally, runic or Latin inscriptions appear
upon these weapons. In "Beowulf" this usage is noticed:--
"So was on the surface
of the bright gold
with runic letters
rightly marked
set and said,
for whom that sword,
the costliest of irons,
was first made."--_Line_ 3373.
Mr. Rolfe had the good fortune to become the possessor of a
sword-pommel thus "rightly marked." It is of silver, and was found
at Ash-by-Sandwich. The runes occupy one side only of the pommel,
the other having zigzag and triangular ornaments. This curious relic
has been figured in the "Archæological Album," "Pagan Saxondom,"
and in Mr. Wright's "Celt, Roman, and Saxon." Professor Thomsen of
Copenhagen informs the writer of these pages that, in Denmark, swords
of the latest pagan period have been found, having runic inscriptions
formed by letters of iron let into the iron blade. In the Tower
collection may be seen a sword of somewhat later date, in which also
is exhibited this curious practice, of inserting letters of iron into
an iron blade. Among the swords found in Ireland, attributed to the
Scandinavian settlers in that country, instances have occurred of
inscriptions "in Latin letters[72]." In the Northern Sagas, frequent
mention is made of the swords of their heroes being marked with
runes; and the evidences we have adduced are of no small value in
shewing the correctness of these writings as regards the ordinary
usages of the time.
A further distinction was conferred on the swords of the great heroes
of the North;--they were honoured with particular names. In the
Wilkina Saga we read of "the sword called _Gramr_, which is the best
of all swords," with which Sigurdr slays the cunning smith, Mimer;
and again, of the weapon named _Naglhringr_, obtained for Dietrich
of Bern, by the dwarf Alpris, (c. xvi.) Vermund the Wise armed his
son Uffe with the brand _Skrep_, none other being proportioned to his
strength. That of Rolf Krage was called _Skrofnung_. In "Beowulf"
(canto xxi.), we have "the hilted knife named _Hrunting_,"--
"wæs þam hæft-mece
Hrunting nama;"
whose "edge was iron stained with poisonous twigs, hardened in
gore." And in canto xxvi. of the same poem we learn that--
"_Nægling_, old sword and gray of hue,
False in the fray, in splinters flew."
King Hacon the Good, Snorro tells us, "girded round him his sword
called _Kuernbit_" (millstone-biter). Thorolf, in Egil's Saga, "was
armed with a sword named _Lang_, a mickle weapon and good." In Magnus
Barfot's Saga (cap. xxvi.), the king wore "a most sharp sword called
_Leggbitr_, the hilt of which was made of the tooth of the Rosmar
(walrus), and ornamented with gold." The sword _Mimung_ was no whit
inferior to any of these. It was forged by Weland, in a trial of
skill with another celebrated weapon-smith, Amilias by name. Weland
first made a sword with which he cut a thread of wool lying on the
water. But not content with this, he re-forged the blade, which then
cut through the whole ball of floating wool. Still dissatisfied, he
again passed it through the fire, and at length produced so keen a
weapon that it divided a whole bundle of wool floating in water.
Amilias, on his part, forged a suit of armour so much to his own
satisfaction that, sitting down on a stool, he bade Weland try his
weapon upon him. Weland obeyed, and there being no apparent effect,
asked Amilias if he felt any particular sensation. Amilias said he
felt as though cold water had passed through his bowels. Weland then
bade him shake himself. On doing so, the effect of the blow was
apparent: he fell dead in two pieces[73].
The skilful weaponer was always a person of high consideration in these
days. This is curiously shewn in the law of Ethelbert which enacts that
"if one man slay another, he is to pay his wergyld: but not so, if the
slayer happen to be the king's weapon-smith or his messenger; in that
case, he is to pay only a moderated wergyld of a hundred shillings[74]."
We have already noticed the curious custom of burying the spear-head
in the same vase with the bones of the Anglo-Saxon warrior. An
analogous practice has been observed in Denmark; where the sword of
the hero, broken into several pieces, is placed over the mouth of the
urn. An example of this kind of interment is engraved in Worsaae's
"Copenhagen Museum," p. 98. Occasionally the iron sword, having
been softened by the fire, was bent, and in this state deposited in
the grave. The Abbé Cochet remarks:--"Cet usage des sabres ployés
au feu et enterrés avec les morts est très-rare chez nous: il
s'est rencontré en Allemagne, en Danemark, et en Suisse, ou M. de
Bonstetton en a vu un grand nombre, en 1851, dans les sépultures
de Tiefenau, près Berne. Ce savant ajoute que cette coutume, plus
barbare que romaine, peu connue des Helvètes, était très-fréquente
chez les peuples Scandinaves. Il existe, dit-il, au musée de Schwerin
plusieurs glaives en fer que l'on croit provenir des Vendes, et qui
ont été rougis dans le feu et ensuite ployés. Baehr signale le même
fait dans les tombes d'Ascheraden et de Segevold[75]."
The Sheaths of the swords were commonly of wood covered with leather,
as we learn from the graves; and they were sometimes mounted in
bronze. Figure 2 of our fourth Plate shews an example from Wilbraham,
in which the locket and chape are of bronze; and the Livonian sword,
Plate V. fig. 10, has an ornamented bronze chape. In the British Museum
is an Anglo-Saxon blade found in a grave at Battle Edge, Oxfordshire,
which retains the bronze chape and locket of its scabbard. These
fitments were sometimes gilt, or even of gold. Mr. Worsaae, in his
"Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," page 50, has figured the gold locket
of a sword-sheath, adorned with the winding pattern so characteristic
of this period. Wood and leather were the ordinary materials used in
the Danish scabbards. Of the sheaths formed of these substances, which
have been partially preserved to our times, the most curious example
is that figured by Mr. Bateman in vol. vii. of the Journal of the
Archæological Association. It was found in a barrow in Derbyshire,
and is constructed of thin wood overlaid with leather, the surface
of the latter being covered with a pattern of alternate fillets and
lozenges. A scabbard found at Strood, in Kent, was formed externally of
a substance resembling shagreen. Dr. Bähr, in _Die Gräber der Liven_,
Plate XV., has engraved a dagger-sheath, which is entirely of bronze,
from Ascheraden; and in the _Abbildungen von Mainzer Altherthümern_ for
1852, is another bronze dagger-sheath, containing an iron dagger, which
was found near Treves. Several are in the British Museum. Mr. Roach
Smith has another, found in the Thames;--all of them probably belonging
to the period under consideration. There is also a curious type of
sword-scabbard, formed entirely of bronze, which further observation
may probably shew to be of Northern make. The example here engraved
was found on a moor near Flasby, in Yorkshire; it contains the blade
of an iron sword. Several similar ones have been discovered. One dug
up at Stanwick has been presented by the Duke of Northumberland to
the British Museum. Another is engraved in Dr. Wilson's "Annals of
Scotland," found near Edinburgh. A fourth, from the bed of the Isis,
is figured in the Archæological Journal, vol. x. p. 259. The Earl of
Londesborough has another, dredged from the Thames, which differs
from the rest in having been ornamented with enamelled studs. This is
engraved in vol. iii. of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. See also the Danish
example, figured in Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," p. 66. All these
bronze scabbards have contained iron blades.
[Illustration: No. 6.]
The Sword-Belts appear to have been usually girt round the waist; the
buckles and tongues of them having often been found in the graves.
These fitments are generally of bronze, sometimes of copper; and the
metal is not unfrequently gilt, or embossed, or enamelled. Some buckles
in the Faussett collection, found in Kent, are set with garnets. The
belt was occasionally worn across the body, suspended from the right
shoulder; as in the fine figure in Cotton MS., Tiberius, C. vi. fol.
9. Our woodcut, No. 17, furnishes an example of the belt girt round the
waist, from an illumination in Add. MS., No. 18,043.
The AXE, as we have seen, was a characteristic weapon of the Northern
nations. It is not unfrequently found in the graves of these people
on the Continent, but in Anglo-Saxon interments it is of the
extremest rarity. In the Wilbraham excavations, a hundred graves
yielded only two axes. In the Fairford researches, not one was found
in a hundred and twenty graves; and in the many Kentish barrows
examined by the Earl of Londesborough in 1841, not a single specimen
was obtained. The axe appears to have been of three principal forms:
the "taper axe," the broad axe, and the double-axe, or bipennis. The
pole-axe and the adze-axe were varieties of these. The battle-axe was
also called _francisca_, from the favour with which it was regarded
by the Franks. Isidorus (lib. xviii. c. 8.) tells us of "Secures quas
Hispani ab usu Francorum per derivationem _franciscas_ vocant."
[Illustration:
PLATE VII.]
Examples of the Anglo-Saxon taper-axe, from the Ozingell Cemetery,
are given in figures 1 and 2 of our Plate. Figures 3 and 4, found in
Ireland, fig. 6, from Selzen in Germany, and fig. 9, from Livonia,
closely resemble the Kentish ones. Fig. 8, from Livonia, differs
chiefly in having a prolongation at the back. Specimens of the
taper-axe found in France are given in Plates VII., IX., and XI.
of _La Normandie Souterraine_; and Danish examples occur at pages
68 and 96 of Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum." Some of the axe-heads
dug up in Denmark exhibit a very curious transitional construction;
the blade being of copper edged with iron. Another axe in the
Copenhagen Museum, "of the very earliest times of the iron period,"
is inscribed with runes. The axe found in the tomb of Childeric is of
the "taper" form already described; it is represented in Plate II. of
Daniel's _Milice Françoise_. We have already, by the passages from
Sidonius and Procopius, seen how the sons of Odin commenced their
attack by hurling their axes at the foe. A curious illustration of
this practice of throwing the axe is afforded by a charter of Canute,
granting to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, the port-dues of
Sandwich, "from Pepernesse to Mearcesfleote, as far as a taper-axe
can be thrown on the shore from a vessel afloat at high water[76]:"
[Saxon: swā feorr swā mæȝ ān taper-æx beon ȝeworpen ūt of ðam scipe
ūp on dæt land].
Figure 10 of our Plate, from Livonia, offers a variety from the axe
already described, in having an angle in its under line. A similar
contour is found in examples discovered in Normandy, and figured
on Plate VII. of the Abbé Cochet's work. The broad-axe is seen in
our figures 5 and 7; the first from Selzen, the other from Livonia.
Compare the Frankish specimen engraved at page 233 of _La Normandie
Souterraine_. Others have been found in England.
The single-axe used by the Anglo-Saxons in battle does not seem to
have differed in form from those employed in woodcraft; as may be seen
by referring to the Calendar contained in Cotton MS., Julius, A. vi.,
faithfully copied in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations." Indeed, it is
probable that the blade which had felled an oak was often called upon
to strike down an enemy. Manuscripts do not frequently give pictures
of the battle-axe; but examples occur in Cott. MS., Cleop., C. viii.,
and in the Anglo-Saxon Benedictional of the Library of Rouen.
The double-axe is of still more rare occurrence in book-paintings.
It appears in two places in Harleian MS., No. 603, but this is a
work not earlier than the close of the eleventh century. In the
graves, the bipennis has never been found at all; neither is it seen
in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons in the Bayeux Tapestry. But if the
bipennis of the true classical form, that is, having two vertical
blades, has not hitherto been seen among the varied contents of the
Northmen's graves, a very singular variety of this implement has been
discovered among the tombs of the Valley of the Eaulne. It is a kind
of adze-axe, the one blade being vertical, the other horizontal. It
was found by the Abbé Cochet in the cemetery of Parfondeval, and
has been engraved in his work, p. 306, and in the _Archæologia_,
vol. xxxv., p. 229. The adze form of one of the blades would seem to
indicate rather an artificer's tool than a warrior's weapon, and the
Abbé tells us that the peasants have still such an implement, which
they call their _bisaiguë_ (p. 307). We may remember, however, that
an authority for the military use of the horizontal blade exists in
the effigy at Malvern[77].
The Pole-axe is the almost universal form of this arm in the Bayeux
tapestry. Not only the Saxon soldiery, but Harold, and even Duke
William himself, are armed with this fearful weapon. Indeed, for
a force of infantry, as the English were, contending against
cavalry, no other kind of axe could have been of much service.
Wace, whose minute descriptions, wearisome enough to the general
reader, are invaluable to the archæologist, has not lost sight of
the long-handled axes of the islanders. He has even given us the
particular dimension of the head,--"ki fu d'acier:"--
"----un Engleiz vint acorant:
Hache noresche[78] out mult bele,
Plus de _plain pié_ out l'alemele[79].
* * * * *
---- la coignie
K'il aveit sus el col levée,
Ki mult esteit _lonc enhanstée_[80]."
_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 225.
And again, line 13536:--
"Un Engleiz od une coignie,
Ke il aveit, _lungue emmanchie_,
L'a si féru parmi li dos
Ke toz li fet croissir les os."
The same Master Wace has recorded his objection to the Northern axe;
that, requiring both hands to wield it, the weapon cannot be used
effectively with the shield:--
"Hoem ki od hache volt férir,
Od sez dous mainz l'estuet tenir[81].
Ne pot entendre à sei covrir,
S'il velt férir de grant aïr[82].
Bien férir è covrir ensemble,
Ne pot l'en faire, ço me semble."
_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 262.
The handle of the Axe was of wood, traces of which have been observed
in the relics obtained from the graves. In a single instance, it has
been found of iron. This example occurred at Lède, in Belgium, and
has been described by M. Rigollot in the _Mémoires de la Société des
Antiquaires de Picardie_, vol. x.
The Guisarme is a weapon frequently mentioned by our early
chroniclers and poets; but, though it is sometimes made to be
identical with the pole-axe, at others it is distinguished from that
arm. Wace tells us it was "sharp, long, and broad:"--
"E vos avez lances agües,
E granz gisarmes esmolues."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 12907.
"Dous Engleiz vit mult orguillos:
* * * * *
En lor cols aveient levées
Dui gisarmes lunges è lées[83]."--_Ib._, l. 13431.
The Statute of Arms of King William of Scotland (1165-1214) enacts:
"Et qui minus habet quam XL. solidos, habeat Gysarm, quod dicitur
Hand-axe[84]." From another Scottish ordinance we learn that the
hand-axe was a long-handled weapon. The Provost of Edinburgh in 1552
directs: "Because of the greit slauchteris done in tyme bygane within
the burgh, and apperendlie to be done, gif na remeid be provydit
thairto; that ilk manner of persone, occupyaris of buthis or chalmeris
in the hie-gait, that they have lang valpynnis[85] thairin, sic as
handex, Jedburgh staif, hawart jawalyng[86], and siclyk lang valpynnis,
with knaipschawis[87] and jakkis; and that they cum thairwith to the
hie-gait incontinent efter the commoun bell rynging[88]."
[Illustration: No. 8.]
Knives of various sizes are constantly found in the Northern graves.
The smaller were evidently for domestic purposes, for they are
discovered in female interments as well as in those of the other sex.
But the larger kind appear to have been used as daggers. They have
been more frequently observed in the continental tombs than in those
of our island; and, as they very rarely appear in the pictures of
the Anglo-Saxons, we may conclude that they formed no necessary part
of the equipment of these warriors. A fine example of this weapon
is given on our ninth Plate (fig. 1,) from the Ozingell Cemetery.
It is sixteen inches in length, of iron, and is provided with a
cross-piece. In the following group from the Anglo-Saxon and Latin
Psalter of the Duc de Berri, in the Paris Library, the spearman's
adversary appears to be employing exactly such an instrument as
the example from the Kentish grave[89]. Figure 2 in our Plate is a
two-edged dagger of iron from the Faussett collection. It was found
near Ash-by-Sandwich, and measures ten inches in the blade. Figures
3 and 4 are Ancient Irish. The first is the ordinary type of this
weapon, of which many have been found. The second is remarkable from
the retention of its handle, which is of wood, and ornamented with
carving. Both these are from Mr. Wakeman's paper on Irish Antiquities
in vol. iii. of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. Figures 5 and 6 are German
examples, from the Selzen graves. The first is very remarkable from
the ring at the extremity of the tang. In Denmark, daggers have
been found of a transitional period, the bulk of the blade being of
bronze, edged on both sides with iron. Other Danish examples are
given in Mr. Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," pages 66 and 97. In Dr.
Bähr's explorations in Livonia, a dagger of iron was discovered with
its bronze sheath. (See _Die Gräber der Liven_, Plate XV.) Gregory
of Tours, in the sixth century, mentions in several places that the
Frankish soldiers carried large knives at their belts; and there
seems no reason to doubt that the examples from the graves are the
very "cultri validi" of the historian. Of these Frankish war-knives,
several specimens are figured in the _Normandie Souterraine_. They
closely resemble those found in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and
England. The handles appear to have been of wood. One of the Frankish
examples still had portions of the wooden haft remaining[90]. Other
specimens of the Northern _cultelli_ will be found collected on Plate
LVIII. of the second volume of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. Some of
these weapons appear to have been inlaid with copper or other metal;
for which purpose one or more incised lines are formed near the back
of the blade. An Anglo-Saxon knife found in excavations in the city
of London, and engraved (fig. 3.) in the Plate of the _Collectanea
Antiqua_ already noticed, still retains the bronze inlaying in the
channels of its blade.
[Illustration:
PLATE IX.]
A curious variety of the war-knife is in the collection of Mr. Roach
Smith, of which the single edge is straight, or nearly so, and the
point formed by a diagonal cut at the back of the blade. It is
believed, in its perfect state, to have measured upwards of thirty
inches; is of steel; and has on both sides a double line of the
channelling already noticed[91]. A weapon of similar form appears
among the Livonian antiquities now in the British Museum, and is
represented on Plate XIX. of Dr. Bähr's _Gräber der Liven_.
The LONG-BOW was another weapon of this era. Agathias, indeed, has
told us that the Franks used neither bow nor sling. But arrows
are expressly mentioned in the Salic Law; and, to reconcile these
conflicting testimonies, it has been suggested that the archery
of the Salic Law is that of the chase alone. _Poisoned_ arrows,
however, are here named, and the hunter does not ply his art with
poisoned shafts. "Si quis alterum de sagitta toxicata percutere
voluerit[92]," &c. Further on, a fine is fixed for him who shall
deprive another of his "second finger, with which he directs his
arrow:"--secundum digitum, quo sagittatur. At a later period, the
bow is especially commanded as a part of the soldier's equipment.
One of the capitularies of Charlemagne directs--"that the Count be
careful to have his contingent fully furnished for the field; that
they have lance, shield, a bow with two strings and twelve arrows,"
&c. According to the testimony of Henry of Huntingdon, William the
Conqueror reproached the English with their want of this weapon. The
Bayeux tapestry, however, seems to authorize the belief that they
were not entirely without it. (See the first group of Anglo-Saxons
in Stothard's XIV^{th}. plate.) The probability seems to be that,
while the Normans employed archers in large bodies, the English
merely interspersed them in small numbers among their men-at-arms.
The bow, at all events, was in use among the Anglo-Saxons: it is
frequently represented in manuscript illuminations, and arrow-heads
have been found in the graves. Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 in our Plate
are from Kentish interments. The first two form part of the Fausset
collection; the others, figured in the _Nenia Britannica_, were
found on Chatham Lines. The whole are of iron. Pictorial examples of
the Anglo-Saxon bow, arrows, and quiver may be seen in Cotton MSS.,
Cleop., C. viii., Claudius, B. iv., Tiberius, C. vi., and in the fine
_Prudentius_ of the Tenison Library. See also Strutt's _Horda_, vol.
i. plate XVII. Arrow-heads of iron have also been found in France,
Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Livonia. Figures 5 and 6 of our
Plate are examples from the cemetery at Selzen in Rhenish Hesse;
figs. 7 and 8 from Livonian graves. With the latter was also found
part of a quiver. The Abbé Cochet[93] has engraved and described
specimens found in France, and M. Troyon notices Swiss examples in
his paper in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv., and Plate XVII. Compare
also Archæological Journal, vol. iii. pp. 119, 120. In the Suabian
graves at Oberflacht, bows also were found. See _Archæologia_, vol.
xxxvi. Among the figures of the ivory carving forming the cover of
the "Prayer-book of Charles the Bald" are two archers, each holding
a leash of barbed arrows; the arrows very clearly represented. This
curious sculpture, illustrating the lvii^{th}. Psalm, (a favourite
subject with the middle-age artists,) has been carefully engraved in
the sixth volume of the _Revue Archéologique_. The original is in the
Imperial Library at Paris.
[Illustration:
PLATE X.]
These were the usual weapons of the Northern nations: these are
seen in their pictures, are named in their laws, are described in
their Sagas, are found in their graves. But other arms appear to
have been of occasional employment: the mace, the pike, the sling,
the stone-hammer, the "morning-star," the fork, and the bill. The
Mace is seen in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons (as well as of the
Normans) in the Bayeux tapestry; and it seems not unlikely that those
dentated hoops of bronze[94] which have been found both in England
and on the Continent were the heads of similar weapons; for it must
not be forgotten that, even in the "Iron Period," objects of bronze
continued in use. From the inexhaustible Wace we learn that the
"vilains des viles" who joined Harold's army,--
"Tels armes portent com ils trovent:
Machues portent è granz pels[95],
Forches ferrées[96] è tinels[97]."--_Line_ 12840.
It will be remembered that the mace is a weapon of the most remote
antiquity, and is found, almost identical in form with those of the
Northern nations, among the monuments of the ancient Egyptians and
Assyrians.
[Illustration: No. 11.]
The Stone-Hammer appears to have been employed by the troops of
Harold. William of Poictiers says: "Jactant cuspides ac diversorum
generum tela, sævissimas quasque secures, et _lignis imposita
saxa_[98]." Of the Bill, an example occurs in the fine Anglo-Saxon
Benedictional of Rouen: it closely resembles the common long-handled
hedging-bill of our own day. The Morning-star, an instrument formed
of a ball of metal (sometimes spiked) attached by a chain to a
short staff, after the manner of a whip, is believed to have been
another of the arms of this period. Dr. Bähr found the head of one
of these in his Livonian researches; a complete one, of bronze,
(here engraved) was discovered at Mitau. Professor Thomsen mentions
also a bronze specimen, in his account of the Copenhagen Museum. The
Sling, according to the opinion of the Père Daniel, was employed by
the Franks in intrenched positions and beleaguered towns[99]. This
ancient instrument, which is found in Egyptian[100] and Assyrian[101]
monuments, was certainly in use among the Anglo-Saxons, whether
for warfare or the chase alone, it is not easy to determine.
The figure here engraved is that of David, from the Anglo-Saxon
and Latin Psalter of Boulogne. See also the slinger in Strutt's
_Horda_, Plate XVII., from Cotton MS., Claudius, B. iv., and Plate
III. of Stothard's Bayeux Tapestry. In the Copenhagen Museum are
sling-stones, "either with a groove cut round the middle, or with
two grooves cut cross-wise; having, in the latter case, the shape
of a ball somewhat flattened." It does not appear that the Northern
nations used leaden pellets; as the Greeks and Romans did, inscribing
them with a thunderbolt, or some quaint sentence, as "Take this."
[Illustration: No. 12.]
It will have been observed, from several passages already cited, that
the use of poisoned weapons is imputed to the Northern tribes of this
period. In "Beowulf," and elsewhere, we read of poisoned swords,
poisoned arrows, and poisoned daggers; and, however rare may have been
the employment of such terrible ministers, it does not seem permitted
us to deny altogether their existence. The famous sword of Beowulf,
"Hrunting nama,"
had its edge "stained with poisonous twigs." This, indeed, is the
evidence of a poet: but the Salic Law, as we have seen, speaks
of "sagittæ toxicatæ[102]." And Gregory of Tours tells us, of
Fredegonda: "Fredegundis duos cultros ferreos fieri præcipit, quos
etiam caraxari profundiùs et veneno infici jusserat, scilicet si
mortalis adsultus vitales non dissolveret fibras vel ipsa veneni
infectio vitam possit velociùs extorquere[103]." And again, the
same writer speaks of these poisoned daggers, or _scramasaxi_: "Cum
cultris validis quos vulgò scramasaxos vocant, infectis veneno,
utraque latera ei feriunt[104]."
[Illustration: No. 13.]
Let us now examine, as far as we are enabled to do so, what was
the Teutonic warrior's defensive equipment. The structure of the
Body-armour can only be inferred from indirect evidences; for the
vague terms of the writers, such as _lorica_ and _byrnie_, and the
rudely conventional forms of the painters, who indicated a tree by a
cluster of three or four leaves, and a coat-of-fence by a few circles
penned on the parchment or punched on the bronze, afford us little
help in determining with exactness how the armour-smith achieved his
task. It is curious that the best testimony we obtain is that of the
poets. A simile or an epithet lets in more light than all the limners
and all the historians. It seems clear that in the earlier days of
Northern rule, none but leaders wore body-armour; but, as years
rolled on, and prosperity increased, the subaltern ranks affected
this distinction. As we have already shewn (page 38), the Ceorl vied
with the Eorl in the richness and completeness of his equipment; and
at length, under the rule of Charlemagne, the troops of the Count,
as we have seen, are _all_ required to have defensive armour: "Omnis
homo de duodecim mansis, bruniam habeat." Those who had not this
amount of land, clubbed together and furnished amongst them the
panoply in which one of their number went forth to the host. Was this
_byrnie_ of interlinked chain-mail? The Anglo-Saxon poem of "Beowulf"
may throw some light on the question:--
"The war-byrnie shone, hard (and) hand-locked (_heard
hond-locen_); the bright ring-iron sang in their trappings when
they proceeded to go forward to the hall, in their terrible
armour."--_Canto_ i. _line_ 640.
"Beowulf prepared himself, the warrior in his weeds, he cared
not for life: the war-byrnie, twisted with hands (_hondum
ge-broden_), wide and variegated with colours, was now to try the
deep," &c.
_Canto_ xxi. _line_ 2882.
In Canto xxii. we have,--"the war-dress, the locked battle-shirt."
... "On his shoulder lay the twisted breast-net (_breost-net
broden_) which protected his life against point and edge." ... "his
war-byrnie, his hard battle-net (_here-net hearde_)."
If there is meaning in words, surely "the _twisted_ breast-_net_,"
the "hard battle-_net_," the "_locked_ battle-shirt," the "byrnie
_twisted_ with hands," the "war-byrnie, hard and _hand-locked_," can
mean nothing but the hauberk of interlinked chain-mail; that garment
which, we have so often been told, came to us at some unknown time,
from some unknown people, dwelling in some unknown region of the
East. If this fabric, which, for brevity, we will call chain-mail,
came from the East, where are the eastern monuments that exhibit
it? It is not seen in Egyptian, Assyrian, nor Indian sculptures or
paintings; and the triumph-scenes of these nations represent in
great diversity the numerous tribes of Asia. The same origin has
been given to Cannon; but every one who has made any research in
this direction knows that the Oriental derivation of this engine
has not the smallest foundation in fact[105]. In the Volsunga Saga,
a work of the eleventh century, we read that "Sigurd's sides so
swelled with rage that the rings of his byrnie were burst asunder;"
which could scarcely have happened (adds Von Leber, who notices this
passage,) with a garment made of rings sewn contiguously[106]. The
well-known enigma of Bishop Aldhelm, written in the eleventh century,
so curiously illustrates our inquiry, that we shall be pardoned for
reprinting it. It is headed "De Lorica:"--
"Roscida me genuit gelido de viscere tellus:
Non sum setigero lanarum vellere facta:
Licia nulla trahunt, nec garrula fila resultant:
Nec croceâ seres texunt lanugine vermes:
Nec radiis carpor, duro nec pectine pulsor:
Et tamen, en, vestis vulgi sermone vocabor.
Spicula non vereor longis exempta pharetris."
_Roy. MS._, 15, A. xvi.
A _lorica_ formed of metal, without the aid of any texture of wool or
of silk, could scarcely be anything else than a coat of chain-mail.
We may further refer to the Bayeux tapestry (Stothard, Plate XVI.),
where the _pillards_ are appropriating the armour of the slain. The
last figure in the second border of that plate is stripping the
hauberk over the head of a fallen warrior; and, in thus turning it
inside out, discloses the interior of the garment, which exhibits the
ring-work exactly in the same manner as it is seen on the outside
of others. At a later period, a similar evidence is afforded by the
sculptured monumental effigies; the overlapping folds of the hauberk
shewing the ring-work on the inside as well as on the outside.
Figures of the thirteenth century in the Temple Church and in St.
Saviour's Church, London, offer illustrations of this fact. Further
instances may be found at Stowe-Nine-Churches in Northamptonshire,
and at Aston, Warwickshire; and probably no English county is without
similar examples. Compare also the curious fragment of chain-mail
found at Stanwick, Yorkshire, and now deposited in the British Museum.
The defence made of iron rings, of which Varro attributes the
invention to the Gauls, appears to be no other than the hauberk of
chain-mail:--"Lorica a loris, quod de corio crudo pectoralia faciebant,
postea succuderunt Galli e ferro sub id vocabulum, ex annulis, ferream
tunicam." Whoever may have been the inventors of this armour, the
probability seems to be that it came into use gradually: from its
costliness and rarity, leaders only could at first obtain it; that,
as handicraft improved, and the efficiency of the defence became
acknowledged, its adoption was extended, and its costliness diminished.
The notion, that in the thirteenth century the hauberk of chain-mail
came suddenly and generally into use, is against all known precedent,
and contrary to the natural course of human inventions.
Other kinds of body-armour were worn at this time. Charlemagne, as we
have seen, was defended by a kind of jazerant-work. Ingulphus tells
us that Harold, finding the heavy armour of his troops an incumbrance
in their mountain warfare with the Welsh, clothed them in a defence
of leather only. Something similar is seen in this figure from Cotton
MS., Cleop., C. viii.
The coat here seems to be of hide, with the fur left upon it; a dress
still in use among some of the Cossack soldiers of Russia. Wace
appears to describe this garment, where, recounting the death of Duke
Guillaume Longue-Espée by the traitorous Fauces, he says:--
"Fauces leva l'espée ke soz sez _peaux_ porta,
Tel l'en dona en chief ke tot l'escervela."--_Rou_, i. 138.
[Illustration: No. 14.]
Armour of padded-work, a defence of a very high antiquity, and of
a very wide adoption, was also probably in vogue; and also coats
covered with scale-work; but these are difficult to be identified in
the monuments of the time. The hauberks of the Anglo-Saxons at the
battle of Hastings are remarked to have been both short and small:--
"Corz haubers orent è petis,
E helmes de sor lor vestis."--_Wace._
[Illustration: No. 15.]
In Anglo-Saxon illuminations, a very large majority of the fighting men
appear to have no defensive armour at all but the helmet and shield; as
in this example from a MS. of _Prudentius_, of the eleventh century, in
the Tenison Library. The leg-bands seen on these figures, and on many
others of the same period, were in common use among the soldiery. It is
a fashion of which we find an early example in the _calceus patricius_
of the Romans, and a remnant in the chequered hose of the Scottish
Highlanders. Those of the Anglo-Saxons were generally wound round the
leg, and then turned down and fastened below the knee. Sometimes they
were tied in front; as may be seen in the Ethelwold Benedictional; and
compare Stothard's Bayeux Tapestry, Plate IV. Henry of Huntingdon, who
wrote in the beginning of the twelfth century, gives us incidentally
the full arming of a warrior of the eleventh[107]. When Sigeward,
duke of Northumberland, found death approaching him, not on the field
of battle, but in the peaceful chamber, he exclaimed: "Quantus pudor
me tot in bellis mori non potuisse, ut vaccarum morti cum dedecore
reservarer. Induite me saltem lorica mea impenetrabili, præcingite
gladio, sublimate galea: scutum in læva, securim auratam mihi ponite
in dextra, ut militum fortissimus modo militis moriar. Dixerat: et ut
dixerat, armatus honorifice exhalavit."
[Illustration: No. 16.]
In an age when missiles were much in use; javelins, arrows, and the
stones of the mangona and of the slinger; the soldier would naturally
employ his first care to the arming of his head. Consequently we find
in the monuments of this period that, even when the body appears to
have no defensive covering, the head is carefully protected by the
helmet.
[Illustration: No. 17.]
In the beginning, even the helmet was rare among the Teutonic
tribes. Tacitus tells us, of the ancient Germans: "Paucis loricæ, vix
uni alterive cassis aut galea." And Agathias in the seventh century
mentions that few of the Franks had helmets. Leaders, however, wore
them. Dagobert, in a contest with the Saxons, received a blow which,
dividing his casque, carried away a part of his hair[108]. And when
his father, Clotaire II., came to his relief, this latter prince
placed himself on the bank of the Veser, announcing his arrival
to the Saxon leader by taking off his helmet and displaying his
long locks[109]. In the time of Charlemagne, as we have seen from
his capitularies, the count is required to furnish troops who are
provided with helmets. The fashion of these headpieces we learn from
various vellum-paintings of a little later date. We find them to
have been hemispherical, conical, of the Phrygian form, combed, and
crested: sometimes of a complicated make, with a sort of crocketed
ridge[110]; sometimes terminating in a kind of fleur-de-lis[111].
The figure here given from Add. MS., 18,043, a Psalter of the tenth
century, affords a good example of the combed helmet. The personage
represented is Goliath; and it may be necessary to add, in order
to understand the girding of the sword, that the warrior presents
his back to us. In lieu of the combed crest, the figure of a boar,
sacred to the god Freya, was often placed on the helmets of the pagan
Teutons; a practice which at length became so general, that the word
_eofor_ (boar) was poetically used for the casque itself. Thus, in
"Beowulf:" "He commanded them to bring in the boar, an ornament to
the head, the helm lofty in war:"--
"eofor heáfod-segn
heaþo-steápne helm," &c.--_Line_ 4299.
Again: "The white helm covered the hood of mail, ... surrounded with
lordly chains, even as in days of yore the weapon-smith had wrought
it, had wondrously furnished it, had set it round with the shapes of
swine, that never after brand nor war-knife might have power to bite
it." (l. 2895.)
Here we see the particular object of this device: it was to act as
a holy charm. In Canto 15, the boar seems also to be implied; and
in this instance it is "fastened to the helm with wires." "About
the crest of the helm, the defence of the head, it held an amulet
fastened without with wires, that the sword, hardened with scouring,
might not violently injure him when the shield-bearing warrior should
go against his foes." Tacitus, in the _Germania_, has a passage
curiously illustrating this superstition. The Æstii, he says, "Matrem
Deum venerantur: insigne superstitionis, formas aprorum gestant. Id
pro armis omnique tutelâ, securum Deæ cultorem etiam inter hostes
præstat." Mr. Bateman, in opening a barrow in Derbyshire, was
fortunate enough to meet with one of these Northern helms surmounted
with the boar crest. The casque is made of iron and horn, with
silver-headed rivets. The hog is of iron, having eyes of bronze. See
Mr. Bateman's "Antiquities of Derbyshire" for a more full account
of this curious relic[112]. The practice of adorning the helmet
with a crest is of a very high antiquity, and is first observed
among the Asiatics. The Shairetana, first enemies, then allies, of
the Egyptian Pharaohs, "wore a helmet ornamented with horns, and
frequently surmounted by a crest, consisting of a ball raised upon a
small shaft, which is remarkable from being the _earliest instance
of a crest_[113]." In the Assyrian monuments, the crested helmet
is of frequent occurrence; the form of the crest being generally
that of a fan, or of a curved horn, or a kind of crescent, with its
cusps turned downwards. See Layard's "Nineveh and its Remains," for
examples of all these.
[Illustration: No. 18.]
In addition to the "white" (or polished) helmet named in a former
extract from "Beowulf," we have, at line 5,226, a "brown-coloured"
one, (_brun-fagne helm_). This may have been of leather, of iron
bearing the stain of years, or even of bronze. On several occasions,
relics of bronze have been disinterred which have every appearance
of being the framework of helmets. These metal frames--for they
occur of iron as well as of bronze--are presumed to have been fixed
over a cap of leather. The example here engraved was found in 1844,
on the skull of a skeleton exhumed on Leckhampton Hill, near
Cheltenham. The material is bronze, but worked very thin. At the
summit is a ring, and on one side appears a portion of the chain
which seems to have fastened it beneath the chin. The ring may
have served to attach a tufted ornament, or a grelot. A Livonian
headpiece, engraved on Plate V. of Dr. Bähr's work, has a boss at
the summit exactly similar to this, but with the addition of a
grelot fixed to the ring. The bronze fragments found by Sir Henry
Dryden in a grave at Souldern, Oxfordshire, appear to have formed
part of a helmet like that before us[114]. The example of iron,
already noticed, discovered by Mr. Bateman, is also of framework,
though somewhat differing in pattern from the Leckhampton relic.
Another iron framework helmet, of the thirteenth century, was found
in an old fort in the Isle of Negropont, and is figured by Hefner
in Plate LXIII. of his _Trachten_. Compare also Plate XXXIV., Part
ii., of the same book[115]. The secretum engraved in vol. vii. of
the Archæological Journal, page 305, is of analogous character: as
are also the so-called Spider Helmets, and the "skulls for hats;"
examples of which may be seen in the Tower Armories. But the most
curious illustration of the purpose of the bronze relic represented
in our woodcut, is the helmet proposed for the Royal Artillery in
1854. The metal framing of this was identical in arrangement with the
ancient defence; consisting of a hoop encircling the head and two
semicircular bands, crossing each other at the crown, and surmounted
by a metal knob. The metal in this case was brass, and it did not
greatly differ in substance from the ancient bronze. The cap beneath
was of felt. In Anglo-Saxon illuminations, it is not unusual to
see headpieces in which bands of gold-colour traverse a ground of
different hue; and it seems not improbable that these examples may
represent the kind of helmet under consideration. Similar banded
casques occur in the Bayeux tapestry, in the pictures of the Painted
Chamber at Westminster, and in other monuments. See also Archæol.
Journ., vol. xii. p. 9.
The bronze helmet has also been discovered in Scotland. Dr. Wilson
tells us that "part of a rudely-adorned helmet of bronze was found
in Argyleshire[116]." Another bronze headpiece is preserved in the
Copenhagen Museum, and Professor Thomsen mentions similar ones,
"overlaid with gold." (Manual.)
A helmet of wood is mentioned by Wace as being worn by one of the
Anglo-Saxon combatants at the battle of Hastings:--
"Un helme aveit tot fait de _fust_,
Ke colp[117] el chief ne recéust.
A sez dras[118] l'aveit atachié,
Et envirun son col lacié."
A Norman knight attacked him:--
"Sor li helme l'Engleiz féri,
De suz les oils[119] li abati,
Sor li viare[120] li pendi,
E li Engleiz sa main tendi,
Li helme voleit[121] suz lever,
E son viaire delivrer;
E cil li a un colp doné,
E sa hache à terre chaï[122]."
In book-illuminations of this period the helmet is frequently
coloured yellow, which may either signify bronze or gilding. A
crown is sometimes added, not in the case of kings alone, but of
distinguished personages generally. One of the crowned figures in our
woodcut, No. 13, represents the patriarch Abraham. The nasal appears
to have been given to the helmet about the end of the tenth century:
of which an early example is furnished in the figure of a warrior in
Cotton MS., Tiberius, C. vi. fol. 9, a work of this period. By the
middle of the next century, its adoption has become general, and in
the Bayeux Tapestry it is worn equally by Norman and Saxon.
[Illustration:
PLATE XIX.]
To a soldiery with whom body-armour appears to have been a secondary
consideration, the SHIELD would be of the first consequence. We
find, therefore, the Northern warrior seldom unaccompanied by this
useful defence. Leader and retainer, horseman and foot-soldier,--all
are equipped with the target. Its form was usually round, though in
the pictures, being seen in profile, it often has the appearance of
an oval. And, as the plump-cheeked houris of the East were called
"moon-faced damsels," so the round targets of the Teutons were named
by the poets "moony shields." They were convex, and in the centre was
a boss of metal, generally terminating in a button or in a spike,
but sometimes without either. The spiked shield was no doubt used as
an offensive arm. The buttons are sometimes plated with silver, or
tinned, as are the heads of the rivets remaining in the edge of the
umbo. Across the hollow of the boss was fixed a handle of wood covered
with iron; and by this handle the shield was held at arm's length,
the hand entering the hollow of the boss: see woodcut, No. 13. In the
Wilbraham Cemetery was found the umbo of a shield to which the handle
was still attached by its rivets. (See fig. 10 of our XXth plate.) The
shield was sometimes strengthened with strips of iron fixed across the
inside; these strips being prolongations of the handle just described.
Such a shield-handle was found at Envermeu by the Abbé Cochet, and is
figured on Plate XVI. of his work. In this example the handle has a
_single_ strip on each side, running towards the edge of the shield.
A similar one was found in a Merovingian cemetery near Troyes. In a
Frankish grave at Londinières was discovered a variety of this type, in
which the strips proceeding from the handle were _three_ on each side,
radiating towards the rim. This very curious example is engraved in the
_Normandie Souterraine_, Plate VIII. Others were found in the recent
excavations in the Isle of Wight.
The body of the shield was usually of wood; the lime having a marked
preference. Thus, in "Beowulf[123]," the heroic Wiglaf "seized
his shield, the yellow lindenwood" (_geolwe linde_). And a spell
preserved in Harl. MS., 585, f. 186, has:--
"Stod under linde
under leohtum scylde:"
"I stood under my linden shield, beneath my light shield." In the
Anglo-Saxon poem of "Judith:"--
"The warriors marched:
the chieftains to the war,
protected with targets,
with arched linden shields."
(_hwealfum lindum_[124].)
In a fragment on the battle of Maldon:--
"Leofsunu spake
and lifted his linden shield."
(_and his linde ahof_[125].)
[Illustration:
PLATE XX.]
And the Saxon Chronicle tells us, in recounting the defeat of Anlaf
in 937, how King Athelstan and his heroes
"the board-walls clove:
and hewed the war-lindens."
Leather was sometimes used in the construction of shields, as we learn
from the Laws of Æthelstan, which forbid the employment of sheepskins
for this purpose under a penalty of thirty shillings. In an example
from the cemetery at Linton Heath, Cambridgeshire, the leather covering
seemed to have been stretched over the iron umbo as well as over the
wooden surface of the shield[126]. The edge was protected by a rim of
metal. Portions of these rims have been found in the graves, both in
England and on the continent; and as they present segments of circles,
become of use in determining the shape of the shields themselves.
In the Museum of Schwerin is an example of the metal rim which is
complete: it is circular, and the central boss is also present.
The oval shield appears in a few examples only. One was found among
the graves explored at Oberflacht, in Suabia; another is figured
by Silvestre, (vol. i. pl. CXLIV.) from a Longobardic miniature of
the eleventh century; and a third occurs in the Bayeux Tapestry,
Plate XVI. The surface of the Northern shields was painted in
various fanciful devices, sometimes heightened with gilding. And,
as Christianity was embraced by the various Northern tribes, the
cross became a frequent decoration. The encomiast of Queen Emma, in
describing the fleet of Canute the Great, says: "Erant ibi scutorum
tot genera, ut crederis adesse omnium populorum agmina. Si quando sol
illis jubar immiscerit radiorum, hinc resplenduit fulgor armorum,
illinc vero flamma dependentium scutorum[127]."
Among the devices, there is nothing of a heraldic character, and even
as late as the time of the Bayeux Tapestry, as Stothard has well
remarked, "we do not find any particular or distinguished person
twice bearing the same device[128]."
In the accompanying figure from Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. viii., we
observe that the Anglo-Saxon horseman carried his shield, when not
in use, slung at his back. The knights of the fourteenth century
carried their helmets in the same manner, as may be seen in the
fine manuscript of the _Roman du Roi Meliadus_, Additional MSS.,
12,228. Besides the ordinary Northern shields, we sometimes find
them represented of so large a size as to cover the whole person.
In Harleian MS. 2,908, fol. 53, are two such, but perhaps mere
exaggerations of the draughtsman. Shields of this kind were, however,
certainly in use in the East at an early date, and may be seen in
Egyptian, Assyrian, and Indian monuments[129].
[Illustration: No. 21.]
It has been conjectured that the bronze coatings of shields which
have from time to time been discovered in this country, and commonly
attributed to the Ancient Britons, may belong to the Anglo-Saxon
period: while we admit this probability, we must not forget that they
have not yet been found in the Anglo-Saxon graves.
The shields placed in the graves were the ordinary "lindens," of
which no part commonly remains but the metal boss and handle. The
chief varieties of forms offered by the bosses will be found in our
Plates XIX. and XX., figs. 1 to 10; all from English tombs[130].
Similar relics have been dug up in Scotland; of which No. 11 in
our Plate offers an example. This was procured from a tomb in the
county of Moray, accompanied with fragments of oak and remains
of the hero's horse and its bridle. See Dr. Wilson's "Archæology
of Scotland," to which we are indebted for this specimen. On the
continent similar objects have been found, differing but slightly
from our own examples. No. 12 is from the cemetery at Selzen, in
Rhenish Hesse. No. 13 is from a Danish tomb. See also the examples
given in Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum, p. 68. The shields of the Danes
appear to have been ornamented with gold and colours, the favourite
hue being red. In Sæmund's poetical "Edda" we read of a "red shield
with a golden border," and Giraldus de Barri tells us that the Irish
"carried red shields, in imitation of the Danes." Some of the Danish
shields, like the weapons, were inscribed with runes[131]. In the
tumulus opened at Caenby, in Lincolnshire, believed to have been that
of a Danish viking, part of a wooden shield was procured, ornamented
with plates of silver and bronze, bearing the serpentine and scroll
patterns so characteristic of this period. These fragments are
engraved in the seventh volume of the Archæological Journal.
The _guige_ or strap by which the target was occasionally suspended
from the combatant's neck, leaving the hands free to direct the steed
or ply the weapon, appears (at least during the later days of Saxon
rule) to have been in use among our countrymen, as well as with their
Norman neighbours. Of Harold's nobles, Wace tells us:--
"Chescun out son haubert vestu,
Espée ceinte, _el col l'escu_."--_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 213.
And in the Bayeux Tapestry, the kite-shield thus fixed may be seen on
the English side.
The place occupied by the shield in the graves of the Frankish,
Germanic, and Scandinavian heroes is by no means uniform. It has
been found on the breast, on the right arm, upon the knees, and
beneath the head. It is by the position of the umbo in the grave
that this fact has been exactly ascertained. Examples will be found
in the Ozingell Cemetery, in the explorations at Harnham Hill
(_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv.), in the Selzen find, in the _Normandie
Souterraine_, and in the account of the cemetery at Linton Heath
(Archæol. Journ., vol. xi. p. 108).
The HORSE FURNITURE of the Northern cavalry appears to have been
usually very simple. By referring to our engravings, Nos. 16 and 21,
it will be seen that the saddle was provided with girth, breastplate,
and crupper, the latter being fixed to the sides of the saddle:
pendent ornaments are attached to the bridle, breastplate, and
crupper. From the poem of "Beowulf" we learn that the war-horse was
occasionally furnished with much costliness:--
"Then did the Refuge of warriors command eight horses, ornamented
on the cheek, to be brought into the palace: ... on one of which
stood a saddle variegated with work, made valuable with treasure:
that was the war-seat of a lofty king when the son of Healfdene
would perform the game of swords."--_Canto_ 15.
A donation of the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelbert affords another
example:--"Missurum etiam argenteum, scapton aureum, item _sellam
cum freno aureo gemmis exornatam_, speculum argenteum, armilaisia
oloserica, camisiam ornatam prædicto monasterio gratanter obtuli[132]."
[Illustration: No. 22.]
As it was an occasional practice to bury the horse of the hero in
the same grave with his master, the metal portions of the fitments
have been preserved to our time. Examples of stirrups may be seen
in the _Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed_, in Worsaae's Copenhagen
Museum, and in _Die Gräber der Liven_: all these are of a single
piece, having a loop for the attachment of the leather. The bits
are of two kinds,--snaffles with rings at the sides, and snaffles
with long cheeks. The example here given is from a Kentish barrow
opened by the Earl of Londesborough. A similar one is in the Livonian
collection of the British Museum. Compare also the York volume of the
Archæological Institute, page 29; Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum, pp.
70, 95 and 96; and M. Troyon's paper in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv.
p. 396, and Plate XVIII. The snaffle with cheeks was found among the
Wilbraham relics[133], and occurs also in the Selzen Cemetery[134].
A very curious variety, in which the snaffle is of iron, while the
cheeks are of bronze richly foliated, was discovered in an old fort
at Lough Fea, in Ireland, and is engraved in the third volume of the
Archæological Journal. In a tumulus opened in Denmark were found the
remains of a bridle which had been covered with thin plates of silver.
A good example of the Anglo-Saxon Saddle, seen without the rider,
occurs in Cotton MS., Claudius, B. iv.; which has been engraved by
Strutt in the _Horda_. See also our cut from Cleopatra, C. viii.
(page 77) where the breastplate, crupper, and single girth are very
clearly made out.
[Illustration: No. 23.]
The Spur of this period consisted of a single goad, sometimes of a
lozenge form, sometimes a plain spike. The shanks were straight.
The following illustration of the lozenge goad is from the bronze
monument of Rudolf von Schwaben, in the Cathedral of Merseburg, a
work of the eleventh century[135]. A very similar example, dug up in
railway excavations near Nottingham, has lately been added to the Tower
collection. This is of iron. Compare the Swiss specimen engraved by M.
Troyon in vol. xxxv. of the _Archæologia_, Plate XVII. This also has
a lozenge goad, but the neck of the spur is much longer. A Livonian
example in the British Museum has the goad in the form of a plain
quadrangular spike. The conical spike is seen among the Danish relics
figured on pages 70 and 95 of Mr. Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum." A
very curious variety was found in the excavations of the Anglo-Saxon
cemetery at Linton Heath, and is figured in the eleventh volume of the
Archæological Journal. The buckles in this specimen, instead of being
attached to the strap, form part of the spur itself; being contrived at
the ends of the shanks.
Among the many curious usages revealed by the examination of the
ancient tombs, not the least singular is the practice of burying the
equestrian warrior with a single spur. This fact has been noticed,
not alone among the pagan Northmen, but as late as the thirteenth
century; and it does not rest on the doubtful evidence of careless
observers, but has been vouched by the testimony of skilful and
practised archæologists. It has been further remarked that the spur,
in all such cases, is attached to the left heel. M. Troyon, in his
excavations in the Colline de Chavannes, Canton de Vaud[136], found
three spurs, all of different sizes, which he therefore concludes
"ont appartenu chacun à des cavaliers différents." At Bel-Air, near
Lausanne, this gentleman found an interment where a single spur
had been fixed to the left heel of the entombed warrior. And in a
note to his interesting memoir on the exploration of the Colline
de Chavannes, he says: "J'ai retrouvé quelquefois des éperons dans
des tombes antiques, mais le mort n'en portait jamais qu'un seul,
qui était fixé au pied gauche." The similar instance which has been
noticed in an interment of the thirteenth century is that recorded in
the fourth volume of the Archæological Journal, page 59. A knight
of the Brougham family, found buried in the chancel of the church at
Brougham, in Westmoreland, had a single iron spur "round the left
heel." "No spur was found upon the right heel." This knight presented
the further singularity of having been buried cross-legged[137].
However highly his steed might be prized by the Northern warrior, it
was not alone in feats of horsemanship that he was required to excel.
The youthful Grymr, in the old poem of "Karl and Grymr," "as he grew
up, was accustomed to make his sword ruddy in the warlike play of
shields; to climb the mountains; to wrestle; to play well the game of
chess; to study the science of the stars; to throw the stone; and to
practise such other sports as were held in estimation."
Olaff Trygvason, according to an old Norwegian chronicle quoted by
Pontoppidan, "could climb the rock of Smalserhorn, and fix his shield
on the top; he could walk round the outside of a boat upon the oars,
while the men were rowing; he could play with three darts, throwing
them into the air alternately, and always keeping two of them up:
he was ambidexter, and could cast two darts at once with equal
force; and he was so famous a bowman that none could equal him." At
a little later date, Kali, an earl of the Orkneys, boasts of his
acquirements:--"I know," says he, "nine several arts. I am skilful
at the game of chess, I can engrave runic letters, I am expert at my
book, I can handle the tools of the smith, I can traverse the snow on
wooden skates, I excel in shooting with the bow, I ply the oar with
address, I can sing to the harp, and I compose verses[138]."
In the tenth century, Richard, duke of Normandy
"---- sout en Daneiz, en Normant[139] parler:
Une chartre sout lire, è li parz deviser:
Li pere l'out bien fet duire è doutriner.
De tables è d'eschez sout compaignon mater:
Bien sout paistre[140] un oisel è livrer è porter:
En bois sout cointement è berser[141] è vener.
As talevas[142] se sout bien couvrir è moler[143],
Mestre pié destre avant è entre d'els dobler:
Talons sout remuer è retraire è noxer,
Saillir deverz senestre è treget[144] tost geter:
C'est un colp damageux ki ne s'en seit garder,
Mais l'en ne s'i deit lungement demorer."
_Roman de Rou_, vol. i. p. 126.
Of the STANDARDS in use at this period, the notices that have reached
us are neither numerous nor clear. In Asser's "Life of King Alfred"
we read, that the Christian English gained a signal victory over
the pagan Danes in Devon, slaying their king, and capturing "among
other things, the standard called Raven; and they say that the three
sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodobroch, wove that flag
and got it ready in one day[145]. They say, moreover, that in every
battle, wherever that flag went before them, if they were to gain
the victory, a live crow would appear flying on the middle of the
flag; but if they were doomed to be defeated, it would hang down
motionless. And this was often proved to be so." (Sub an. 878.) The
Danish chronicles and sagas, however, make no mention of this Raven
standard. Mr. Worsaae ("Danes in England") gives the engraving of a
coin of Anlaf, on which he recognises the national device, and finds
it again in that figure of a bird on one of the flags of the Bayeux
tapestry; "for it is very natural," he says, "that the Scandinavian
vikings, or Normans, who had achieved such famous conquests under
Odin's Raven, should continue to preserve this sign," &c.
Ancient evidences are not agreed as to the Anglo-Saxon standard
used at the battle of Hastings. William of Poitiers describes it as
"memorabile vexillum Heraldi, hominis armati imaginem intextam habens
ex auro purissimo." Malmesbury follows him: "vexillum--quod erat in
hominis pugnantis figura, auro et lapidibus arte sumptuosa contextum."
In the Bayeux tapestry this design does not appear, but the old
Dragon Standard, derived by the Northern nations from the Romans.
And it will be observed that the dragon of Harold is not a picture
painted on a flag; but, like the Roman _draco_, a figure fixed by
the head to a staff, with its body and tail floating away into the
air. Compare the representations on the Trajan and Antonine columns,
and in the Bayeux tapestry. The dragon is found also among the
continental Saxons. Of Witikind we are told: "Hic arripiens Signum,
quod apud eo habebatur sacrum, leonis atque _draconis_ et desuper
aquilæ volantis insignitum effigie[146]," &c. And this device of a
dragon appears to have been in use till at length displaced by the
more exact distinctions of hereditary heraldry.
The well-known custom mentioned by Plot, of the inhabitants of
Burford, in Oxfordshire, carrying the figure of a dragon yearly "up
and down the town in great Jollity, to which they added the Picture
of a Giant," in memory of a victory over Ethelbald, king of Mercia,
in which this prince lost his "Banner, whereon was depicted a Golden
Dragon;" seems entitled to greater consideration than most of the
customs of old times. The Dragon Standard of the Anglo-Saxons is a
fact substantiated by many monuments; and the portraying a vanquished
enemy under the lineaments of a hideous giant, is a practice which
has had the sanction of all times and all nations.
A very curious kind of flag occurs in the Anglo-Saxon manuscript
of _Prudentius_ in the Tenison Library. It is suspended from a
horizontal bar near the spear-head, after the manner of a sail
looped up to its yard, and from the side hangs a kind of fringe. It
decreases below, presenting altogether a triangular form, and seems
to be the same object as that figured by Mr. Worsaae, from a coin of
Anlaf, in his "Danes in England."
The celebrated _Carrocio_ or Car Standard of the Italians appears
to have been invented during the war between the Milanese and the
Emperor Conrad, about 1035, by Heribert, the archbishop of Milan.
This car had four wheels, and was drawn by four yoke of oxen,
caparisoned in red. The chariot itself was red: in the midst of
it was a tall red mast, surmounted by a golden globe, and bearing
the banner of the city: beneath the banner was a large crucifix, of
which "the extended arms appeared to bless the troops." A kind of
platform in front of the _carrocium_ was occupied by a company of
chosen heroes, elected for its especial defence; while, on a similar
platform behind, the trumpets of the army contributed by their
inspiriting strains to give confidence to all around. Before leaving
the city, mass was solemnised upon the platform of the chariot,
and not unfrequently a chaplain was assigned to accompany it into
the field of battle, and to give absolution to the wounded. This
device of the Milanese was soon imitated by others of the Italian
cities, and with all it was held to be in the last degree humiliating
to abandon the _carrocio_ to the enemy[147]. Other origins have,
however, been given to the Car Standard. It has been attributed to
the Saracens; and the monk Egidius ascribes its invention to the Duke
of Louvain, who caused the banner which had been embroidered by the
Queen of England to be placed in a superb chariot drawn by four oxen.
The Italians have a large balance of evidence on their side.
Of the various kinds of "GYNS" in use, the notices are not very
distinct. And a chief source of the vagueness arises from the
circumstance that, as the earliest chroniclers wrote in Latin, they
applied the names of Roman engines to instruments which probably
differed both in form and principle from their ancient prototypes.
Tacitus, indeed, tells us that the barbarians borrowed these engines
from those of the Romans; deserters or prisoners from whose ranks
taught to the Northmen the art of their construction. But there seems
good reason to believe that the motive principle of the classic
periers, _torsion_, was no longer in use among the middle-age
engineers: their instruments consisting of a lever furnished at one
extremity with a sling and at the other with a heavy weight; the
sudden liberation of the latter contributing the force necessary to
propel the stone from the sling. See this subject fully discussed in
the second volume of the _Études sur l'Artillerie_ of the Emperor of
the French; and compare the evidences furnished by monuments of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, given in later pages of this work.
In 585, we learn from Gregory of Tours, that the Battering Ram
and the Testudo were employed by the Burgundians in the siege of
Comminges[148]. This Tortoise, or screen for the propellers of the
Ram, is described by the translator of Vegecius in 1408 under the
name of the "Snayle or Welke[149]:" "For, righte as the snaile hath
his hous over hym where he walkethe or resteth, and oute of his hous
he shetethe his hede whan he wolle, and draweth hym inne a-yene, so
doth this gynne." In the ninth century we obtain considerable light
on this subject from the curious description of the Siege of Paris,
written in Latin verse by Abbo, a monk of St. Germain-des-Prez, who
was an eye-witness of the events he records. He names the Musculus
and the Pluteus, both of which were contrivances to shelter the
besiegers while at work; the Balista and Mangana, machines for
casting large stones; the Catapulta, which cast both stones and
darts; the Terebra, a spiked beam for boring into the walls; and
the Falarica, a gyn throwing darts to which burning substances were
affixed; a terrible instrument in those days, when the roofs of
houses were almost invariably covered with thatch.
The Moveable Towers formed of wood, in imitation of those of the
Romans, and placed by the walls of city or castle in order to bring
the assailants to a level with the defenders, are first mentioned
in medieval annals under the eleventh century; but they play no
conspicuous part in the military history of these days till the
succeeding century, when their employment appears to have been
frequent. In 1025, Eudes, comte de Chartres, is said to have used the
Moveable Tower in besieging the Castle of Montbrol, near Tours; and so
high was it, that it overtopped the keep-tower of the fortress[150].
In the east of Europe, the Greek Fire had been known as early as the
year 673; when, according to the historians of the Lower Empire,
Callinicus, the philosopher, taught the use of it to the Greeks.
He himself had probably derived the knowledge of this composition
from the Arabians; for, though powder acting by _detonation_ (and
consequently cannon) appears to have been first produced in Europe,
and that not earlier than the beginning of the fourteenth century,
the Asiatics had the use of powder that would _fuse_ at a very early
date. The Greek Fire was discharged from tubes, which could be turned
in any direction. The Princess Anna Comnena, in the _Alexiad_,
describes its use, as it was employed by the Emperor Alexis against
the Pisans, from tubes fixed at the prow of his vessels:--"They (the
Pisans) were astonished to see fire, which by its nature ascends,
directed against them, at the will of their enemy, downwards and on
each side." The receipt for the composition of the Greek Fire may be
found in the Treatise of Marcus Grecus. The terrors of these early
fire-mixtures were enhanced by the belief that not only they, but the
flames kindled by them, were inextinguishable by water: "de quibus
fit incendarium quod ab aqua non extinguitur[151]." The Greek Fire
did not, however, reach the west of Europe till a much later period.
It was objected against its use, that such an agent was contrary to
the spirit of religion and the nobleness of chivalry: it was felt
that a weapon which could be used alike by the weak and the strong,
by the humble and the powerful, might become a dangerous rival to the
knightly lance and panoply.
[Illustration: 24.]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV.
GREAT SEAL OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] De Bello Goth., lib. ii. c. 25.
[4] See Archæologia, vol. xxxvi. p. 78.
[5] Bk. ii.
[6] Lib. ii. c. 27.
[7] Vol. i. p. 508, ed. Baluz.
[8] Life of Charlemagne, bk. ii.
[9] Laws of the Visigoths.
[10] Capit. of Charlemagne.
[11] Lib, iii. c. 74.
[12] Saxons in England, vol. ii. p. 138.
[13] Ib., p. 164.
[14] Ib., p. 145.
[15] Ib., p. 149.
[16] Codex diplom. Ævi Sax., no. 956.
[17] c. 14.
[18] Malmesb., ad an. 1041.
[19] Saxons in England, ii. 395.
[20] Lib. i. cap. 120.
[21] _découvertes et retroussés._
[22] _femmes enragées._
[23] Lib. ii.
[24] Lib. iii.
[25] Roger of Hoveden, _sub an._ 1055.
[26] "Quum ex captivis quæreret Cæsar, quamobrem Ariovistus
prœlio non decertaret, hunc reperiebat causam: quod apud Germanos
ea consuetudo esset, ut matresfamilias eorum sortibus et
vaticinationibus declararent, utrum prœlium committi ex usu esset,
necne: eas ita dicere, non esse fas Germanos superare, si ante novam
lunam prœlio contendissent."--_Bell. Gall._, lib. i.
[27] Agathias.
[28] Lib. ii. c. 37.
[29] Epist. Greg. Papæ ad Childebert. Apud Scrip, rer. Franc., iv. 17.
[30] Holy things.
[31] Chalice.
[32] Ships.
[33] Gale.
[34] Chron. of Battle Abbey; Ordericus Vitalis; Wace.
[35] Heimsk., iii. 161.
[36] "in the midst."
[37] "Thor, aid!" or perhaps Tyr, the Mars of the Northmen. See
Kemble's _Saxons in England_, i. 350; and Thierry's _Conquête de
l'Ang. par les Normands_, sub an. 912-997.
[38] Hamon-aux-Dents, seigneur de Thorigny, of which place the church
is dedicated to S. Amand.
[39] Moustaches.
[40] See also Malmesbury, bk. iii., sub an. 1066.
[41] The particular localities where the spears and other weapons
have been found are mentioned in the Description of the engravings.
[42] "Saxon Obsequies," by the Hon. R. C. Neville.
[43] Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iii.
[44] La Normandie Souterraine.
[45] Das germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen in der Provinz
Rheinhessen.
[46] Afbildninger fra det Kongelige Museum for Nordiske Oldsager i
Kjöbenhavn.
[47] See the examples engraved in the Archæologia, vol. xxxv. p. 78.
[48] "Fairford Graves."
[49] Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 353, sq., ed. 1854.
[50] See the Abbé Cochet's work, p. 283.
[51] Archæol., vol. xxxv.
[52] Journal of Archæol. Association, vol. iii.
[53] Ibid.
[54] Apud Bongars, p. 241.
[55] Normand. Souterr., p. 369.
[56] Kemble, Codex Dipl., No. 979.
[57] In quoting illuminated manuscripts, we shall be careful to give
the Collection and the folio; but, where not expressed to the contrary,
beg it to be understood that the place of deposit is the British Museum.
[58] See Henault, 1655; and Chiflet, _Anastasis Childerici Primi_.
[59] See Cochet, Lindenschmit, and the Transactions of the Luxembourg
Society, vol. viii. p. 45.
[60] Saxon Obsequies.
[61] Landulphi senioris Mediolanens.--Hist. Rer. Ital., tom. iv. p. 79.
[62] Lib. iii. Ep. 3.
[63] Collect. Antiq., vol. iii.
[64] Ibid.
[65] Glossary to "Beowulf."
[66] Primeval Antiq. of Denmark, p. 49.
[67] Atla-Quida, vol. ii. p. 370.
[68] Vol. i. p. 186.
[69] Saxons in England, ii. 100.
[70] Manual of the Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen.
[71] Worsaae's Antiq. of Denmark.
[72] Worsaae's "Danes in England."
[73] For a fuller account of this transaction, and of other notable
deeds of our hero-smith, see the Völundar Quida of the Edda Sæmundar,
and the Wilkina Saga (c. 21, sq.); also Grimm's Heldensage, p. 14,
and Teut. Mythol., 221.
[74] Kemble's "Saxons in England," p. 280.
[75] _Normandie Souterraine_, p. 44.
[76] Boys' Hist. of Sandwich. The charter is given in Mr. Kemble's
_Codex Diplom. Ævi Sax._, iv. 23.
[77] Stothard, Pl. XIX.
[78] Northern.
[79] blade.
[80] long-handled.
[81] must hold it.
[82] From _ira_.
[83] The passage which has furnished these lines is further curious, as
it would seem to shew that the _Fraternitas Armorum_ was not confined
to the knightly order. These two English guisarmiers enter the field of
Hastings under a similar compact to triumph or fall together:--
"Dous Engleiz vit mult orguillos,
Ki s'esteient acumpaignié
Por ço ke bien erent preisié.
Ensemble debveient aler:
Li uns debveit l'altre garder:
En lor cols aveient levées
Dui gisarmes lunges è lées."
[84] Cap. 23. sect. 4.
[85] weapons.
[86] javelin.
[87] iron headpieces.
[88] Wilson's "Memorials of Edinburgh," vol. ii. p. 3; from the
Borough Records.
[89] We are indebted to Mr. Westwood for this curious drawing.
[90] Abbé Cochet, p. 237.
[91] Figured in _Collect. Antiq._, ii. 245, and at p. 101 of the
Illustrated Catalogue of Mr. Roach Smith's Museum.
[92] Titulo de Vulneribus, n. 2.
[93] _Normandie Souterraine_, pp. 285, 351, 385.
[94] See Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 181; and Wilson's "Archæology
of Scotland," p. 393.
[95] pikes.
[96] forks.
[97] bâtons.
[98] Ap. Duchesne, p. 201.
[99] _Mil. Fran._, i. 7.
[100] See Wilkinson's Egyptians, vol. i. p. 357, ed. 1854.
[101] See Layard's Nineveh, p. 332, ed. 1852.
[102] Ante: page 54.
[103] Hist. Franc., lib. viii. c. 29.
[104] Ibid., lib. iv. c. 46.
[105] See the able work of M. Reinaud and Captain Favé, _Du
Feu Grégeois, &c._; and M. Lacabane's paper in the _Biblio. de
l'Ecole des Chartes_, Second Series, vol. i.; and the _Etudes sur
l'Artillerie_, by the Emperor of the French.
[106] "Und so schwollen Sigurds Seiten, dass seine Panzerringe
entzweisprangen;" welches Entzweispringen doch von nebeneinander
gehefteten Ringen nicht füglich gesagt werden könnte.--_Wien's
kaiserliches Zeughaus._
[107] Lib. vi.
[108] Gesta Regum Franc., cap. 41.
[109] Ibid.
[110] See the Tenison _Prudentius_.
[111] See Strutt, "Dress and Hab.," Pl. XXIX.
[112] It is engraved in vol. ii. of _Collectanea Antiqua_.
[113] Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," p. 287, ed. 1837; vol. i. p.
338, ed. 1854.
[114] See Archæol. Journ., vol. iii. p. 352.
[115] _Trachten des christlichen Mittelalters._ There is also a
French version of this admirable work.
[116] Archæology of Scotland, p. 266.
[117] _coup._
[118] _draps._
[119] _yeux._
[120] _visage._
[121] _voulait._
[122] _tomba._
[123] Line 5215.
[124] Thorpe's Analecta, p. 137.
[125] Ibid., p. 128.
[126] Archæol. Journ., vol. xi. p. 98.
[127] Ap. Du Chesne, p. 168.
[128] Archæologia, vol. xix.; and Memoirs, p. 298.
[129] Compare Wilkinson's "Egyptians," i. 349, ed. 1854; Layard's
"Monuments of Nineveh," Plate LXXII.; and the wall-painting of the
Ajunta Caves, of the first century of our era, a fine copy of which has
been placed in the Museum of the East India House. The Chinese still
use a large round shield of cane-wicker, behind which they crouch so as
to conceal themselves entirely from the view of the enemy.
[130] See Description of Engravings, for the particular localities
where they were discovered.
[131] Copenhagen Manual.
[132] Monast. Ang., vol. i. p. 24.
[133] Saxon Obsequies, Plate XXXVIII.
[134] _Todtenlager bei Selzen_, p. 6.
[135] Hefner; _Trachten des christlichen Mittelalters_, Pt. I.
[136] Described in _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv.
[137] For much curious information relating to the practice of
interring with the hero his horse, chariot, hawks, hounds, &c., and
the discovery of their remains in the graves, see _Archæologia_, vol.
xxxiii.; the York volume of the Archæolog. Instit., p. 28; Saxon
Obsequies, pl. XXXVIII.; Archæol. Journal, vol. vii. p. 43; Kemble's
Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 428; Appendix to Kemble's trans. of
"Beowulf;" Wilson's Archæol. of Scotland, pp. 457 and 552; Worsaae's
Antiq. of Denmark, p. 100; Bähr's _Die Gräber der Liven_, pl. XVI.
Compare also Tacitus, _Germania_, x.; Cæsar, _Bell. Gall._, lib. vi.;
and Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt., vol. ii. pp. 270 and 399, ed. 1854.
[138] _Orkneyinga Saga._
[139] That is, in the Romance language.
[140] feed.
[141] use the long-bow.
[142] shield.
[143] contend.
[144] sling.
[145] It is curious to compare these highborn ladies of the ninth
century with another fair standard-weaver somewhat nearer our own
times. Katherine of Arragon, writing to Wolsey, when the king
was campaigning in France, says: "I am horridly busy with making
standards, banners, and badges."
[146] Gestor. Sax., lib. i.
[147] Arnulphus Mediol., 1. ii. c. 16; Ricordano Malespina, Hist.
Fior., cap. 164; Burchardus, Epistola de excidio urbis Mediolanens.,
tom. vi.; Hist, Rer. Ital., p. 917.
[148] Lib. vii. c. 37.
[149] Roy. MS. 18, A. xii., f. 105.
[150] _Ap._ Labbæum in Chronolog., lib. ii.; Daniel, _Mil. Fran._, i.
557.
[151] Reinaud et Favé: _Du feu grégeois_, &c., p. 218.
PART II.
FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND TO THE END OF
THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
For the period now to be examined, namely, from about the year 1066
to the close of the twelfth century, our chief evidences are still
the illuminations of manuscripts, the writings of chroniclers and
poets, tapestry-pictures, ivory carvings and metal chasings. The
valuable testimonies of the graves are lost to us; but a new source
of information is opened to our inquiries in the royal and baronial
seals, which from the second half of the eleventh century appear in
great abundance wherever the feudal system is in vogue. Among these
various evidences, there are two which, for our particular purpose,
are especially valuable,--the Bayeux tapestry and the Chronicle of
Robert Wace. There seems to be no reasonable doubt of this tapestry
having been embroidered at the close of the eleventh century; and
whoever has carefully examined it, will be at once convinced that it
was wrought, not by courtly ladies, but by the ruder hands of the
ordinary tapestry-workers. Curious analogy is found in the decorations
of _subsellæ_ of a somewhat later date[152]. The especial value of
the Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy is in the minuteness with which
Wace delights to describe the incidents of knightly achievement. Taking
his crude facts from William of Jumièges and Dudo of St. Quentin, he
fills up their outlines with unwearying elaboration. Not content with
drily noting the gathering of a host or the issue of an onslaught, he
tells us how the levies came into the camp "by twos, and by threes,
and by fours, and by fives," and with what weapons they contended, the
material of their staves, and the length and breadth of their blades.
He himself lived so near the time of which he writes, and the changes
in the interval were so few, that his descriptions have, in most
instances, the exactness of those of an eye-witness. The incidents of
Duke William's Conquest of England he learns from the lips of his own
father, who lived probably in the eleventh century:--
"---- jo oï dire à mon pere:
Bien m'en sovint, maiz varlet ere."
_Roman de Rou_, l. 11564.
We must still, however, keep in view that Wace, like all writers and
illuminators of the middle-ages, does not hesitate to fill up his
pictures from the scenes around him; so that, while we concede him
a large measure of authority, especially for the events near his
own time, we must on some occasions withhold our confidence, when
his testimony is not in accordance with evidence which is strictly
cotemporary.
With the feudal system was introduced a scheme of military rank which
was altogether distinct from social position. Esquire, knight, and
banneret had no necessary connection with prince, baron, or private
person. The heir of a crown might be but an esquire; a fortunate
soldier often became a knight. The esquire was the aspirant to knightly
honours, and patiently served his apprenticeship to arms in the court
of his prince or the hall of some neighbouring baron. At the age of
twenty-one he was eligible to knighthood: he became, if he had property
enough to support the dignity, a knight-bachelor: "s'il a bien de quoi
maintenir l'estat de chevalerie; car aultrement ne lui est honneur,
et vault mieulx estre bon escuyer que ung poure chevalier[153]." In
the field, the knight's contingent was led under a Pennon, a flag that
differed from the square Banner of the banneret in being pointed at
the fly. The dignity of the Knight Banneret required a retinue of at
least fifty men-at-arms with their followers, so that it could only
be enjoyed by the rich. The chronicles of the middle-ages are full
of examples in which the knight who has distinguished himself on the
field of battle declines this dignity on the plea of inadequate funds.
When accepted, the Pennon of the knight was often at once converted on
the spot into a Banner; as in the instance recorded by Olivier de la
Marche:--"Si bailla le Roi d'Armes (de la Toison d'Or) un couteau au
Duc (de Bourgogne), et prit le pennon en ses mains, et le bon Duc, sans
oster le gantelet de la main senestre, fit un tour autour de sa main de
la queue du pennon, et de l'autre main coupa ledit pennon et demeura
quarré; et la Banniere faite[154]." Froissart offers several similar
instances.
The feudal Levy was conducted on the very simple principle, that
they who held the land should defend the land, and contribute to
the king's army in proportion to the extent of their holdings. Those
who could not serve in person, as clerics and ladies, were bound to
furnish substitutes. The various contingents due from the vassals
were carefully recorded in rolls; and in the _Milice Française_
of Père Daniel is preserved a curious note of such a roll, of the
time of Philippe Auguste, in which the contributors to the host
are arranged in the following order: archbishops, bishops, abbots,
dukes, earls, barons, castellans, vavassors, knights-banneret, and
knights[155]. The usual time of service at this period was forty
days: any further attendance was voluntary, and was probably much
dependent on the prospect of booty.
That knight and esquire were not necessarily of gentle blood, might
be proved by numerous ancient evidences: one or two may suffice.
Matthew Paris, under the year 1250, tells us that the king "gave a
charter of the liberty of warren in the land of Saint Alban's to a
certain knight named Geoffry, although not descended from noble or
knightly ancestors." This knight had obtained the privilege "from
having married the sister of the king's clerk, John Maunsell." The
"lady's name was Clarissa, and she was the daughter of a country
priest, but exalted herself in her pride above her station, to the
derision of all." Froissart, in the fourteenth century, gives us
the history of Jacques le Gris, the bosom-friend of the Earl of
Alençon,--"qui n'étoit pas de trop haute affaire, mais un écuyer
de basse lignée qui s'étoit avancé, ainsi que fortune en avance
plusieurs; et quand ils sont tous élevés et ils cuident être au plus
sûr, fortune les retourne en la boue et les met plus has que elle ne
les a eus de commencement[156]."
In fact, numerous exceptional cases might be adduced on almost every
point of knightly usage, and to chronicle the whole would be a labour
of many pages. A detail of such usages (the education of the varlets,
the probation of the knights, the ceremonies of investiture, and
the institutions of the various brotherhoods) is by no means within
the province of this work. A large amount of information on these
points will be found in the _Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie_ of
St. Palaye, and in the various works of Ducange; from whose pages
numerous references will lead the more critical investigator to a
wide range of valuable authorities. An able sketch of the Feudal
System, as it existed in Italy, appears in the first volume of
Sismondi's _Républiques Italiennes au Moyen-âge_, p. 80, sq.
Besides the feudal troops already noticed, there was a more general
levy, when any pressing danger menaced the state. Thus, in 1124,
Louis le Gros met the threatened invasion of the Emperor Henry V. by
raising an army of more than 200,000 men[157]. And under Philippe
le Bel, we have an ordinance calling upon all his subjects, "noble
and non-noble, of whatsoever condition they be, between the ages
of eighteen and sixty," to be ready to take the field. A similar
provision was found in England. The _Posse Comitatûs_, which was
under the command of the sheriffs of the various counties, included
every freeman capable of bearing arms between the ages of fifteen
and sixty. In 1181, Henry II. fixed an assize of arms, by which all
his subjects, being freemen, were bound to be in readiness for the
defence of the realm, "Whosoever holds one knight's fee shall have
a coat-of-fence (_loricam_), a helmet (_cassidem_), a shield, and a
lance; and every knight as many coats, helmets, shields, and lances,
as he shall have knights' fees in his domain. Every free layman,
having in rent or chattels the value of sixteen marks, shall have a
coat-of-fence, helmet, shield and lance. Every free layman having in
chattels ten marks, shall have a haubergeon (_halbergellum_), iron
cap and lance (_capelet ferri et lanceam_). All burgesses and the
whole community of freemen shall have each a 'wambais,' iron cap,
and lance. On the death of any one having these arms, they shall
remain to his heir. Any one having more arms than required by this
assize, shall sell or give them, or so alienate them, that they may
be employed in the king's service. No Jew shall have in his custody
any coat-of-fence or haubergeon (_loricam vel halbergellum_), but
shall sell it or give it, or in other manner so dispose of it that
it shall remain to the king's use. No man shall carry arms out of
the kingdom, or sell arms to be so carried. None but a freeman to
be admitted to take the oath of arms (_et præcepit rex, quod nullus
reciperetur ad sacramentum armorum nisi liber homo_[158])." In this
curious document it will be remarked that the old national weapon,
the axe, is altogether omitted; and the bow, which afterwards became
so effective an arm among the infantry of this country, is equally
unnoticed. The extensive levy indicated in these passages was clearly
that of the so-called _Arrière-ban_, the _Milice des Communes_, or
_Communitates Parochiarum_; troops who marched under the banners of
their respective parishes. For in an ordinance of Charles VI. of
France, in 1411, we find the _ban_ and _arrière-ban_ very exactly
defined:--"Mandons et convoquons par devant nous, tous noz hommes et
vassaulx tenant de nous, tant en fiefs qu'en arrière-fiefs: et aussi
des gens des bonnes villes de notre royaume qui out accoustumé d'eulx
armer par forme et manière de arrière-ban[159]."
As the vassals were not always disposed to exchange hawk and hound
for lance and destrier, and as kings found themselves but ill-served
by barons who had become almost as powerful as themselves, a plan was
devised, by which both were relieved from this embarrassment of feudal
relations. The vassal compounded by a money-payment called Scutage for
the service due to his lord; and the lord, with the proceeds of this
shield-tax, obtained the aid of foreign soldiery. Henry II. in England,
and Philip Augustus in France, employed these mercenaries, who were
called Coterelli, Rutarii, Bascli, and Brabantiones, names derived from
their condition or country[160]. William the Conqueror, Wace tells us,
had mercenary troops mixed with his feudal followers:--
"De mainte terre out soldéiers:
Cels por terre, cels por déniers."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 13797.
Again:--
"Dunc vindrent soldéirs à lui:
Et uns è uns, è dui è dui,
E quatre è quatre, è cinc è sis,
E set è wit, è nof è dis:
E li Dus toz les reteneit:
Mult lor donout è prameteit.
* * * * *
Alquanz soldées demandoent,
Livreisuns è duns covetoent."--_Line_ 11544.
Besides the troops enumerated above, the King's Body-guard became
a corps of some celebrity at the close of the twelfth century.
Philip Augustus is said to have instituted this corps in the Holy
Land, to protect his person from the machinations of the Old Man
of the Mountain; and in imitation of his ally, Richard of England
embodied a similar force. The _Servientes armorum, Sergens d'armes_,
or _Sergens à maces_, were armed _cap-à-pie_, and besides their
distinctive weapon, the mace, carried a bow and arrows[161], and of
course a sword. In the fourteenth century they had a lance[162].
In the beginning of the fifteenth century, as we learn from the
curious incised stones[163] formerly placed in the church of their
brotherhood, St. Catherine-du-val, at Paris, and now preserved in
the Church of St. Denis, the _sergens d'armes_ were still clad in
complete armour, their weapons being a mace and sword. The number of
these guards at their first institution is not clear, but in the time
of Louis VI. of France they were _reduced_ to a hundred. It must be
borne in mind that the name of _serviens_ or _sergent_, as applied
to military persons, had a much wider signification than this of a
body-guard. It often included all beneath the dignity of a knight.
The Archers in the army of William the Conqueror fulfilled those
duties of preliminary fight which at a later period fell to the lot
of the musquetiers, and in our own day have passed to the cannonier.
The Norman bowmen are the first of the invading troops to set foot on
English soil:--
"Li archiers sunt primiers iessuz:
El terrain sunt primiers venuz.
Dunc a chescun son arc tendu,
Couire et archaiz el lez pendu.
Tuit furent rez è tuit tondu,
De cors dras furent tuit vestu."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 11626.
These shaven and shorn, short-coated archers, with their quivers hung
at their side, are exactly reproduced in the Bayeux tapestry (Plates
XIII., XV., and XVI.):--
"La gent à pié fu bien armée:
Chescun porta arc et espée.
Sor lor testes orent chapels,
A lor piez liez lor panels.
Alquanz unt bones coiriés,
K'il unt à lor ventre liés.
Plusors orent vestu gambais,
Couires orent ceinz et archais.
* * * * *
Cil a pié aloient avant
Serréement, lors ars portant."--_Line_ 12805.
From this curious passage it appears that the archers of William
were not a particular and distinctly organized corps, but that _all
the foot_ were armed with the bow. The caps and boots are clearly
portrayed in the Bayeux tapestry; and from this valuable monument
we obta
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