Writers on Arms and Armour have approached the subject from many points of view, but, as all students know, their works are generally so large in size, or, what is more essential, in price, that for many who do not have access to large libraries it is impossible to learn much that is required. Then again, the papers of the Proceedings of the various Antiquarian and Archaeological Societies are in all cases very scattered and, in some cases, unattainable, owing to their being out of print. Many w

At the request of many of those who attended my course of lectures, delivered before the University of Oxford during the Lent Term, 1909, I have collected and illustrated some of the more important notes dealing with the Development of European Defensive Armour and Weapons. These pages are not a mere reprint of those lectures, nor do they aspire to the dignity of a History of Armour. They are simply intended as a handbook for use in studying history and a short guide to the somewhat intricate te

As a subject for careful study and exhaustive investigation perhaps no detail of human existence can be examined with quite the same completeness as can the defensive armour and weapons of past ages. Most departments of Literature, Science, and Art are still living realities; each is still developing and is subject to evolution as occasion demands; and for this reason our knowledge of these subjects cannot be final, and our researches can only be brought, so to speak, up to date. The Defensive A

THE AGE OF MAIL (1066-1277) With the Norman Conquest we may be said, in England, to enter upon the iron period of defensive armour. The old, semi-barbaric methods were still in use, but were gradually superseded by the craft of the smith and the metal-worker. This use of iron for defensive purposes had been in vogue for some time on the Continent, for we find the Monk of St. Gall writing bitterly on the subject in his Life of Charlemagne . He says: ‘Then could be seen the Iron Charles, helmed wi

THE TRANSITION PERIOD (1277-1410) It will be readily understood that the change from mail to plate armour was not brought about at once. Difficulty of manufacture, expense, and conservatism in idea, all retarded the innovation. Some progressive knight might adopt a new fashion which did not come into general use till many years after, in the same manner that, from force of circumstances, or from a clinging to old methods, we find an out-of-date detail of armour like the coif of mail, shown on th

THE WEARING OF ARMOUR AND ITS CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS Before proceeding to examine the suit of Full Plate, with all its interesting details and differences as exemplified in the various armouries of England and Europe, it will be well to make clear the main principles which governed the manufacture of such armour. We should remember that the whole history of our subject is one long struggle of defensive equipment against offensive weapons. This is brought out clearly at the present day in the Nav

PLATE ARMOUR (1410-about 1600) It is so very rare to be able to fix the date of a suit of armour at a particular year that we are forced, in dividing our periods of defensive armour with any degree of minuteness, to have recourse to the records existing in monumental effigies. The earliest brasses which show the whole suit of plate without camail or jupon are those of one of the d’Eresby family at Spilsby, Lincolnshire, and of Sir John Wylcotes at Great Tew, Oxon., both dated 1410. In these bras

HORSE ARMOUR The fully-equipped knight, whether in the cumbrous garments of mail or in the more adaptable suit of plate, was so entirely dependent on his horse, both in active warfare and in the tilt-yard, that some notice of the defences of the Destrier or war-horse is necessary in this short examination of the history of defensive armour. On the Bayeux Tapestry there is no suggestion of armour of any kind upon the horses, but Wace writes in the Roman de Rou (line 12,627)— Vint Williame li filz

THE DECADENCE OF ARMOUR In the practice of any of the crafts, or applied arts as they are now called, the surest and most manifest signs of decadence are to be found in two aspects of that craft. The first of these is that which refers to the material used. With regard to armour this consideration is faithfully adhered to in most examples of the armourer’s work up to the end of the fifteenth century; but by the beginning of the sixteenth century we find the craftsman becoming wearied of his tech

WEAPONS The Sword. At the time of the Conquest the sword was straight, broad in blade, two-edged and pointed. The Quillons were straight and the grip ended in a Pommel which, as far as we can judge from illustrated records, was square, round, lozenge-shaped or trefoiled ( Fig. 46 ). There is not much change in the general lines of the sword during the twelfth century except in the form of the pommel.   Fig. 46. Sword-hilts.   In the thirteenth century the point, instead of starting abruptly at t