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 CHAPTER III

CONTINUED GENERAL HISTORY OF ARMOUR, ARMS, AND ACCOUTREMENTS

A.D. 1100-1320

With the invaluable assistance of the Bayeux needlework to guide us, we have now carried our subject into the first half of the XIIth century. As we proceed, we find the pictorial authorities, from which we can choose illustrations to assist us in tracing the evolution of military equipment, more plentiful and clearer in detail. But it is impossible to take advantage of these in describing all the minor changes that take place as the years advance, otherwise our work would run to unwieldy proportions.

The hauberk, still the principal armament of the knight, remains much the same in form, although worn rather longer. It seems also to be more shapely; but this fact may be a mere pictorial illusion due to the improvement made in drawing by the artists who illustrated the missals.

A series of full-page illustrations representing the life of Christ, in the possession of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, one page of which, by kind permission, we are able to reproduce, gives us matter for study. Originally prefixed to a liturgical manuscript, either a psalter or a gospel book, it has been suggested that Limoges was the place of origin of these illuminations, and about the year 1170 the date of their production (Fig. 83).

In these pictures it will be observed that a new feature has been, introduced—the chausse of mail, as previously leather thongs appeared for the most part the protection for the legs from the knee downwards. Probably this development in the leg defence was the outcome of the evolution of half a century, but in these particular illustrations of about 1170, it appears universal. Doubtless, could we come across some illustrations covering the previous fifty years, we should see the mail chausse only in partial use. The plate selected for illustration is "The Betrayal of Christ," which has special interest for us, owing to the number of armed figures introduced into it. On the right of the composition are four soldiers whose armaments show a more distinct advance than any other figure illustrated at this time that we have come across. The subject is painted in colours, blue, red, orange, green, and gray upon a gilded ground. The style of the painting is clumsy and unsightly,