Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/184

 guard's helmet, though considerably broader and apparently of one piece. Besides doing duty as an ordinary chin-strap it would also afford considerable protection. The great seal of King John shows him wearing a cylindrical helmet of this type, but with a rounded top and no chin-*piece (Fig. 133).

(a) Front view; (b) profile view.

From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"

Other details of the Magnaville effigy show us complete and simple chain mail entirely covering the knight. It has the hauberk down to the knee; while the chausses and mail sollerets are of the simplest construction. This is almost one of the first instances of gauntlets of mail formed by the extension of the hauberk sleeve, a feature which can also be seen in the fine effigy in the cathedral church of Gloucester, erroneously said to represent Robert, Duke of Normandy (see page 112).

Showing the cylindrical helmet

It may safely be said there is no European body armour of the period with which we now deal in existence; it is therefore fortunate that we have many effigies which have withstood the ravages of time to assist us with true and reliable evidence regarding the fashions of those ages. Had this evidence been lacking our knowledge would have been very sparse; whereas now we are able to trace with very fair accuracy the different changes that took place from the early years of the XIIIth century until the full plate harness was evolved. Even colour on certain effigies is recorded, but alas, in many cases it is fast disappearing. To prove this we have only to look at the first hand-coloured edition of Stothard's famous work on monumental effigies. There we see that he has recorded on certain of the plates colour that must have existed in his time, but which during the century now elapsed since the publication of his work has to-day almost disappeared.