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 in the Prince's will, that "two coursers covered with our arms and two men armed in our arms, and in our helmets, shall go before our said body." The present writer is inclined to combine the theories; for the surcoat, gauntlets, and shield all seem to have a funeral furnisher origin, while the helm strikes us as being a real head-*piece. (We arrive at this conclusion by comparisons of which we will speak later.) The sword and dagger were possibly actual weapons. The gauntlets, though doubtless fashioned on existing models, are constructed of thin brass or latten, and would not therefore have been of the smallest service, and so cannot have been made to wear (see Chapter XV). The surcoat, from the fact that it possesses sleeves thickly quilted under the armpits and thereby made almost rigid, would appear also to have been fashioned for the occasion of the funeral pageant (Fig. 187). But since no other surcoat is in existence, with the exception of the example made up of figured damask, and perhaps also constructed for a funeral pageant, a relic once in the Cathedral of Chartres, and now in the Museum of that town, we have no means of ascertaining the form taken by those whose service was for actual wear.

From the tomb of the Black Prince in the cathedral church of Canterbury

From the tomb of the Black Prince in the cathedral church of Canterbury

Sir St. John Hope also points out that unlike most examples of XIVth