Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/307

 (a).

Found beneath an oak tree in a village in Russian Poland. Now in the treasury of the cathedral of St. Stanislaus at Cracow

(b). (Fig. 274a)

by Henry V in his helmet at Agincourt in 1415 (Fig. 273). This is a large spinel ruby of irregular drop-like form, measuring nearly 2 inches in length, and highly polished on what is probably its natural surface. Its irregular outline makes it possible to recognize the place that it has formerly occupied in the older state crowns, but it seems always to have been given the place of honour. It is pierced after an Oriental fashion, and the top of the piercing is filled with a supplementary ruby set in gold. Don Pedro, King of Castile, murdered the King of Granada in 1367 for the sake of his jewels, one of which, so tradition has it, was this ruby; Don Pedro is supposed to have given it to Edward the Black Prince after the battle of Nejera, near Vittoria, in the same year. From the Black Prince it is said to have descended to King Henry V, who wore it in his crown at Agincourt, when it is recorded that the King's life was saved from the attack of the Duc d'Alençon by the protection afforded him by his Crown, a portion of which, however, was broken off. Another mention of jewels attached to a bascinet head-piece is made by Froissart, who describes the bascinet of the King of Castile in 1385: