Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/223

 Irish were content with the protection of the mail hauberk alone until the closing years of the XVth century. Indeed, in the reign of Elizabeth, we find Spenser stating that the Irish chieftain still wore a shirt of mail over a leathern-quilted jack which was long enough "to cover his trouse on horse-*backe," a fashion associated in English costume with the early years of the XIIIth century. Even in the principal countries of Europe complete suits of mail were in use until the early years of the XVIth century. But they were only employed as a subsidiary defence to plate, though some of the finest mail from the point of actual technical manufacture dates from these times. Two beautiful shirts of fine riveted links, certainly of European origin, are to be seen in the Oriental Armoury of the Wallace Collection, Nos. 1509 and 1858, finding their place in that section of the armoury merely because they were obtained with the Eastern armour. We illustrate a shirt of chain mail in our own collection that might well date within the first quarter of the XVIth century (Fig. 526). We also give a picture of an early XVIth century mail gusset, showing the actual size of its mesh. This depicts an interesting feature, as the section of the wire of which the rings are composed is seen to be practically triangular, with rivets that are pyramidal (Fig. 527).

Middle of the XVth century

To be worn with a salade-like head-piece

Zeughaus, Berlin

Late XVth century

Collection: Mr. W. H. Riggs, Metropolitan Museum, New York

With the advance of the XVIth century, whole shirts of mail worn beneath plate armour were mostly discarded, only the vulnerable parts of the body