Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/86

72 uncle meant to murder him, neglected fastening his points, or otherwise attending to his dress. The doublet was open in front, showing a stomacher, and over this was worn a short loose gown, plaited before and behind, with full slashed sleeves. These gowns and doublets were of the richest and most brilliant velvets and satins. On the head was a small cap, generally round and closely fitting, with a roll of fur round it, or turned up at the side with a feather, jewelled up the stem. The hair was worn thick and bushy behind.



The ladies had now, in a great measure, discarded the steeple caps, and wore the hair thrown backwards, in a caul of gold, and over it a kerchief of the finest texture, stiffened out and descending to the back. Some of these kerchiefs were very large. Their gowns were as before, with turn-over collars and cuffs of fur or velvet. On state occasions, the hair was suffered to fall in natural ringlets, and the ermined jacket was worn with a kirtle and mantle. These dresses were very rich with crimson or other bright velvet, cloth of gold, chains and jewels; the shoes being of tissue cloth of gold. They wore also a singular plaited neck covering called a barbe.



The armour through this period was of solid plate, varied in every reign by too many small particulars to be enumerated here. In Henry IV.'s reign, increase of splendour in arms and armour was visible. The basnet was ornamented by a rich wreath, and the jupon, or surcoat, had its border cut into rich foliage, spite of the prohibition. In Henry V.'s reign was introduced the panache, or crest of feathers, stuck into a small pipe on the top of the basnet. The petticoat or apron of chain was replaced by horizontal plates of steel, called tashes or tassets, forming a sort of skirt, and extending from the waist to about the middle of the thigh. In this reign the two-handed waving or flaming sword was introduced. In Henry VI.'s reign the sallet or German steel cap superseded the basnet. In Edward IV.'s the armour was distinguished by its very globular breastplates, and immense elbow and knee plates. Every joint was double covered, and in Richard's reign, the pauldrons, or shoulder plates, and the knee and elbow plates, generally large, fan-shaped, and of most elaborate workmanship, were still more striking. Such it is seen in the effigy of Sir Thomas Peyton, in Isleham Church, Cambridgeshire. Over this armour was worn, not the jupon, but a tabard of arms, loose like a herald's, as in Edward IV.'s reign.



We have thus endeavoured to present the reader with as complete a view as possible of the state and appearance of our ancestors of the fifteenth century—a century which seems to close the more strictly feudal ages, which printing, literature, reform of religion, and the discovery of a new world were hastening to terminate, and to inaugurate a wholly new period, and new state of society. This century was by no means favourable to the intellectual or moral advance of the people. It was spent in fighting and in perpetual revolution, alarm, and violence, and the national character suffered no little in