enlarged scale at fig. 1, and which is the peculiar characteristic of the armour of this period and that of Richard II., and is all that is visible, except the gussets of mail at the armpits and elbows. His girdle, the pattern of which is seen at fig. 2, encircles the hips (the sword and dagger being broken off, I have restored them from other specimens), and his jupon is emblazoned with his arms. His gloves (see also fig. 3) are richly ornamented (the separation of gloves of steel into fingers having first been adopted during the reign of Edward I.); his legs are cased in cuisses and greaves, with sollerets or overlapping plates for the feet.

The effigy of Edward the Black Prince, in Canterbury Cathedral, is another fine example of military costume: above which is suspended his tabard, shield, gloves (the gads or gadlings, as the spikes upon the knuckles were termed, being shaped like leopards), scabbard, and tilting helmet, all of which are engraved in Stothard's Effigies; and are believed to have been those worn by the Prince.

The strength of the English army at this period consisted of its archers and cross-bow men, who were much depended on. The vic. tories of Crecy and Poictiers covered them with glory, and made them indispensable. There is a curious passage in the old romance of the fourteenth century, devoted to the adventures of Richard Cœur de Lion, which describes the host led by Sir Fulke d'Oyley to the siege of a town in the Holy Wars, and their arrangement :

"Sir Fouk gan his folk ordayne,
As they should them demeyne:
Foremost he sett his arweblasteres,
And after that his good archeres,
And after his staff-slyngers,

And other with scheeldes and with speres:

He devysed the fourth part

With sword and axe, knyfe and dart;

The men of armes com att the last."

Chaucer, in his Rime of Sire Thopas, has given us a vivid picture of the knightly costume in all its minutiæ:

"He did next his white lere*
Of cloth of lake fine and clere,

A breche and eke a shirt,
And next his shirt an haketon,
And over that an habergeon,
For peircing of his heart;†

* He put on next his white skin.

That is, to protect it.

And over that a fine hauberk
Was all wrought of jewes work,*
Full strong it was of plate;
And over that his coat-armour,t
As white as is the lily flower,
In which he wold debate."

We have frequently had occasion to note the mutual illustration afforded by the art and literature of the middle ages; the pages of the author are constantly eliminated by reference to the sculpture or painting executed by the artists who flourished in his own time. Thus the whole of the articles of dress above mentioned may be distinguished on an Effigy of the Chaucerian era in Ash Church, Kent. A portion of this figure, from the waist to the knee, is here engraved. The hauberk of plate is the uppermost covering, over which the fringed tabard is drawn tightly by a silken cord at each side. Chaucer continues his description of the knight's equipment by telling us

"His shield was of gold so red,

His dress, in time of peace, being a girdled tunic, shoes "of Cordewane," or Cordovan, long famous for its leather.

"Of Bruges were his hosen broun,

His robe was of checklatoun."

Supposed by Tyrwhitt to be the cyclas, a robe of state, sometimes made of cloth of gold.

* Probably damasked.

+ Or tabard.

A carbuncle, a common heraldic bearing. Fr. escarboucle.

§ Armour for the legs, of hardened leather.

A metal, composed of a mixture of bronze and tin.

The following cut may be received as a curious contemporary illustration of that portion of Chaucer's Rime which describes the equipment of the knight for war. The original drawing is to be found in a beauti

ful MS. of Boccace's Livre des Nobles Femmes, preserved in the Royal Library at Paris. The knight is stripped to "brech and shirt," which are fastened together by ties round the thigh, a mode of securing those articles of dress

also depicted in other MSS. of this date; and he is throwing on his quilted hacketon; his hauberk of mail lies upon the ground before him, upon which is placed his helmet, with its long-beaked visor, to which a capacious camail is attached; his jambeaux and steel gloves lie on each side of them.

In the Romance of Meliadus (Brit. Mus.Add. MS. 12-223) is a representation of an esquire bringing to a knight his hauberk, which we here copy. It is coloured black and covered with green rings or roundels like those mentioned p. 105; and has a pendant covering for the hips cut into the form of leaves and coloured green.

With a notice of the only striking peculiarity displayed in the armour of the reign of Richard II., I take my leave of this long and important period of English history. The

visored bascinet, in next page, is a novelty of a kind that gives a grotesque air to the soldiery of this eventful reign. It may be seen worn by them in the illuminations to the metrical history already referred to, and in a battle-scene from Cotton MSS., Claudius, B. 6, engraved in Strutt's Horda Angel-Cynan, vol. iii. pl. 28, as well as in our last cut of the knight arming himself. Very few of these singular bascinets are known to exist: there is one in the Tower; another at Goodrich-court, the seat of Sir S. R. Meyrick; a third in the collection of Lord Londesborough; and some three or four have been recorded in Continental collections. Fig. 1 is engraved from

the specimen in the Meyrick collection. Fig. 2 shows the same bascinet with the visor raised. The figure beneath (No. 3) is a jousting-helmet used in tilts and tourneys, which was worn, as already described, over the bascinet, and rested upon the shoulders. This

A

2

helmet, also in the possession of Sir S. R. Meyrick, formerly belonged to Sir R. Pembridge, who died 1375, and was originally suspended over his monument in Hereford Cathedral. It was surmounted by a plume of feathers, or the crest of the wearer, and sometimes a cointoise, or silken scarf, streamed from its summit; a narrow opening was cut for sight, and holes pierced for breathing. Those in that of Edward the Black Prince take the shape of a coronet.

135

York and Lancaster.

THE effigies of Henry IV. and his queen, Joan of Navarre, in the Chapel of St. Thomas-à-Becket, Canterbury Cathedral, are elegant instances of a style of royal costume uniting richness, grandeur, and simplicity. The king's dalmatic is ornamented by a simple border, and has at the sides an opening similar to a pocket-hole, surrounded by a richly-wrought border; a broad tippet, or cape, envelopes the shoulders and reaches to the waist; the sleeves of the dalmatic are wide, and display the tighter sleeve of the under-tunic, with its row of buttons, and its rich border at the wrist. The royal mantle is large and flowing, with a plain narrow border, fastened across the breast by a broad band, richly jewelled, secured to lozenge-shaped clasps of elaborate workmanship, and from which descend cords and tassels. But the most beautiful portion of the "glory of regality" exhi

bited on this effigy is the crown, surrounded by oak-leaves and fleurs-de-lis; as the diadem of a monarch claiming territory in France as well as Britain, nothing can be more appropriately conceived than this design.

To this splendid bauble Henry clung with characteristic fondness; and although so indirectly obtained, endeavoured to soothe his latest hours by ordering it to be placed upon the pillow of his deathbed. Few monarchs could adhere to the outward display of power