CHAPTER XV
THE GAUNTLET
When fighting was almost entirely hand-to-hand, the thorough
protection of the hand was necessarily of paramount importance.
Armour for the head and body was, after all, but a second line
of defence against the attack which penetrated the guard of
the weapon. Any damage to the hand which controlled all
offensive movements, as well as all parries, would place a combatant at the
mercy of his antagonist. But the armourer had not only to give his attention
to the protective qualities of the covering which enclosed a part so vulnerable
and so likely to receive a wound, he had also to consider how he should
least interfere with the use of so complicated a piece of mechanism as the
human hand. It was on account of these very important considerations that
one finds the gauntlet always more complicated in the details of its construction
than the rest of the protective harness.
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Fig. 552. From the brass of Sir Robert de Septvans
Early XIVth century
Chartham Church, Kent. After Waller
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Fig. 553. From the effigy of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury
About 1227. Cathedral church of Salisbury
After Stothard
To deal fully with the subject of gauntlets we must go back once more
