Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/14

CHAPTER XX

HAFTED WEAPONS IN GENERAL USE FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE XIVth
CENTURY TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE XVITH CENTURY

The lance—Chaucer's description—An extant war lance of the early years of the XVth
century—Contemporary mention of the proportions of the lance—Late XVth century
lances—The coronel, the boëte, the bourdon, the Swedish-feather—The lance attributed
to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk—The vamplate, the war-hammer, the pole-axe, and
battle-axe—The great antiquity of these weapons—The similarity in combat of the use of
all such weapons—Some war-hammers of distinction—The true pole-axe and hammer as a
double-handed weapon, its use on foot as a knightly fighting weapon, and its popularity in
those fights—Some pictorial illustrations of its practice—Arguments on the class of infantry
weapons which go by the name of glaive, voulge, partisan, ranseur, spetum, bill, and guisarme—Illustrations
and extant examples—What is termed the battle-axe—The Austrian
bardische—The Lochaber axe and the Jedburgh axe—The halberd class of weapon—The
probable derivation of its name, and its reputed age as a hafted infantry arm—The various
types and extant examples—The knightly mace—Allusions to it—Extant examples of
the XIVth and XVth centuries, and early years of the XVIth century—Weapons originally
of peasant origin—Examples of comparatively late date—The war flail—The "holy water
sprinkler," and the "morning star"—Some historical references—Secret hafted weapons 81


CHAPTER XXI

THE CROSSBOW

Continuation from pages 4, 5, 65, 123, 124 in vol. i of our brief history of the long and crossbow—The
crossbow of the XIVth century, with both horn and steel bow—The age and probable
origin of the horn bow—Peter the Saracen, crossbow maker to King John, one of the
makers of the so-called horn bow—A remarkable crossbow of the middle of the XVth
century, with a description of its media—The description of the XVth century crossbow—The
range of its bolts—The arbalestes ribaudequins—The windlass à tour—An historical
example—The windlass à cranequin—An historical example—The windlass pied de chèvre—An
historical example—Other windlasses of possibly individual construction—The
small graffle charging tackle—The crossbow called the "latch"—The pellet crossbow,
arbalète à jalet—A sumptuous late example—The various types of bolts discharged from
the crossbow—The long bow, the Englishman's droit mesurer—The Morris or short bow—An
existing long bow of the early part of the XVIth century—The constant endeavour
made by the King and his Council to encourage the use of the long bow 127


CHAPTER XXII

HORSE ARMOUR, THE BIT, SADDLE, AND SPUR FROM THE BEGINNING OF
THE XIVTH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE XVIITH CENTURY

The possible date of the first protective apparel for the horse—An unsubstantiated suggestion
of its use in the XIth century—A quotation from Matthew Paris referring to an armed
horse early in the XIIIth century—The chanfron of cuir bouilli, mentioned in the