into the Herbert chapel; in France no example of this buttoned just-au-corps has hitherto been noticed[1].
It deserves notice that the sword has a chain attached to its hilt, appended apparently to the breast of the hauberk, so that if the weapon slipped out of the grasp of the combatant it might readily be recovered. The fashion of wearing chains, usually attached to mammelières, or ornamental bosses on the breasts, appears to have been very prevalent in Germany; an example of their use in England is supplied by the curious effigy at Alvechurch, Worcestershire, which represents a person of the Blanchfront family, t. Edward III.: in this instance two chains appear, the one which proceeds from the left breast being connected with the sword-hilt, and the second attached, apparently, to the scabbard[2]; occasionally these chains were linked to the dagger, or even, as seen in the sepulchral brass of Sir Roger de Trumpington (A.D. 1292), to the outer head-piece, or heaume. In that example, however, the chain is attached to the girdle. An allusion to this usage occurs in the French romance, entitled "le Tournois de Chauvenci," Written about A.D. 1285.
"Chascun son hiaume en sa chaaine,
Qui de bons cous attent l'estraine." v. 3543.
A further illustration of this fashion is given in the two military figures, taken from the carved wood-work in the choir at Bamberg cathedral. These curious effigies measure five feet and a half in height, and are placed as sentinels at the approach to the stalls of the choir; they were sculptured, probably, about the same period as the figure of Ulrich Landschaden. They exhibit several peculiar features: the armour consists of the long-sleeved hauberk, over which is worn a garment, in form similar to the jupon, but thickly set with little round plates, or bezantè, as it might be termed heraldically. This garment was probably quilted or gamboised, possibly with metal plates or pieces of whalebone inserted in the padding, and the round plates were connected with the rivets, which served to give compactness and strength. It is obvious that the garment could not have been in this instance of slight materials, like the ordinary
- ↑ The jupon was sometimes laced up in front, instead of being buttoned. M. de Hefner gives a good example of this fashion, it is the figure of Weikhard Frosch, who died 1378. XIV. Cent. pl. 49.
- ↑ Stothard's Monumental Effigies. See also the sepulchral brass, apparently of Flemish execution, which commemorates Ralph de Knevyngton, 1370, at Avely, in Essex. (Waller's Brasses.) The chain attached to the sword-hilt appears on the great seals of Edward III. In the accounts of the silversmith of John II., king of France, 1352, a charge occurs " pour forger—ij. mamellières, et deux chaiciies pour icelle mamellières." The double chain from the right breast, with a single chain depending from the left, appears on two curious effigies in Alsace, date about A.D. 1344. Schoepflin, Alsatia Illustr. pp. 533, 633. In the "Ordonnance comment on soulloit faire anciennement les Tournois, (Colombière, t. i. 48, and Due. in Joinv. Diss. vii. 183.) amongst the requisite harness for the knight are included "deux chaines à attachier à la poitrine de la cuirie, une pour l'espée, et l'autre pour le baston," which in the English version, Harl. MS. 6149, f. 46, is thus rendered, "item, ij. thengeis knet to the brest of the curie, one for the suord, the tother for the bastone."
