Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

hips by cinching the shirt with a belt), plate armour was attached by linen cords to an
arming doublet, holding the leg and arm assemblies in place and also helping to
distribute its weight around the body.
The ability to wear and move in armour is only one halt of the equation. It was also
necessary that the armour protect its wearer from injury Judging the effectiveness of
armour is a trickier proposition. Our sources are contradictory. The heroes and villains
of the epic and romance tales deal each other Herculean blows that smash shields and
rend hauberks. In the 12th-century romance Clige'j the hero's father, Alexander, 'killed
many and left many wounded, for like a flashing thunderbolt he swept through all he
encountered. No byrnie [a form of mail shirt] or shield could save any man he struck
with his lance or sword.' The epic hero Oliver, in the Song of Roland, killed one Saracen
warrior with a single blow that sliced through his helmet, head, body, hauberk, saddle
and horse.
The visual imagery can be equally gory. The Bayeux Tapestry, the 13th-century
Pierpont-Morgan picture bible, the 14th-century Courtrai chest, all are just the most
obvious examples, depicting horrific injuries reminiscent of the epics: deep gashes,
men being sliced in half, severed limbs and heads, all of which suggests that the
knights' weapons were highly effective but that their armour was, in the words of
the epics 'not worth a straw'.
Of course the Hollywood violence of the epics and romances is exaggerated and
their audiences knew it. The power of the blows and the wounds both inflicted
and received reflected the prowess of the warrior; heroes must perform heroically
after all. Some of our 'factual' narratives, such as the biographical History of William
Marshal, are couched in the same vein, intending to entertain as much as inform. It is
possible that our illustrators were also influenced by these tales, or were drawing on
exemplars of an earlier, more sanguine age. The subject matter might also dictate the
imagery. Old Testament descriptions of battle often describe deaths in the thousands
and tens of thousands. The 14th-century Philippine notes that 'nowadays modern men
take much greater care to protect themselves than did the ancients who would often,
as we learn from our reading, fall by the thousand thousand \dic\ in a single day'.
The bloodiness of the illustrations in the Pierpont-Morgan bible and others might be
seen merely as reflecting their source material.
The Huitoiy of William Marshal is not the only 'factual' narrative that bears out the
testimony of the fictional sources. Both Gerald of Wales and the contemporary poem
detailing the actions of the Normans in Ireland, better known as The Song ofDermot and
the Earl, record how John the Wode, leading a force to regain Dublin, severed the leg
of a knight with his axe, cutting through the skirts of his hauberk. Gerald also tells how
a shot from a Welshman's bow pinned a man to his horse, going through the hauberk
ARMS AND ARMOUR •*}*•
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