The principal parts of his defensive armour were the helmet and bacinct, the coats of mail of diiroreot kinds, and the shield. The helmet was made with holes for breathing and seeing ; and it was of the utmost impor tance, that the esquire should take care that the rivetting .of the top of the cuirass, and of the helmet, should be firmly done, before a battle or tournament, since other wise it might happen, that, by a violent blow, the helmet might be turned with the wrong side foremost. This happened to a French chevalier at the battle of Bouines ; and the fatal accident which deprived Henry 11. of his life, is supposed to have originated from some negligence in this respect. The crest of the helmet, called by the knights of romance le plus haut de ses biens, was orna mented with lambrequins, the favours which their mis tresses had bestowed on them, and frequently with the images of some fancied monster. The bacinct was a light kind of helmet, so called from its resemblance to a bason; this the knight, when fatigued, put on instead of his helmet. Sometimes a kind of cap was fastened to the lower part of the crest of the helmet with rib bands ; this cap was composed of thin plates of iron, and was put on, when the knight took off his helmet for the purpose of breathing more freely ; in this case, the rib bands which had fastened it to the crest, flowed down on his shoulders, whence they had the name of volets.
Coats of mail consisted either of chain or plate armour; the latter were more ancient and more common, having been used in France very early- in the days of chivalry. The hauben, haubergeon, or hauberk, as it was indis criminately called,' was composed of double plates, or scollops of steel, impenetrable to any arrow or lance. It covered the body completely from head to foot. This kind of defensive armour was allowed only to the knights. The hauberk of the simple esquire was dis tinguished, by its being without hood and hose. The cuirass, which came into use long after the coat of mail, consisted of two parts ; a back and a breast piece of iron, fastened with straps, and covering the body completely before and behind : it was much more heavy and cum bersome than the coat of mail. It was reckoned as dishonourable for a knight to quit his cuirass or coat of mail, as for a Greek or Roman to lose their shield. Of the shield it is not necessary to give any descrip tion.
The armour which was used in tournaments, was much lighter, and more ornamented than that employed in bat tie : 44 The helmet was perforated only on the right side ; the left side of the face, and the left shoulder and breast, were covered with a plate called a grand guard, which was fastened on at the stomach. On each shoulder was
also fixed a plate, declining from the face like wings, in order to protect the eyes from the point of the lance : these were called Jiase-guards. From the right side of the cuirass a moveable bracket projected, called the rest, for the purpose of supporting the lance." Grose on ?ncient ?lrmour.
One of the first privileges which the knight received was, that of bearing a coat of arms. Coats of arms, in a more loose and extended sense, are very ancient ; they are assigned by Eschylus to the warriors against Thebes ; but these were of a very different kind, and destined for a very different purpose. The coats of arms used in chivalry were fixed and certain ; their purpose to dis tinguish families. The coats of arms mentioned by Eschylus were frequently changed, and, indeed, were merely temporary, being used only in battle to dis tinguish friends from foes. There is much difference of opinion respecting the time when armorial bearings, properly so called, were first used. The circumstance of their not appearing on seals till about the eleventh century, has induced many authors to fix their introduc tion at that period. But the fact will by no means bear out the inference ; besides, that if we may credit Uredius, in his Treatise on the Seals of the Counts of Elanders, a coat of arms is to be seen on the seal of Arnulphus, the great Earl of Flanders, in tht.: year 941. But the mode in which figures on seals were for a long time represented, prevented the coat of arms from being seen ; as the horseman, on the more ancient seals, ap pears towards the sinister side of the seal, com monly bearing on his left arm a shield cast hack in such a manner, that the concave side alone is visible. Now, for a long time the upper side was the only part where the coat of arms was painted. That this is the cause why armorial bearings arc not visible on ancient seals, is evident from this circumstance :---that as soon as the position of the horseman on the seal was changed, they became apparent. The fashion altered soon after the reign of Henry I. The most ancient English seal, with arms on it, is that of Richard I.
But to return from this digression. The sovereign or noble who bestowed the honour of knighthood, en couraged or permitted the newly made knight to assume the whole or part of his arms ; sometimes, but very seldom, he assumed the entire armorial bearings ; more frequently, he incorporated part of them with his own coat of arms. He in his turn transmitted the whole, or part of his armorial bearings, to the knights whom he created ; whence the resemblance in different parts of the coats of arms of families not allied, which existed in the days of chivalry.