ARMOUR, is a general term for any defen sive habit warn to protect the wearer from the attack of an enemy. Harness is a name for merly applied in this country to armour in the aggregate.
Some of the earliest manufactures in Were connected with the making of arracur. In the Bible we find the shield, helmet and breastplate mentioned at a very early period ; and greaves, or armour for the legs, are named among the armour of Goliath.. Homer men tions them, and his descriptions of the breast plate of Agamemnon, the shield of Achilles, and the golden armour of Glaucus. indicate the highly decorated character of much ancient armour.
The complete Roman union• consisted of the helmet, shield, lorica, and greaves. The lorica was originally of leather, but in the time of Servius Tullius the whole of the Roman body armour was of brass. The Roman lorica was frequently enriched with embossed figures. Each Roman legioa had its own device marked upon its shields.
The early Britons appear to have used no armour except the shield ; but many of the Anglo-Saxons wore loricm of leather and four cornered helmets, having probably derived them from the Romans. Tho Anglo-Saxon soldiers appear in drawings of the eighth cen tury with no armour besides the shield and helmet, and armed with the sword and spear. Towards the close of the ninth century the corium, or corieture, was the armour generally used. It was formed of hides cut into the resemblance of leaves, and covering one another. The weight of the ringed byrne seems to have been found a great impediment to activity. Edward the Confessor appears on his great seal in a diadem evidently put upon a helmet. The casque worn by the was of metal, and of a pointed conical shape, but ornamented with gold and jewels, and in the later specimens furnished with a nasal, or small projecting piece to shield the nose.
The Danes, on their first appearance in England, seem to have had no armour beyond a broad collar or thorax of flat rings. and leather greaves or rather shin-pieces ; but about the time of Canute they adoptel, pro bably from the Normans, a tunic with a hood and long sleeves, and chausses, or pantaloons, which covered the feet, all of these being coated with perforated lozenges of steel, called from their resemblance to the meshes of a net, maths, or mercies. They were also a rounded conical helmet, or skull-cap, with a round knob, under which were painted the rays of a star on its apex, and a large broad nasal; to which the hood being drawn vp over the mouth, was attached, so as to leave no thing but the eyes exposed. Thi shield remained as before, and the weapons were spears, swords, and battle-axes, or bipennes.
From the period of the Conquest, seals, especially those of our kings, and monumental effigies, furnish abundant evidence as to the changes which took place in the fashion of. armour. The Conqueror himself appears on his seal in a hauberk apparently of rings set edgewise ; and in the Bayeux tapestry ring armour forming both breeches and jacket at the same time is represented. The chapel del
ler, which resembles in shape a Tartar cap, being a tone which projects beyond the head, appears for the first time upon the seal of Rufus ; and tegulated armour, which consisted of little plates covering each other in the manner of tiles, and sewn upon a hauberk, without sleeves or hood, appears during the reign of Stephen, towards the close of which the nasal of the helmet seems to have been disused. Henry II. is represented on his seal in a flat-ringed hauberk, and a conical helmet without a nasal. Pourpointerie, or pourpointing, which consisted of padded work elaborately stitched, appears first in the great seals of Henry III., where the hauberk and chausses appear to be of this description. Some changes appear also in the helmet, which, in his second seal, is cylindrical. Po leyns, or coverings for the knees, were worn in this reign. Archers are shown in illumina tions of this period wearing leathern vests over hauberks of edge-ringed mail. Armour of interlaced rings, which did not require to be sewn to an under garment, and was pro bably introduced from the east by the crusa ders, was introduced in this reign ; in which also the chanfron, or armour for the horse's head, appears for the first time.
Considerable improvements were made in armour during the reigns of Edward I., II., and III. Ailettes, or shoulder-pieces ; mixed armour, partly of plate and partly of mail ; armures defer, or richly adorned plate-armour; manielieres, or pieces put upon the breast, and from which chains descended, one to the sword-hilt, and the other to the scabbard; the cointisse, or surcoat, ornamented with the warrior's arms, over the armour ; moveable visors attached to the hacenets, or bason-shaped skull-caps,—all appeared during these three reigns. Increased ornament was a charac teristic of the armour of the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV., about which time Italian armourers were much employed by the Eng lish nobility. Chain-mail appears to have been entirely disused soon after 1400, com plete armour of plate superseding it. Black armour was often used at this period for mourning. Plate-armour attained its highest perfection about the reign of Richard and one of the finest suits preserved in the Tower of London, accompanied by a chanfron, mancefaire, and poitral, for arming the horse, belonged to Henry VII. In his reign fluted armour was occasionally used ; and in that of his successor armour was frequently stamped or engraved with arms and devices, and some times damasquine, or inlaid with gold.
The use of complete armour began to de cline in this country after the time of Eliza beth. The late Sir S. Meyrick's collection of armour at Goodrich Court is perhaps the finest private collection in this country. At the Meclifeval Exhibition of 1850, many fine specimens of armour belonging to the feudal ages wero collected.