THEprominence which Spain has enjoyed from the earliest times as a manufactory of armour and a school of arms is attributable, in the first instance, to its mineralogical richness, and, subsequently, to the part it played in the military history of Europe. In the days of Rome’s greatness, Spain became the chief mineral-producing tributary of the Empire. Its mines contained in perfection all the metals then applied to warlike uses, and its rivers were believed to possess peculiar properties for the tempering of blades. Bilbilis was as much a name to conjure with among the Roman warriors as was the “Bilbo” among the gallants and swashbucklers of Shakespeare’s day. Toledo and the sword are indissolublyassociated in the literature of arms; it is impossible to mention the name of the city without recalling the unchallenged excellence of the blades it has given to the world. And if Toledo is the city of the sword, Spain is the land of swordsmanship. It was in Spain that the muscular sweep of the broadsword was refined into the scientific point-play of the rapier; it was there that the art of fence originated; and to-day it is claimed that there are more books on fencing in Spanish than in any other language.
From the highest in the land to the lowest the love of arms is seen to have been inherent in the Spaniard from time immemorial, and he has ever shown himself quick to adopt foreign methods and innovations that promised to lend greater efficacy to his blow and sterner resistance to his defensive armour. Francis I. beheld the youth of Spain stoutly accoutred and armed to the teeth, and exclaimed, “Oh, happy land, which brings forth and rears armed men.” The profession of arms was the avocation of every Spaniard; he left his mother’s breast to take his place at his father’s side; he was a soldier by birth, breeding, and training. Only a nation of soldiers could have successfully withstood an invasion so overwhelming as that of the Saracens. Only a race imbuedwith the traditions and love of war and its arts could have persevered so long against enormous odds to the final and glorious triumph of the closing years of the fifteenth century.
The Spaniards of the days of Pizarro and Cortes, like their contemporaries, the English admirals, courted war as a mistress, and strove to meet her in their bravest array. The devoted attention they paid to their armour and the temper of their weapons excited the regretful admiration of their determined foe, old sea-dog Hawkins. The Castilian loved the glint of shimmering steel and the ring of a true forged blade on stout harness; his was a land of iron, and so long as the issue of the battle depended on the sword and the lance, he could defy Europe, and hold two Continents in fee. But the age of iron passed; with it passed that grand old craftsman, the armourer; and the day of Spain also, passed, for a while, into the grey evening of nations. For Spain, so faithfully wedded to its native arms, and so pre-eminent in their use, was slow to embrace the faith of explosives. Cervantes, in the following passage, which he puts into the mouth of Don Quixote, has left on record the aversion of his countrymen to the levelling-up influence of the rifle, and their exaggerated attachment to the weapons of chivalry:
“Blessed be those happy ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of those devilish instruments of artillery which is the cause that very often a cowardly base hind takes away the life of the bravest gentleman, and in the midst of that rigour and resolution which animates and inflames the bold, a chance bullet (shot perhaps by one that fled, and was frighted at the very flash the mischievous piece gave when it went off), coming nobody knows how or from whence, in a moment puts a period to the brave designs and the life of one that deserved to have survived many years. This considered, I could almost say I am sorry at heart for having taken on me this profession of a knight-errant in so detestable an age: for though no danger daunts me, yet it affects me to think that powder and lead may deprive me of the opportunity of becoming famous, and making myself known throughout the world by the strength of my arm and the dint of my sword.”
The national love of the sword and buckler was encouraged in the Spaniards by many of their sovereigns, foremost among whom was the warrior-King, Charles V. In the beginning of the sixteenth century the crown of Spain passed to this prince, the grandson and heir of Maximilian ofGermany, in whose veins flowed the blood of the martial Dukes of Burgundy. Maximilian had done more than any other monarch to encourage and advance the armourer’s art, and Charles V.’s passion for the practice and perfecting of arms, and all that pertained to military equipment, was even greater than that evinced by his grandfather. By a fortunate combination of circumstances, supplemented by his lust of conquest, he found himself the monarch of three realms, in one of which (Spain) the love of arms was almost a mania, while in the other two (Germany and Italy) the armourer’s craft had attained a degree of perfection that has not been approached in any other age or country. The sovereign that could command the services of the Colmans of Augsburg and the Negrolis of Milan was in an unequalled position for one who desired to gratify a taste for armour, and Charles did not neglect his opportunity. He patronised liberally the master-craftsmen of Italy and Germany, sedulously stimulating their rivalry the while, and at his death left to Spain—the worthiest of his realms to inherit it—the finest collection of knightly harnesses that any monarch had ever possessed.
It will be gathered from the following brief sketch that Spain has achieved distinction bothas a manufactory and a storehouse of arms. Aragon, and, to a less marked extent, Castile, were always in the van where the improvement of armour was concerned; and although experts consider that Italy set the fashion in the craft during the Middle Ages, it is by no means certain that Barcelona did not, at some periods, assume the lead. Swords, as in the days of the Cæsars, continued to be exported to Italy from Catalonia through the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the traffic, curiously enough, being chiefly in the hands of that unwarlike race, the Jews.
But while arms and armour have ever been a study in the Peninsula which has engaged the closest attention of Kings, soldiers, and artificers, no distinct style, no essentially national type of armour was, or could be, evolved. Nor is this fact calculated to cause surprise, for it is obvious that there can be no Spanish school of armoury in the sense that there is a Spanish school of painting, or of music. Weapons and means of defence must vary according to periods rather than localities, and thus it follows that while the armour of one century may be easily distinguished from that of another, to differentiate between a German and a French suit of the same period isalways a difficult, frequently an impossible, task. The warrior could not permit himself to be swayed by fanciful or patriotic prejudice in the fashion or make of his arms; his life depended on the stoutness and quality of his weapons, and he secured the best that his means could command wherever they were obtainable. If the enemy were possessed of stronger, more pliant, or better tempered weapons or accoutrements, the soldier had no choice but to learn the methods of his foeman. The secrets of improvements in the science of armoury could only be preserved in times of peace, for, once the weapons were used in the tented field, the riddle of their superiority was solved. The harness of a vanquished knight became, according to the laws of chivalry, the property of his conqueror. In this manner a constant interchange of arms and armour went on through the Iron Ages, and the equipment and methods of victorious and vanquished nations were sooner or later divulged and adopted.
There is, therefore, as has been said, no national school of Spanish arms; and the Royal Armoury itself, although admittedly the finest collection of its kind in the world, is not a gallery of Spanish workmanship. Thanks to the range and extent of the dominion of its founder, Charles V., theArmoury, from its institution, has assumed an international character. Here are suits of harness, the choicest product of native craft, executed at the Emperor’s command, interspersed with the finest works of Germany, of Flanders, and of Italy—gifts, purchases, and the spoils of war. In no other collection of a like nature can be seen so manychefs d’œuvresof the greatest masters of Europe; but while so many of the most important exhibits are of foreign origin, the museum remains essentially the Royal Armoury of Spain—the repository of the armour of its kings, the swords of its captains, and the trophies of its victorious armies.
WHEN, in the fifth century, the Visigoths passed over the Pyrenees and laid the foundations of a new nation, they found a people armed for war, as they were clothed in peace, after the Roman fashion. The legionary’s equipment must have been tolerably familiar to the fair-haired invaders, and it is likely that they had already adopted it in many of its details. That they did so on their establishment in Spain, at all events, is proved by the descriptions contained in theEtymologiesof St. Isidore, which, however, make no mention of the lorica or breastplate, and ocreas or greaves worn by the soldiers of the empire. Reference is made instead by the saintly chronicler to coats of fence, made of chain-mail, or of thick quilted stuff woven in Silesia.
There was at one time a very general belief that chain armour was introduced into Europe from the East. This view is successfully combated byHewitt—Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe—who proves that this important article of military apparel was worn by the Germans, Normans, and Anglo-Saxons at a very remote period. Varro, indeed, ascribes its invention to the Gauls. The Anglo-Saxon epic, “Beowulf” (eighth century) contains many allusions to the “ringed byrnie,” while in theVolsunga Sagawe read that “Sigurd’s sides so swelled with rage that the rings of his byrnie were burst asunder.” It is evident from this passage that what was meant was mail-armour;i.e., composed of interlinked rings, not merely the quilted tunic on which were sown metal discs, such as was, however, undoubtedly worn also at that time and for many centuries after. Both kinds of defensive armour may have been brought to Spain by the Visigoths, or again adopted by them subsequent to their settlement in the country.
I have been unable to discover on effigies or in illuminated manuscripts any specimens of Visigothic armour. There is good reason to believe that it was far from being of a rude description. The methods of tempering steel which had made the blades of Toledo and Bilbilis renowned throughout the Roman world could hardly have been forgotten; and Baron Davillier has shown that acraft closely allied to the armourer’s—the goldsmith’s—received liberal encouragement from the successors of Ataulfo. The Saracens, according to their own historians, were amazed at the splendour and richness of the treasure accumulated in the cities of Spain. Tharik Ben Zeyad, when he took Toledo in 712, found amongst a profusion of crowns, jewellery, and plate, “gilded armour, daggers, and swords richly mounted, bows, lances, and various arms, offensive and defensive.” The spoils, as enumerated by another writer, included one thousand swords for the use of the kings, and one hundred and seventy crowns of pure gold.
This testimony is confirmed by the priceless relics of Visigothic dominion, preserved in the Cluny Museum, and, thanks to the liberality of Queen Isabel II., in the Royal Armoury at Madrid (see plate 1). The circumstances of their discovery, as related by Don Pedro de Madrazo, and set forth by Conde de Valencia de San Juan, are of almost romantic interest.
“On the night of August 25th, 1858, a man and a woman were journeying on two small donkeys along the road from Toledo to Guadamar. On approaching the Guarrazar fountain, they observed by the light of the moon, that the rain which had fallen during a great storm the previous day, hadwashed the earth down towards the issue of the fountain, and left bare what looked like tombs. Out of curiosity, or necessity, the woman got off her donkey, and approached them, and in a square hole, made of stones and lime, ill-concealed with two flat stones, between which the moonlight penetrated, she saw with wonder that something strange was glistening. On her exclaiming, the man also dismounted, and, putting his hand into the hole, he touched an object like a collar made of hearts. He took it out, and after that, other things of different shapes, then a cross, then a crown, and then a larger one ... washing them with the water from the adjoining fountain, gold and precious stones revealed themselves to their astonished eyes. They afterwards declared that they thought they were dreaming. They took away the treasure they had found with all secrecy; said nothing in the town, and the following night, with the same secrecy, and provided with a small lantern and the necessary tools, they returned to examine the marvellous hiding-place, whence they took all that remained.
“Within a few days pieces of valuable gold and silver work of an unknown period began to be seen in the Toledo silversmiths’ shops, and a goldsmith and dealer in stones and gems in the town, whohad his house and workshop in a beautiful garden by the Tagus, near the Sword Factory, and who was distinguished among his fellows by his taste for archæology, had the patience to acquire one by one, and to match together the different pieces under observation; after many combinations and rectifications, leaving out some pieces, and, with consummate art, supplying others that were missing, he at last formed, or rather restored, several crowns, among them one very large and valuable, which, by the hangings, was found to be the crown of King Recesvinto (649-672).
“With the same secrecy that the discoverers of the treasure had observed, Navarro (for this was the name of the dealer in stones and gems) proceeded with the difficult task of restoring to their original shape those inestimable insignia of Visigothic Royalty. He took them to France, and they were already in a case in the Cluny Museum when Spain heard of the discovery and extraction of the crowns of Guarrazar.
“But the treasure, taken in 1858 from Guarrazar to Guadamar was not exhausted. About May, 1861, a villager of Guadamar, Domingo de la Cruz, who had found in the same Guarrazar cemetery, but in a different hole to the one already explored, other crowns and objects used for worship,presented himself at Aranjuez, where Queen Isabel was at the time. This man, after many ambiguous and roundabout proposals, having ascertained that no harm would come to him from the revelation he was about to make, and, above all, stimulated by the promises which, relying on the generosity of the Queen, the Intendant Don Antonio Flores cleverly let fall in the conversation, said he was the possessor of these treasures. The crafty rustic had them with him, but at the moment he did not say so, and only showed them when Flores, having obtained the consent of her Majesty, formally offered him, in the Queen’s name, a life-pension [4,000 reals a year], which from that day was religiously paid to him.”
The Armoury and the Cluny Museum probably contain only a half of the treasure of Guarrazar. As we have seen, much of it was broken up and melted down by the goldsmiths of Toledo. It is said that it comprised a beautiful golden dove, which came into the possession of a jeweller, who had so many qualms of conscience concerning it, that he at last took the drastic course of throwing it into the Tagus. That rapid stream must have received a good deal of Visigothic treasure since it first flowed under the arches of Toledo.
The crowns preserved at Madrid and the Clunyare not the official insignia of royalty, but offerings at the shrine. This is proved by the inscriptions on them, and by the fringe of pendants, which could not possibly have dangled over the royal countenance. The crown of King Suintila (numbered N1 in the catalogue), who reigned from 621 to 631, is formed by two semi-circles of double gold plate, joined by hinges, the resulting hoop being 0.220 in diameter, and 0.060 in height. The inside plate is plain. The outer hoop is encircled by three bands in relief, two being set with pearls and sapphires, and the middle and wider one designed with openwork rosettes, enriched with settings of the same stones. In its original state the crown had, hanging from its lower edge, a cross and twenty-two letters, making up the inscription, SVINTHILANVS REX OFFERET. All and each of the letters were actual jewels set in a vitreous substance, like enamel sockets, attached to which are brilliants, pearls, and pear-shaped sapphires hanging from each other in the order mentioned. Though only twelve letters were remaining, the dedication was skilfully reconstructed by Señores Madrazo and Amador de los Rio. The crown is suspended by four chains from an ornament composed of two golden lilies separated by a piece of rock crystal cut in facets. Each chainconsists of four links, shaped like the leaf of the pear-tree. Hanging from one of these chains is a cross of beautiful workmanship, composed of pieces from two other crosses, belonging in all probability to two different crowns.
The exhibits N4 and N6 are floral ornaments similar to that from which the crown of Suintila is suspended. The votive crown of the Abbot Theodosius (N2) is of less elaborate workmanship and design; seven of its eight pendants of gold, pearls, and sapphires remain. Close to it (N3) is the Byzantine cross which, the letters stamped upon it in reverse order tell us, was offered by Bishop Lucetius. It has, likewise, seven pendants of gold and pear-shaped sapphires. The various articles in this collection do not differ appreciably in style and material, it is perhaps unnecessary to observe, from those of similar origin in the Cluny Museum. All exhibit the traces of Byzantine influence.
To the Visigothic era is also ascribed (Conde de Valencia thinks with good reason) a very ancient horse’s bit (F123—plate 9), found on a battlefield in Andalusia, and said to have been used by Witiza, the ill-fated Roderick’s predecessor. The mouthpiece does not differ greatly from the modern pattern, but in place of rings it has four oblongpieces pierced with holes for the reins and halter. These apertures form dragons’ heads and crosses, alternating with cruciform monograms. The bit is of unusual thickness, and the roughness of the work, together with the silver incrustation, complete its resemblance to other relics classified as Gothic or Scandinavian.
During the three centuries that followed the dreadful days of the Guadalete, the Spaniard must needs have looked well to his armour and his weapons: “In native swords and native ranks, the only hope of courage dwelt.” The sword industry of Toledo had passed under the control of the invaders, and we read that Abd-ur-Rahman II. (822-852) regulated and reformed it. One of the numerous friendly passages between Moor and Christian was marked by a gift of Toledan blades from Al Hakim II. to Sancho, Count of Navarre (865). Meanwhile, among the fastnesses of Asturias and the Pyrenees, the hard-pressed Spaniards were forging for themselves arms and armour against which the sword of the doughty Roland was shivered, and which successfully withstood the swift strong lance-thrusts of Saracen chivalry. Cut off though they were from the rest of the Christian world, the early defenders of Spanish liberty do not seem to have arrayed themselvesfor war in a fashion very different from that of their contemporaries. In the cathedral of Oviedo is preserved the Libro Goticó,[A]a curiously illuminated codex, where we see “armigers” carrying circular and kite-shaped shields, and wearing, in one case, what seems to be a hauberk of mail. The sepulchre of the three daughters of Ramiro I. of Aragon, dating from the last years of the eleventh century, is sculptured with the forms of three knights, two mounted and about to engage in combat, while the third, Samson-like, is forcing open the jaws of a monstrous beast. The cavaliers wear close-fitting caps, seemingly fluted, and very much like thechapelles-de-ferof a later age; long surcoats reaching below the knee, and decorated with ornamental borders at the neck, cuff, and openings; one is armed with a spear, the other with spear, sword, and kite-shaped shield with bosses; and both wear greaves or leg-armour of plate or leather. The horses are not provided with any defensive armour; the custom of “barding” chargers not being introduced till a much later date.
There is an extremely interesting manuscript in the British Museum called theComentario Apocaliptica, said to have been executed between 1089 and 1109. It is frequently referred to by Hewitt, and throws much light on the armour of the period. We have reason to be grateful for the absurd practice persisted in by ancient illuminators and painters of depicting persons, supposed to have lived in Greek and Roman times, in the costume of their own day. One of the illuminations shows four knights mounted. They wear long coats of mail, reaching below the knees, with sleeves, which, in two cases, reach only to the elbows. In one case the coat of mail is shown as composed of blue scales, with red studs, and here we seem to have an instance of jazerine armour (from the Italianghiazerino). It seems clear that the designer did not mean to represent chain-mail in this way, for when the body of the garment is obviously of mail he has taken care to distinguish a different pattern on the chausses or leg armour. Still in this class of illustration it is always a moot point what kind of armour the artist actually did mean to represent. Possibly a shirt of chain-mail was sometimes worn, with stockings of leather set with scales of metal, as more flexible and allowing greater freedom to thelimbs. The shirts of mail are edged with wide borders, which may or may not represent the under tunic or gambeson showing beneath.
On fol. 194, we have the full-length picture of a warrior armedcap-à-pie. He wears a long hauberk of mail, chausses or leg-armour of the same material, and a conical helmet, with a “nasal” or nose-protector, exactly the same as that worn by William the Conqueror and his knights. Hewitt calls attention to the knop, or button, surmounting the helmet, as a peculiarity. The knight is armed with sword and spears, and, like the four others just mentioned, carries a circular target. This is a noteworthy detail, as kite-shaped shields were almost universally in vogue at this epoch, over the rest of Europe. That they were to some extent in use in Spain also, is attested by the specimen (O59) in the Armoury.
This is a kite-shaped war shield, probably of cedar wood. On both sides it is covered with parchment, and has strong straps of skin, lined with red velvet, for the grasp of the holder, and part of the strap by which it hung from his neck. Inside it seems to have been painted black; the outer side is slightly convex, and was adorned with stripes and other designs in colour and gilding on a red ground. This description of decorationwas common in the twelfth century, but had no heraldic signification, the science of blazonry not being at that time well understood. Nothing definite is known as to the original owner of this shield, but it is not unlikely that it belonged to Don Gonzalo Salvadores, surnamed “Four Hands,” or to Don Nuñez Alvárez, both of whom were buried at the spot where it was found. Ramon Berenguer IV., Count of Barcelona (1131-1162) is represented on an engraved seal, reproduced in M. Auguste Demmin’s work on armour, carrying a kite-shaped shield. He wears the conical helmet with nasal and hauberk of mail, with camail or hood of mail, such as was generally worn, and the absence of which is worthy of remark in the warriors of theApocaliptica. Thus early we are able to distinguish certain differences between the knightly harnesses of Aragon and Leon.
Such armour as is shown in the illuminated codex referred to, was no doubt worn by the redoubtable Cid, Ruy Diez de Bivar, whose stormy career extended from 1029 to 1099. ThePoema del Cid, which relates his great achievements, was written unfortunately at least one hundred and eight years after his death, and therefore we cannot place absolute reliance upon the few details it contains as to his equipment. The following passagesare of special interest to the student of arms and armour:
“With bucklers braced before their breasts, with lances pointing low,With stooping crests, and heads bent down above the saddle bow,All firm of hand and high of heart, they roll upon the foe.And he that in good hour was born, his clarion voice rings out,And clear above the clang of arms is heard his battle-shout:‘Among them, gentlemen! strike home for the love of Charity!The Champion of Bivar is here—Ruy Diez—I am he!’Then bearing where Bermuez still maintains unequal fight,Three hundred lances, down they come, their pennons flickering white;Down go three hundred Moors to earth, a man to every blow;And when they wheel, three hundred more, as charging back they go.It was a sight to see the lances rise and fall that day:The shivered shields, the riven mail, to see how thick they lay.”
“With bucklers braced before their breasts, with lances pointing low,With stooping crests, and heads bent down above the saddle bow,All firm of hand and high of heart, they roll upon the foe.And he that in good hour was born, his clarion voice rings out,And clear above the clang of arms is heard his battle-shout:‘Among them, gentlemen! strike home for the love of Charity!The Champion of Bivar is here—Ruy Diez—I am he!’Then bearing where Bermuez still maintains unequal fight,Three hundred lances, down they come, their pennons flickering white;Down go three hundred Moors to earth, a man to every blow;And when they wheel, three hundred more, as charging back they go.It was a sight to see the lances rise and fall that day:The shivered shields, the riven mail, to see how thick they lay.”
“With bucklers braced before their breasts, with lances pointing low,With stooping crests, and heads bent down above the saddle bow,All firm of hand and high of heart, they roll upon the foe.And he that in good hour was born, his clarion voice rings out,And clear above the clang of arms is heard his battle-shout:‘Among them, gentlemen! strike home for the love of Charity!The Champion of Bivar is here—Ruy Diez—I am he!’Then bearing where Bermuez still maintains unequal fight,Three hundred lances, down they come, their pennons flickering white;Down go three hundred Moors to earth, a man to every blow;And when they wheel, three hundred more, as charging back they go.It was a sight to see the lances rise and fall that day:The shivered shields, the riven mail, to see how thick they lay.”
“Riven mail” in the original isloriga, a word obviously derived from the Latinlorica; but Mr. Ormsby, whose translation I give, is undoubtedly right in his rendering of the word, as cuirasses, or breastplates, were not worn in Spain for one hundred and fifty years after the date of the poem. Here is another passage of some technical interest:
[The Cid beholds approaching the army of the Count of Barcelona, and encourages his own followers.]
“On with your harness, cavaliers! quick saddle and to horse!Yonder they come—the linen-breeks—all down the mountain side.For saddles they have Moorish pads, with slackened girths they ride:Our saddles are Galician make, our leggings tough and stout:A hundred of us gentlemen, should scatter such a rout.”
“On with your harness, cavaliers! quick saddle and to horse!Yonder they come—the linen-breeks—all down the mountain side.For saddles they have Moorish pads, with slackened girths they ride:Our saddles are Galician make, our leggings tough and stout:A hundred of us gentlemen, should scatter such a rout.”
“On with your harness, cavaliers! quick saddle and to horse!Yonder they come—the linen-breeks—all down the mountain side.For saddles they have Moorish pads, with slackened girths they ride:Our saddles are Galician make, our leggings tough and stout:A hundred of us gentlemen, should scatter such a rout.”
I am inclined to think that the linen-breeks, so scornfully alluded to, were the trousers or shalwars worn by Moorish auxiliaries of the Count. The word “leggings” in the original is “huesos” (Frenchhouseaux), which seems to mean the same things. But they are described as being worn on the chausses or stockings of mail, and may not impossibly have been greaves or defences of plate after the Roman pattern. These would seem to be an anachronism at the end of the eleventh century; but Don V. Carderera y Solano (Iconografia Española) says that there are in Spain several bas-reliefs of the twelfth century, which represent knights wearing pieces similar to the Roman ocreas. It is, on the whole, more likely that thehuesosthat protected the stout legs of theCid were of the jazerine pattern—of leather faced with metal discs and strips.
The Armoury at Madrid was, till lately, believed to contain many relics of the great national hero, among them theColada, a sword which the Conde de Valencia is satisfied belongs properly to the thirteenth century. The sword blade numbered G180 may, however, be ascribed, in the opinion of the same authority, to the eleventh century. It is double-edged, and ends in a round point. Down the greater part of its length runs a groove, on the sides of which are engraved and inlaid with gold certain letters and hieroglyphics, the meaning of which no one has so far deciphered. This blade was included in the treasury of Ferdinand and Isabel at Segovia, and corresponds closely enough with the description in the inventory of that collection of “a sword called Tizona, which belonged to the Cid.” There is, therefore, a strong probability that the weapon before us is actually that with which Ruy Diez de Bivar carved out a kingdom for himself in fair Valencia.
During the twelfth century the conical helmet with nasal began to fall into disuse, though it was worn in Germany as late as 1195. About the last quarter of the century the flat-topped, cylindrical heaulme, or helm, was generally adopted. It wasnearly always cast in one piece, had two horizontal clefts for the vision, and was strengthened by bands crossing each other over the face.
The ruined monastery of Benevivere, in the Province of Palencia, contains the tomb and effigy, reproduced in theIconografia Española, of Don Diego Martinez de Villamayor, sometime Chamberlain to Alfonso III. of Castile, who died in the odour of sanctity in the year 1176. The knight is clothed in a long and ample white tunic; over this is thrown a voluminous red mantle. Thus we cannot very well judge whether or not he wears armour; but as he is girt with a broad baldric, ornamented with studs, and clasps a cross-hilted sword, we may not unreasonably infer that he is in knightly gear, and that his spurs are buckled round leg-armour, which appears to be of plate.
If this assumption is warranted—and it is supported by the evidence of the bas-reliefs mentioned by Carderera—it would seem that the Spaniards had progressed more rapidly in the armourer’s craft than their contemporaries. Greaves, jambs, or leg-armour of plate, were unknown in Northern and Central Europe till the fourteenth century. Hewitt thinks they were of German origin because they are sometimes referred to in documents ofthat age asbeinberga, from the Germanbeinbergen. He admits that they might have been copied from the examples of classical times with which their wars in Italy would have familiarized the Teutons. “In the South of Europe the greaves were already become of a highly ornamental character, as we may see from the sculpture of Gulielmus de Balmis (1289), from a bas-relief in the Annunziata at Florence.” [The greaves are ornamented with floral devices andécussons, and are strapped on to chausses of mail.] But in Spain we get a yet earlier example, even supposing the leg-armour on the Jaca and Benevivere effigies was not of this sort.
Don Bernaldo Guillen de Entenza was major-domo of Aragon, and one of the bravest knights in the train of King Jaime I. the Conqueror. He died a few days after the victory over the Moors at Enesa in 1237, and was buried at the Monastery of Puig, near Valencia. His sculptured figure reveals every detail of his apparel (see plate 2). He wears a hauberk of mail reaching to the middle of the thigh, and to the finger-tips, the fingers of the glove being separated; the face is framed in the hood of mail (camail), and the head protected by a roundchapelle-de-fer, ornamented with studs, and a strengthening band. Over the hauberk is worna sleeveless surcoat, embroidered at the breast and reaching below the knee; it is split up at the sides to allow greater freedom to the limbs. Both surcoat and hauberk are bordered with a fringe, except at the neck, where the surcoat seems to be edged with a setting of stones or studs. A baldric encircles the lower body, and supports a short, broad cross-hilted sword on the left hip, and a dagger or misere-corde on the right. The pommel of the dagger is carved into the resemblance of a grotesque human face.
The legs are protected by greaves of plate armour, with ornamental lengths up the middle. The knees appear to be furnished with genouillères or knee-caps of iron. The sollerets, pointed shoes, are of mail.
Here, then, in Aragon, in 1237, we find a knight armed with those defences which did not become common in Europe for another century. The circumstance, though it may not in itself appear to be of much importance, is interesting, as proving how quick was the Spaniard of that day to avail himself of the latest appliances and inventions of the age. Aragon, at least, seems to have kept pace with Italy, which is generally allowed to have set the fashion in military equipment. And we find that the armourer’s craft was sufficiently importantat Barcelona to constitute a guild, which was existing in 1257.
In the citadel of Lerida there is a fine sepulchral monument showing us that valiant knight, Don Guillelmo Ramon de Moncada, Seneschal of Catalonia, armedcap-à-pie(see plate 3). He died about the middle of the thirteenth century. Like his brother-in-arms, at Puig, he wears the camail and hauberk. Over the forehead he wears a coronet, with shields and studs and gilt fleurs-de-lys. The surcoat, which shows the hauberk beneath, is tastefully embroidered with pearls, and is charged with eightécussons, or shields, each supported by two doves. The garment must have been a beautiful work of art. The Seneschal wears jambs (leg-armour) and cuisses (thigh-armour) of plate, and what are unmistakably genouillères of the shell pattern. His shoes are likewise of plate. The armpits and elbows are protected by pieces new to us—the round plates, called palettes or rondels, elsewhere rarely found before the end of the century. Here again, and in the articulated fingers of the mail glove, we have evidence of the advanced condition of the armourer’s art in Spain. This is also demonstrated by a comparison of this effigy with one of identical date—that of a knight in Haseley Church, Oxfordshire (Hewitt, Vol. I.,plate 46.) Here the armour is entirely of mail, neither jambs nor coudes (coudières, elbow-plates) being shown. Nor are there any traces of the rich ornamentation seen on the Aragonese warriors’ surcoats and mantles.
These were the spacious days of Ferdinand of Castile and James of Aragon, when province after province, city after city, were wrested from the Moor, and the defeat of Roderick was wiped out on the very spot where he had endured it five hundred years before. Cordova, Valencia, Murcia, Seville, fell in turn before the Christian arms. The armourer-sergeants, wandering through the bazaars of the captured Moorish cities, and curiously examining the products of their dusky fellow-craftsmen, must doubtless have gleaned many new ideas and scraps of useful knowledge. Ibn-Said, born at Granada in 1214, has left it on record that in his time Murcia was renowned for its coats of mail, its cuirasses, and for every description of iron armour incrusted with gold; it was likewise celebrated for its saddles and harness richly gilt. In fact, continues the Moorish chronicler, for all articles of military equipment, such as bucklers, swords, quivers, arrows, and so forth, the workshops of Andalus surpassed those of any other country. He boasts the beautiful inlaid swordsof Seville, which were not inferior to those of the Indies.[B]Cordova, the great centre of industry and refinement in the Peninsula, never achieved fame for its steel manufactures, but its oval leather shields (adargas) were known as early as the tenth century, and used all over Europe, but more particularly in Spain, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Some interesting relics of Saint Ferdinand are enshrined in the Royal Armoury. The remains of the cloak in which the saintly King was buried (N9) are thus described in the Catalogue (see plate 1). “Its texture is of silk and gold, made like an Oriental tapestry, checkered, the first of the squares being crimson and a dirty white, with gold castles, and the second with red lions rampant, like those of the Spanish arms, but turned to the left of the shield. The border is woven in horizontal bands, a wide one in the centre, composed of graceful floral designs, blue and red, on a gold ground; two narrow ones, yellow, on the outer edges of the former, and outside these other two bands of Arab lacework of gold on a crimson ground.”
Theazicates(long-necked Moorish spurs) of St. Ferdinand (F189 and 160) are of easily-worked iron. What remains of the incrustation of gold isadorned with little silver castles, similar heraldic devices in gilt being distinguishable on the springs of the straps.
The Conde de Valencia de San Juan endeavours to prove—and, I think, with success—that the sword numbered G21, believed at one time to be the Cid’s famous blade “Colada,” is no other than the “Lobera” of St. Ferdinand. How the name “Lobera” came to be applied to a sword is unknown. The Conde hazards a conjecture that it was named after a gentleman called Guillen Lobera, who is referred to in the memoirs of Jaime I. of Aragon. The word was first used in this connection by the Saint himself, who, on his death-bed, bequeathed to the Infante Manuel for all his inheritance, “his Lobera sword, which was of great virtue, and by means of which God had greatly helped him.”
Not less interesting is the passage in the chronicle of Alfonso XI., referring to the famous battle of Salado: “Then the King sent word to Don Juan, son of the Infante Manuel (grandson of Ferdinand), by a gentleman, to ask why he and those in the front did not pass the river. And an esquire, called Garci Jofre Tenoryo, son of the Admiral killed by the Moors, who was a vassal of the King and in the front, said to Don Juan, thathis Lobera sword, which he said had virtue, would do the most work that day.”
The blade (see plate 4) is smooth, double-edged, and round-pointed; on both sides for two-thirds of its length it is grooved, like most swords of that time. Inside both grooves are certain signs or letters, engraved and gilded, which the Conde de Valencia reads as the words—Si,si,No,non. This somewhat cryptic inscription, the learned antiquary explains as being part of the motto of St. Ferdinand, which may be roughly translated—“Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay.” The hilt is of the sixteenth century, and was the work of Salvador de Avila, a swordmaker of Toledo, who died in 1539.
Next to this sword is another of the same era (G22), erroneously attributed to Roland, the famed Paladin of the eighth century. It is not impossible that this also was one of St. Ferdinand’s weapons. It is very long and broad, thin and flexible, double-edged, scallop-pointed, and grooved for two-thirds of its length. The groove is engraved with rings or circles, and ends in an elaborate cruciform device. The guard, of massive silver-gilt, has quillons drooping and curving inward, and bears the arms of Castile on one side and those of Leon on the other. The hilt is ofwood, plated with silver; the pommel is of iron, and is plated with silver-gilt. The plates were once covered with filigree work. The scabbard is of wood, sheathed in silver-gilt plate, and covered with lace-work, essentially Morisco in character. Of the seventy-five stones originally set in this filigree, only the half remain, including a large amethyst and three engraved stones of the classical style and period (plate 5).
Shields had not changed much since the preceding century to judge from the specimen numbered D60. Like the twelfth century shield next to it, it is of wood covered with parchment, and has grips of skin. On the obverse may be traced the design of a hood, which has led Don Leocadio Salazar to conclude that the shield was the property of the Conde de Bureba, four hoods being on his coat of arms. The epitaph on that illustrious personage’s tomb declares that “he filled Spain with the fame of his name, as Themistocles did Athens.”
Our last instance of a Spanish suit of armour of the thirteenth century illustrates a curious fashion in military attire that often has occupied the attention of experts. The statue of Don Berenguer de Puigvert, in the suppressed Monastery of Poblet, represents him clothed in a full andrichly embroidered surcoat, confined at the waist by a baldric, beneath which he is wearing a complete suit ofbanded armourof a very elaborate pattern. On the forearm the mail seems to be composed of rings placed end to end vertically instead of horizontally. The gauntlets and leg-armour are composed of alternate horizontal bands, some showing a zig-zag pattern; the others, perhaps rings set vertically. Banded mail of various designs seems to have been fashionable all over Europe at the close of the thirteenth century. Hewitt enumerates four examples in English statuary. He expounds the various theories advanced to explain the nature of this armour, and finally confesses that the riddle is still unsolved. As Aragon seems in all improvements in armour to have kept well ahead of the rest of the world, we need not be surprised to find there an example of what was evidently a fashionable style in Europe generally.
The headpiece universally worn at this time was the heaulme or helm. About the middle of the century the aventail, or hinged opening for the face, was introduced, and accordingly we find St. Ferdinand (represented in the windows of Chartres Cathedral) wearing a casque with an aventail cleft with three vertical slits. The camail was stillgenerally worn under the heaulme, which rested not only on the head but on the shoulders of the wearer, and was secured by a chain. It was too heavy to wear habitually, and was, therefore, carried at the saddle, or by the esquire, to be put on at the approach of an enemy. Steel caps also were often worn underneath; but much must obviously have depended on the degree of strength and foolhardiness possessed by the individual.
“From the collection of mediæval ‘Proverbs,’ ” remarks the author we have so often quoted, Mr. Hewitt, “we learn that Spain was the favourite mart for the knightly charger. Denmark and Brittany had also a celebrity for their breeds of horses of a different character. The fiat of popular approval is given to the—
“ ‘Dextriers de Castille,Palefrois Danois,Roussins de Bretagne.’
“ ‘Dextriers de Castille,Palefrois Danois,Roussins de Bretagne.’
“ ‘Dextriers de Castille,Palefrois Danois,Roussins de Bretagne.’
“Such was the nature of the high-bred dextrarius that, when two knights had dismounted, and were continuing the fight on foot, their horses, left to themselves, instantly commenced a conflict of their own of the most gallant and desperate character.” Bucephalus and Pegasus were inferior steeds in comparison.
The representation of armour on tombs and sepulchral effigies was subject, during the Middle Ages, to regulations, which throw light on the rank and the circumstances of the death of the deceased. In Carderera’sIconografiawe find the following ordinances ascribed to the Emperor Charles V. They are probably merely a recapitulation of enactments which had been in force several centuries:—
“If any person during his life shall have accomplished any notable feat of arms, or gained honour in the lists, he shall be shown armedde pied-en-cap, helmet on his head, visor raised, and hands joined. His sword shall be at his side, and his spurs on. These shall be of gold if he shall have been an armed knight; otherwise he shall have none.
“If he shall have gained no honours in the lists, he shall have the visor lowered, and his helmet shall be placed beside him.
“If he shall not have distinguished himself in the tourney, but shall have died on the field of battle, contributing to the victory, he shall be represented armedde pied-en-cap, visor lowered, naked sword in his hand, the point upwards, and his shield in his left hand. If he shall have been ofthe vanquished, he shall be represented armedde pied-en-cap, his sword in its sheath, visor raised, his hands joined, and his spurs put on. If he shall have been made prisoner and died on the field or in captivity, he shall be represented as in the preceding article, but without spurs and with empty scabbard.
“All these personages may be represented in their surcoats, if they shall have taken part in a pitched battle, at which the Prince in whose pay they shall have been, shall have been present; otherwise, they shall not be thus represented, unless they be of the rank of King, Prince, Duke, Marquis, Count, or Baron.
“No man, howsoever noble, shall be represented in his surcoat unless he be the Lord and Proprietor of the Church or Chapel, or the successor (? descendant) of the Lord and Proprietor.
“If any person shall have followed the wars as a man-at-arms, he may be represented armed, but without surcoat and helmet.
“No one shall be represented with a fringe to his surcoat, unless he be of the rank of Baron.”
It should be said in conclusion, that these rules were not always strictly observed, and cannot be relied upon in the absence of corroborative testimony from other sources.
THEfourteenth century witnessed a notable transformation in military equipment.[C]The introduction of firearms and the marked improvement in weapons of offence led to the almost complete abandonment of the coats of mail which had served the chivalry of Europe so long and so well, and to the substitution of plate armour for at least the more vital points of the harness. In Spain we have seen the transition began considerably earlier than in Northern Europe, but the adoption of the new fashion in its entirety did not proceed quite so rapidly as this early start might lead one to expect.
Aragon, thanks to its intercourse with Italy—to which country, as has been noted, swords were exported from Barcelona—led the van in armourership. The companions-in-arms of Jaime el Conquistador are nearly always represented wearing a considerable weight of plate armour.
Don Ramon Folch, Vizconde de Cardona, surnamed,on account of his commanding personality and abilities,el Prohom, is shown on his tomb at Poblet wearing jambs, or greaves of steel (it is difficult to say which), and at the neck a high mentonnière, which must have been worn with a heaulme, or visored salade. The close-fittingchapelle-de-feris adorned with cardon flowers, the arms of his house. So also is the long and tastefully-embroidered surcoat with sleeves, which descends below the knees. Beneath this was worn a hauberk of mail, with articulated gloves. A broad decorated baldric supports a short sword. This monument dates from 1322.
No greaves or any plate armour, on the other hand, appear on the sepulchral monument, executed about twenty years later, over the remains of Don Rodrigo de Lauria, son of the famous Admiral. The warrior is clothed entirely in a suit of mail, with hood and camail, a graceful coronet with fleurs-de-lys encircling the forehead. The surcoat or tunic is, as in the other examples, charged with the armorial bearings of the deceased, and has three openings—at the sides, and in the middle—with a gilt fringe—“a fashion,” remarks Don Valentin Carderera, “which we have observed in Spain only on the statues of Aragonese knights.” The sword is much longerand narrower than usual, and reveals fine workmanship. The spurs are of the goad shape.
TheHistoria Troyana, executed in Castile about 1350, represents warriors clad in similar suits of mail, with pointed heaulmes with visors, but no chin-pieces. Greaves and genouillères are worn with the chausses. In one instance a surcoat is shown of scaled and studded pattern. This may have been some rare sort of gambeson, or again may have been made of thecuir-bouilli—boiled leather—common all over Europe and the East then and for centuries after. Banded armour is also shown.
The statue of Don Alonso Perez de Guzman, Captain-General of Jerez, who distinguished himself at the taking of Algeciras in 1344, is interesting technically as showing several new pieces of plate-armour. The jambs (leg-plates) are closed, and coudières are worn on the elbows and vambraces on the forearm. Defences of plate for the arm were coming into use about this time. The earliest examples date from 1328, but they occur very rarely prior to 1360. Yet this monument is believed to have been executed some years before the knight’s death in 1351. It is evident that the Castilians were not lagging behind in the arts and appliances of warfare. Don Alonsowears pointed sollerets of six plates, and the hauberk of mail beneath a surcoat. He clasps a long cross-hilted sword.
A decided impetus was given to the movement towards plate armour by the influx of English and French troops into Castile, incidental to the restoration and final deposition of Pedro the Cruel. Almost for the first time the Spaniards were brought face to face on the tented field with a foreign Christian soldiery, and that under leaders no less formidable than Edward the Black Prince and Bertrand Duguesclin. Against such doughty foemen stouter defences were needed than against the light-armed, leather-and-mail-clad chivalry of Islam. Though in Aragon the cuirass, orcoracina, had already been worn, its introduction into Castile is generally ascribed to Bertrand Claquin and those who with him entered the service of Don Enrique de Trastamara. This tradition seems to be warranted by a sepulchral effigy of Don Pedro, described in Carderera’sIconografia(see plate 6), though it should be said that this was not executed till seventy-six years after that King’s death. The components of the armour are: a hauberk of mail, reaching half-way down the thigh; a coracina or cuirass; vambraces, rere-braces,[D]
coudes, and genouillères. The surcoat and mantle which hide so much of the armour, are brocaded with gold flowers on a blue field.
The monument of one of Don Enrique’s partisans, Juan Alfonso, Lord of Ajofrin (see plate 3), was erected a year or two after his death on the field of Aljubarrota, in 1385. He wears a short hauberk with a sleeved surcoat, which probably concealed a cuirass. The leg-armour—jambs, genouillères, cuisses—is entirely of plate. The gauntlets are of extraordinarily delicate workmanship. The cuff and hand are of plate, richly chased; the fingers are articulated and composed of small annular plates, which must have allowed perfect freedom to the joints; the tips are shaped to imitate the nails; and the knuckles are furnished with gads or spikes, which served as offensive as well as defensive armour. Gauntlets of beautiful workmanship were not, of course, peculiar to Spain, but were adopted there as early as in any other country. The Lord of Ajofrin wears laminated sollerets, and carries a sword of unusual length, with drooping quillons, and a shield or escutcheon on the pommel.
Castile owed, not only the corselet, but an improved headpiece to the White Company, which crossed the Pyrenees to support the claims of DonEnrique in 1366. It should, however, be said that Don Pedro in his will, dated 1362, bequeaths hisbascinetto his son, Don Juan.[E]“The heaulme,” says M. Mathieu Prou, “having become too heavy, was from 1300 onwards little more than a headpiece for parade. In action the knights preferred to combat with uncovered face, the head protected by a casque calledbassinetorbascinet, which was without a nasal, round, at first rather low, but towards 1330 assuming an ovoid form. From the beginning of the fourteenth century it became the custom to fix to the iron cap a visor moving on pivots, or attached to hinges, and opening like a shutter. This visor was ordinarily pointed and elongated in muzzle form, and provided with two horizontal slits for the vision (occularia), and numerous holes for respiration. As this helmet did not protect the throat, to the lower part was soon added the piece called beavor, over which the visor fell when it was lowered.”
The celada or salade was also worn in Spain about this time. The collection of Don José Estruch, at Barcelona, contains such a headpiece of somewhat peculiar shape. The crest is very high and the brim very broad. To it is fastened a beavor in three plates, to which again is laced acovering of mail for the back of the neck. The bascinet is worn by the Lord of Ajofrin’s contemporary, Don Bernardo de Anglesola, of Aragon (see plate 8). It is encircled by a double band of ornaments and precious stones, and is worn over the camail, which falls like an ample tippet over the breast. The harness is composed of hauberk of mail, rere-braces, vambraces, coudes, gauntlets, cuisses, genouillères, jambs, and sollerets. The brocaded surcoat may be intended to conceal a corselet.
Froissart throws some light on the military equipment and peculiarities of the Castilians of his day. From more than one passage in theChroniclesit is evident that the sling, a weapon long discarded by other Western nations, was still esteemed in Spain, where the javelin also was a favourite weapon. We read, “ ‘By my faith,’ said the Duke of Lancaster, ‘of all the arms the Castilians and your countrymen make and use, I love the dart best, and love to see it used; they are very expert at it; and I tell you, whoever they hit with it, he must be indeed strongly armed, if he be not pierced through and through.’ ‘You say truly,’ replied the squire, ‘for I saw more bodies transfixed at these assaults than ever I saw before in all my life. We lost one whom we much regretted, Senhor Joao Lourenço da Cunha, whowas struck with a dart that pierced through his plates and his coat of mail and a gambeson stuffed with silk, and his whole body, so that he fell to the ground.’ ”
The address of the Castilians with the dart or javelin is again referred to at the attack on Vilha Lobos in 1386; while, at the battle of Najara, “the Spaniards and Castilians had slings, from which they hurled stones and crushed heaulmes and bascinets; in which manner they wounded many.” In another passage we are told that the troops were armed according “to the usage of Castile, with darts andarchegayes(assegais) and throwing stones from slings.”
There is a tendency among certain historians to exaggerate the influence exercised by the Moors on the applied arts in Spain. So far as armour was concerned, it is clear that the Christians of the Peninsula, where they did not originate fashions, followed those of Italy, or in later times of France. They certainly did not look to Granada for a lead. And if the Spanish Moors had been such skilful armourers as some would have us believe, it is hardly likely that their kinsmen and neighbours, the Moors of Barbary, would have gone so poorly equipped as they seem to have gone in Froissart’s time.
“For,” says Messire Froissart, “they are not so well nor so strongly armed as the Christians; for they have not the art nor the method nor the workmen to forge armour as the Christians do. Neither is the material, that is, iron and steel, common with them. Their armour is usually of leather, and at their necks they carry very light shields, covered with cuir-bouilli of Cappadocia, which, if the leather has not been overheated, no weapon can penetrate.”
On the other hand there can be no doubt that the conquest of Andalusia had let the Castilian artificers into the secrets of many new methods, such as damascening and enamelling, by which they were not slow to profit. The traditions of the goldsmith’s craft, handed down from Visigothic times, had never been lost; and certain it is that in the fourteenth century, when the conquerors had had time to assimilate the arts of the conquered to their own, armour and metal work of all kinds began to assume a rich and elaborate character. The goldsmiths of Barcelona, Toledo, Valladolid, and Seville enjoyed a European reputation. They worked in close co-operation with the armour-smith. In the example of a fourteenth-century harness we have just considered—that of Don Bernardo Anglesola—not only bascinet,gauntlets, coudes, and genouillères are chased, and in some cases set with precious stones, but the hauberk has a rich fringe of gilt, and each plate of the rere-braces has a decorative band at the lower border. The baldric is adorned with studs and fleurs-de-lys. In the statue, at Seville, of Don Alvaro de Guzman, Admiral of Castile, who died in 1394, the same elaboration may be noticed in the roped edges of the genouillères, the gauntlets, and the tasteful floral devices, alternating with rows of studs, in the ornamentation of the baldric. The pommel of the sword, as was customary, is emblazoned with the arms of the owner. According to Froissart, the bascinet of the King of Castile (1385) was encircled by a fillet of gold and precious stones—“qui bien valoient vingt mille francs.”
Helmets at the close of the fourteenth century were not only richly, but, as was often the case in preceding ages, fantastically decorated. We have an excellent illustration in the Armoury (plate 9) in the crest of King Martin of Aragon (1395-1412), formerly attributed to Jaime el Conquistador, and carried for many years in the procession of the “Standart,” at Palma (OII). It represents the head, neck, and wings of a dragon—theDrac pennat, the device displayed in field and tilt-yard by the Princes of the House of Aragon fromPedro IV. to Fernando II. (1336-1479). As was generally the case, it is made of boiled parchment and gilded plaster, and was set on the crest of the helmet, encircled by the crown or coronal, amid dancing plumes. The cap on which theDrac pennatis mounted was added in the first years of the fifteenth century, that it might be worn by the man who carried in the procession the standard of Jaime I. At the renowned and honourable passage of arms of Don Suero de Quiñones (1434), the crest of one of the knight’s helmets was in the shape of a golden tree, with green leaves and golden fruit; round the trunk was coiled a serpent, and in the middle was a naked sword with the device—Le vray amy. (True friend).
To the last year of the fourteenth century belongs the effigy of a knight of the Anayas family in the Cathedral of Salamanca, described by Carderera. French influence is attested by the corselet and by the brigantine or hauberk of metal discs which was in very general use and esteem in France at that time. The legs and arms are, as now customary, sheathed in plate, the coudes being of tasteful design and sharply pointed. The transition from mail to plate is well illustrated by a medallion which represents Alfonso V. of Aragon, when a youth (about 1416), in a coat ofmail, and a bas-relief portraying him as a man of mature years in a complete harness of plate, mail only appearing as gussets at the armpits.
The reign of Juan II. of Castile (1406-1454) is extolled by Spanish writers as the golden age of chivalry. Knighthood was in flower, in fact, somewhat later in the Peninsula than in the rest of Europe, though I can find no adequate reason for ascribing the introduction of chivalry, as an institution, to the Black Prince and Duguesclin. Such enactments as that of Jaime II. of Aragon (1291-1327), which ordained that any cavalier escorting a lady should be secured from any kind of molestation or hindrance, and given a free passage from one end of the kingdom to the other, show that the spirit of chivalry was certainly understood South of the Pyrenees many years before the battles of Najara and Montiel. But it is likely enough that warfare with a Christian foe may have put a finer edge on the Spaniards’ sense of honour—blunted, perhaps, by their relations with the infidel, to whom it was deemed unnecessary to extend all the courtesies of war. The lull, too, in that long conflict caused men to find an outlet for their energies in tourney and tilt-yard, where the atmosphere was more favourable to the generous emotions than was the field of actual battle.Juan II. and his all-powerful minister, Alvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile, delighted in jousts and tournaments, and encouraged the sentiment and exercise of chivalry by all the means in their power. The Constable himself often appeared in the lists as a mantenedor (or challenger), or aventurero (or respondent). The spirit of the age is exemplified by the famous passage of arms, to which I have already made reference. In 1434, Don Suero de Quiñones, a knight of good family, besought the King to grant him release from a vow he had made to his lady, by allowing him to hold the Bridge of Orbigo, near Leon, with nine friends, for thirty days against all comers. His Majesty convoked the Cortes to deliberate upon this grave proposal, with the result that a large sum of money was voted to defray the expenses of the tournament, and invitations were sent to all the Courts of Europe. Knights flocked from all parts of the Continent. Nothing was omitted that could lend dignity and splendour to the scene. There were in all sixty-eight competitors, and seven hundred and twenty-eight courses were run. One Aragonese knight having been killed, and several champions seriously wounded, among them Suero de Quiñones himself, the latter was adjudged to have fulfilled his vow, and to havehonourably discharged his duty to his lady. This memorable contest was considered to have reflected immortal lustre on Castilian arms, and King Juan no doubt felt prouder of himself, his knights, and his kingdom than if he had driven the Moors from Spain. The Honroso Paso de Don Suero de Quiñones is set forth in minute detail in a special chronicle, and is frequently and lovingly referred to in Spanish history.
Stimulated by such public displays of prowess and knightly address, and despite severe sumptuary laws, armour and military gear became more ornate and costly every year. In the chronicle of Don Alvaro de Luna, in the account of the battle of Olmedo in 1445, we read:
“So long had the wars in Castile lasted, that the greatest study of everyone was to have his armour well decorated and his horses well chosen; so much so that it would scarcely have been possible in all the Constable’s host to find one whose horse had no covering, or the neck of whose horse was without steel mail. Thus all those noble young gentlemen of the Constable’s house, and many others, were very richly adorned. Some had different devices painted on the coverings of their horses, and others jewels from their ladies on their helmet-crests. Others had gold and silver bells, withstout chains hanging to their horses’ necks. Others had badges studded with pearls or costly stones around the crests. Others carried small shields, richly embellished, on which were strange figures and inventions. Many different things were put on the helmet-crests, for some had insignia of wild beasts, others plumes of various colours, and others had plumes both on their helmet-crests and on the face-covering of their horses. Some horsemen had feathers that spread like wings against their shoulders; some affected simple armour; others wore plated coats over the cuirass; others rich embroidered tunics.”
The increased popularity of tilting and similar martial exercises brought about a demand for heavy reinforcing pieces of armour, such as could not be worn habitually except by men of the strongest physique, in the field. Henceforward we find a distinction made between war harness and tilting harness. As a specimen of the latter, belonging to the time of which I am now speaking (middle fifteenth century), we have in the Royal Armoury, a Spanish tilting breast-plate (E59), thus described in the 1898 Catalogue:
“Spanish tilting Breastplate, middle fifteenth century, composed of breastplate and over-breastplate, screwed together. The breastplate,tin-plated to avoid oxidation, preserves the nails of the brocade with which it was covered. The over-breastplate was also called ‘the volant’—a defence much used in tilts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was strengthened with iron, as stated in the description of the honourable passage of Don Suero de Quiñones. It is doubtful if this second piece was also covered with rich cloth, like others of a later period; it has its original hollow lance-rest, for tilt, fastened with a bolt and four staples. It has also a piece of iron, which we callflaon, used as a wedge between the shield and the breastplate, and forming a resisting whole against the adversary’s lance. Thisflaon, the only iron one we have seen, serves also to fasten the helm to the breast”—in the manner shown on the piece A16. [Theflaonwas nearly always of wood.]
The headpiece was correspondingly strengthened. Referring more particularly to the tilting helm that forms part of the suit (A16) belonging to Felipe I. of Castile (1478-1506), from which the casque worn by Don Suero probably did not differ, the Conde de Valencia says:
“The tilting helm, or round closedalmete, as it was called, appeared at the end of the fourteenth century, and continued in use, with slight modifications in each country, until the beginning of thesixteenth. Designed to resist the impact of a lance in front, the part around the vizor, or the horizontal opening between the crest and the face, was strengthened, attaining a thickness of nine millimetres in some places; in others, as the sides and occiput or back of the helmet, it gradually diminishes. Its vertical and almost cylindrical length, is such that it might rest on the shoulders, so that, fastened to the breastplate by the hinge, and to the backplate by a strong strap, it might protect the tilter’s head without inconveniencing his movements. In certain tilts, this resource was insufficient against the violence of a lance-thrust at full gallop of two horses going in an opposite direction, and then the horsemen protected the head with a stiffened cap, which in German was calledharnisch kappe.”
The armet, the most graceful form of steel headpiece, also seems to have been introduced into Spain about the middle of the fifteenth century. A fresco in the Escorial, copied from a painting of the first half of that century, representing the battle of Higueruela, depicts men-at-arms wearing this species of helmet. It superseded the bascinet for use in war, and will be described further on in these pages.
The sword continued, as during the precedingcenturies, to be two-edged, of rhomboidal or almond-shaped section, intended much more for cutting and hacking than thrusting. The grip now tended to lengthen, and the pommel, which was usually pear-shaped, became lighter. To this period belongs G4, the sword presented by Pope Eugene IV. to Juan II., in the sixteenth year of his pontificate (1446), as the inscription engraved with aqua fortis on the ricasso records. The blade is wide and grooved. In the groove are inscribed the words PIERVS ME FECE.
“The guard, notable for its elegant simplicity, is all of silver, gilded over and chased, with the cross of straight arms with fleurs-de-lys at the ends. The hilt is a festooned ballister,i.e., a small pillar swelling in the centre or towards the base, and the pommel, covered with leaves, also festooned, is pear-shaped. The description in the inventory of this Treasury (King Juan’s) makes us aware that the hilt has lost much of its most beautiful decoration: ‘Another sword with a groove in the middle and the wordspierus me fece, gilded, has the cross one hand in length, the pommel, hilt, cross, and all the sheath of gilded silver, and on this are some open leaves soldered to some trunks; and the cross is a serpent with wings enamelled green; the rim, which is the first piece of the sheath, isenamelled blue with itsquirimi’ (fromquiris, a spear or javelin), &c.”
G5. Blade of a Pontifical sword, sent to Henry IV. of Castile by Pope Calixtus III. in 1458. (This Spanish pontiff, Alfonso Borgia, of Valencia, was elected in 1455, and died in 1458.)
It has four surfaces, with false guard and long ricasso, sloped on both edges; gilded and engraved on both sections. Length, 1.180; width, 0.039.
The history of this weapon leads us to suppose that the mark is that of an unknown Italian swordmaker. On each side of the blade is a circular shield with the arms of the Pontiff (a bull on a ground composed of bezants, surmounted by the tiara and keys), and this inscription: ACCIPE S C M GLADIVM MVNVS A DEO I QVO DEI CIES (sic) ADVERSARIOS P P LI MEI XPIANI.
According to the note in theCronicon of Valladolid, this sword was sent to Enrique IV. of Castile by Calixtus III., to encourage him to fight unremittingly against the Moors. The ornamentation has gone; but we may judge of its richness and artistic value by the sketch of it in the Inventory of thealcazarsof Segovia: it says—”.... A sword, all gilded, nearly to the last third section, with large letters in each portion, and the markconsists of seven spots on a small shield; the pommel, the hilt, and cross are all of gildedacucharadosilver, and in the middle of the pommel are the words Calistus Papa Tercio; the sheath of gilded silver, engraved with evergreen oak-leaves and acorns, has four round enamels on the middle portion; on one is St. Peter with a cross in his hand, in a ship, and on each of the other two (sic) is a coloured cross and four small ones; the rim is enamelled with coats of arms of the Pope, and a shield with an ox in each quarter and some blue letters ..., &c. This work of art was by the artificer of Zaragoza, Antonio Pérez de las Cellas, established in Rome, who worked almost exclusively for Calixtus III. during his brief pontificate.” (Muntz,Les arts à la cour des Papes.)
The namefalsaguarda, or dummy guard, was given, in an Inventory of arms of the sixteenth century, to the two small pieces or wings on the blades of broadswords, a third of the way from the guard, where the grooving on the blade ends.
These, of course, were presentation swords. The blade (G24), which is traditionally ascribed to the Conde de Haro, of Juan II.’s reign, is gilded and engraved at the upper end, the design representing on one side the Annunciation, on the other, St. John in the Desert. It has a groove down its entirelength, and is diamond-pointed. The sword (G23—plate 11) is of similar make, and is engraved in Gothic character on a field of gold with texts, which, translated, run as follows:
THE LORD IS MY HELP; I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN CAN DO UNTO ME, AND I WILL DESPISE MY ENEMIES; SUPERIOR TO THEM, I WILL OVERTHROW THEM. On a circle, part of verse 8, chapter xviii. of the Gospel of St. John: IF YE THEREFORE SEEK ME, LET THESE GO THEIR WAY, BUT JESUS PASSED THROUGH (the midst of them), and also in the centre, MARY VIRGIN. In another circle, part of the anthem of the Purification of Our Lady: MAKE ME WORTHY TO PRAISE THEE, BLESSED BE THE SWEET VIRGIN MARY, and, in the centre, the monogram of Jesus Christ.
The guard consists of an iron crosspiece with traces of gold: the guard curved towards the blade and twisted at the ends; circular pommel with two faces with a cavity (round) in the centre, which was frequently incrusted with the shield of arms of the owner.
The two-handed sword was introduced in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The Armoury contains a specimen (G15—plate 10) belonging to the first half of the latter era. Itcomes from Mallorca. The blade is almond-shaped, metre 0.990 long, by 0.038 broad; it has a long ricasso, counter-guard (falsaguarda), and three grooves. The guard is of copper, once gilded, with quillons drooping very slightly; the grip, of corded wood, covered with leather; the pommel pear-shaped and facetted.
Before the century was three-quarters gone, complete suits of plate-armour were worn in Castile, though the hauberk was still retained, in some cases, as an additional defence. The powerful and ambitious Juan Pacheco, Marques de Villena and Grandmaster of St. James, who died in the same year as his sovereign Enrique IV. (1474), is shown (plate 12) wearing, in addition to the pieces which had now become a regular part of the harness, espaliers in five pieces, andtassetsor armour for the hips, of five pieces, in the graceful oak-leaf pattern, which endured till the time of Charles V. The opening between the tassets is defended by the skirt of the hauberk, worn beneath the cuirass. That piece, and the vambraces, are exquisitely chiselled with floral designs. The armour of Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Conde de Tendilla, who died five years after Villena, is very similar. His coudes are very large, chased, and set with gilt studs round the borders.
We have now reached the beginning of the most glorious and prosperous epoch in the history of Spain. The chivalric spirit, which had been sedulously fostered in the nation during the two preceding reigns, in the age of the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabel, found its genuine and loftiest expression in enterprises of supreme national importance. This was essentially a martial age—the era of the Conquest of Granada and of the Discovery and Subjugation of the New World. Everything connected with the profession of arms became the subject of close study and a matter for improvement. Farseeing men might have predicted, even as early as the taking of Granada, that the armourer’s craft was a doomed industry. Considering the productions of its latest ages, we might be tempted to impute its extinction to its having reached a point beyond which progress was impossible—where the artificer saw that all attempts to improve on existing models must be vain.
An interesting relic of this period is the sword (G13) which the Conde de Valencia thinks may be safely ascribed to Ferdinand the Catholic (plate 10). The blade is rigid, of rhomboidal section, and without ricasso; the crosspiece is of gilded iron, very plain; velvet-bound grip; the pommel is pear-shapedand facetted. “Like nearly all the swords for the saddle-bow of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which were fastened by the scabbard to the front bow of the man-at-arms’ saddle, this blade has a hilt of the kind then called ‘a hand and a half,’ because its length allowed of its being used with one or both hands without disturbing the equilibrium necessary for the proper handling of the weapon.”—Valencia,Catálogo.