Weapons and armor of the Crusades. Weapons of real crusaders. Trebuchet - "scales with a yoke"

Photo: Michael Bobot/artchive.ru

November 27, 1095 Pope Urban II at Clermont Cathedral proclaims the First Crusade. The Crusades were bloody pursuits and required effective weapons. Today we will talk about the most popular military weapon of the crusaders.

SWORD
The most noble and common weapon of the knights was, as you know, the sword. In battle, the life of a knight often depended on the strength and flexibility of the sword. At the same time, the length of the blade or the mass of the sword were not the main characteristics that determine the force of the blow. The main parameter is the location of the center of gravity and balancing.
The average length of the blade was about a meter, and a wide groove ran along almost the entire length, disappearing about 2.5 cm from the rather sharp tip of the blade. Many blades bear large iron capital letters, often of a religious nature; for example, HOMO DIE, or NOMINE DOMINI, or corrupted versions of these words.
Around the year 1000, a new type of sword appeared - a long, thinner one, with a narrow and shallow groove, disappearing about 20 cm from the tip of the blade. The average length of such swords is about 13 cm longer than the swords of the previous type.
The sword was placed on the altar during the vigil before the knighting, the blade was placed on the shoulder of the knight during the ceremony of initiation, the sword hung from the tomb when the knight died. In The Song of Roland, the dying hero desperately tries to break Durendal's blade against a stone in order to prevent any unworthy person from using this sword after the death of its master. If any knight threw a shadow on the order of chivalry, his sword was broken in front of him by a servant.

Photo: Global Look Press

BATTLE AX

It was always difficult to hit a warrior protected by armor with a sword, therefore, for close combat, the knight used a Norman battle ax and a war hammer, which could break through armor and knock weapons out of the enemy’s hands. In addition, a powerful blow from a battle ax could literally cut the enemy in half, to the very saddle.
After the First Crusade, the knightly militias were armed with battle axes, which differed in blade configuration from the Norman ones. It is assumed that the new form of the blade was borrowed from the Eastern peoples.

WAR HAMMER

Crusaders often used hammers of various shapes as weapons. Turning into foot soldiers, the knights armed themselves with hammers instead of spears. The length of the hammer handle was approximately 90 cm. The hammer, like an ax, could pierce the enemy's armor.

The bow is the most ancient weapon for ranged combat. Immediately after the Tatar-Mongol invasion in Europe, detachments of archers armed with bows began to be created. In the drawings in old books you can see knights with short bows. In order to successfully resist the Muslims in the crusades, the knights had to line up a line of archer warriors in front of their vanguard.

Photo: swordmaster.org

CROSSBOW

The mechanical principle of throwing weapons was known in the ancient world and was used by the Romans in special throwing machines used in the siege of fortresses. In the XI century, hand-held throwing devices appeared - crossbows, and in 1139 this weapon in the Christian army was banned by the pope for use in Europe. Crossbows could only be used in battles with Muslims.
Although the use of crossbows was anathematized by Pope Innocent II at the Second Lateran Council in 1139, as well as by many decrees of later times, these easel bows became one of the most important weapons of the Middle Ages, especially in the hands of well-trained mercenaries.
The English king Richard I created entire units of foot and horse crossbowmen who successfully fought in the ranks of the crusaders. It is widely believed that Richard I received the retribution of fate by dying from a wound inflicted by an arrow from a crossbow, since Richard himself actively used this weapon in the troops.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A SPEAR

The spear remained the main weapon of the mounted warriors. In the 11th century, it was usually held at arm's length and quite often raised above the shoulder, as can be seen in the Bayeux tapestry. When there was a great need for this, the spear could be thrown, as at Hastings, when it was necessary to make gaps in the wall of Anglo-Saxon shields so that the cavalry could break into these gaps. Little by little a new method became popular - to hold the spear under the arm, that is, pressed against the right side with the right hand gripping directly in front of the shoulder. This gave the grip a lot more rigidity, now it was not the power of the right hand that was invested in the blow of the spear, but the inertia of the movement of the rider and horse. It can be seen from the poetic descriptions that before the battle the spear was held more or less upright, with the back of the spear resting on the front of the saddle. The spear was taken at the ready only immediately before the blow. In order to make it easier to keep balance while holding the spear, and also, perhaps, to direct the shield towards the enemy, the rivals, where possible, approached each other with their left side; while the spear passed over the neck of the horse. The cavalry spear now invariably had a simple and very sharp leaf-shaped tip. The old spear, with wings, was now used only by infantry and hunters.

Mounted warriors in the background Photo: Wikimedia Commons

POLEX

The Polex was one of the most popular weapons for foot combat. From period illustrations, written descriptions, and a small number of surviving specimens, we can see that the poleax appears in various forms, sometimes with heavy axe-blades like those of a halberd, and sometimes with hammer-like heads, often with a curved spike behind them.
All poleaxes seem to have had a spike on the top of the weapon, and many also had a spike on the lower end of the shaft. In addition, the shaft was often equipped with metal strips, called langets, descending from the head of the weapon down the sides of the shaft and designed to protect it from cutting. Some samples also had rondels to protect the hands. The essential difference was that the "heads" of the poleks were assembled on pins or bolts, while the halberds were solid forged.

Gottfried of Bouillon with poleax Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The crusades were at first offensive, as they pursued the goal of liberating the Holy Land from the Muslims, and then consisted of conducting many battles, assaults and sieges of fortresses in order to gain a foothold in Palestine and repel the attacks of the Saracens. Therefore, the armament of the crusaders was given special attention. But at the same time, the weapons of the crusaders were typical of medieval military technologies; the crusaders did not invent anything special for the war in the Middle East.

It was during the Crusades that daggers with narrow and strong blades received special use as a separate type of weapon. Before, daggers for European knights were something like multifunctional knives used both in everyday life and, if necessary, in combat conditions. But the crusades and fierce battles with the Muslims led to the realization that narrow daggers are much more convenient in battle conditions, where movement is constrained and there is often simply not enough room to use a sword. All other types of weapons, although they underwent certain changes during the crusades, they were “designer”, and mainly concerned the appearance. The main types of crusader weapons remained traditional:

• first of all, these are swords, which were the main weapon for knights, as well as for infantry swordsmen (although almost all types of crusader troops were armed with swords). There were several types of swords, depending on the characteristics of the battle. The standard was a one-handed European sword with a blade length of up to 70 centimeters and a width of about 4 centimeters. The one-handed cavalry sword differed from the standard one in a longer blade length (up to 100 centimeters) and a more pronounced “tip” that begins to form about 15 centimeters before the tip. The so-called bastard sword was popular, something between a standard and a two-handed sword (although the hilt of a bastard sword almost always provided for a two-handed grip). This elongated (from 110 to 150 centimeters) sword was equally convenient for use by both a rider and a specialized infantry swordsman, a bastard sword was effective in both chopping and stabbing blows. The most famous sword of the Crusaders was a two-handed sword, the length of which was up to two meters, of which the length of the blade itself could reach up to 160 centimeters. It was used only in duels on the ground, because such a huge weapon could not be held with one hand while sitting on a horse;
• spears, darts, halberds - weapons adapted for combat at an average distance. The difference between spears and darts was conditional, since many spears could be used as throwing weapons, however, at a rather limited distance (it was possible to throw a spear strongly and accurately only 10 meters, no more). However, there were also long spears 3-4 meters long, which served as weapons for spearmen (their task was to strike at the first contact of two detachments and violate the enemy’s battle formations), and powerful knightly spears. However, for the knights, the spears were a "disposable" weapon: in a frontal attack, the spears were used only against the nearest enemy, after which they usually became unusable. Halberds, that is, stabbing and chopping pole weapons with at least two blades, up to 2.2 meters long, were specific weapons and were used only to arm entire detachments, which during the battle could act as a single formation. For a lone crusader, the use of a halberd was a difficult matter, since this heavy and difficult weapon to use made him clumsy and vulnerable to attacks from the flanks and rear for a lightly armed enemy;
• bows and crossbows - the weapons of medieval crusaders and knights in general, which made it possible to hit the enemy at a long distance. The Crusaders used three main types of bows: ordinary straight bows (length up to 1.2 meters, effective range - up to 150 meters), glued straight bows with increased flexibility (sighting range - up to 200 meters) and long English bows. The last type of bow is especially remarkable - it began to be actively used by the crusaders from the Third Crusade (1189-1192), in which a large detachment of the British, led by Richard the Lionheart, took part. English longbows reached a height of two meters, and their range of aimed fire was 350 meters (in general, arrows reached a distance of about 800 meters). As for crossbows, they were also widely used during the Crusades, and gradually gained popularity. There were about a dozen types of crossbows, three of them: medium crossbow (weight up to 2 kilograms, firing range up to 200 steps, tension force from 50 to 100 kilograms, reload time - up to a minute); large infantry crossbow (weight up to 5 kilograms, firing range up to 300 steps, pulling force up to 250 kilograms, reload time - up to a minute); a heavy crossbow (weight up to 10 kilograms, firing range of about 300 steps, pulling force up to 550 kilograms, a bolt fired from a crossbow could pierce a knight in armor, but the reload time reached several minutes).

By the 10th century, all the lands in Europe belonged to a few of the richest feudal lords. Huge hordes of impoverished knights roamed Europe, plundering other people's possessions. The rich lands of the Middle East attracted many. The reason for the invasion was the capture by the Turks of Jerusalem - the holy city for Christians. The idea of ​​liberation of Christian shrines was supported by the church. In the summer of 1096, the crusader knights set out on their first campaign. The disparate forces of the Muslims could not resist their pressure, and already in 1099 Jerusalem was taken along with part of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Then the failures began. The rallied Muslims began to win back their lands in Asia Minor. The second and third crusades ended in failure, and in 1187 Jerusalem was surrendered. The next four crusades did not bring success. After the death of the French king Louis IX during the eighth campaign (1270), the knights no longer came to the East.

The armament of the Europeans during the Crusades changed, as they had to adapt to the Eastern battle tactics. Instead of heavy scaly armor, the knights donned mail armor, which was lighter and more maneuverable. The chain mail reached the middle of the thigh, had three-quarter sleeves and a chain mail hood. Later, pants, stockings and mittens made of chain mail mesh appeared. They also wore sweatshirts made of taffeta or leather, stuffed with tow or hair, under the chain mail to weaken the blow.

Warriors of the Orders of Hospitallers and Templars

had images of crosses on their cloaks

To protect from the heat, the knights used sleeveless white capes with heraldic symbols.

Crusader Shield

Large shields made it difficult to fight with eastern cavalry armed with light sabers, so over time they were replaced by small triangular shields.

All the knights who participated in the campaigns to the East,

called crusaders

The crusades required a lot of weapons, so they began to make more inexpensive swords, making blades by welding iron and steel strips (the core was made of soft iron, and the blade was made of steel).

Sword of the Crusades (reconstruction)

The Norman type sword was inferior in battle to the eastern saber, so its crosshair was increased. As the armor became more reliable, an elongated long sword appeared, which was used to deliver strong stabbing blows with both hands.

Mounted crusaders during the first crusade wore a Norman helmet, which did not protect well from the powerful blows of the Saracen battle axes. The crusaders had to wear a second, larger size over a light helmet.

Pot helmets originally had a flat top,

and later - domed

In the middle of the XII century, came into fashion pot helmet . Its edges rested on the shoulders of the knight in order to soften the blows inflicted on the helmet.

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II delivers such an incendiary sermon at the Clermont Cathedral that all knightly Europe unites in a single impulse - to win back the Holy Sepulcher from the damned Saracens. Thus began the First Crusade, which, among other things, had a significant impact on the development of weapons and technology of that time. But what the real crusaders preferred to smash the enemy.

roman sword

This type of European sword was very common during the late Middle Ages. In Western Europe, it was owned exclusively by representatives of the knightly class - because it was expensive and, frankly, not very functional. "Roman" swords were used, rather, as an auxiliary weapon, however, they were the most important distinguishing feature of the knightly status of the owner.

A spear

The cavalry spear became the main weapon of the cavalry. At the end of the 12th century, the knights guessed to press the spear to the body, which made the grip more rigid and provided incredible impact power. Clashes with the Western cavalry for the Saracens were akin to the thunder of the Lord.

battle ax

But for close combat, the crusader knight preferred to use the good old battle ax. The Norman ax pierced almost all types of armor, with one successful blow it was possible to knock an opponent out of the saddle, and a lightly armed warrior on foot could be completely broken into two halves. Already after the first crusade, Western warriors somewhat changed the blades of the Norman axes, borrowing a more functional form from the eastern peoples.

Morgenstern

Due to the simplicity of the design, this deadly weapon was very common among commoners, but the knights also used it with pleasure. The Crusaders, on the other hand, preferred to use the cavalry version of the "morning star", with a shortened handle.

Crossbow

To protect against enemy infantry, the knights put up a line of archers in front of the cavalry, who fired several volleys and were built in such a way as to let the attacking cavalry through. Crusader horsemen used crossbows: they were superior to bows in range and accuracy of shooting, and boasted greater penetrating power.

WEAPONS AND PROTECTIVE WEAPONS OF THE CRUSADERS

The armor worn by the knights of the First Crusade, apparently, was in many ways similar to those worn by the Normans and French at Hastings and which can be seen on the Bayeux tapestry (photo 6). Here they are shown wearing knee-length mail shirts; in front from below the chain mail bifurcates so that you can sit on a horse. The sleeves of chainmail reach only to the elbows. Artists used a large number of conditional patterns to convey the material of chain mail. Most often these are contiguous circles, sometimes a lattice, sometimes rings inside the lattice. Since in some cases different patterns were used for the same chain mail, it is believed that there was not much difference between chain mail and that perhaps all the patterns should have represented chain mail. In one place, however, Duke William's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, is shown wearing what might be mistaken for armor of stacked plates. Although most chainmail had a tight-fitting hood that was integral with the rest of the chainmail, it can be inferred from the images that sometimes the hood was made from a different material than chainmail, perhaps leather or cloth. On several occasions, horsemen are shown wearing hoods without any kind of helmet, and this was a common practice until the middle of the 14th century. On the Bayeux tapestry, many chain mail are depicted with a rectangle below the neck; rectangles have stripes of different colors around the edges. In one depiction of Duke Wilhelm, this rectangle appears to have loosely hanging tie-like plates at the top corners. Another warrior has these plates in the lower corners. It is not clear what these rectangles represent. This may be some kind of armor reinforcement - perhaps an additional piece of chain mail tied to the neck, covering the throat.

The first assumption is confirmed by a miniature from the Italian encyclopedia of 1023 from Monte Cassino. The thumbnail shows a solid green rectangle on blue chain mail, which is clearly made in one piece with the hood. On the other hand, a Spanish Bible from the monastery of Roda from the early 11th century, now in the National Library in Paris, and a closely related Bible from the Vatican Library show a rectangle on the chest without a top stripe, as if it were an extension of the hood hanging over the chest. The lower part of the face is clearly not covered. Something of this kind is shown more clearly on the capitals of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-du-Port, Clermont-Ferrand, France, which depicts "Psychomachy" (photo 14). With the exception of one figure, the faces are not covered, it is clear that the hoods are made in one piece with chain mail, and a large rectangle (apparently chain mail) hangs down below the throat. If this part of the chain mail was not often depicted hanging down during the battle, one could assume that the image on the Bayeux tapestry represents this particular part of the armor (or precoat) that covers the face. Apart from this case, a similar rectangle is shown completely without a hood on the same figure in the Bible of Rod and on the image in the English psalter from Oxford of the early 11th century (Bodleian Library). On the Bayeux Tapestry, on several occasions there is only one band across the base of the neck, which can be interpreted as the lower edge of the hood if made separately from the mail. So far, no clear illustration of a separate hood has been found before the 11th century.

That part of the tapestry, where the bodies of the fallen under Hastings are stripped and naked bodies are visible under the chain mail, is the result of the restoration work of the 19th century. It was hardly possible to wear chain mail in this way, since it would damage the skin (especially when struck during the battle). In any case, the undergarment protruding from the sleeves of most of the living characters in the tapestry. Robert Weiss, who wrote much later, in his Roman de Rou (“The Romance of Roux (Rollo).” – Per.) specifically states that Bishop Odo wore chain mail over a white cloth shirt. Most of the other images show long shirts made of some kind of soft material that is visible from under the hem of the mail. Perhaps the colored ribbons on the edges of the chain mail on the Bayeux tapestry represent some kind of strings. They can also be seen, for example, in the Spanish manuscript of the Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul, which used to be in the Chester-Beatty collection (apparently referring to the Chester-Beatty library. - Per.). The Saracen writer of the 12th century, Usama, writes that the chain mail was lined with rabbit fur.

The typical helmet of this period is conical with a nose-guard, sometimes wide enough to recognize the owner of the helmet, as Weiss describes how, under Hastings, Duke William had to raise his helmet in order to dispel rumors that he had fallen. This case can also be seen on the tapestry. A helmet of this type, found in the Priory of Olomouc, Moravia (Czech Republic), is now in the Waffensamlung (Military Museum) in Vienna. Both the helmet and the nose band are made from the same piece of iron. On the other hand, some of the helmets depicted on the tapestry seem to be made of many segments attached to a ring base, as on the already mentioned Frankish helmet. This design, with particularly wide supporting strips, is quite visible in the Heisterbach Bible around 1240 (Berlin State Library). A helmet made from several steel segments riveted together but without a ring base can be seen in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Where helmets are shown on the Bayeux tapestry being transported on a wagon for subsequent transportation on ships, it is clear that they are not made with pieces of chain mail hanging from the helmet, as on Frankish helmets, but, apparently, they have a balaclava. Helmets with a nose guard and chin rest are clearly visible, for example, on a manuscript in Piacenza, Italy, in the 12th century. Several Norwegian ivory chess pieces from about 1200 found at Wig Church on the Isle of Lewis (Hebrides) have conical helmets with a hanging plate at the back of the neck, as well as a plate covering the cheeks (photo 8). The helmet of Duke Wilhelm on the Bayeux tapestry has two short hanging plates at the back, similar to infulae (ribbons ( lat.). – Per.) on the bishop's miter. It is not very clear what these plates are for, but many images from the next century show a long veil or scarf running from the bottom of the helmet to the back, or, as on the first seal of Stephen of Blois of England (1135), two thick belts.

Rice. 9. Helmet preserved in the Prague Cathedral, believed to have belonged to Saint Wenceslas (Wenceslas) (killed 935 or 936). The false band (nose) to protect the nose is decorated with the image of the crucified Christ

The Song of Roland, which is believed to have appeared at about the same time as the Bayeux tapestry (the Bayeux tapestry (or carpet, as it is sometimes written) was created in the 11th century, and the Song of Roland in the 12th century. - Ed.), often mentions decorated helmets. A stone capital at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence shows brow-banded helmets, apparently set with precious stones. The Song of Roland mentions the Saracens tying their good helmets from Zaragoza. Although the Bayeux tapestry does not show anything that attaches the helmet to the head, the statue of Roland outside the walls of the cathedral in Verona shows a chinstrap running up to the hood of the chainmail. The same can be seen on a mid-twelfth-century capital from Notre-Dame-en-Vaux at Châlons-sur-Marne, now in the Louvre, Paris, as well as on another dating from 1170 in the Musée Rivets, Pavia, and on many other carvings.

In Le Mans, the English manuscript of the Roman scholar Pliny, Natural History, shows Pliny's helmet hanging from a chinstrap behind his sword, spear, and shield. Most of the images show the belt tied to the helmet on both sides, which prevents the helmet from moving when the wearer is riding.

A large number of the knights in the Bayeux tapestry are shown with their forearms protected by separate arm-length sleeves. These sleeves, apparently, were made of chain mail and worn under the sleeves of chain mail; some knights had similarly protected legs. Since the knights are wearing shoes, it is impossible to say for sure whether the lower parts of the legs were also covered with chain mail. Shoes with chainmail leg protection can be seen in the 13th century Book of Alexander from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Although the Saxons at Hastings are sometimes shown with old-fashioned round shields, most of the shields on the Bayeux Tapestry are of an oblong pointed downward shape with a semicircular top end. Such a shield made it possible to cover the body from the shoulder to the knee. This type of shield appears to have been introduced around the last quarter of the 10th century for use by cavalry. (This is a typical shield of the Norman (Scandinavian), as well as the Old Russian type, used by foot and horseback warriors - this is also clearly seen on the tapestry from Bayeux. - Ed.) One of the earliest illustrations of such a shield is in a manuscript created in Ettern between 983 and 991 (Gotha, Land Library). The elongated pointed part was supposed to cover the vulnerable left side of the warrior's body and leg much better than the old round shield. Let's take into account that the left hand with a shield also held a bridle. The shield was held with a variety of straps located approximately in the center of gravity. Although this shield still had an umbon - and it appears from time to time even in 13th-century depictions - it no longer covered the arm-brace, since it was now off-center. Most often, the shield was held by hand for the St. Andrew's Cross from belts, which were compressed at the point of intersection. The Bayeux Tapestry, however, shows many more intricate ways. In one case, the St. Andrew's Cross was supplemented with two short straps below, through which the forearm passed, preventing the shield from dangling. A single additional strap of the same type is shown in the image of Goliath on the west facade of the Abbey of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, France, built at the beginning of the 12th century. Other shields have straps arranged in the form of a square or hexagon, with one side serving to grab the hand, and the forearm passing through the opposite side. These bands were called brases. Straps with variable tension were called guige, gaij (a belt that allowed you to carry a shield thrown over your back. - Per.), and they were attached to the shield near the brases. Straps could be used to hang the shield on the wall, throw it on the back in case the weapon required the use of both hands (for example, an ax or a two-handed sword), and also hang the shield around the wearer's neck on his left shoulder during the battle, where did the famous phrase "Escu al col" ("? Cu ? col") ("With a shield around his neck." - Per.), used to describe a knight ready for action. The surface of these shields was painted with a wide variety of images, of which crosses and winged dragons were the most common, but no signs of organized heraldry are yet visible on the shields.

Perhaps even during the Third Crusade (1189 - 1191) some crusaders were still dressed in the same way as Duke William's Normans. For example, a figure in the English Bible of Puise (Durham Cathedral) of the late 12th century wears no other armor than a conical helmet with a nose plate and chain mail with elbow-length sleeves, very similar to those chain mail that can be seen on the Bayeux tapestry. The people of this knight and all the opponents, with the exception of one, have no other protection than the shields and helmets of a few people. The shields are of the same shape as the shields used under Hastings.

Until about 1400, conical helmets with a nose-guard and a slightly forward top are still encountered from time to time, most often in the 12th century. However, during the first three Crusades, the shape of the helmet changed significantly. Round-topped helmets, with or without a nosepiece, are found from time to time in the twelfth century, as in the Gospel of Pembroke College (Pembroke College, Cambridge). The Winchester Bible (circa 1160 - 1170) also shows a conical helmet without a nose plate (Winchester Cathedral) (photo 9). In order to protect the back of the neck, the back of the helmet was sometimes made a few centimeters longer, as on the knights carved on the facade of the cathedral at Angouleme around 1128, and on another knight around 1100 on the tomb in Modena Cathedral (photo 10 ). By the end of the 12th century, more or less cylindrical helmets with flat and slightly domed tops, often with a nose plate, became common, as on the scroll of Saint Guthlac in the British Museum or on the seal of Philip of Flanders and Vermandois from 1162.

The German manuscript Roulantes Liet, kept at the University of Heidelberg (circa 1170), shows a short transverse band at the end of a long helmet nosepiece. This band covers the mouth. In the mentioned manuscript, the visor of the helmet covers the neck, the foreface, which runs from the back of the helmet, goes down almost to the eyes; this arrangement became widespread in the next century, as can be seen from the carvings on the western facade of the cathedral in Wales. A 12th-century Bible from Ávila, now in the National Library of Madrid, shows conical helmets with a cross-shaped plate at the end of the nasal band. The ends of the plate are rounded to cover the lower part of the face not protected by a helmet. In a badly damaged manuscript, Hortus Deliciarum (Garden of Comforts) ( lat.). – Per.) of the abbess Herrad of Landsberg, illustrated in the last quarter of the 12th century, the ends of this plate cover almost the entire face, with the exception of the eyes. This plate has many holes on it to make breathing easier. By the beginning of the 13th century, the front plate sometimes covered the entire face and was bent under the chin. There were only two rectangular slits for the eyes, as in a stained-glass window from about 1210 depicting Charlemagne in Chartres Cathedral. Similar helmets are shown on the shrine of Charlemagne (made in 1200-1207) in the cathedral of Aachen and on the seal of Louis, son of Philip II Augustus (made in 1214). In both cases, the helmets also have a short chin rest (photo 13).

Two statues on the west facade of Wales Cathedral, created in 1230-1240, are wearing cylindrical helmets with a flat top (photo 11). Although the helmets are taller at the front than at the back, there is no clear separation between the face-protecting plate and the neck-covering plate. The flat plate at the top appears to have been made with a flange, which was attached to the cylinder with rivets all around. There is one hole left on one helmet for the eyes. The other helmet has a vertical reinforcing plate running down the front center, a design that was more common. On helmets of this type, the ability to see is improved by the fact that a raised rib or strip runs around the circumference of the helmet; the only surviving example is in the "Tseuchhaus" (Military Museum. - Per.) in Berlin (photo 12). The vertical reinforcing helmet strip has two wide branches at right angles in it; a rectangular hole is cut in each branch. The helmet is pierced with numerous holes, possibly for attaching laces to which the quilted lining was held. The Welsh helmet may have had the same lining, but the rather curious caps worn on some of the figures—we will discuss this later—suggest that this is not the case.

The time of manufacture of the helmet from Berlin has not been precisely established. Very similar helmets were in circulation until 1270, as seen in the Saint Louis Psalter (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale).

As soon as the face began to be covered with a helmet, the question arose of developing some methods for identifying a warrior. The organization, classification and description of the developed forms and symbols later developed into a science called heraldry.

Several Norwegian chess pieces found at Uig (Lewis Island) have on their heads a new kind of protective headgear, an open-faced helmet called the kettle-hat, perhaps because of its resemblance to an upside-down bowler hat. Later, such a helmet was simply called a “bowler hat” (photo 8). It appears to be a vida stelhufa, a wide steel hat from the sagas. A restored page of a southern German manuscript (circa 1150), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, shows chinstraps tied at the ends to a helmet. By the middle of the 13th century, such a helmet (“bowler hat”) was definitely considered a headdress quite suitable for a knight. One such helmet can be seen on the seal of Arnoul III, Count of Guines, created in 1248. Although the helmets appear to have been made in one piece, many manuscripts, such as Maciejowski's Bible dating from around 1250, show a helmet apparently made in separate pieces in the manner of earlier Frankish helmets, but with a rim attached to them (Library Pierpont Morgana, New York) (photos 7 and 18).

The bowler hat remained popular as long as armor was worn, and was a typical 17th century pike helmet when armor was no longer used. These headgear reappeared in the British Army in 1915 to protect against shrapnel and shrapnel.

On the cancer of Charlemagne, one knight is shown with a chain mail cap thrown back over his shoulder, which makes it possible to see a tightly fitting quilted cap worn under the hood (it was supposed to soften the blow to the chain mail (photo 13). This cap is very common in illustrations of the 13th century, as in Maciejowski Bible. Since - especially in the 13th century - the hood was very often worn without a helmet, this lining must have played an important role. The flat-topped mail hoods, typical of the middle of the 13th century, apparently were supported by specially shaped caps and a thick roll padding around the top, as on the figures at Wales Cathedral around 1230 - 1240. A similar cap is shown on another figure from Wales, it is worn over chain mail, presumably as a support for a helmet (photo 11, right).Of course, maybe sometimes for additional protection, a steel cap was worn under a chain mail cap.It is very difficult to verify, but the image in the Ebergewe church nni, apparently, Lord John Hastings (d. 1313), clearly shows the outlines of a hard headdress worn under a chain mail cap.

It is difficult to find illustrations of how the preface was kept closed, although the painting and sculpture of the 12th century depict many prefaces of various shapes. However, a fairly recent depiction at Pershore Abbey, Worcestershire, has a long fore-front hanging down the right side of the neck, while a drawing of Matthew of Paris showing a kneeling knight from around 1250 from the British Museum shows a similar fore-front hanging tightly around the throat. and tied with laces to the chain mail hood over the left ear (photo 15). Depictions at Shepton Mallet, as well as that of William Longspee the Elder, Earl of Salisbury in Salisbury Cathedral, show a fore-front with a wide rectangular end, which is held on to the brow-band of a mail hood with drawstrings.

In some cases, the large forearm went down, so that the chin and neck remained open until the time of hostilities, as in the Codex Calixtinus (Code Calixtine. - Per.) in the archives of St. James of Campostel. Later prefaces of this type are shown either with lining, as in a figure around 1300 from the Cathedral of Strasbourg (Strasbourg) (now in the museum of the cathedral), or without lining, as in the image of Landgrave Johann, who died in 1311 in Marburg. A number of somewhat later English depictions, such as that of Sir Peter de Saltmarsh (d. 1338) at Howden, Yorkshire, show knotted lace on either side of the face, possibly to be attached to a forearm of this type.

In the twelfth century, long-sleeved chainmail became common, and by 1200 the hands were often protected by chainmail gauntlets, consisting of one compartment for the thumb and another for the rest of the fingers. These mittens were made in one piece with the sleeve, as seen on the shrine of Charlemagne (photo 13). A rope or strip around the wrist kept the weight of the sleeve from pressing down on the mitten, causing it to slide off the wrist. When hostilities were not foreseen, the hand could be put out into the hole located in the mitten opposite the palm. The earliest illustrations of mittens with cuffs made separately from chain mail sleeves can be found in a drawing in the Small Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, dating from about 1250 (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College). The word haubergeon, a diminutive of hauberk, "mail", which appears in manuscripts of the time, presumably refers to the short mail shirts, sometimes with short sleeves, often seen in paintings and sculptures.

Unique is the image of a warrior in the York Psalter (circa 1170 - 1175), in which a row of white stripes with red ends. These bands form a net over the mail; through this network, chain mail is visible, covering the body and hands. The net does not cover the chainmail hood (University of Glasgow). So far, no explanation for this network has been offered (photo 16).

The hood is sometimes depicted as being made separately from the chain mail - for example, in Glossar von Salomon von Konstanz (circa 1150) (Munich, Bavarian State Library) the chain mail hood is clearly made of metal scales, while the chain mail is clearly not made of them. .

Scale armor at that time was clearly a popular substitute for chain mail. For example, armor made entirely of small scales is shown in Porta Romana, Milan, in a late 12th-century depiction (photo 17). A Moravian manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Bibliothèque, apparently created between 1213 and 1220, shows armor made from fairly large scales, as in the early 12th-century Goliath carving on the west facade of the Abbey of Saint-Gilles. The late 12th-century German poem Vigalua mentions that scales were sometimes made from cow horn, a light but hard material that is very difficult to cut.

Robert Weiss in his Roman de Rou mentions a new form of body armor, the curie. Perhaps the word comes from the word cuir, "skin". There are no illustrations from this time, but the Guillaume le Breton manuscript suggests that it was chest armor, while the Gaidon chivalric novel (circa 1230) shows that this armor was definitely made of leather (at least in this case) and sometimes reinforced with iron. This armor was worn over chain mail, but under a knight's cloak. Although no illustration of such armor is known, several manuscripts from the mid-13th century show sleeveless, waist-length jackets made of some kind of durable material. For example, a single figure in the Maciejowski Bible is dressed in a similar waistcoat, worn over a regular tunic without any armor, except for a military cap and a small hemispherical headdress (cervelliere) (photo 18, top right). This robe appears to have a downward cut starting under the armpits; apparently, this garment was pulled over the head, like a poncho. The English "Apocalypse" (photo 19) located in Lisbon shows a similar piece of clothing worn over chain mail. In both manuscripts, lace is clearly visible in two places under the arm. In the Apocalypse, the surface is possibly reinforced by a number of round metal plates. If we take the earliest images, the time of which the records have been preserved, then this kind of body armor can be found on a wall painting (circa 1227) in the baptistery of St. Gereon in Cologne. A similar attire is shown in more detail in the portrait of Hugh II, Chatelian of Ghent (d. 1232), which is now in the abbey of Niven-Bosche, Heusden, near Ghent.

In the second half of the 13th century, cloaks are sometimes depicted with sewn plates, like a sleeping guard on a tomb in Wienhausen, Germany (photo 20). The position of the plates is shown by the heads of the rivets that secure the plates to the fabric, and often by the contours of the plates that are visible through the fabric. Nothing of the kind has been found for the early thirteenth century, but very often cloaks, apparently made of soft, tight-fitting material, seem to bulge from the shoulder, as, for example, on the statues in front of Wales Cathedral (1230 - 1240). The aforementioned drawing by Matthew of Paris, depicting a kneeling knight, shows that this bulge may be from a solid plate protection on the shoulder, which in this case is clearly visible under the cloak and is a separate part from it (photo 15). However, one of the figures in the Wells Cathedral has a hard, upright collar that starts from the cloak, so the possibility that the cloak itself had reinforced shoulders (photo 11) is not ruled out.

Body armor, characteristic of the first three quarters of the 14th century, was called coat of plates, “plate dress”, sometimes it was called more simply - plates, “plates”. Usually this robe is depicted as a short, usually sleeveless, jacket, with small circles or flowers applied to it, which are actually large rivet heads holding the overlapping plates together and attaching them to the fabric covering the plates on top. This type of dress is characteristic of Northern Italian paintings, such as the series of illustrations of the life of St. George by Altichiero in the Chapel of St. George (San Giorgio), Padua (c. 1380-1390) (c. 1377. - Ed.). It is not clear when the plate dress first appeared, but jackets studded with dots and circles, very similar to those seen in Altichiero's paintings, are found in the work of Matthew of Paris and his colleagues around 1250, as well as in the Spanish Commentaries on the Apocalypse. Beatus about the same time or even a little earlier (Paris, National Library). In the Beatus manuscript, what appear to be nail heads are clearly arranged in horizontal rows on the surface of the jacket; the vertical seams of the covering material are also clearly visible.

At this time, another type of body armor begins to come into use. Guillaume le Breton, describing the first battle between William des Barres and the future King Richard I of England, reports that the spears pierced the shield, chain mail and quilted jacket and stopped on the hardened steel plate that covered the chest.

The quilted jacket is first mentioned by Weiss as an alternative to chain mail. Later remarks suggest that this was a suit, usually made of two layers of linen, stuffed with wool, cotton, etc., and quilted like a duvet to keep the stuffing in place (photo 7). Quilting was usually carried out in parallel lines, sometimes intersecting like a lattice. The quilted jacket protected quite well from chopping blows and softened their force. The Armament Assize of 1181 of the English King Henry II decrees that the minimum requirement for all city dwellers and freemen with an income, goods or rent of more than 10 marks a year is a quilted jacket. A similar robe—worn under chainmail to prevent the rings from cutting into the skin—has been in use since the early 13th century. By this time, there are references to the fact that the spear pierced the shield, chain mail and quilted jacket. However, there does not appear to be a single illustration of a quilted garment worn under chain mail. An alternative name for this type of clothing was aketon, from the Arabic word al-qutun, "cotton", with which the jacket was stuffed. In later references, aketons and quilted jackets are distinguished, but what this difference was is not clear.

Manuscript of the novel "Parzival" (Wolfram von Eschenbach. - Ed.) of the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century describes a warrior dressed in a quilted silk jacket, over which he put on a quilted aketon. The Maciejian Bible, which depicts many figures wearing sleeveless quilted robes over sleeved garments, may show just such jackets (photo 18, upper left corner). The Saracen writer Beha ed-Din ibn Shedad, describing the Christian infantry at Arsuf, says: “Each infantryman has a thick “cassock” made of felt, and under it is a chain mail shirt, so strong that our arrows have no effect on them ... I I noticed among them people who had from one to ten pierced arrows sticking out of their backs; however, these people could move at a normal pace and did not lag behind the detachment.

Although many knights still fought without leg armor, two types of boots were used to protect them. One type was long mail stockings attached to the waist belt under the mail and tied under the knee so that the weight of the stockings would not cause them to move out. Another variety was a strip of mail; this band covered the front of the leg and ankle. The strip was tied with straps tied at the back. This type of protection was also kept on straps that were tied to the waist belt. An example of the first type of protection can be seen on the cancer of Charlemagne, and the second - in the English psalter (about 1200), which is kept at the University of Leiden. In the second case, it is quite clear that cloth stockings were worn under the mail stockings - these stockings are visible in the images - and in the first case, they were probably also, although they are not visible. An early 13th-century manuscript of the Aeneid at the University of Tübingen shows two men wearing their mail stockings. It is clear that they have some kind of stockings made of fabric under the mail stockings. The drawing of Matthew of Paris with a kneeling knight (circa 1250) shows quite clearly that, at least in this case, the mail stockings do not reach the knight's chain mail diverging at the bottom (photo 15).

The 13th-century manuscript of the poem "Aeneid" shows for the first time some kind of thick padding worn on the hips, over chainmail stockings (photo 21). An illustration in the Maciejian Bible shows a man crouching down to put on a similar thigh guard. This protection consists of two separate tapering "tubes" of some kind of thick material, possibly stitched. Presumably, these "pipes" were attached to the waist belt.

In the German states, quilted thigh protection (stockings) is often shown in illustrations of a mid-calf leg. Higher on the leg, the stockings seem to have been pulled together by vertical stripes, the ends of which, apparently, were tied together - perhaps in order to better compress the leg, as, for example, in the psalter of the first half of the 13th century in the British Museum.

The knight engraved on the shrine of Saint Maurice (225) in the Treasury of the Abbey of Saint Maurice, Switzerland, has a plate shaped like a gravy boat and attached to his thigh guard above his kneecap. The Trinity College Apocalypse, which has an illustration of a similar small plate worn directly over mail, is still dated around 1230, but is now thought to date to around 1245-1250 (Trinity College, Cambridge). The Icelandic author of The King's Mirror, which is believed to date from about 1240-1250, states that this knee guard was made of iron. In this case, the knee plate is bowl-shaped but has a triangular extension to protect the sides of the knee. In both compositions, in addition, there are narrow plates in front of the lower leg, tapering towards the knee. It is not clear how the plates were attached, but numerous later illustrations show that the plates were held by straps that ran around the leg over the chainmail fabric. In the Maciejowski Bible, Goliath wears rather wide shin guards (shynbalds) fastened with straps around the calf. Possibly the second strap above is hidden by a quilted thigh guard that covers his hips and knees and appears to cover the top edge of the shin guards.

Once the faces of the warriors were covered by helmets, some method of identification was required to distinguish between friendly and foe. The second seal of King Richard I of England, apparently dating from 1194, shows a fan-like object attached to the top of his helmet, which bears the image of a lion – the same as the one on the shield. Liber ad honorem augusti (“Treatise for the glory of the emperor.” – Per.) Pietro de Eboli (circa 1200) (Bern) shows images that were applied to the shields of knights and repeated on the sides of their helmets with conical or round tops. Usually these designs were abstract, with diagonal belts, chevrons, crosses and circles, but the emperor had an eagle, and Margrave Diopold von Schweinspoint had a wild bear. In this essay, for the first time, a favorite invention of heraldists is found - a coat of arms-rebus, in which the drawing contains some kind of connection with the name of the owner of the coat of arms (photo 25).

The manuscript of the Aeneid from Tübingen shows fantastic helmet crests, birds and animals, clearly voluminous and with small flags on the sides (photo 21). In some cases, the design was applied to the helmet; it seems that this was very common, especially in Spain, where the designs were on both closed and open helmets. Some of the helmets in this manuscript have what look like long scarves with ends that go to the sides of the helmets, but these are possibly the veils of the Amazon warriors, as they are found only on them and these scarves are not on the male figures.

In the second half of the 12th century, the sons of the original owners of the coats of arms began to change the designs used on the shields. The golden lions on the blue shield of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, which can be seen on his tombstone (about 1150) at Le Mans, are transformed by the heirs into lions from the English royal coat of arms, which his Plantagenet descendants placed on the red coat of arms. Meanwhile, his illegitimate heir, William Longspee the Elder, Earl of Salisbury, had the same coat of arms as Geoffrey, as shown in his portrait and in the description of the coat of arms in an early heraldic work called the Glover Roll.

Beginning about the middle of the twelfth century, a loose cloak was sometimes worn over the coat of mail, as can be seen in the seal of Valeran de Bellomonte, Earl of Worcester, made before 1250. This example had long sleeves with long dragging cuffs, but more often, as in the Winchester Bible (circa 1160 - 1170), they had no sleeves at all (photo 9). The cloak is rare until the beginning of the 13th century, when in manuscripts such as the Aeneid almost all knights did not wear it, and this cloak had no sleeves, and the cloak itself reached mid-calf. Usually, the cloak had cuts in the middle, front and back, so that you could ride a horse without interference. The cloak had a belt or cord at the waist, separate from the sword belt. Perhaps the cloak appeared to protect chain mail from the rays of the sun during the Crusades, or, as the poem "King Arthur's Confession" and the Buke of Knychthede are led to think (Gilbert Ey's translation into Scotch from French of Ramon Lall's book on chivalry. - Per.), protected from rain. However, it is more likely that the cloak was an imitation of the robes of the Saracens. Armies throughout history have tended to copy the clothing or uniforms of their opponents. Early examples of these robes are almost always white or natural in color, and only later on the cloak begin to be painted - the same as on the shield.

A loose covering, called a blanket, also appeared at the end of the 12th century, as can be seen from the two seals of Alfonso II of Aragon (1186 and 1193). The second one clearly shows the vertical stripes from the coat of arms of the owner. The blanket was usually divided into two parts: one covered the head and withers of the horse, the other - the croup behind the saddle. In the manuscript of Liber ad honorem augusti (“Treatise for the Glory of the Emperor.” – Per.) the jagged edges of the blanket with the image of the coat of arms of the rider go down and do not reach just some 30 cm from the ground. In several cases, only the front of the blanket was worn, as on the seal of Louis II, Count of Looz (1216). A seal-making matrix by Robert Fitzwalter (1198-1234) in the British Museum shows a horse's head covered in a material different from the rest of the blanket; perhaps this material served for protection. At a later time, in documents of the 13th century, there are many references to testiers and chanfreins, protection of the horse's head. Illustrations of hoods similar to those shown on this seal, but which were made completely separate from any blanket, have been found in manuscripts of the late thirteenth century. Horse armor of iron (fer) is mentioned in a work by Weiss between 1160 and 1174, but presumably only because of the need to find a rhyme with the name Osber. The first mention of what was definitely horse armor (horse armor was among the Iranians, in particular the Parthians and Sarmatians. - Ed.), in one case from chain mail, in the other from fabric (apparently, in both cases, chain mail armor was worn over fabric), is found in the inventory of Falk de Brote, made in 1224.

Although shields with rounded tops and lower ends extended downwards continued to be used until about 1200, and the spearmen of Italy carried them until the 15th century, these shields from about 1150 began to quickly give way to shields of a new type, with a flat top edge. Such a shield can be seen on the seal of Robert de Vitre (1158 - 1161). Removing the curved portion may have allowed better vision over the shield without diminishing its protective properties. Umbons continue to be encountered from time to time even in the 13th century. The manuscript Liber ad honorem augusti shows the old form of the shield, but the shield itself becomes smaller than before. In the Aeneid manuscript, the shield is only two-thirds the size of the shields in the Bayeux tapestry, although it continues to be large enough to carry the wounded from the battlefield. Many illustrations - for example, in the Aeneid manuscript - show shields curved forward, the ends of which go to the shoulders.

From that time, a single shield from about 1230-1250 has survived, although later it was given a more modern look by removing the upwardly curved edge. The shield bears the coat of arms of the von Brienz family and may have belonged to Arnold von Brienz, who in 1197 founded the monastery where the shield was found. Arnold von Brienz died in 1225. The shield is 15 mm thick and is made of wood covered with brocade on both sides. The front features a highly stylized silver lion on a blue background. The original length of the shield (before it was changed) appears to have been between 95 and 100 cm, which meant that it extended from the shoulder to the knee. This is about the same proportion as that of the shield owned by a knight in the earliest depiction of a temple church in London, believed to be William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (d. 1219). On later images in the same church, two large shields can be seen. On the back side of the von Brienz shield there are traces of gaij, straps and a soft pad that protects the clenched hand in front; such a pillow is also in the manuscript of the Aeneid.

The older round shield has not completely disappeared. It can often be seen in Spanish art and in the illustrations of the Saracens. A very small round shield, called a buckler, was held by a handle in the center, usually located behind the cone. It was used throughout the Middle Ages; it was usually used by infantry, but occasionally by knights, as can be seen from images at Malvern Abbey, Worcestershire (circa 1240). A small round shield, held by one handle, is shown on a portable altar (circa 1160) at Augsburg.

At this time, a new method of using a shield by a mounted warrior, who took a spear at the ready, appeared. In the Bayeux Tapestry and other images of this period, the shield is held by the straps with the left hand, which is located at shoulder level and also holds the reins with knots on them. This method can still be seen in a 13th century manuscript of the Lives of Two Offs in the British Museum. On the other hand, an illustration by Matthew of Paris from the Great Chronicle, also dating back to about 1250, shows a hand holding the reins in the way that is customary in our time - right above the pommel of the saddle, while the shield hangs from the neck on the gait (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). It may be that only a single strap was used, which was held by the hand, as in the "Book of Alexander" from Trinity College, Cambridge. In Le Tournois de Chauvenci (“The Tournament at Chauvency.” – Per.) of 1285, it is written: “L’escu au col fort embraci?”, And this indicates that the hand was threaded through the belts. This method can be seen in a 14th-century drawing from Lombardy, now in the Morgan Library, New York. By the end of the 13th century, however, the shield seems to have been hung on a gaij without any other support, when the spear was taken at the ready. And only when the spear was broken and the sword was used, the hand was transferred to the straps of the shield.

Weiss writes that the Norman archers under Hastings wore a short tunic. This is how the Bayeux Tapestry shows them, with the exception of one archer in full armor, who, presumably, was the commander. Quivers were hung either on the right side of the waist belt or behind the right shoulder. The archers shown in the manuscript Liber ad honorem augusti, written around 1200, are still without armor, although some crossbowmen have conical helmets with nose guards (photo 25). Although it is not represented in any way on the tapestry, the unknown author of the poem Carmen de Hastingae Proelio ("Song of the Battle of Hastings." - Per.), writes that there were many crossbowmen in the ranks of the Normans.

The crossbow was known even in the last days of the Roman Empire, since Vegetius mentions it in an essay written around 385. In addition, the crossbow can be seen in a Roman carving in bas-relief at the Musée Crosatier, Le Puy, where the crossbow consists of a short, heavy bow mounted horizontally at one end of a straight stock. The bowstring, when cocked, snapped a barrel-shaped "nut" on a spring-loaded trigger. An ordinary arrow or a special arrow for a crossbow was placed in the groove with the back end to the trigger. After that, aiming was carried out (pressing the bed to the cheek), after which a shot was made by pressing the back of the trigger. Since the strong steel arrowheads of crossbow arrows often had a square cross section, they were called quarrels from the French carr? (square ( fr.). – Per.). The Aeneid manuscript shows a quiver with a D-shaped cross-section and a narrow neck, perhaps to keep the arrows from being drawn together. A similar type of quiver can also be seen in the Pembroke College Gospels from the early 12th century.

Anna Komnenos, daughter of the Emperor of Byzantium Alexei I Komnenos, describes this weapon (the crossbow, or crossbow, was well known in the Eastern Roman Empire, the direct heir to the unified Roman Empire; in Russia, the crossbow was used from the 10th century, and Western Europeans mastered it from the 11th century. - Ed.) in the hands of the crusaders: “He who pulls his deadly and very far-shooting weapon should lie, one might say, almost on his back and use all the strength of his legs against the semicircle of the bow and draw the bowstring using the strength of the legs with all his might in the opposite direction. .. The arrows used for this bow are very short in length, but very thick, with very heavy iron tips.

By at least the beginning of the 13th century, due to the increasing power of bows on the crossbow machine, they began to be pulled with a hook attached to the center of the crossbowman's waist belt. The bowstring was hooked on this hook, the bow was bent by placing the legs in a stirrup attached to the front of the box, after which the crossbowman's legs were straightened, and the hook on the belt pulled the bowstring. This type of stirrup is shown in the Trinity College Apocalypse (photo 7).

Although the use of crossbows was anathematized by Pope Innocent II at the Second Lateran Council in 1139, as well as by many decrees of later times, these easel bows became one of the most important weapons of the Middle Ages, especially in the hands of well-trained mercenaries. It is widely believed that Richard I received the retribution of fate by dying from a wound inflicted by an arrow from a crossbow, since Richard himself actively used this weapon in the troops.

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