Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: To the end of the thirteenth centuryJ. Henry and J. Parker, 1860 - 387 pages |
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ailettes ancient Anglo-Saxon appears arbalest Archæol Archæologia Archæological Archæological Journal archers armed armour army arrows banded-mail Banner barbed battle Bayeux tapestry Beowulf blade body-armour brass British Museum bronze casque castle cemetery chain-mail chausses cheval Church close coif curious defence duke earl effigy eleventh century Emperor England engraved equipment examples fastened figure folio French gambeson garment graves Guiart Guisarme Harl Harleian hauberk head Hefner's helm Henry Henry III horse iron javelin kind knight knightly lance leather manuscript Matthew Paris ment military monumental brass monuments nasal helmet occurs Offas ornament Ozingell Painted Chamber passage period Plate poleyns pommel quod Richard Rigord round Saxon sculptured Seal of King seems seen Selzen shew shewn shield siege spear spear-head spur stones Stothard surcoat sword thirteenth century tournament Tower troops twelfth century variety Wace warrior weapon William William the Conqueror woodcut
Popular passages
Page 9 - Olicrossc sovent crioent E Godemite reclamoent ; Olicrosse est en engleiz Ke Sainte Croix est en franceiz, E Godemite altretant Com en frenceiz Dex tot poissant.
Page 73 - They say, moreover, that in every battle, whenever that flag went before them, if they were to gain the victory a live crow would appear flying on the middle of the flag; but if they were doomed to be defeated it would hang down motionless ; and this was often proved to be so.
Page 162 - The king of the English, unused to delay, on the third day of his arrival at the siege, caused his wooden fortress, which he had called " Mate Grifun," when it was made in Sicily, to be built and set up, and before the dawn of the fourth day the machine stood erect by the walls of Acre, and from its height looked down upon the city lying beneath it ; and there were thereon by sunrise archers casting missiles without intermission on the Turks and Thracians. Engines also for casting stones, placed...
Page 160 - To do this more conveniently, they took it towards the works in separate pieces, and, putting it together again at such a distance as to be out of bowshot, advanced it on wheels nearly close to the wall. In the meantime, the slingers with stones, the archers with arrows, and the cross-bow-men with bolts, each intent on his own department, began to press forward and dislodge their opponents from the ramparts; soldiers, too, unmatched in courage, ascend the tower, waging nearly equal war against the...
Page 161 - Franks threw faggots flaming with oil on a tower of the wall, and on those who defended it; which, blazing by the action of the wind, first seized the timber and then the stones, and drove off the garrison. Moreover, the beams which the Turks had left hanging down from the walls in order that, being forcibly drawn back, they might, by their recoil, batter the tower in pieces, in case it should advance too near, were by the Franks...
Page 135 - English knight, who prided himself on the luxuriance of his tresses, being stung by conscience on the subject, seemed to feel, in a dream, as though some person strangled him with his ringlets. Awaking in a fright, he immediately cut off all his superfluous hair. The example spread throughout England, and, as recent punishment is apt to affect the mind, almost all military men allowed their hair to be cropped in a proper manner without reluctance. But this decency was not of long continuance, for...
Page 160 - ... and with stones. Nor, indeed, were our foes at all remiss ; but trusting their whole security to their valour, they poured down grease and burning oil upon the tower, and slung stones on the soldiers, rejoicing in the completion of their desires by the destruction of multitudes. During the whole of that day the battle was such that neither party seemed to think they had been worsted ; on the following, which was the fifteenth of July, the business was decided. For the Franks, becoming more experienced...
Page 173 - Sometimes two of the skaters having placed themselves at a great distance apart by mutual agreement, come together from opposite sides; they meet, raise their poles, and strike each other; either one or both of them fall, not without some bodily hurt: even after their fall they are carried along to a great distance from each other by the velocity of the motion; and whatever part of their heads comes in contact with the ice is laid bare to the very skull.
Page 135 - AD 11 02, it is enacted, that those who had long hair should be cropped, so as to show part of the ear, and the eyes. From the apparently strange manner in which this fashion is coupled in Edmer, p. 81, one might be led to suspect, it was something more than mere spleen which caused this enactment.
Page 165 - In the mean time, the king with his troops, without repulse, freely and as though with permission, approached the gates of the city, which, with the application of the battering-ram, he forced in an instant, and having led in his army, took every hold in the city, even to Tancred's palace and the lodgings of the French around their king's quarters, which he spared in respect of the king his lord. The standards of the victors are planted on the towers through the whole circuit of the city, and each...