Men-at-Arms, Fourteenth Century
Next, round plates of metal, called placates or roundels, were applied to shield the armpits from a thrust; and sometimes they were used also at the elbow to protect the inner side of the joint where, for the convenience of motion, it was destitute of armour. An example of a roundel at the shoulder will be seen in one of the men-at-arms in the woodcut
Justing.—XIV. Century
The figure is a representation of the just, taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library, of the thirteenth, or early in the fourteenth century, where two knights appear in the action of tilting at each other with the blunted spears.
The Feat of Arms at St. Inglebert’s
For an actual historical example of the tournament in which a number of knights challengers undertake to hold the field against all comers, we will take the passage of arms at St. Inglebert’s, near Calais, in the days of Edward III., because it is very fully narrated by Froissart, and because the splendid MS. of Froissart in the British Museum supplies us with a magnificent picture of the scene.
Flight of Princess Ermengarde
Carriage used about 1300-1350 in Flanders. Carriages were in use on the continent long before they were employed in England. In 1294, Philip the Fair of France issued an edict whose aim was the suppression of luxury; under this ordinance the wives of citizens were forbidden to use carriages, and the prohibition appears to have been rigorously enforced. They were used in Flanders during the first half of the fourteenth century; an ancient Flemish chronicle in the British Museum (Royal MSS. 16,[9] F. III.) contains a picture of the flight of Ermengarde, wife of Salvard, Lord of Rouissillon.