Meyrick's Medieval Knights and Armour

Samuel Rush Meyrick

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780486457512
• eBook ISBN: 9780486145587
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Captivated by military antiquities, English scholar Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783–1848) pursued a lifelong passion for studying and collecting medieval armory. The results of his work are a continual source of learning and fascination for weapons buffs and anyone interested in the medieval period. Brimming with over seventy full-color illuminated engravings from Meyrick's original 1842 survey of weaponry from the Middle Ages, here is a stunning historical showcase of European armor spanning the ninth to fifteenth centuries.
From Richard the Lionheart in full battle regalia to the equipage of numerous anonymous knights, Meyrick presents a splendid panorama of medieval paladins and their weapons. Since earliest times, man has fashioned items for personal defense—shields, swords, crossbows, helmets, ornate suits of body armor for knights and their steeds, and much more. Meyrick's Medieval Knights and Armour chronicles the military regalia of the Middle Ages in all its forms, and when applicable, highlights its connection with mythology, religion, the arts, civil polity, and entertainment in ancient, as well as modern, times.

INTRODUCTION.

ARMOUR had its origin in Asia, the warlike tribes of Europe at first contemned all protection but their innate courage, and considered any defence except the shield as a mark of effeminacy. The warm climate of Asia, however, together with its temptations to luxury, had too great a tendency to enervate its inhabitants, so that, to be on an equality with their neighbours, they were obliged to have recourse to artificial protection. As all the European armour, except the plate, which was introduced at the close of the fourteenth century, was borrowed from the Asiatics, it becomes necessary, towards its thorough elucidation, to give some introductory account of their antient armour.

ASIATIC ARMOUR.

IN considering the subject, I must be allowed to bring under this head the armour of the Egyptians, for though their country is not precisely in Asia, yet their habits were Asiatic, and different from those of the Africans, and their intercourse with Asia was so frequent and early, that I should think it a useless distinction to separate them.

EGYPTIAN ARMOUR.

NOTWITHSTANDING the effeminate character given to the Egyptians by Herodotus, we have reason to conclude, that in the earliest periods of their history, they had obtained some renown for their martial achievements. The battles of Sesostris, Asymanduas, and Xamolxis, though merely mythological, and referring to the propagation of particular religious tenets, would not have been represented under a military character, had it not at the time most suited the genius of the people. Herodotus tells us what were the arms and armour of the Egyptians, the helmet of Psammeticus was of brass, but metal was confined to kings and nobles, for the soldiery wore them of linen, strongly quilted, a fashion continued by the sailors so late as the time of Xerxes, who employed them in his expedition into Greece. The only body armour was the pectoral, which hung over the breast and shoulders like a tippet, this was made of linen several times folded, and quilted in such a manner as to resist the point of a weapon, it was of various colours, and one presented by Amasis, the king of Egypt, to the Lacedemonians, is said to have been adorned with many figures of animals, and enriched with gold. The chain was of admirable structure, fine and slender, although consisting of 363 distinct threads, that being a mystical number, viz., the number of days in the antient year, and, consequently, supposed to contain a charm. Such another, presented by the same king, was to be seen at Lindus, dedicated to Minerva. The warriors had likewise shields, which, in the time of Xerxes, were convex and, as weapons, a short sword and a javelin. The troops who fought in the ships had merely large daggers, while their commanders had javelins and immense double-axes. The ornaments of the warriors were torques and bracelets. From the Old Testament, we further learn, that war-chariots were used in great numbers by the kings of Egypt.

On the walls of the temple of Carnac are several representations of conquests, in which we have the armour, weapons, standards, and chariots of the Egyptians, but these bear so very strong a resemblance to Grecian workmanship, that there is no doubt of their having been painted during the Ptolomean dynasty.¹ They are engraved in Plate LXXIII of Denon’s Egypt. There is, too, a military triumph at a temple near Medinet-Abou, represented in Plate LXXIV of Denon, and several paintings of arms and armour, on the walls of a chamber in the tombs of the kings at Thebes. The Greek helmet, the shield, which, from its resemblance to a gate, being oblong and curved at top, they called θυρέoς, and the Grecian chariot, strike us at once, but the only body armour is the Egyptian pectoral. The colours of this last we learn from a painting discovered at Herculaneum, and published in the Antichite d’Ercolano, as we do those of the helmet, which appears to have had a kind of tiara or ornamented frontlet. We learn moreover, from Denon’s engraving, that this thureos was carried by putting the spear through the aperture made for looking at their enemies ; and also, that the quiver for lances, and the quiver for arrows, were put on each side the car, or across each other on one side, the warrior not only using his bow, but driving the horses, the reins being fastened round his waist. But the most curious painting on these walls, if correctly delineated, is a tunic of rings, set edgewise, or single mail, as it was afterwards called in Europe, as this is the earliest specimen of that species of hauberk.² Mr. Hope also, from Denon, has given the figure as he supposes of a priest, habited in a cuirass of scales, which comes up to the armpits, and is there held by shoulder-straps.

Plate I. contains specimens of these Græco-Egyptian arms and armour. Fig. 1. A cutting sword, with cord and tassel at the hilt, a practice still in fashion among the Persians. Fig. 2. A scymitar, with double cord to the hilt. Fig. 3. A long dagger in its sheath, with double cord, its general resemblance, particularly in the hilt, to the Moorish and Turkish daggers of the present day is strikingly curious. Fig. 4. A mace, with a guard for the hand. Fig. 5. The shield called Thureos. Fig. 6. A military pectora...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• List of Plates