DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31962#0028
10
INTRODUCTION.
purpose, perhaps, than that which has been first mentioned; without we add the very probable one,
that by its colour, or figured devices, it afforded a ready distinction* * * § for the individual wearer.
Nicetas thus describes the attire of the Prince of Antioch, a French lord, at a tournament held in
honour of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus: " He was mounted on a beautiful horse, whiter than
snow, clothed in a coat-of-arms open on both sides, and which fell to his heels — a^n-to-^o/revos xn-tuva
5tayKta-7-oy 7ro5qye^." For an illustration, see the effigies of Geoffrey Magnaville and of the nameless
Templar.
The warriors represented in the Bayeux Tapestry wear no surcoatsover their coats of mail; but,
alter the first crusade, they are common on our historical sculptural memorials. Joinville, in his
Life of St. Louis, says: " I remember once the good Lord King (father to the King now on the
throne) speaking of the pomp of dress, and the embroidered coats-of-arms, that are now daily com-
mon in the armies, I said to the present King, that, when I was in the Holy Land with his father,
and in his army, I never saw one single embroidered coat, or ornamented saddle, in possession of the
King his father, or any other lord. He answered that he had done wrong in embroidering his arms,
and that he had some coats that had cost him eight hundred livres parisis."F At length, the surcoat
became an additional defence for the body, and was thickly gamboised, or quilted.
The same author, in the interesting personal narrative of his adventures in the Holy Land, cites a
striking instance of the efficacy of a quilted defence for the body: " I luckily found near me a gau-
bison of coarse cloth, belonging to a Saracen, and turning the slit part inward, I made a sort of
shield, which was of much service to me; for I was only wounded by their shots in five places,
whereas my horse was hurt in fifteen.
Those whose property did not qualify them to become knights, and wear the distinction of the
knightly order, the hauberk of mail, were to supply themselves with a quilted gambeson, or wambais,
as a defence:
" Quicumque vero 20 librarum vel amplius habebit de mobilibus, tenebitur habere loricam, vel
loricale et capellum ferreum et lanceam. Qui vero minus de 20 libris habebit de mobilibus, tenebitur
habere et capellum ferreum et lanceam."
In the inventory of the wearing-apparel of King Louis Hutin, made 1318, he gives us the follow-
ing items:
" Une cotte gamboisee de cendal blanc (white sarsenet). Deux tunicles et un gamboison des armes
de France. Une couverture de gamboisons brodees des armes du roi. Trois paires de couvertures
gamboisiees des armes du roi, et unes Indes jazequenees. Un cuisiax gamboisez (a pair of gamboised
cuisses). Unes couvertures gamboisees de France et de Navarre."
Mr. Stothard, in reference to the gamboising on monuments, in a letter to the Rev. T. Kerrich,
savs: " You recollect the armour on your Paris figures, formed of ribs running longitudinally. I
have not only discovered what it is intended to represent, but also lately found (in further proof that
* Inattention to this use of coat-armour cost an English Baron his life at the battle of Bannockburn, A.D. 1313 :
.'There was slain Gilbert de Clare, Earle of Glocester, whome the Scottes would gladly have kept for ransome, if they
had knowne him; but he had forgotten to put on his coate-of-armes."—Stow's Annales, p. 326, edit. 1592. The dis-
tinction afforded by coat-armour caused it to be styled "cognizance."
" Knights in their conisante clad lor the nonce."
The countryman's smockfrock, which in the body much resembled the long surcoat of the ancient knight, was called
a tabard. Thus Chaucer's ploughman,
" Took his tabarde, and staffe eke.
And on his hedde he set his hatte." Plowman's Tale.
-f Johnes's translation of Joinville's Memoirs, 4to, 180/, p. 94. f Ibid. p. 146.
f MS. of the year 1301, cited by Du Cange.
§ See Du Cange, Notes on the Memoir of St. Louis. Trans, p. 330.
INTRODUCTION.
purpose, perhaps, than that which has been first mentioned; without we add the very probable one,
that by its colour, or figured devices, it afforded a ready distinction* * * § for the individual wearer.
Nicetas thus describes the attire of the Prince of Antioch, a French lord, at a tournament held in
honour of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus: " He was mounted on a beautiful horse, whiter than
snow, clothed in a coat-of-arms open on both sides, and which fell to his heels — a^n-to-^o/revos xn-tuva
5tayKta-7-oy 7ro5qye^." For an illustration, see the effigies of Geoffrey Magnaville and of the nameless
Templar.
The warriors represented in the Bayeux Tapestry wear no surcoatsover their coats of mail; but,
alter the first crusade, they are common on our historical sculptural memorials. Joinville, in his
Life of St. Louis, says: " I remember once the good Lord King (father to the King now on the
throne) speaking of the pomp of dress, and the embroidered coats-of-arms, that are now daily com-
mon in the armies, I said to the present King, that, when I was in the Holy Land with his father,
and in his army, I never saw one single embroidered coat, or ornamented saddle, in possession of the
King his father, or any other lord. He answered that he had done wrong in embroidering his arms,
and that he had some coats that had cost him eight hundred livres parisis."F At length, the surcoat
became an additional defence for the body, and was thickly gamboised, or quilted.
The same author, in the interesting personal narrative of his adventures in the Holy Land, cites a
striking instance of the efficacy of a quilted defence for the body: " I luckily found near me a gau-
bison of coarse cloth, belonging to a Saracen, and turning the slit part inward, I made a sort of
shield, which was of much service to me; for I was only wounded by their shots in five places,
whereas my horse was hurt in fifteen.
Those whose property did not qualify them to become knights, and wear the distinction of the
knightly order, the hauberk of mail, were to supply themselves with a quilted gambeson, or wambais,
as a defence:
" Quicumque vero 20 librarum vel amplius habebit de mobilibus, tenebitur habere loricam, vel
loricale et capellum ferreum et lanceam. Qui vero minus de 20 libris habebit de mobilibus, tenebitur
habere et capellum ferreum et lanceam."
In the inventory of the wearing-apparel of King Louis Hutin, made 1318, he gives us the follow-
ing items:
" Une cotte gamboisee de cendal blanc (white sarsenet). Deux tunicles et un gamboison des armes
de France. Une couverture de gamboisons brodees des armes du roi. Trois paires de couvertures
gamboisiees des armes du roi, et unes Indes jazequenees. Un cuisiax gamboisez (a pair of gamboised
cuisses). Unes couvertures gamboisees de France et de Navarre."
Mr. Stothard, in reference to the gamboising on monuments, in a letter to the Rev. T. Kerrich,
savs: " You recollect the armour on your Paris figures, formed of ribs running longitudinally. I
have not only discovered what it is intended to represent, but also lately found (in further proof that
* Inattention to this use of coat-armour cost an English Baron his life at the battle of Bannockburn, A.D. 1313 :
.'There was slain Gilbert de Clare, Earle of Glocester, whome the Scottes would gladly have kept for ransome, if they
had knowne him; but he had forgotten to put on his coate-of-armes."—Stow's Annales, p. 326, edit. 1592. The dis-
tinction afforded by coat-armour caused it to be styled "cognizance."
" Knights in their conisante clad lor the nonce."
The countryman's smockfrock, which in the body much resembled the long surcoat of the ancient knight, was called
a tabard. Thus Chaucer's ploughman,
" Took his tabarde, and staffe eke.
And on his hedde he set his hatte." Plowman's Tale.
-f Johnes's translation of Joinville's Memoirs, 4to, 180/, p. 94. f Ibid. p. 146.
f MS. of the year 1301, cited by Du Cange.
§ See Du Cange, Notes on the Memoir of St. Louis. Trans, p. 330.