Brigandine of the fifteenth century. The scales were sewn upon a leather or quilted garment, the upper row overlapping the lower in such a manner that the attachment is covered and protected from injury (Plate I, 1). The scales were either formed with the lower edge rounded, like the scales of a fish, or were feather-shaped or square.

Another method of reinforcing the leather defence has been named the ‘Trellice’ coat. It is always difficult to discover exactly what the primitive draughtsman intended to represent in the way of fabrics, and it is quite open to question whether these diagonal lines may not merely suggest a quilting of linen or cloth. If it is intended to represent leather the trellice lines would probably be formed of thongs applied on to the groundwork with metal studs riveted in the intervening spaces (Plate I). This arrangement of lines is very common on the Bayeux Tapestry.

Plate I

Larger Image

1. Model of Scale armour 2. From Bib. Nat. Paris MS 403 XIIIth cent. 3. Model of trellice 4. From Bayeux Tapestry 5. Model of Ringed armour 6. From Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. 603, XIth cent. 7. Model of Mail 8. From the Album of Wilars de Honecort. XIIIth cent. 9. Model of Banded Mail 10. Model of Banded Mail after Meyrick. 11. Model of Banded Mail after Waller 12. Romance of Alexander Bib. Nat. Paris. circ. 1240 13. Figure on buttress of S. Mary’s Church, Oxford.

Another variety to be found in early illuminated manuscripts goes by the name of ‘Ringed’ armour. It is quite probable that the circular discs may have been solid, but on the other hand, from the practical point of view, a ring gives equal protection against a cutting blow, and is of course much lighter. The illustration of this form of defensive armour is of rather earlier date than that at which we commence our investigations, but it appears with some frequency in manuscripts of the twelfth century. Mr. J. G. Waller, in his article on the Hauberk of mail in Archaeologia, vol. lix, is of opinion that all these arrangements of line represent interlinked chain armour. If this is the case chain-mail must have been much more common than we imagine. From the very nature of its construction and the labour expended on its intricate manufacture it would surely, at least in the earlier periods, have been only the defence of the wealthy. When we examine the protective armour of primitive races we find quilted and studded garments used, even at the present day, so it seems far more probable that our illustrations represent some similar forms of defensive garments than that they are all incompetent renderings of the fabric of chain-mail only.

That the making of chain-mail must have been laborious in the extreme we may judge from the fact that the wire which formed the links had to be hammered out from the solid bar or ingot. As far as can be gathered, the art of wire-drawing was not practised till the fourteenth century, at which time Rudolph of Nuremberg is credited with its discovery. The roughly-hammered strips were probably twisted spirally round an iron or wood core and then cut off into rings of equal size (Fig. 1). The ends of the rings were flattened and pierced, and, when interlaced, the pierced ends were riveted together or sometimes, as is the case with Oriental mail, welded with heat. Links that are ‘jumped’, that is with the ends of the ring merely butted together and not joined, generally show either that the mail is an imitation, or that it was used for some ceremonial purpose; for this insecure method of fixing would be useless in the stress and strain of battle or active service. The most usual method of interlinking the rings is for each ring to join four others, as will be seen in the drawing on Plate I, No. 7. No. 8 on the same plate shows the mail as more generally depicted in illuminations. When we consider the inexperience of the scribes and illustrators of the Middle Ages we must admit that this representation of a very intricate fabric is not only very ingenious but follows quite the best modern impressionist doctrines.

Portions of chain-mail survive in most armouries and museums, but their provenance is generally unknown, and much that is of Oriental origin is passed off as European. Chain-mail itself comes in the first instance from the East, but when it was introduced into Europe is difficult, if not impossible, to state. It is certainly represented as worn by the Scythians and Parthians on the Trajan Column, and is probably of greater antiquity still.

Fig. 1.
Probable method
of making links
for mail.

From the beginning of the thirteenth century, for about sixty or seventy years, we find a curious arrangement of lines intended to represent a form of defensive armour, both in illuminated manuscripts and also on carved monuments (Plate I, 12, 13).

Mr. Waller, in the article on the Hauberk referred to above, gives it as his opinion that this ‘Banded Mail’, as it is called, was but a variety of the ordinary interlinked mail; but if we examine the illuminations of the period we shall find that it is shown side by side with the representation of what all authorities admit to be chain-mail. No. 12 on Plate I shows the arm and leg defences to be formed of this banded mail, while the head is protected with the ordinary chain-mail. We have then to try and discover how these horizontal bands dividing each row of links in the mail can be shown in a practical form. Meyrick vaguely suggests a row of rings sewn edgeways on the body garment and threaded with a leather thong (Plate I, 10), with the under fabric caught up between the rows of rings and formed into a piping through which a cord was threaded. This theory has been quoted by Viollet-le-Duc in his Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français, by Dr. Wendelin Boeheim in his Waffenkunde, and by more recent writers; but none of these authorities seems to have taken the trouble to test its practicability. The human body being rounded, the tendency of these edge-sewn rings would be to ‘gape’ and thus give an opening for the weapon. In addition to this, the number of rings so used would make the weight of the defence, hanging as it did from the shoulders alone, almost insupportable. A third and