Armour & Weapons

22 THE AGE OF MAIL CHAP. I with that of the arms and legs, but the leather thongs have been omitted on the head and hands to give greater ease of movement. Before leaving the subject of fabrics it may be well to warn those who consult Meyrick that this author is rather prone to enunciate theories of the different forms of mail which, like that of the banded mail, do not work well in practice. He mentions, among many other varieties, what he calls ‘ Mascled ’ mail. He asserts that this was formed of lozenge-shaped plates cut out in the centre and applied to linen or leather. He says that it was so called from its likeness to the meshes of a net (Lat. macula). Now when, we consider that the word ‘ mail ’ itself comes to us from the Latin ‘ macula ’, through the French ‘ maille ’ and the Italian ‘ maglia we find that Meyrick’s ‘ Mascled mail ’ is but a tautological expression which can best be applied to the net-like fabric of the interlinked chain defence, and so his ‘ Mascled mail ’ would more correctly be styled a ‘ Mascled coat and this coat would probably be formed of the chain variety as resembling the meshes of a net more closely than any other fabric. Double mail is sometimes to be met with on carved monuments, and this would be constructed in the same manner as the single mail ; but two links would be used together in every case where one is used in the single mail. Having briefly described the varieties of fabric and material which were in use at the time of the Conquest for defensive armour, we may pass to the forms in which those materials were made up. The first garment put on by the man-at-arms was the Tunic, which was a short linen shirt reaching usually to just above the knee ; it is often shown in miniatures of the period beneath the edge of the coat of mail. At one period the tunic appears to have been worn incon- veniently long, if we are to judge from the seals of Richard I, in which it is shown reaching to the feet. This long under-garment was quite given up by the beginning of the thirteenth century, and those representations of J oan of Arc which show a long under-tunic falling from beneath the breastplate are based upon no reliable authority.