Armour & Weapons

CHAP. Ill THE WEARING OF ARMOUR 63 The armour for jousts and tourneys was much heavier than the Hosting or War harness. From the fact, which has been previously noticed, that the combatants passed each other on the left, this side of the armour was reinforced to such a degree that in time it presented a totally different appearance from the right side (see Plate VII). The weight of jousting armour was so great that it was impossible for the wearer to mount without assistance. De Pluvinel, in his Maneige Royal (1629), gives an imaginary con- versation between himself and the King (Louis XIV) as follows :— The King. ‘ It seems to me that such a man would have difficulty in getting on his horse, and being on to help himself.’ De Pluvinel. ‘ It would be very difficult, but with this arming the matter has been provided for. In this manner at triumphs and tourneys there ought to be at the two ends of the lists a small scaffold, the height of a stirrup, on which two or three persons can stand, that is to say, the knight, an armourer to arm him, and one other to help him. The knight being armed and the horse brought close to the stand, he easily mounts him.’ Reference has been made to the fact that modern writers call the sliding rivet the ' Almain ’ rivet. Whenever mentioned in Inventories and such-like documents, the Almain rivet stands for a suit of light armour. Garrard, in his Art of Wane (1591), dis- tinctly says, ‘ The fore part of a corselet and a head peece and tasses is the almayne rivet.’ Among the purchases made on the Continent by Henry VIII in 1512 may be noted 2,000 Almain rivets, each consisting of a salet, a gorget, a breastplate, a back- plate, and a pair of splints (short taces). In the Inventory of the goods of Dame Agnes Huntingdon, executed at Tyburn for murdering her husband in 1523, we find ‘ sex score pare of harness of Alman rivets The ‘ pare of course, refers to the breast- and backplates. The word Alman, Almaine, or Almain, shows that the invention of this light armour and the