The knightly Sword of this day resembled in its essentials that of the preceding century: indeed, it did not materially change during the whole Gothic period. The blade was straight, broad, double-edged, and pointed. The type is well shewn in the second seal of Henry III. (woodcut, No. 81).

The cross-piece was usually curved towards the blade, as represented in several of our engravings. Sometimes this curved guard threw out a kind of cusp in the middle, as in the sculpture at Haseley, (woodcut 46,) and the effigy figured by Stothard, Plate xx. The cross-bar was at other times straight, as in the seal of King John (woodcut, No. 52), and in our other woodcuts numbered 53, 56, and 63. Compare the sword of De Vere (Stothard, Pl. xxxvi.). A variety of the straight guard forms also a cusp over the centre of the blade, as in the example given in our engraving, No. 80. The knightly effigy in Walkerne Church (Hollis, Pt. i.) has a sword-guard in the form of a chevron. Edward I., on his great seal, (woodcut, No. 85,) offers us a further variety, in which the outline somewhat resembles that of the Greek bow.

The pommel of the sword during this century takes many forms: the round, the trefoil, the cinquefoil, the rosette, the lozenge, the conical, the pear-shaped, the square, and the fleur-de-lis. The round is either plain or ornamented on its sides: in the latter case the ornament is usually a cross, or a shield of arms. The plain round pommel is generally wheel-formed; that is, it has a projection in the centre something like the nave of a wheel. See Journal of Archæological Association, vol. i. p. 336. The sacred symbol of the Cross is very frequently found on the circular pommel; as in our woodcuts, No. 55 and 77. The shield of arms appears in our engraving, No. 70. Compare the Fitz-Alan monument (Hollis, Pt. iv.). The trefoil pommel is represented in our cuts, No. 56 and 74; the cinquefoil, on our engraving, No. 64, and in Plate xx. of Stothard's Monuments. The rose form occurs in our woodcut, No. 62; the lozenge on the effigy of King John (Stothard, Pl. xi.); the conical, in our print, No. 63; the pear-shaped, in Stothard's 37th Plate; the square, on Plate xxxv. of the Painted Chamber; and the fleur-de-lis on the seal of Edward I. (woodcut, No. 85).

The sword-handle is sometimes of a highly enriched character. That of King John, on his monument in Worcester Cathedral, represents a weapon in which both pommel and cross-bar were inlaid with precious stones. Ornamental grips are seen in the monument of Crouchback (Stothard, Pl. xliii. fig. 4), and the brass of De Bures, 1302 (Waller, Pt. ii.).

The Sheath also occasionally exhibits enrichments. These are either metal harnessings, of Gothic patterns, similar to the architectural designs of the day, as in our woodcut, No. 70, and the effigy of Brian, lord Fitz-Alan (Hollis, Pt. iv.); or the scabbard is embellished from end to end with a series of shields of arms, as in our engraving, No. 73, and the statue of De Montfort (Stothard, Pl. xxxix.). These escutcheons were probably tinctured by means of enamel.

The characteristic Sword-Belt of this century consisted of two straps, a long and a short one. The long strap was looped to the scabbard about two hands-breadths from the top, passed round the waist, and fastened to the buckle in front, leaving a long end tipped with a metal tag. The short strap held the buckle, and was split into two thongs, one of which was laced into the top of the (leather) scabbard; the other, passing obliquely across the sheath, being laced into the loop of the long strap below. See our woodcuts, Nos. 55 and 73. A variety of this mode consisted in attaching the long and short straps to the scabbard by ring-lockets of metal, in lieu of the loop and lacings. This occurs late in the century. See woodcut, No. 70, and the effigy of Brian Fitz-Alan (Hollis, Pt. iv.). The common sword-belt of the soldiery was formed on the old plan: at one end of a broad strap were two clefts, through which the two thongs into which the other end was split were passed and tied into a knot. See woodcut, No. 63. The figures there given represent the soldiers of Herod engaged in the Massacre of the Innocents. The knightly sword-belt is often highly enriched; being covered with elaborate patterns, worked in the most brilliant colours, and harnessed with bars and bosses of gilt metal, or perhaps of gold itself; the bosses, towards the end of the period, taking not unfrequently the form of lions' heads. The ornament of bars only, appears on a Temple Church effigy, figured by Hollis, Pt. i.; of bars and rosettes, in Stothard's 15th and 45th Plates; of a painted pattern, in Plate xxi. of Stothard's work; of bosses in the form of lions' heads, in Part iv. of Hollis. The sword-belt of Edmund Crouchback is enriched with heraldic bearings. See Stothard, Pl. xliii. detail 1.

Minute variations from the above types of Sword-belt may be found, but do not seem to require a particular description. We must not omit to remark, however, that, in some early monuments of this period, the sword is represented as worn at the right side of the warrior. Three effigies in the Temple Church, London, exhibit this arrangement.

At York, on Christmas-day, 1252, King Henry III. conferred knighthood on the young king of Scotland; who, the day following, espoused the Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry, amidst great rejoicings and a splendid ceremonial. To obtain a detailed description of the Sword used by the king of England on this occasion was scarcely within the hope of the archæologist; but, singularly enough, such an account, of curious minuteness, has come down to us. It is preserved in the Tower, (Close Rolls, 36 H. III. m. 31,) and has been Printed in Walpole's "Painting in England" (vol. i. chap. 1):—

"Mandatum est Edwardo de Westm. quod cum festinatione perquirat quendam pulchrum gladium et scauberg. ejusdem de serico, et pomellum de argento bene et ornate cooperiri, et quandam pulcram zonam eidem pendi faciat, ita quod gladium illum sic factum habeat apud Ebor., de quo Rex Alexandrum Regem Scotiæ illustrem cingulo militari decorare possit in instanti festo Nativitatis Dominicæ. Teste Rege apud Lychfeld xxi. die Novembr. Per ipsum Regem."

Besides the ordinary knightly sword of the thirteenth century, the size of which is authenticated by many existing monuments, we have the evidence of cotemporary writers that swords of differing sizes were employed by different nations. The Germans affected a large brand, the French a shorter weapon. Thus Guiart:—

And again, under 1301:—

In the description of the Battle of Benevento, in 1266, Hugues de Bauçoi, an eye-witness of the conflict, tells us that the troops of Manfred, Germans and Saracens, fought with long swords, axes and maces; but the French, coming to close quarters, pierced them with their short swords: "ex brevibus spathis suis eorum latera perfodiebant[364]." Guillaume de Nangis gives similar testimony[365]. How far these German weapons approached the great two-hand swords of later times, or the French reverted to the short blade of the Romans, it is vain to inquire. Commentators have seen in the above descriptions both the types here named; but the evidence of pictorial monuments does not confirm the conclusion. As large and small are but comparative terms, it is probable that the swords of the French and Germans differed in no great degree.

Other varieties of Sword which appear in the thirteenth century are the Falchion, the curved Sabre, the Espée à l'estoc, the Cultellus, and the Anelace.

The Falchion (fauchon, Fr., from the Latin falx) is of two kinds: the first a broad blade, becoming wider towards the point, the edge convex, the back concave; as in this example from the Painted Chamber:

the other differing from it only in having the back quite straight. The latter is figured on Plate xxxi. of the Painted Chamber; and of this form is the curious tenure sword of the lordship of Sockburn, co. Durham, engraved in the Archæologia, vol. xv. Plate xxvi. See, in Blount's "Antient Tenures," an account of this weapon; of the "monstrous Dragon, Worm, or flying Serpent, that devoured Men, Women, and Children," which fell at last under its keen edge; and of the "tomb of the great Ancestor of the Conyers, having carvings of the falchion, and of a dog, and of the monstrous Worm or Serpent, lying at the Knight's feet, of his own killing, of which the History of the Family gives the above account." The passage is too long for extract[366].

The falchion is a weapon of very remote antiquity. It appears among the paintings on the tomb at Thebes of Rameses III., b.c. 1230. See Plate iii. of Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians" (ed. 1837). And it is found, almost identical in shape, in the wall-paintings of the Ajunta Caves, of the first century of the Christian era; of which a careful copy has been made for the Museum of the East India House. Guiart often mentions it in the Chronique Métrique, as in this passage:—

The curved Sabre is of very rare appearance. It occurs among the pictures of the Painted Chamber, Plate xxxv.

The Epée à l'estoc (Stabbing Sword) is named in a judgment of the Parliament of Paris in 1268: "Sufficienter inventum est quod dictus Boso dictum Ademarum percussit cum Ense a estoc in dextro latero propria manu, et de ipso ictu cecidit dictus Ademarus." It appears also to be the weapon which Rigord assigns to some of the imperial troops at the battle of Bovines: "Habebant cultellos longos, graciles, triacumines, quolibet acumine indifferenter secantes, a cuspide usque ad manubrium, quibus utebantur pro gladiis."

The Cultellus, as we have seen[368], was a weapon partaking of the character of the sword and the dagger. It clearly varied in size; for Odo de Rossilion, in 1298, names in his will "meum magnum cultellum et meam parvam ensem." Being the chief arm of the coustillers, it must have been of some considerable size: and of this larger kind must also have been the weapon assigned, in the "Outillement du villain," to the peasant, for the defence of his home:—

In other places, it appears as a mere secondary arm, a knife or dagger; as in the Statutes of Arms already cited, where the various classes of proprietors are directed to have "espe, cutel e cheval," or "espe e cutel," or "espes, arcs, setes e cutel."

The particular construction of the Anelace, as well as the derivation of its name, has hitherto eluded the most careful examination of antiquaries and glossarists. Some have referred the name to the Latin or Italian, annulus, or annello. Others to the Old-German, Laz, from latus; the weapon being therefore a "side-arm." Matthew Paris often uses the word, and tells us that the arm was worn at the girdle: "Loricâ erat indutus, gestans anelacium ad lumbare." Without hoping to settle this question, we may venture to point out that a weapon of the dagger kind, carried at the belt, and having a chain with a ring running loosely upon the grip, to prevent its being lost in the mêlée, was certainly in use during the middle-ages; an example of which may be seen in the effigy of William Wenemaer, at Ghent, dated 1325; engraved in the Archæological Journal, vol. vii. p. 287. We may note also that the wheel-like form of the guard may have supplied the name; for Florio, in the sixteenth century, defines "Annelle" to be "thin plates of iron made like rings, called of our gunners washers," &c. Guiart also mentions the anelace: under the year 1298, he has:—

In the manufacture of Swords at this period, Cologne seems to have had the palm. The volume of Proverbs already noticed gives the highest place to the "Espees de Cologne." And Matthew Paris, under 1241[369], relating how certain wicked German Jews, wishing to assist the Tartars, sent them certain barrels, (filled, as they told the Christians, with poisoned wine,) adds that, on the toll-man suspiciously scrutinizing the contents, "all the casks were found to be filled with Cologne swords and daggers, without hilts, closely and compactly stowed away. The Jews were, therefore, at once handed over to the executioners, to be either consigned to perpetual imprisonment, or to be slain with their own swords."

The Exercise of the Sword and Buckler (Eskirmye de Bokyler) was in vogue in this century, and schools were established for teaching it. But disorders arising from the practice, the schools were ordered to be closed. Thus the "Statuta Civitatis London" of the 13 Edw. I. has: "Primerement pur ceo qe multz des mals com des murdres robberyes e homycides ont este fetz ca en arrere deinz la Citee de nuyt e de jour, e gentz batues e mal tretes e autres diverses aventures de mal avenuz encontre sa pes (du roi), defendu est qe nul seit si hardi estre trove alaunt ne batraunt parmy les ruwes de la Citee apres coeverfu parsone a seint Martyn le grant, a espey ne a bokuyler ne a autre arme pur mal fere ne dount mal suspecion poet vienir, &c....

"Ensement pur ceo qe fous qe sei delitent a mal fere vount aprendre eskirmye de bokyler e de ceo plus sei abaudissent de fere lour folyes, purveu est e defendu qe nul ne tiegne eskole ne aprise de eskirmye de bokyler de deinz la Citee de nuyt ne de jour, e si nul le faceo, eit la prison de xl. jours."

Representations of the Sword-and-buckler contest occur in Roy. MSS. 14, E. iii. and 20, D. vi., both engraved in Strutt's Sports. See also Hefner, Pt. ii. Plate vii. All these, however, are miniatures of the fourteenth century; though 14, E. iii. is early in the period. From these examples we learn that the buckler was about a foot and a half in diameter, had a boss in the centre, and was held at arm's length by a bar crossing the hollow of the umbo, exactly in the manner of the Anglo-Saxon shields described and figured in a former page. (See woodcut, No. 20.)

Occasionally the figure of a Sword was carved on the tomb of the knight, to indicate his calling, as in this incised slab from Brougham Church, Westmoreland, commemorating one of the Brougham family. The example is further curious from its including also the round shield of the period; differing, as we see, from the buckler named above, in having no boss. The sword is usually, on tombs of this kind, accompanied by a Cross: sometimes it forms itself the cross on the monument, as in the Gorforth memorial, engraved on page 84 of Mr. Boutell's work on Incised Slabs. At Aycliffe, Durham, is a tomb on which appears a cross, having on one side a sword, on the other a hammer and pincers. This group of emblems has been thought to indicate a weapon-smith. The monument is figured in the Archæological Journal, vol. v. p. 257. Not the sword only, but the spear, the axe, the dagger, and other weapons, are found on the incised slabs of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; many examples of which may be seen in the works on these memorials by the Rev. Mr. Cutts and the Rev. Mr. Boutell.

The Dagger by no means filled that prominent place in the knightly equipment during this century which it is found to occupy in the fourteenth; though, towards the close of the period, it is seen to be coming into vogue. It is worn by the knights represented in our engravings, Nos. 58 and 72; and the Ash Church effigy (woodcut, No. 59) shews us the lace by which the dagger, now destroyed, was fastened to the waist-belt. The figure of De Montford (Stothard, Pl. xxxix.) has the dagger. It appears also in the Shurland monument (Stothard, Pl. xli.), worn by the knight's attendant; and in this example the guard of it is formed of two knobs, a fashion occasionally found up to the sixteenth century. In Durham Cathedral is preserved a real dagger, which is believed to have belonged to one of the retainers of Bishop Anthony in 1283. It is entirely of iron, and the blade, which is sixteen inches in length, is inscribed "Anton: Eps: Dunolm.[370]"

Under the name of Misericordia, the dagger has an early mention in the Charter of Arras, in 1221: "Quicumque cultellum cum cuspide, vel curtam sphatulam, vel misericordiam, vel aliqua arma multritoria portaverit," &c. Under 1302, Guiart speaks of it by the same name:—

And under 1303:—

This name of misericorde appears to have been given because, in the last struggle of contending foes, the uplifted dagger compelled the discomfited fighter to cry for mercy. In this view, the murderous misericorde was by the middle-age poets assigned to "Pity," as an emblem of her benevolence. Thus Jean de Méun in the Romance of the Rose:—

The Short Axe is very rarely given to the knightly combatant by the artists of the thirteenth century. It appears to have been resigned to the less dignified order of soldiery. The form of the head exhibits three principal varieties: the single blade, of which we have a good example in Harl. MS. 4,751, fol. 8 (woodcut, No. 50); the double weapon, in which one side has a vertical axe-blade and the other a pick (see Strutt's Dress and Habits, Pl. lxv.); and the double weapon, in which one side has a horizontal blade and the other a pick (see Stothard's Monuments, Pl. xix.). Guiart, under 1264, mentions the axe mingling in the strife of battle with the mace and the sword:—

And when, in the same year 1264, the Earl of Leicester assembled his army on Barham Downs, in addition to the ordinary military levy, every township was required to send eight, six, or four footmen well armed with spears, bows and arrows, swords, cross-bows, and hatchets. (New Rymer, 444.)

From the collection of thirteenth-century Proverbs, which has already supplied us with several curious particulars of this early time, we learn that the "Haches de Dannemark" held the first place among the axes of the period: but whether this distinction is accorded for the form or the manufacture of the weapon, is not clear. Matthew Paris speaks of it under 1256: "Cum jaculis——Danisque securibus et gesis[371]——hostiliter insequuntur."

The "Danish Axe" is mentioned in several military tenures of this century; but a more remote antiquity is usually assigned to the origin of the grant itself. The weapon (more or less original) was always exhibited with great pride in the family mansion. Dugdale tells us that Plumpton in Warwickshire "was possest in Henry 3. time by one Walter de Plompton, who held these lands by a certain weapon called a Danish Axe: which, being the very Charter whereby the said land was given unto one of his Ancestors, hung up for a long time in the Hall of the capitall messuage belonging thereto, in testimony of the said tenure; untill that the said House was seized upon by Sir John Bracebrigge, Knight, Lord of Kingsburie in Edward 3. time, and pulled to the ground: After which it remained a great while in the Hall of the mansion belonging to William de Plompton, in Hardreshull (about two miles distant), being commonly reputed and called the Charter of Plomton[372]."

And in the 12th Edw. I.: "Robertus Hurding tenet unam acram terrae et unum furnum in villa Castri de Lanceveton (Launceston, co. Cornwall) nomine serjantiae essendi in Castro de Lanceveton cum uno Capello ferreo et una Hachet Denesh per xl. dies tempore guerrae ad custum suum proprium, et post xl. dies, si Dominus Castri velit ipsum tenere in eodem Castro, erit ad custus ipsius domini[373]."

The Mace is both named and pictured in evidences of this century. Matthew Paris, describing the disasters of a tournament near Hertford in 1241, adds: "Many other knights and men-at-arms were also wounded and seriously injured with maces (clavis) at this same tournament, because the jealousy of many of those concerned had converted the sport into a battle[374]." This and similar mishaps led to the mace, with other weapons, being interdicted at these pastimes; for in a "Statutum Armorum ad Torniamenta" of this century, it is ordered by the king "qe nul Chivaler ne Esquier qe sert al Turney ne porte espeie a point, ne cotel a point, ne bastoun, ne mace, fors espee large pur turneer[375]." Pictured examples of the mace occur in Roy. MS. 20, D. i., ff. 12 and 69; and on Plate xxxiii. of the Painted Chamber. The striking part is formed in the manner of a cogged wheel: the top sometimes terminates in a knob; sometimes it is prolonged into a pike.

The Bâton named in the above Statute was probably no more than a stout cudgel. The form of the tournament bâton of a later time is given in full detail in the "Tournois du roi René."

The long-handled weapons of the infantry named in this century are the Guisarme, the Godendac, the Croc, the Faus, the Faussar, and the Pilete.

The Guisarme, or Pole-axe, has already been described, (ante, p. 50). It is named by Matthew Paris: "Gestabant autem gladios, bipennes, gaesa, sicas et anelacios." It occurs also in the Statute of Winchester: "E que ad meyns des chateus de xl. soudes, seyt juree as faus, gysarmes, coteaux e autres menus armes." The Pole-axe with a single vertical blade is seen in a miniature of the thirteenth century, inserted into the Gospels of Mac Durnan in the Lambeth Library (figured in Westwood's Palæographia); and it appears again in the Lives of the Offas, Cott. MS., Nero, D. i.

The Godendac was the name given by the Flemings to the Halbard. Guiart, describing the battle of Courtrai, in 1302, has this very curious passage:—

Should the axe-stroke fail, then the skilful halbardier repairs his mishap with a prompt thrust of the piked head:—

The halbard, consisting of an axe-blade balanced by a pick, and having a pike-head at the end of the staff, is figured on Plate xxxi. of the Painted Chamber.

The Faus (falso: from falx) appears to have been a kind of spear with a broad, cut-and-thrust blade. It is made synonymous with the spear in this passage of the Synodus Nemausensis, in 1284: (de Clericis) "Enses non deferant, nec cultellos acutos, nec lanceas seu falsones," &c. But in the Statuta Eccles. Cadurcensis, in 1289, it is distinguished from the spear: "balistas et arcus, lanceas, falsones, costalarios seu alia arma non deferant." In the Statute of Winchester, as we have seen, (ante, p. 211,) it was placed at the head of the humbler class of weapons prescribed to the militia of small means.

The Faussar, a kindred word, was probably a kindred weapon. Like the falso, it most likely presented some variety in the exemplars turned out from the village weaponers' smithies. One kind was three-edged, and had a second name, the Trialemellum. At Bovines, "Ante oculos ipsius regis occiditur Stephanus de Longo Campo, in capite percussus longo, gracili Trialemello[376], quem Falsarium nominant[377]." The faussar appears to have been sometimes used as a missile: thus, in the Chron. de Duguesclin (of the fourteenth century) we are told that the combatants

The Croc was probably the Bill. It is named by Guiart among the weapons of the Ribauds in 1214:—

The fashion of the Bill of this time, a broad, cutting blade, forming a beak near the top and terminating in a pike, may be seen in Plate xxxi. of the Painted Chamber.

The Pilete (dimin. of Pilum) named in the above passage of Guiart, was a pike, the exact form of which, like that of so many of the weapons of this period, has not been ascertained. The "macue torte" is a knotted club.

The missile weapons of this day were the javelin, the long-bow, the cross-bow, the cord-sling and the staff-sling.

The Javelin is mentioned by Matthew Paris: "cum jaculis Danisque securibus et gesis[378]."

The Long-bow has already been noticed in our examination of the troops of this century. Its form is seen in our woodcuts, Nos. 47, 48, 49 and 50. The fashion of the Quiver appears in the engraving from Roy. MS. 20, D. i. (No. 47). The feathering of the arrows is shewn in the same print; the shaft and head in woodcut, No. 82, from the Painted Chamber. Besides the ordinary arrows, shafts armed with phials of quick-lime were occasionally discharged from the long-bow. Strutt, in his Horda[379], has furnished an example of this missile, from a MS. of Matthew Paris in Benet College, Cambridge (copied in our woodcut, No. 51); and in the Additamenta to the printed History of Matthew Paris, page 1091, is given the letter of Sir Guy, a knight of the household of the Viscount of Melun, in which, recounting the capture of Damietta, he says: "We discharged fiery darts (spicula ignita) and stones from our sea mangonels, and we threw small bottles full of lime (phialas plenas calce), made to be shot from a bow, or small sticks like arrows against the enemy. Our darts, therefore, pierced the bodies of their pirates, while the stones crushed them, and the lime, flying out of the broken bottles, blinded them."

The Cross-bow, as we have seen, (ante, p. 201,) was in general use throughout this century. It is figured in our woodcuts, Nos. 49 and 50. In both these examples there is a provision for holding down the bow with the foot, while the cord was drawn up to the notch. The bow might thus be bent by the hand: but there appears also to have been, at this early date, some apparatus similar to the moulinet of later days, by which a stouter bow might be easily bent by mechanical appliance. Such a bow was called an "arbaleste à tour," and the instrument by which it was wound up was named "la clef." No delineation of this little engine has yet been noticed among the monuments of the time. Guiart has:—

And again:—

Several further varieties of the Cross-bow are named about this time:—Balistæ corneæ; ad stapham[381]; ad viceas[382]; de torno vel de lena[383]; ad unum pedem; ligneæ ad duos pedes; de cornu ad duos pedes; a pectoribus; a pesarola[384]; and among the rest, a Double Cross-bow, discharging two quarrels: "Balista sine nuce, quæ duos projicit quarrellos." See Ducange and Adelung, v. Balista.

The Quarrel (carreau), as its name indicates, was an arrow with a four-sided or pyramidal head. This distinctive form of the arbalest shaft is carefully kept in view in the illumination from Add. MS. 15,268 (our No. 49); where, while the archer plies his barbed arrow, the cross-bowman discharges his angular quarrel. The feathering of the quarrel is seen very clearly in woodcut, No. 50; where the markings shew that feathers are really intended, and not slices of wood, leather, or metal. These last-named materials being found in later monuments, it seems not unlikely that they may have been used thus early; and we have the distinct evidence of cotemporary writers that the larger quarrels discharged from the engines called espringales were "empennés d'airain[385]."

The Slings of this period have already been noticed (page 204): the cord-sling is figured in our woodcut, No. 50, the staff-sling in No. 51.

The Military Flail appears in the following woodcut from Strutt's Horda vol. i., Plate xxxii. The original miniature is in the MS. of Matthew Paris, at Benet College, Cambridge, which has already furnished us with examples of the Staff-sling and other weapons of this time. The flail-man in our engraving is engaged in the assault of a castle: other assailants in the same vessel are armed with bows and slings. Adelung cites the following passage, in which the flail is mentioned under the name of flaellum: "Cum ducentis hominibus in armis, electis et gleatis, et cum flaellis[386]."

The Greek Fire, still rejected among the nations of Western Europe, for the reasons assigned in a former page, was in frequent use among the Saracens. In 1250, the Christians, advancing towards Damietta by water, were intercepted by their enemies. "The Saracens in their vessels met the Christians sailing down the river, where a most fatal naval conflict ensued, the missiles of the combatants flying like hail. At length, after an obstinate battle, rendered more dreadful by the Greek fire hurled on them by the Saracens, the Christians, being worn out by grief and hunger, suffered a defeat[387]." The letter "to his respected lord, Richard, earl of Cornwall," from "John, his Chancellor," gives a similar account of this terrible fight; from which one only of the Christians escaped, "Alexander Giffard, an Englishman of noble blood." "The Saracens, by throwing Greek fire on the Christians, burnt many of their boats and killed the people in them, thus obtaining the victory. The Christians were drowned, slain, and burnt[388]." The authors of the treatise, Du feu grégeois, Captain Favé and M. Reinaud, remark that during the fifty-seven years of the reign of French princes at Constantinople (taken in 1204), the secret of the Greek fire could not have remained concealed from men who had made some advances in the science of chymistry. "Mais alors les préjugés de l'ignorance se joignaient aux idées religieuses et aux sentimens chevaleresques, pour repousser l'emploi d'un art qui semblait rendre inutiles la force et le courage individuels[389]."

In the East, however, the employment of incendiary weapons was constant, and the variety of them very great. An Arabic treatise of this century, published in the work named above by MM. Reinaud and Favé, gives us the most curious information relating to them, and the interest of the manuscript is heightened by its containing drawings (somewhat rude, it is true) of the principal instruments and engines described. From this "Treatise on the Art of Fighting," by Hassan Alrammah, we learn that the Arabs of the thirteenth century employed their incendiary compositions in four different ways: they cast them by hand; they fixed them to staves, with which they attacked their enemies; they poured forth the fire through tubes; and they projected burning mixtures of various kinds by means of arrows, javelins, and the missiles of the great engines resembling the trebuchets and mangonæ of their Western neighbours. Among these fire-weapons we have—"Balles de verre; Pots à feu; La Maison de feu; Massue de guerre; Massue pour asperger; Lance de guerre; Lance à fleurs; Lance avec massue; La lance avec la flèche du Khatay; Flèches en roseau; Flèches du mangonneau; Flèches de la Chine; Marmite de l'Irac; Marmite de Mokharram; Vase de Helyledjeh; Cruche de Syrie (the last four for the mangonel); L'œuf qui se meut et qui brûle (Captain Favé takes this to be a projectile on the principle of our rockets); Dard du Khatay; Des Coupes; Des Volants; Des Lunes," &c.

The vessels of glass and pottery, discharged by hand or by machines, were so contrived that on striking the object at which they were aimed, their contents spread around, and the fire, already communicated by a fusee, enveloped everything within its reach. A soldier on whose head was broken a fire-mace, became suddenly soaked with a diabolical fluid, which covered him from head to foot with flame; and a flame of so terrible a nature that it was believed to be absolutely inextinguishable. The receipt for making the Massue de Guerre is given with great particularity: "Tu feras faire par le verrier une massue, &c. Ensuite tu feras les mélanges usités, &c. Tu mettras le feu à la massue et tu la briseras pour le service de Dieu[390]." One of the lances is furnished with a firework "so that the spear shall burn the enemy, after having wounded him with its point." Another lance "brulera bien et s' étendra à plus de mille coudées." It will be remembered that the Arabic superlative is commonly expressed by "a thousand." What we learn, therefore, is that this fire-missile was contrived to wound at a distance. In applying the Massue à asperger, you are to break it against the person of your antagonist, "but keep out of the current of the wind, lest the sparks return upon and burn you." The machines for casting forth the fire-pots and vases of larger dimension bear so close a resemblance to the trebuchets and mangonas in use by the Christian nations, that Captain Favé is inclined to think that the latter warriors copied their engines from those of the Arabs during the Crusades (p. 49).

On the second plate of the treatise are given examples of two of the Arabian mangonels. One is formed of a sling and weighted lever, like the instruments represented in Roy. MS. 16, G. vi., engraved in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations," and on the ivory casket figured in the fourth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Association. The other differs only in having, in lieu of a weight, a number of cords hanging from the end of the lever; from which it would appear that the lever was in this case moved by men acting together by means of the cords. Captain Favé remarks that the expressions, La flèche de la Chine, La fleur de la Chine, in shewing us that the Chinese practised the fabrication of incendiary agents and contributed these names to the Arabs at so early a period, may permit us to suppose that this mode of warfare received its chief development from them, and even that to them may be ascribed its invention (p. 44).

The various Standards and Flags found in the last period are continued throughout the present. But the advancement of the science of heraldry gave to the devices of this age a permanence which has in many cases subsisted to the present day. The Dragon Standard was still in use in England. At the battle of Lewes, in 1264, between the king and his barons, "the king, being informed of the approach of his enemies, soon set himself in motion with his army, and went forward to meet them with unfurled banners, preceded by the royal ensign, which was called the Dragon[391]." In the same battle, on the barons' side, we find the ancient Carrocium. When the revolted nobles, with De Montford at their head, "had reached a place scarcely two miles distant from the town of Lewes, Simon with his friends ascended an eminence and placed his Car thereon, in the midst of the baggage and sumpter horses. There he displayed his Standard, fastening it securely to the car, and surrounded it with a great number of his soldiers[392]." The Milanese still held their Carrocio in the utmost veneration. When the Emperor Frederic, in 1236, crossed the Alps to attack them, "the citizens sallied forth from the city in great strength, to the number of about fifty thousand armed men, and proceeded with their Standard, which they call Carruca, or Carrochium, to meet the emperor, sending word that they were ready to fight him[393]." In 1237 the Milanese again placed their defiant Carrocium in front of the imperial host. They went forth with an army of about sixty thousand men, and fixed their Carrocium where their ranks seemed to be strongest. At sight of this, the emperor summoned his counsellors, and, animating them by warlike words, said: "Behold how these insolent Milanese, our enemies, dare to appear against us, and presume to provoke me, their lord, to battle; enemies as they are to the truth and to Holy Church, and borne down by the weight of their sins. Cross the river, unfurl my Banner, my victorious Eagle! and you, my knights, draw your formidable swords, which you have so often steeped in the blood of your enemies, and inflict your vengeance on these mice, which have dared to creep out of their holes, to cope with the glittering spears of the Roman Emperor[394]." From the letter of the emperor himself, addressed to "Richard, earl of Cornwall, his beloved brother-in-law," we learn that the Standard-Car was drawn by horses: "quod apud Crucem-Novam (Nuova Croce) in equorum celeritate præmiserant." And further on he writes: "We now directed our attention to the attack and capture of this standard, and we saw that some of our troops, having forced their way over the top of the trenches, had penetrated almost to the mast of the Carrocium. Night, however, coming on, we desisted from the attack till the following morning; lying down to rest with our swords drawn, and without taking off our iron hauberks. When day broke, however, we found the Carrocium deserted, left amidst a crowd of vile wagons, entirely undefended and abandoned, and from the top of the staff where the Cross had been, the Cross was now severed: but, being found too heavy for the fugitives to carry off in safety, they had left it half-way[395]."

The Car with its Dragon and Eagle, forming the standard of the Emperor Otho at Bovines, has already been noticed, (page 164). The Oriflamme of the French monarchs maintains its illustrious position. Captured by the Mahometans, with Saint Louis and his equipage, it still miraculously subsists; and when destroyed by the Flemings at the battle of Mons-en-Puelle, it is discovered that the banner which has been torn to pieces is, after all, only a counterfeit oriflamme, the real one being still intact under the guardianship of the Abbot of St. Denis. Thus Guillaume Guiart:—