each of which

The lay sons of the citizens rush out of the gates in crowds, equipped with lances and shields (lanceis et scutis militaribus); the more youthful with blunt spears; and they engage in sham fights and exercise themselves in military combats. When the king happens to be near the city, most of the courtiers attend, and the varlets (ephebi) of the households of earls and barons who have not yet attained knighthood, resort thither to try their skill. The hope of victory animates every one. The spirited horses neigh; their limbs tremble; they champ the bit; impatient of delay, they fret and paw the ground. When at length

the young riders, having been divided into companies, some pursue their fellows, but are unable to overtake them; others push their companions out of the course and gallop beyond them.

"In the Easter holidays they have a game resembling a naval conflict. A target is fastened to a post in the middle of the river: in the prow of a boat, driven along by oars and the current, stands a young man who is to strike the target with his lance: if, in hitting it, he break his lance and keep his position unmoved, he gains his point, his wish is fulfilled; but if his lance be not broken by the blow, he is tumbled into the river and his boat passes by. Two boats, however, are placed there, one on each side of the target, and in them a number of young men, to take up the tilter when he emerges from the stream. On the bridge and in chambers by the river-side, stand the spectators:—

"During the Summer holidays the young men exercise themselves in leaping, in archery, wrestling, stone-throwing, casting javelins beyond a mark, and in fighting with shields."

In the Winter, skaters, "binding under their feet the shin-bones of some animal, take in their hands poles shod with iron, which at times they strike against the ice, and are thus carried along with the rapidity of a bird on the wing, or a bolt discharged from a cross-bow. Sometimes two of the skaters having by mutual agreement placed themselves far apart, come together from opposite sides: they meet, and with their poles strike each other: one or both fall, not without some bodily hurt: even after their fall, they are carried along to a great distance from each other by the velocity of the motion; and whatever part of their heads comes in contact with the ice, is laid bare to the very skull. Frequently the leg or arm of the person who falls, if he chance to light on either, is broken. But youth is an age eager for glory and desirous of victory: thus, in order to distinguish themselves in real fight, these tyros contend with so much boldness in counterfeit battle."

Among the exercises glanced at in this sketch of the Londoner's sportive year, the Quintain is conspicuous. This was especially the game of the "non-noble," and might be practised either on horseback or on foot. The more ancient quintain was merely a post or a shield fixed on a pole, which the tyro attacked in lieu of a living antagonist. But a new element was soon given to the quintain, which at once brought it into favour with the populace: it was so contrived as to inflict summary punishment on the inexpert. To one kind, a bag of sand was fastened, which, whirling round from the force of the blow struck at the opposite end, buffeted the tilter who was not expeditious enough to get out of its way. Others were made in the form of a Turk, armed with sword and shield; and these, moving on a pivot as before, inflicted a smart blow on the lagging assailant. In another variety, a large tub of water was fixed on a post, which discharged its contents on the person of any clumsy jouster. Other kinds are described and figured in Strutt's Sports. And in the little village of Offham, in Kent, may still be seen an example of the quintain, which is fixed "opposite to the dwelling-house of the estate, which is bound to keep it up[263]." It now consists of a post, having a cross-piece moving on a pivot, terminating at one end with a broad perforated board, and at the other with a pendent log of wood. The log, however, seems to have been substituted for a "bag of sand," which is mentioned in old accounts of this relic.

"Besides the practice of feats of arms," says John of Salisbury, writing in the reign of Henry II., "the young knight should qualify himself for the duties of his station by a variety of toil and exemplary abstinence. From the beginning he must learn to labour, run, carry heavy weights, and bear the sun and dust: he must use sparing and rustic food: he must accustom himself to live in tents, or in the open air." Then, turning upon the luxurious and effeminate knights of his day, he upbraids them in a diatribe which gives us a singular picture of the manners of this age. "Some," he says, "think that military glory consists in the display of elegant dress, in wearing their clothes tight to the body, so binding on their linen or silken garments that they seem a skin coloured like their flesh. Sitting softly on their ambling horses, they think themselves so many Apollos. If you make an army of them, you will have the camp of Thaïs, not of Hannibal. Each is boldest in the banqueting-hall, but in the battle every one desires to be the last: they would rather assail the enemy with arrows than come to close fighting. Returning home without a scar, they sing triumphantly of their battles, and boast of the thousand deaths that wandered near their temples. If diligent idleness can procure any spears, which, being brittle as hemp, should chance to be broken in the field; if a piece of gold, minium, or any colour of the rainbow, by any chance or blow should fall out of their shields; their garrulous tongues would make it an everlasting memorial. They have the first places at supper. They feast every day splendidly, if they can afford it, but shun labour and exercise like a dog or a snake. Whatever is surrounded with difficulty, they leave to those who serve them. In the meantime, they so gild their shields, and so adorn their tents, that you would think each one, not a learner, but a chieftain of war[264]."

PART III.

THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

The authorities which throughout the last division of our inquiry have served us as guides—seals, vellum-paintings, metal-chasings, ivory-carvings, and the writings of chroniclers and poets—are still available to us: but in the thirteenth century a new and most valuable source of information is offered by the numerous knightly effigies which are found in cathedral and chantry, in wayside chapel and lofty monastery. These sepulchral figures, of the proportions of life, are of especial value to the student of military costume, permitting him to follow his inquiry into the minutest detail. Not a belt nor a lace, not a buckle nor a strap, but he can trace the exact form and assign the particular purpose of it. Whether the effigy be a statue or "a brass," he finds in it abundant material for furthering his inquiry; and while from the illuminations of cotemporary manuscripts he obtains precise information on the point of colour, in the effigy he sees the exact moulding of each knightly adjunct, and the smallest pattern that adorns the smallest ornament of the knightly equipment. The military brasses of this century are but few; but the statues, in stone, in wood, or in Purbeck marble, are scattered through our English counties in surprising numbers. The value of these national memorials is beginning to be understood: the crumbling figure is no longer permitted to perish in the open churchyard, to lie in fragments among the rubbish of the belfry corner, to form the ridiculous ornament of the churchwarden's grotto or the squire's glyptotheck. With pious care it is restored to the sacred fane from which it had been abstracted; it again becomes part of the chancel or chantry beneath whose pavement lie the bones of him of whom church, chantry, and statue are alike the monuments. But from the very consideration which has been newly accorded to these memorials, has arisen a fresh danger: it has, in some cases, been thought expedient to submit them to a so-called restoration. They have been patched up with Roman cement, eked out with supplementary limbs, plastered over with mock Purbeck marble. The mistakes that have been committed in costume, equipment, and art-treatment, are more fit for the pages of a jest-book than those of a sober treatise; and it is scarcely necessary to say that, for any purpose of the historian, the archæologist, or even in the more narrow view of ancestral portraiture, the statue has become, under such a treatment, utterly valueless. Yet our task is so simple. We have only to preserve. Inheritors of the finest series of national ancestral memorials that Europe can boast, let us at least transmit to after-days, in all their integrity, the admirable works that have come down to us through the troubles and turmoils of seven centuries[265].

Throughout the thirteenth century the feudal and mercenary troops continued to be employed together. But towards the middle of this period, the Italian cities, combating for their liberties, began to levy their men-at-arms from the non-noble class as well as from the knightly; a force which, under the name of Conduttitij Soldati, obtained in the next age a very wide celebrity.

Besides the mounted men-at-arms or heavy cavalry, there were light-horse troops formed by the mounted archers and cross-bowmen, and the esquires attending upon the knights. The example here given is from Roy. MS. 20, D. 1, fol. 127, a work of the close of the thirteenth century[266].

The foot-troops or Sergents de pied consisted principally of archers, cross-bowmen and spearmen. There were also the Sergens d'armes or heavy-armed body-guard, Coustillers, Slingers, Bidaux, and Brigands or Ribauds; to which may be added the varlets or pages, who followed their knightly masters into the field, now fighting lustily in the mêlée, now bearing off the wounded body of their lord to some place of solace and safety. Clientes and Satellites were general names given to the inferior troops of the feudal and communal levy, including both horse and foot. There was nothing approaching to a uniform costume for the soldiery, though occasionally we find a leader seeking to identify his men by some addition to their dress, as a cross, a scarf, or other similar token. In 1264, Simon de Montford "ordered his troops to fasten white crosses on their breasts and backs, above their armour, in order that they might be known by their enemies, and to shew that they were fighting for justice[267]." In this case, however, the motive seems to have been, less the desire of a mark of recognition among friends, than the assumption, so common in warlike undertakings, of a holy motive for manslaughter. In the following passage from Guiart relating to the battle of Mons-en-Puelle, the object is more distinctly that of friendly recognition:—

Of the Man-at-arms and his barded charger we obtain an admirable definition from the Chronicon Colmariense under the year 1298: "Armati reputabantur qui galeas ferreas in capitibus habebant, et qui wambasia, id est, tunicam spissam ex lino et stuppa, vel veteribus pannis consutam, et desuper camisiam ferream, id est, vestem ex circulis ferreis contextam, per quæ nulla sagitta poterat hominem vulnerare. Ex his Armatis centum inermes mille lædi potuerunt: habebant et multos qui habebant dextrarios, id est, equos magnos, qui inter equos communes quasi Bucephalus Alexandri, inter alios eminebat. Hi equi cooperti fuerunt coopertoriis ferreis, id est, veste ex circulis ferreis, contexta. Assessores dextrariorum habebant loricas ferreas: habebant et caligas, manipulos ferreos, et in capitibus galeas ferreas splendidas et ornatas, et alia multa quæ me tæduit enarrare." The armour of these sturdy warriors we shall presently examine piece by piece.

The Sergens à pied (Servientes) included the mass of the troops beneath the knightly dignity. Guillaume Guiart arms them with the lance and crossbow:—

And the same weapons are assigned to those levied by the ordonnance of Philip of France in 1303: "Et seront armés les sergens de pie de pourpoint et de hauberjons, gamboison, de bacinez et de lances: Et des six, il y en aura deux arbalestriers[268]."

The Sergens d'armes, (Servientes Armorum,) whose establishment in the twelfth century we have already observed, (page 100,) continued to form the royal body-guard throughout the present age. In 1214 they especially distinguished themselves at the battle of Bovines, as we find recorded by the monument (before noticed) in the church of St. Catherine. The inscription of the monument, though itself not earlier than the beginning of the fifteenth century, probably relates very exactly the circumstances of their victory, and of the foundation of the church. It is as follows:—"A la priere des Sergens darmes Mons^r. Saint Loys fonda ceste Eglise et y mist la premiere pierre: Et fu pour la joie de la vittoire qui fu au Pont de Bouines lan Mil. cc et xiiii. Les Sergens darmes pour le temps gardoient ledit pont et vouerent que se Dieu leur donnoit vittoire ils fonderoient une eglise en lonneur de Madame Sainte Katherine. Et ainsi fu il." A statute of Philippe le Bel in 1285 limits the number of these guards attending the court to thirty: "Item, Sergens d'armes, trente, lesquels seront à Cour sans plus." From the same statute we learn that one of their weapons at this time was the crossbow: "Ils porteront toujours leurs carquois pleins de carreaux."

The Archer was becoming every day of more importance in the field; and if the bow was an efficient arm in battle, it was still more so in sieges, and the defence of strongholds and mountain-passes. From various Statutes of Arms we find that a portion of the military tenants are ordered to be provided with the longbow and arrows. The Statute of Winchester, in 1285, directs that each man "a quaraunte soudeesz de terre e de plus jeqs a cent souz, eit en sa mesun espe, ark, setes e cutel.... E tuz lez autres qui aver pount, eient arcs e setes hors de forestes, e dedenz forestes arcs e piles." Compare the statute of the 36th year of Henry III., printed in the Additamenta of the History of Matthew Paris[269]. The costume of the ordinary archer, defended only by his chapel de fer, appears to be depicted in our woodcut, No. 50, from Harleian MS. 4751, fol. 8, written at the commencement of this century. That the English occasionally mixed their bowmen with the cavalry, we have the express testimony of Matthew Paris: "Viri autem sagittarii gentis Anglorum equitibus permixti." In many illuminations of this time they appear fully armed in hauberk and helm, as in the miniature here given from Royal MS. 20, D. 1, fol. 307. See also our woodcut, No. 82, a group from the Painted Chamber of the palace at Westminster, where the archer wears a hauberk and coif of chain-mail. These examples of heavy-armed bowmen are fully borne out by written testimony. We have already observed Richard Cœur-de-Lion plying his arrows under the walls of Lincoln, (p. 157); and Otto Morena has, "Ipse Imperator optime sciens sagittare, multos de Cremensibus interfecit." (p. 58.) For further pictorial examples of archers of this century, see Royal MS. 2, B. vi. fol. 10; and 20, D. i. ff. 60, 87, 150 and 285.

By a curious volume of "Proverbs" of the thirteenth century, printed from a manuscript of that date in the Vie privée des François[270], we learn that "the best archers are in Anjou." Other proverbial celebrities of this manuscript are: Chevaliers de Champagne, Ecuyers de Bourgogne, Sergens de Hainaut, Champions d'Eu, Ribauds de Troyes.

The provision of an equipped archer to attend the king in his wars, is the frequent sergeantry for lands at this time; and the particulars attached to the service occasionally partake of that whimsicality found in other tenures of the period. It is curious also to trace the changes which these charters undergo in a small lapse of years, as they come under the inspection of the jurors appointed to enforce their engagements. Thus, the service for the manor of Faintree, in Shropshire, in 1211, is "a foot-soldier, with a bow and arrows, for the king's army in Wales." In 1274 the soldier is bound to stay with the host only "till he has shot away his arrows." In 1284 the archer has "to attend the king in his Welsh wars, with a bow, three arrows, and a 'terpolus[271].'" This terpolus, or tribulus, was probably an "archer's stake," not the mere small iron caltrop, of which the provision of one only by each archer would be of little use in impeding a charge of cavalry. The duty of the bowman who had only to stay in the field till he had shot away three arrows was sufficiently easy; but on other occasions the archer did not escape so lightly. The manor of Chetton, co. Salop, supplies in 1283 an archer for the king's host in Wales, who is to take with him a flitch of bacon, and to remain with the army till he has eaten it all up[272].

The Cross-bowman was an essential component of the host during all this period. He was in the van of battle. "Balistarii semper præibant," says Matthew Paris[273]; and there is scarcely a conflict mentioned by this chronicler in which the arbalester does not play a conspicuous part. In the battle near Damietta, in 1237, "more than a hundred knights of the Temple fell, and three hundred cross-bowmen (arcubalistarii), not including some other seculars, and a large number of foot-soldiers[274]." The Emperor Frederic in 1239, giving an account of his Italian campaign to the king of England, writes: "After we had by our knights and cross-bowmen reduced all the province of Liguria[275]," &c. In 1242 the Count de la Marche, refusing to do homage to Amphulse, the brother of the French king, "swelling with anger and with loud threats, accompanied by his wife Isabella and surrounded by a body of soldiers, broke through the midst of the Poictevin cross-bowmen, and having set fire to the house in which he had dwelt, suddenly mounted a horse and took to flight[276]." St. Louis, marching to meet the English in Poitou, had an army in which there were "about four thousand knights splendidly armed to the teeth, besides numbers of others, who came from all directions, flocking to the army, like rivers flowing into the sea; and the number of retainers and cross-bowmen was said to be about twenty thousand[277]." The opposing forces of the English king consisted of "sixteen hundred knights, twenty thousand foot-soldiers, and seven hundred arbalesters."

The Cross-bowmen were of several kinds, some mounted, some on foot. The mounted balistarii in King John's time were those possessing one horse, those having two horses (ad duos equos[278]), and others having three horses[279]. In 1205 the king sends to the sheriff of Salop, "Peter, a balister of three horses, and nine two-horse balisters," who are to be paid 10s. 4d. per day (the whole ten). The usual pay at this time was: to the cross-bowman with two horses, 15d. per diem; with one horse, 7½d. per day; and to the foot-balister, 3d. per day.

The quarrels for the crossbows were carried after the army in carts. Thus Guillaume Guiart:—

The bows themselves, with other weapons and defences, were also carted after the host, and termed the "artillery" of the expedition:—

Notwithstanding the services rendered in the front of the battle by the cross-bowmen, and the other foot-troops; whose post was the more perilous from their being but slightly provided with defensive equipment; the knightly body of their own party made no scruple to ride them down whenever they stood in the way of the glory or ambition of the equestrian order. At Courtray in 1302, the French foot having gallantly repulsed the Flemings, Messire de Valepayelle cried to the Count of Artois,—

And forthwith the men-at-arms

This is confirmed by the Grandes Chroniques: "Nos gens de pie savancent, si auront la victoire et nous ny aurons point d'onneur[280]." All our readers will remember the similar fate of the Genoese cross-bowmen at Cressy: "Or tôt, tuez toute cette ribaudaille, qui nous empêche la voie sans raison[281]."

The arbalester sometimes appears in heavy armour, as in our woodcuts, Nos. 49 and 50. And Matthew Paris has: "Arcubalistarii circiter sexaginta loricati[282]." The provision of quarrels for each cross-bowman of the communal force was fifty, as we learn from the charter of Theobald, count of Champagne in 1220: "Chascuns de la Commune de Vitré qui aura vaillant xx. livres, aura aubeleste en son ostel et quarriaux l." The office of "Master of the Arbalesters" became one of the chief dignities of the French army, and was conferred only on persons of the highest rank. Thibaut de Monleart held this charge under Saint Louis, and in the Milice Françoise of Père Daniel will be found a complete list of the "Maîtres des Arbalêtriers de France" till the days of Francis I., when the office ceased[283]. The little window in city or castle wall, through which the bolts of the crossbow were discharged, was called arbalestena. For other pictures of the cross-bowman of the thirteenth century than those given in our woodcuts, Nos. 49 and 50, see Add. MS. 15,268, fol. 122, and Roy. MS. 20, D. 1, fol. 361^b.

The Coustiller, employed, as we have seen, at Bovines in 1214, continues in request throughout this century; and will be found again in the pages of Froissart, taking part in the battles of the succeeding age.

The Slinger is still of occasional occurrence. In this very curious group from Harl. MS. 4751, fol. 8, a work of the early part of the thirteenth century, the slinger appears without any defensive armour, and his weapon differs in no particular from the sling of Anglo-Saxon times, as shewn in our woodcut, No. 12. Besides the ancient Cord Sling, there appears in the manuscripts of this century a variety of the arm, the Staff Sling. It seems to have been in vogue for naval warfare, or in the conflicts of siege operations. The example here engraved is from Strutt's Horda, vol. i. plate 31; the authority being a MS. of Matthew Paris of this century, preserved in the library of Benet College, Cambridge. Other examples of the Staff Sling are given in Strutt's Sports, bk. i. chap. 2.

The Ribaux or Brigans were the humblest of the troops, and by their extreme poverty were driven to acts of depredation which eventually made their very name synonymous with marauder. They carried such weapons as they could obtain:—

They are not only without armour, but their equipment altogether is in a very tattered condition:—

Matthew Paris names them with but little honour: "Ribaldi et viles personæ[285]." They were, however, by no means useless members of the host. Thus, when Philippe Auguste appeared before Tours in 1189: "Dum Rex circumquaque immunita civitatis consideraret, Ribaldi ipsius, qui primos impetus in expugnandis munitionibus facere consueverunt, eo vidente, in ipsam civitatem impetum fecerunt," &c.[286]

They were made to assist in carrying the baggage of the army: "Inermes Ribaldos et alios, qui solent sequi exercitum propter onera deportanda[287]." And, being unprovided with defensive armour, whenever they obtained any booty, the "soudoyers," who were better equipped than they, attacked them and appropriated their prizes:—

The Roi des Ribauds was an officer appointed to restrain the excesses of the Ribaldi, and is mentioned in many documents of France from the time of Philip Augustus to that of Charles VI. At the battle of Bovines in 1214, Roger de Wafalia is named in the list of prisoners as falling to the share of the King of the Ribauds: "Rogerus de Wafalia. Hunc habuit Rex Ribaldorum, quia dicebat se esse servientem."

The names Clientes and Satellites were employed, as we have before mentioned, to indicate generally the inferior troops, whether horse or foot. At the battle of Bovines, the Clientes are a mounted corps, armed with sword and spear:—

In the following passage, the Clientes seem to be foot-troops. It is from the History of Dauphiny, where, in 1283, Humbert promises to assist the Archbishop and Chapter of Vienne: "contra omnes homines, suis propriis sumptibus et expensis, cum centum hominibus armatis in equis, et cum tercentis balistariis, et septingentis clientibus cum lanceis."

Satellites appear at Bovines, both mounted and on foot. The horse seem to have formed a light corps, and were employed to begin the combat. They are looked upon, however, with much contempt by the opponent knights; who, disdaining to advance against an ignoble foe, receive the charge without quitting their post. "Præmisit," says Rigord, "idem Electus[289], de consilio Comitis S. Pauli, cl. Satellites in equis ad inchoandum bellum, ea intentione ut prædicti milites egregii invenerint hostes aliquantulum motos et turbatos. Indignati sunt Flandrenses ... quod non a Militibus sed a Satellibus primo invadebantur: nec se moverent de loco quo stabant, sed eos ibidem expectantes acriter receperunt," &c. These troops, we are told, were from the valley of Soissons, and combated both on foot and on horseback. "Erant Satellites illi probissimi, de valle Suessionensi, nec minus pugnabant sine equis quam in equis."

Not only were Spies in use, but, what somewhat disturbs one's confidence in the exalted simplicity of these times, it had already been discovered that the fair sex might be employed with advantage in this office. The heroic Edward I., in his campaign against the Welsh in 1281, gives a shilling to a "certain female spy" for her services: "Cuidam spiatrici, de dono, xij. denarii[290]." And again, a pound to another of these useful ladies, "to buy her a house:" "Cuidam spiatrici, ad unam domum sibi emendam, de dono, xx. s.[291]"

From the various Statutes of Arms of this century we learn very exactly the equipment of the military tenants. Three of these statutes for England have been preserved: that of 1252, in the Additamenta of the Historia Major of Matthew Paris, and printed in Rymer's Fœdera; that forming part of the Statute of Winchester in 1285, printed by the Record Commission in vol. i. of the "Statutes of the Realm;" and that of 1298, printed in the new edition of the Fœdera, vol. i. p. 901. The Scottish enactments will be found in Skene's Regiam Majestatem, and the French in the Collection des Ordonnances.

The Assize of 1252, 36 of Hen. III., closely resembles that of 1285; but in the first the equipment is of six varieties, while in the second there are seven classes of armed men. To avoid repetition, we shall give the earliest of these statutes in the text, and add the readings relating to the armour from the Statute of Winchester in a note.

The Sheriffs, with two knights elected for that purpose, are to go round the hundreds, cities, &c., and call before them the "cives, burgenses, liberè tenentes, villanos et alios, ætatis quindecim annorum usque ad ætatem sexaginta annorum; et eosdem faciant omnes jurare ad arma, secundùm quantitatem terrarum et catallorum[292] suorum; scilicet: Ad quindecim libratas terræ, unam loricam, capellum ferreum, gladium, cultellum et equum[293]: Ad decem libratas terræ, unum habergetum[294], capellum ferreum, gladium et cultellum: Ad centum solidatas terræ, unum purpunctum, capellum ferreum, gladium, lanceam et cultellum[295]: Ad quadraginta solidatas terræ et eo amplius usque ad centum solidatas terræ, gladium, arcum, sagittas et cultellum[296]. Qui minus habent quam xl. solidatas terræ, jurati sint ad falces, gisarmas, cultellos et alia arma minuta[297].

"Ad catalla sexaginta marcarum, unam loricam, capellum ferreum, gladium, cultellum et equum[298]: Ad catalla xl. marcarum, unum haubercum, capellum ferreum, gladium et cultellum: Ad catalla xx. marcarum, unum purpunctum, capellum ferreum, gladium et cultellum: Ad catalla novem marcarum, gladium, cultellum, arcum et sagittas: Ad catalla xl. solidarum et eo amplius usque ad decem marcas, falces, gisarmas, et alia arma minuta[299].

"Omnes enim alii qui possunt habere arcus et sagittas extra forestam, habeant: qui verò in forestâ, habeant arcus et pilatos[300]."

View of arms is to be taken by the mayors, bailiffs and provosts of the cities and towns[301]. Constables to be appointed to command the force. Tournaments and behourds forbidden:—"Clamare faciant Vicecomites, &c. quod nulli conveniant ad turniandum vel burdandum, nec ad alias quascunque aventuras." And none to appear armed except those specially appointed.

The distinction between the kinds of arrow to be used within and without the forest bounds, is curious, and not altogether clear at this distance from the days of archery. The fatal power of the barbed shaft upon the king's deer is indeed evident enough, but the comparatively innocuous character of the piled arrow is not so plain. The usage, however, is well attested by numerous instances. In the Statute of arms of William the Lion, king of Scotland, we have: "Et omnes alii, qui habere poterunt, habeant arcum et sagittas extra forestam: infra forestam, arcum et pyle[302]." And by an agreement made in 1246 between Roger de Quinci, earl of Winchester, and Roger de Somery, touching certain rights of chace in Bradgate Park, co. Leicester, it is stipulated "quod Forestarii sui non portabunt in bosco prædicti Rogeri de Somery et hæredum suorum sagittas barbatas sed pilettas[303]."

Shakespere, who illustrates everything, has a passage bearing on this subject among the rest. Under the greenwood tree of the forest of Arden, the Duke, in "As you like it," addresses his companions:—

And the fatal effects of the forked head are familiar to us all in the case of the