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found together in 1938, stowcd behind the paneling of a house being demolished in Linz. There are many morę examples of these late XIIIA types, thc finest of them now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna - a late 13th-century blade mounted in a splendid bronze-gilt hilt of the fashión of c. 1490. It was during the second half of the 15th centu-ry that additional guards began to appear on the basie cross-hilt. These additions, as far as is proven by cwidence at present available, first appeared in Portugal and Spain. There are sevcral paintings by the Portuguese artist Nuno Goncalves, which very clearly show swords of the form, as in Fig. 118; one in particular, dated 1460, depicting an identical hilt.

There is also in Spain a series of very large tapestries, madę c. 1470-75, to celebrate the taking of the town of Arzila in 1471. In these are shown even morę fully devcloped hilts, for not only are the two side-branches present, but also ring-guards of the front of the crosses, and smali back-guards behind. Front such cvidence, it ntay be deduced that even as early as the 1460s a large step forward has been taken towards the development of the fuli "swept hilt" so characteristic of the period of 1530-1640 in western Europę. We know front datable portraits and surviving examples that this fully developed hilt was in generał use by 1540.

Since it is better to use illustrations than wordy descriptions, all I need to say is that the next few photographs are of swords with "developcd" hilts, showing thc way in which guard was added to guard.

Figurę 116A. Monumcntal Brass of John Feld, c. 1427. Standon, Heresfordshire

Figurę 116B. Detail front a Tournament Book dated 1446. H.M. lloyal Armouries, Leeds.