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On the head would be a "bassinet" shaped like the old-style "Norman" conical helmet, to the lower edges of which was fas-tened a deep curtain of small-ringed mail, covering the chin and throat and shoulders and some of the upper chest. This was called the "Aventail."

Such, then, very briefly, is the sort of armour which those German men-at-arms of Manfred wore at Benevento in 1266, and by the 1 320s, it was in generał use, for well-equipped warriors, all over Europę. And, cumbersome (and hot!) as it must have been, it did keep out almost any kind of stroke which could be dealt by a slashing sword-blade. Hence the rapid development in those years, 1275-1325, of Types XIV, XV, XVI and XVII.

In the last chapter, I described Types XIV, XV and XVA; now I shall deal with the three following Types: XVI and its long sub-type XVIA; XVII and XVIII (Fig. 113), leaving its long sub-type, which was the most popular sword of war all through the 15th century and well into the 16th, until a later book.

Type XVI has a blade with much the same outline shape as a XIV, but its lower half - the point end - instead of being of morę or less fiat in section like a XIV, is of a stiff, ridged diamond section (Fig. 107), and the blades in the type tend to be longer and nar-rower at the hilt than their predecessors. My Type XVI swords are very well and clearly representcd in Italian paintings of the early 14th century, so much so that it is very tempting to suggest that the Type may have an Italian (or Southern European) origin and base. I have given it a sub-type, XVIA, which is on the whole a longer weapon, with a longer grip than the usual single-hand 4" grip, but this was not always tnie "bastard" or hand-and-a-half length, like the XVA's (Figs. 109 and 110).

Thirty-five years after working out my typology, I rather rcgret that I did not, in fact, include a sub-type XIVA, for there are a few big swords of war which are morę like XIV's than XVI's, in that the lower part of their blades is of a llat section, like a XIV, and not of the diamond section which characterises a XVI A. However, it's done now, and sińce that typology is the only one for medieval swords and is used as a standard, I can't alter it or add another sub-type to it. There is a verv fine sword, now in the Royal Armouries (Fig. 108), which I have called a XVIA which should be a XIVA. This was found in London about a century ago, and as it appears now in Leeds, it looks in very good condition. When I first saw it, however, it was in the British Museum and, by the action of firc, had been twisted into a violent S-shape. This was because in 1941, an incendiary bomb had come in through the roof of the Medicwal Gallery in the museum, where a lot of objects - not the most valu-able - had been left in place, and the whole lot got burnt out. The sword, however, after spending forty years all bent, was restorcd in the armouries¹ workshop at the Tower and now looks, almost, as good as new.

Figurę 107. A well-preservcd Type XVI from the Thamcs at Westminster, now in the Royal Armouries, Leeds, c. 1325. OL: 83.2 cm.