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pieces of armour were thigh and knee protecdons of iron or hardened leather, followed by a padded aketon jacket, mail hauberk and mail coif. Next camc a ‘coat-of-plates’ (a defence madę of several butted plates attached to a poncho-like fabric garment) and gorgeres or throat defences; a surcoat displaying his coat-oTarms; whalebone gauntlets, sword belt, sword, axe and dagger. Lastly he donned a heavy hełm or lighter bascinet. Shields were, however, now rarely carried in war.

The arms and armour of ordinary part-time urban militiamen could be of varied quality, sometimes being several generadons old, while simple items like smali buckler shields of willow or poplar were probably madę locally. Crossbowmen tended to wear morę armour than long-bowmen, their main role being in siege warfare. For example, the fuli equipment issued to a crossbowman named Jeran Quesnel at the Cios de Galees in Rouen in 1340 consisted of a coat-of-plates, a corssel perhaps of mail to wear below the plates, bras de piąte for his arms and a gorgiere de piąte for his neck.

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse on a French tapestry madę between 1375 and 1390. Ali except one figurę - who is shown as a stylised Oriental - are given normal French arms and armour of the period. The foreground rider clearly wears a mail haubergeon over his cuirass or brigandine, with piąte limb defences; notę also his shield -cf.Plate A3. (Castle Museum, Angers)

The Cios de Galees in Rouen manufactured espringal siege engines, arms and armour as well as ships, but the best crossbows came from Toulouse in the south. By the start of the Hundred Years War Toulouse also manufactured silk-covered and plain quilted cottes gamboisees, piąte armour for men and horses, bascinets, helms, brimmed helmets called chapeaux de Montauban, gauntlets and assorted shields (plain white or ready painted with the arms of France). Amongst less common items were couteaux daggers, lances, dards javelins, haches norroises (known in England as Danish axes), crossbows, garrocs for spanning crossbows, plus huge quanddes of crossbow bolts delivered in iron-bound chests. The first elear reference to the proofmg or testing of armour in France is found in another document from Rouen dated 1340.

The pressures of war may have accounted for the appearance of other styles of armour in the inventory of the Cios de Galees, including the canvas-covered plates de Genes (‘of Genoa’ or ‘in Genoese style’), bassinets de Genes, and canvas-covered gorgieres de fer mentioned in 1347.

Meanwhile the hauberk generally lost its integral mitten and coif while the sleeves and hem were also reduced until it became a smaller haubergeon. The coat-of-plates had already evolved, probably from an earlier leather cuirie, and by the mid-14th cen tury the old girdle-like type may already have been regarded as old-fashioned - although a French doc-ument of 1337 did men don a coat-of-plates lacking its usual fabric covering and being attached to a leather backing.