[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF KING EDWARD THE FIRST.
From the collection of medieval "Proverbes" already cited, we learn that Spain was still the favourite mart for the knightly CHARGER. Denmark and Brittany had also a celebrity for their breeds of horses of a different character. The fiat of popular approval is given to the
"Dextriers de Castille. Palefrois Danois. Roussins de Bretagne."
Such was the noble nature of the high-bred dextrarius that, when two knights had been dismounted and were continuing the fight on foot, their horses, left to themselves, instantly commenced a conflict of their own of the most gallant and desperate character. A representation of a double battle of this kind is given on folio 42 of Roy. MS. 12, F. xiii., a treatise _"De natura Pecudum, Volucrum," &c._ The form of the Saddle of this time, with its high pommel and cantle, may be seen in the Royal seals engraved on Plates 52, 79, 81 and 85; and again in the figure numbered 58. It was sometimes heraldically decorated. In the purchases for the Windsor Tournament[400], in 1278, we have:--
"D Feli͂s Le Seler. viij. sell' de ar̄m Angɫ. p'͂c. LXiiij. ɫi. P'i͂s.
"D Eodem. iiij. selle brond' de filo auri et argen͂t trac͂t videlicet una de ar̄m Rob'ti Tibetot una de ar̄m Jo͂his de Neele. j. de ar̄m Imb'ti Guidonis et una de ar̄m Comitis Cornub' p'͂c xx/iiij. viij. ɫi.
"D Eodem. j. sella brond' eodem modo de ar̄m Jo͂his de Grely. ͂c scalo͂p argent' p'͂c. xxxviij. ɫi." &c.
On the seal of Alexander II. of Scotland, 1214--49, the king's saddle is ensigned with a lion rampant (Cotton Charter, xix. 2). And the seal of Robert Fitz-Walter, 1299, presents an analogous example (Plate XVII. of vol. v. of the _Archæologia_). The Stirrup of the period is shewn by numerous examples to have been triangular. See woodcuts, No. 47, 48 and 56. The Peytrel or breastplate was sometimes of plain fashion, as in the first seal of Henry III. (woodcut, No. 79): sometimes it had the pendent ornaments of the preceding period, as in the example on Plate XXXVII. of the Painted Chamber, where the pattern is a string of golden trefoils. From the Windsor Roll quoted above we find that the poitrail was of leather, and that this leather was occasionally gilt:--