In this example, from Cottonian MS., Nero, C. iv. fol. 13, written in France, about 1125, we have a curious instance of the hauberk with lateral openings at the skirt. It is remarkable also for the manner in which the sword is carried partially beneath the hauberk; a contrivance seen also in the Bayeux tapestry, (Plate VI.,) and of which analogous examples will be found throughout the middle-ages. In the figure before us, it will be observed that the defence is continued over the head as a coif or hood, and is surmounted by the usual conical nasal helmet, or "Casque Normand." The subject of which this forms part, is the Massacre of the Innocents. The stigma of a moustache is therefore added, in the same spirit as the beard was given to Goliath in the preceding example.
The continuous Coif to the hauberk is seen constantly in the Bayeux tapestry, (Stothard, Plates X. to XIII.). It occurs also on many of the seals of the twelfth century, (see our cuts, No. 27, 43 and 44;) and in vellum-paintings of this time, (see cuts 32, 34, 37 and 38). The hood of mail made separately from the hauberk does not appear till the thirteenth century. The short sleeves of this garment are seen in our woodcuts 25, 32 and 38. Examples of the long-sleeved hauberk occur in cuts 28, 37, 42 and 43.
The Haubergeon, as the name indicates, was a smaller hauberk; though it does not appear by the pictorial monuments of the middle ages in what it especially differed from the latter defence. While Duke William, preparing for the battle of Hastings,--
The Duke was armed with lance and sword; the Prelate--
All which seems to shew that Odo was equipped as a light-armed fighter. And perhaps we may gather from the prominent notice accorded to his "white tunic," that it was the _shortness_ of the haubergeon which caused that garment to be so particularly remarked. In documents of the thirteenth century, the haubergeon is distinguished from the hauberk and gambeson, taking its place between them. Thus the Statute of Arms of 1252 directs every man, according to the rate of his lands and chattels, to provide himself with the _lorica_, or with the _habergetum_, or with the _perpunctum_. And the Statute of Winchester, in 1285, makes the same distinction. From Guillaume Guiart we learn that this garment was of mail:--