[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF WILLIAM RUFUS.
If the Norman archers were for the most part clad in "cors dras," the horsemen were fully furnished in the choicest military equipment of the day:--
"Dunc issirent li Chevalier, Tuit armé è tuit haubergié[164]: Escu al col, healme lacié: Ensemble vindrent al gravier[165], Chescun armé sor son destrier. Tuit orent ceintes les espées, El plain vindrent lances levées. Li Barunz orent gonfanons, Li chevaliers orent penons."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 11639.
"Chevaliers ont haubers è branz, Chauces de fer, helmes luizanz, Escuz as cols, as mains lor lances."--_Line_ 12813.
In the south, military science was already so far advanced that a Code for the discipline of troops had been established. The rules laid down by the Emperor Frederic for the control of his army in Italy in 1158, have been preserved by Radevicus of Frisinga[166], and are given by Sismondi[167].
Wherever the feudal system had taken root, a similar arming and similar tactics prevailed. The military
"Chevals quistrent et armes à la guise franchoise, Quer lor semblout è plus riche è plus cortoise."
But in the border-nations of Europe, where the old liberties of Celt and Teuton still lingered, the fashions of war were very different. In Ireland, in Scotland, in Wales, and in the Scandinavian North, the heroes were by no means clad in the pattern of the Bayeux tapestry. From Giraldus Cambrensis we learn that the Irish in the twelfth century wore no body-armour. In riding they used neither saddle nor spur. Their shields were circular, and painted red. Helmets they had none. Their weapons were a short spear, javelins, and an axe. The axes, which they had derived from the Norwegians and Ostmen, were excellently well steeled. "They make use of but one hand when they strike with the axe, extending the thumb along the handle to direct the blow; from which neither the helmet can defend the head, nor the iron folds of the armour the body; whence it has happened in our time that the whole thigh of a soldier, though cased in well-tempered armour, hath been lopped off by a single blow, the limb falling on one side of the horse, and the expiring body on the other. They are also expert beyond all other nations in casting stones in battle, when other weapons fail them, to the great detriment of their enemies[168]." The bow not being in use among the Irish of this time, and consequently there being nothing to oppose to the distant attack of the Norman archers, the havoc made by these latter troops was terrific; so that Giraldus, in his chapter, "Qualiter Hibernica gens sit expugnanda," recommends that in all attacks upon them, bowmen should be mixed with the heavy-armed force.