OCR Text |
Show LOATH TO GIVE UP ARMOR Nobles Wore It as Gala Costume Long After It Was of Any Value as Protection. Until the sixteenth century armor developed de-veloped In a logical way; its forms were governed by the necessities of war, changes In it were the result of "ju practical experience and actual experiment experi-ment on the battlefield not decided upon in the office of the minister of war. After the sixteenth century it became be-came fantastic and meaningless, a gala costume rather than a harness ; the greatest captains opposed Its use, but the nobles clung to It as a mark of distinction. After It was made bulletproof it became be-came so enormously heavy that at the -v end of the sixteenth century Lanon r complained that gentlemen of thirty were already deformed by the weight of their armor. In spite of the huge armors of Henry VIII, of Anthony of Burgundy and of some others, the average size of the modern man is greater than that of the soldier of the middle ages and tbe renaissance, re-naissance, if we can judge from the armors preserved in tbe museums of England and the Continent, which are, with few exceptions, small and narrow, nar-row, especially in the leg and thigh pieces. |