[Illustration: FIG. 48. Leather Gauntlet, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.]
Towards the end of the twelfth century we find the material known as “cuir-bouilli” or “cuerbully” mentioned as being used for the armour of man and horse. The hide of the animal was cut thick, boiled in oil or in water, and, when soft, moulded to the required shape. When cold it became exceedingly hard and would withstand nearly as much battle-wear as metal.
It had the advantage of being easily procured, easily worked, and also of being much lighter than the metal. For this reason it was used largely for jousts and tourneys, which up to the fifteenth century were more of the nature of mimic fights than was the case at a later date, when the onset was more earnest and the armour was made correspondingly heavy to withstand it.
The best leather seems to have come from Spain and especially from Cordova. Among the _Ordonnances des rois_ in the Bib. Nat. Français (T. II, 357) we find it distinctly stated that Cordova leather was far better than that of France or Flanders. This may have been due to the breed of horses or cattle found there, but it is more likely that the tanners of that town had made a speciality of treating the hides.
On the sculptured effigies and monumental brasses of the fourteenth century we find the jambs and poleynes often richly decorated and moulded with more skill than the other parts of the armour,[113] and these were probably of cuir-bouilli.
The d’Aubernon, Setvans, and Gorleston brasses are good examples of this. Chaucer in his _Rime of Sir Thopas_ mentions jambs of cuir-bouilli as being part of the ordinary equipment of the knight (see page 100).
[Illustration: FIG. 49. Brassard of leather and cord for the tourney (from René’s _Traité d’un Tournoi_).]
Both King Rene and Antoine de la Salle prescribe cuir-bouilli as the material for the brassards used in the tourney (Fig. 49), and this fashion seems to have lasted from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, at which date we have cuir-bouilli armour mentioned in the roll of purchases for the tournament at Windsor Park, held by Edward I, down to the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Oliver de la Marche, writing at the end of the same century, describes the armour of Mahiot and Jacotin Plouvier fighting in a duel as being of cuir-bouilli sewn on the body, legs, and arms.[114] In his _Advis de gaige de battaile_ the same author mentions leather armour as being only fit for the man who is “point gentilhomme.”