During the reigns of Edward the Confessor and Harold II., owing to the constant intercourse between the English and the Norman Courts, the English adopted many of the customs and much of the costume of the Normans, so that, among the upper and military classes, at any rate, when William of Normandy invaded England, the members of the two opposing armies were armed and attired in a very similar manner.
(Fig. 1): A Saxon rustic, wearing only a solitary garment, with a pointed cap which has a comb, and shoes. (Cott. MS., Claudius B. iv.) (Fig. 2): A Saxon lady, attired in (1) the gunna, (2) the tunica, (3) the mantle, (4) the head-rail. (Harl. MS., 2,908.) (Fig. 3): A Saxon, dressed in (1) the tunica, (2) the mantle, (3) breeches, with cross-gartered stockings, and shoes, and (4) a banded Phrygian cap. (After Mrs. Ashdown.) (Fig. 4): Saxon, showing the bifid beard and the arrangement of the hair. (Cott. MS., Claudius B. iv.) (Fig. 5): An English Freeman, wearing a tunica, with short stockings and shoes, and armed with sword, spear, helmet, and shield. (From a MS.) (Fig. 6): A Saxon soldier, wearing a tunica covered with a mantle, stockings, and shoes, with spurs. (Note the manner in which the mantle is fastened on the right shoulder.) He is armed with a spear, and has his head covered with a conical helmet. As is pointed out above, the military costume did not differ from the civil costume, except as regards the helmet and the arms. (Figs. 7 to 12): Saxon head-dresses. (Fig. 7): A form of the square helmet. (Fig. 8): A Phrygian-shaped cap of leather, bound with metal; the bifid beard is also shown again. (Fig. 9): Another form of the square helmet, with a kind of crest or comb. (Fig. 10): A pointed helmet of simple form. (Fig. 11): A pointed hat serrated along the back like a cock's comb. (Fig. 12): The commonest form of helmet, a conical cap with a rim, probably of metal. (The other form of beard is shown in this figure.) (Figs. 13, 14 and 15): Saxon shoes, from MSS. (Figs. 16 and 17): Saxon crowns, from MSS.]
(Fig. 1): A Saxon monarch represented as seated on a throne, wearing a square crown, and holding a sceptre in his right hand. He is attired in a richly embroidered tunica and a mantle of ample proportions, gathered up with a brooch on the left shoulder. His stockings are cross-gartered and ornamented at the knees and in the lozenges formed by the gartering. (Cott. MS., Tiberius Cvi.) (Fig. 2): A fiddler, wearing the tunica, long stockings and shoes. (MS., Tib. Cvi.) (Fig. 3): A gleeman or juggler, attired similarly to the fiddler. (From the same MS.) (Fig. 4): A husbandman, engaged in digging. (From MS., after Strutt.) (Fig. 5): A blacksmith, working at the anvil. (From MS., after Strutt.) (Fig. 6): A Saxon king, with a bifid beard, on the seat of judgment, crowned and attired in a tunica, covered with a short mantle, which is fastened in the centre of the chest by a brooch of rectangular form. (Fig. 7): A Saxon noble, with long hair and a bifid beard, holding a sword of characteristic Saxon form. He is wearing an ornamented tunica reaching to the ankles, and over it a voluminous mantle. His head is covered with a conical helmet. The rucking of the sleeve on the fore-arm is plainly shown. (Figs. 6 and 7 from a MS., after Strutt.) (Fig. 8): A Saxon horn-blower, attired similarly to the fiddler and gleeman (Figs. 2 and 3), from the same MS. (Fig. 9): A carpenter at work with an axe. (From a MS., after Strutt.) (Note.--In Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9, all the heads are bare.) (Figs. 10 to 14): Saxon personal ornaments, buckle, rings, etc., found in tumuli.]