When, in battle, the charge had been made with the Lance, and that weapon was no longer available in the _mêlée_, it was cast aside, and the conquest carried on with the Sword:--
"Aprés le froisseis des Lances, Qui ja sont par terre semées, Giettent mains à blanches espées, Desquels ils s'entr'envaissent, Hyaumes e bacinets tentissent E plusieurs autres ferreures. Coutiaux trespercent armeures."--_Guiart._
[Illustration: SECOND GREAT SEAL OF KING HENRY III.
The knightly SWORD of this day resembled in its essentials that of the preceding century: indeed, it did not materially change during the whole Gothic period. The blade was straight, broad, double-edged, and pointed. The type is well shewn in the second seal of Henry III. (woodcut, No. 81).
The cross-piece was usually curved towards the blade, as represented in several of our engravings. Sometimes this curved guard threw out a kind of cusp in the middle, as in the sculpture at Haseley, (woodcut 46,) and the effigy figured by Stothard, Plate XX. The cross-bar was at other times straight, as in the seal of King John (woodcut, No. 52), and in our other woodcuts numbered 53, 56, and 63. Compare the sword of De Vere (Stothard, Pl. XXXVI.). A variety of the straight guard forms also a cusp over the centre of the blade, as in the example given in our engraving, No. 80. The knightly effigy in Walkerne Church (Hollis, Pt. i.) has a sword-guard in the form of a chevron. Edward I., on his great seal, (woodcut, No. 85,) offers us a further variety, in which the outline somewhat resembles that of the Greek bow.
The pommel of the sword during this century takes many forms: the round, the trefoil, the cinquefoil, the rosette, the lozenge, the conical, the pear-shaped, the square, and the fleur-de-lis. The round is either plain or ornamented on its sides: in the latter case the ornament is usually a cross, or a shield of arms. The plain round pommel is generally wheel-formed; that is, it has a projection in the centre something like the nave of a wheel. See Journal of Archæological Association, vol. i. p. 336. The sacred symbol of the Cross is very frequently found on the circular pommel; as in our woodcuts, No. 55 and 77. The shield of arms appears in our engraving, No. 70. Compare the Fitz-Alan monument (Hollis, Pt. iv.). The trefoil pommel is represented in our cuts, No. 56 and 74; the cinquefoil, on our engraving, No. 64, and in Plate XX. of Stothard's Monuments. The rose form occurs in our woodcut, No. 62; the lozenge on the effigy of King John (Stothard, Pl. XI.); the conical, in our print, No. 63; the pear-shaped, in Stothard's 37th Plate; the square, on Plate XXXV. of the Painted Chamber; and the fleur-de-lis on the seal of Edward I. (woodcut, No. 85).