to find any contemporary illustration of its use. The lance in practically its primitive form was the staple weapon of the mounted knight, augmented with the mace, which by now had developed into a formidable weapon.
In the illustration (p. 117, Fig. 141) a mace is seen held in both hands, having a head resembling those dentated bronze heads of prehistoric origin that have been found in large numbers in Central Europe. No mace heads, however, of this type have been discovered that can, with any degree of accuracy, be ascribed to the XIIIth century. Axe-heads are found, but their form, as we have noticed, can vary so little that it is little better than guess-*work to assign mediaeval specimens to any particular date.
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Fig. 125. Stirrups
(a) Xth century; (b) Late XIth century; (c) Early XIIth century; (d) Early XIIIth century
All found in London. London Museum
In tracing the evolution of armour and weapons the greatest difficulty we have to contend with is in keeping the changes that continually took place sufficiently clearly before our reader, to enable him to picture to himself a knight fully equipped at, or near, any particular date that he may desire. Had the knight changed his harness from head to foot for one of a more advanced type in certain definite years, however often he may have made the change, it would nevertheless have been a comparatively easy task to follow him through every decade and to trace the changes and the necessity of these changes, as each followed upon the last. Unfortunately, without any thought or feeling for the student of armour in future centuries, the knight proceeded in his arbitrary way to alter the fashion of his head protection in one period, of his body armour in another, and of his leg defences and of his offensive weapons in even a third and fourth, allowing the fashions in the case of every piece of armament each to overlap one another in a most perplexing manner. Therefore, it is impossible to do otherwise than to take our subject in general periods most suitable for our purpose, and to trace the changes in each detail of his equipment separately,
